Parts of a 4-H Activity Plan
This handout will walk you through the parts of an activity plan. See “Tips for Writing a 4-H Activity
Plan” for additional tips to use when writing your activity plan.
Examples of Activity Plans
What makes up an extraordinary learning experience for youth? How do we know a quality activity plan
when we see one? You can find many examples of juried activities at
http://www.uwex.edu/ces/4h/afterschool/curriculum/activities.cfm#creating
Activity Plan Template
To create similar activities, use the Wisconsin Activity Plan Template (text version) or Wisconsin Activity
Plan Template (formatted version). Use which ever version you wish to draft your activity. When you’re
ready to submit your activity for review, use the formatted template.
Project Area
List the name of the Wisconsin 4-H project where this activity will be used, e.g., Photography or
Entomology. If the activity fits more than one project area (e.g., Puppetry and Cloverbuds), list the project
area that it fits best. For a complete list of current projects in Wisconsin, go to
www.uwex.edu/ces/4h/onlinpro/allprojects.cfm.
Activity Plan Title
Activities generally have a “catchy” title, one that will generate interest in the activity. When starting to
create activities, authors often use a “working title,” just a name that describes what the activity is about.
It could be something as simple as “Judging Photos” or “Collecting Bugs.” As you work with an activity
for awhile, more catchy or interesting titles come to mind.
Project Skills
What project skill or content will youth learn in an activity? In an activity where youth judge photos, they
might learn “using basic rules of photo composition” or “identifying what makes a good photo.” You
could even list more than one project skill for an activity. Use an “…ing” phrase to describe the project
skill that youth will do.
Life Skill
The primary purpose of each 4-H activity is to provide an opportunity for youth to practice a life skill while
exploring a topic related to a project or subject. Life skills are tools that youth (and adults) use to cope with
daily circumstances, make important decisions, and enhance the quality of their daily lives. What life skill
will youth practice during your activity? Go to http://www.extension.iastate.edu/4h/explore/lifeskills/ for a
list of life skills in the Targeting Life Skills Model from Iowa State University. Following are the general life
skills often targeted by 4-H curriculum. Choose the skill that best fits your activity:
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Acquiring and evaluating
information
Applying technology
Communicating with others
Demonstrating integrity and honesty
Leading self and others
Learning to learn
Making decisions
Managing self
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Organizing information
Performing as a team member
Reasoning
Solving problems
Teaching others
Thinking creatively
Working with diversity
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Life skills are complex concepts that are better understood if you break them down into smaller
parts or sequential steps. It helps if you describe the life skill more specifically and identify
observable measurable indicators that youth will practice while doing the activity. Curriculum
developers should think in terms of “sub skills” when selecting a life skill for an activity.
Refer to the List of Life Skill Definitions and Components provided by Iowa State University, to
make sure that the skill you choose matches the results you want to achieve through the activity.
Some life skills may even overlap. Use these definitions to help identify which life skill best fits
the goal of your activity and, more importantly, will be practiced as youth do the activity.
Remember, you do not have to identify all the like skills that may be involved in the activity, but
highlight the one life skill that you want to focus on and measure for impact. This will also be the
life skill to focus on when you create “Talk It Over” questions later in the activity template.
Academic Standards
Academic Standards specify what youth should know and be able to do, what they might be
asked to do to give evidence of standards, and how well they must perform. Select at least one
Wisconsin Academic Standard and one National Academic Standard if the activity is intended for
use in any school based or school linked after school or summer program. You are encouraged to
identify an educational standard even if the activity plan is not intended for use in an after school
or summer enrichment program. These enrichment activities should complement and support
academic standards.
However, there are times when Academic Standards just do not fit the intended use. As Criteria 7
of the Wisconsin 4-H Curriculum Criteria states: The educational materials identify and target
one or more outcomes or skills which are highly transferable, broadly useful beyond the subject
matter or throughout life. These may come from any source, such as life skills lists, workforce
competencies, science process skills or internal assets, WI Academic Standards, etc.
For a list of National standards, go to www.educationworld.com/standards/. For Wisconsin
Academic Standards, go to http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/standards/.
Here are examples of academic standards used in other 4-H activity lesson plans:
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Art and Design Education: E.12.2. Communicate ideas by producing advanced design art
forms, such as photography. H.4.6. Know how artists make photographs.
Health: F.4.2. Describe and demonstrate healthy ways to express needs, wants and
feelings.
Science: C.4.2. Use the science content being learned to ask questions, plan
investigations, make observations, make predictions and offer explanations.
Social Studies: E.4.13. Investigate and explain similarities in the ways that cultures meet
human needs.
Grade Levels
What grade level are you trying to reach with your activity? Common grade groupings for 4-H
activities are K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. Be as specific as you can when listing the suggested grade(s) of
your target youth groups. Create activities that match their abilities.
Consider what is developmentally appropriate for each age and grade group. For information on the
developmental stages for each life skill in the Targeting Life Skills Model, check out
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Developmentally Appropriate Life Tasks, developed by Iowa State University. Note that later in the
template, you’ll be able to enhance or simplify activities by adding additional helps.
Time
How long will it take a group to carry out your activity plan? It’s recommended that you design
an activity that takes 30-60 minutes. Your plan may include two or three simple, short activities
that support the intended outcomes and/or skill set, but the total activity shouldn’t take more than
an hour. If it takes more than an hour, consider dividing your activity into two.
Supplies Needed
This is a bulleted list of supplies and materials that the helper or teacher will need in order to do
the activity with youth, including any optional supplies. Try to use supplies that are low cost and
easily found at local stores or on the Internet.
For example, here is a supply list for an insect observation activity:
 Hand lens or dissecting microscopes
 Insect specimens (variety; live or replica)
 Styrofoam (various sizes)
 Dowels or pencils
Do Ahead
“Do Ahead” is a bulleted list of steps that the presenter needs to do before youth arrive to
experience the activity. This is a good place to include older youth or volunteers to help you
prepare the activity for the younger ones.
For example, here is a list of things to do ahead for a family history activity:
 Pre-select passages from the book, Little Town on the Prairie.
 Preview web site: http://www.familysearch.org.
Here is a to-do-ahead list from an activity on American Indian culture:
 Gather cattail leaves during the summer or fall, separate them, and let them dry slowly in
the shade for at least one week. You can gather them and let them dry over winter, but
they will need a longer soaking period.
 Before class, soak the cattails for one-half hour in warm water. A wallpapering bin works
great for this.
Source/Adapted From
“Sources” is a bulleted list of the names and titles of the authors, contributors, and any other
resources used to develop the activity. There may be one lead author who writes the activity, but
there may be other contributors who add specific information on content, academic standards, or
science skills. Or you may have co-authors sharing equally in the development of the activity
plan. Be sure to list anyone who has made a significant contribution to the development of this
activity plan. And if you have a content specialist who can review the activity, please include the
specialist as a “Source.”
Try to use recent national resources that others can access easily. A citation must be accurate and
complete so others can locate the resource. Book titles should be given in italics. A citation for a
book created since 1972 should include the ISBN number found on the back cover or the
copyright page.
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Be sure to give credit if you are using information from a web site. Give the web site name first,
then the link, followed by a sentence or two explaining why the site is important to this activity.
Here’s an example:
 Wisconsin 4-H Youth Development: http://www.uwex.edu/ces/4h/. Excellent source for
4-H activities. Select “Publications” in the left-hand column and do a keyword search for
“activity.”
Here are some other sample citations from 4-H activity plans:
 Created by Paula Rogers Huff, 4-H Youth Development Agent, UW-Extension, Oconto
County.
 Created by Wayne Brabender, Wisconsin 4-H Photography Specialist, from ideas
generated by many other 4-H photo project leaders and specialists over the years.
 I Will Be Your Friend – Songs and Activities for Young Peacemaker, Teaching Tolerance,
Southern Poverty Law Center, Montgomery, Alabama, 2003, Activity #5 (free CD and
music book).
Background
This is the subject-matter information or content that you feel is important for the helper to know
before teaching the activity. This is also the place where you can add information that the helper
needs to know about the intended life skill and academic standard. The “Background” should be
relatively brief – a few paragraphs of essential information that set the tone or scene for the
activity. If you need to add extensive content information, refer helpers to selected web sites
in the “Additional Web Links” section of your activity plan.
Here are some examples from 4-H activity plans:
 Having youth interact and get along with each other is vital to a productive group. This
session will help youth who do not know each other to interact, have fun together, get to
know each other, and see how they are alike and different. (From an activity called
“Friendship” for youth in grades 3-4)
 Why do we play games? It may be for fun, to develop sportsmanship, learn teamwork,
build confidence, competition, improve physical skills, use excess energy, or for social
interaction. Games are important aspects of our society. This activity plan will help youth
understand the value of games and how to lead them. (From an activity called “Leading
Games” for youth in grades 4-5)
 Judging is an excellent way to introduce or reinforce basic photo composition rules. In
this fun group activity, youth will judge groups of photos based on the basic rules of
composition. The activity encourages youth to make and defend their decisions, while
working within a group. It will help youth understand and appreciate the hard decisions
that judges must make at photo shows, county fairs and throughout life. (From an activity
for youth in grades 3-12 on judging photos)
Or it may be a place where you add additional vocabulary words such as in this activity on Water
Absorption.
Vocabulary:
 Cohesion is when water sticks to water.
 Adhesion is when water sticks to some other objects.
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What to Do
This section includes all the steps and directions that the helper will need to carry out the activity
plan with youth. This list of steps should target the life skill identified in the activity. The to-do
list must involve youth in practicing the life skill designated for your activity.
Look for ways to involve youth as leaders in your activity. Some authors have added a section on
“Youth Leader Does” to highlight their roles. For example, here are a few roles that youth can
play when doing science-related activities:
 Materials gatherer – gather and return materials
 Chief investigator – lead the science investigation; use the equipment or assign others
 Recorder – fill out data charts and share information with others
 Timekeeper – keep track of time; make sure everyone is using time wisely so
investigations can be completed on time
 Safety inspector – help ensure that the group wears goggles and adheres to safety
instructions
Talk It Over
“Talk It Over” is a set of “experiential learning” questions that the helper asks youth in order to
process the activity. Without these questions, an activity may be fun, but it may not be very
meaningful or helpful for lifelong learning. In order for youth to take what they have just
experienced and use it effectively in their everyday lives, they must think about it and interpret its
meaning for themselves.
Doing activities and helping youth “process” what they have learned is what 4-H Youth
Development is all about! The questions written into an activity help youth process the intended
life skill, content objective, or academic standard.
Effective questions are open-ended questions that help youth reflect on what happened and
what’s important, and apply what they learned now and in the future. It helps to have a variety of
questions written in a way that the helper can carry on a conversation with youth. Avoid yes/no,
true/false or single-answer questions.
Questions need to be written at the intended grade level. To check the readability level (FleschKincaid Grade Level) using your word processing program, highlight the questions, then select
“Spelling and Grammar.” Look at the “Readability Statistics” for the questions. Rewrite questions
until they are at least at the middle range of the intended grade level. Then try out the questions
with the appropriate age group. “Talk It Over” is one of the most important parts of your activity
plan, so take the time to produce effective questions.
Following are some generic questions that are often asked in the “Talk It Over” section of an
activity. For a much longer list see Appendix B, Experiential Processing Questions, developed by
the 4-H Cooperative Curriculum System.
Reflect:
 What did you do?
 What did your group do when . . . .?
 What did you see? Feel? Hear? Taste?
 What was most difficult? Easiest?
 What problems or issues seemed to occur over and over?
 What did you learn about (life skill or project skill) through this activity?
 Why is the life skill you practiced important?
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Apply:
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What similar experiences have you had (with this life skill or project skill)?
What similar challenge/problem/feeling have you faced? What did you learn?
How does what you learned relate to other parts of your life?
How can you use what you learned?
It doesn’t matter when youth answer the questions during the activity. Experienced helpers may
choose to ask questions throughout the activity rather than wait until the “Talk It Over” time.
Some writers have asked simple “Reflection” questions right after each mini-activity instead of
waiting until the end for the “Talk It Over” questions.
Enhance/Simplify
Though “Enhance/Simplify” is an optional part of the activity plan, you are encouraged to add
some ways that the helper can “enhance” the activity (make it more challenging or take it further)
or to “simplify” it (make it less challenging or make it easier for a younger audience). Here are
some examples:
Enhance:
 Have youth share songs that they have learned during their own camp experiences.
(From a camping activity called “Meeting New Friends” for youth in grade 3)
 Attend a county fair to observe a photo judge in action. Listen to the judge’s
comments. If possible, talk to the judge about the criteria he or she used to place the
photos. (From an activity for youth in grades 3-12 on judging photos)
Simplify:
 For the “Paper Hat Friends” activity, instead of using newsprint, you could use large
sheets of white paper. After the youth do the activity, have them draw a picture or
write words on their hat about what makes a good friend. They can share this with
their family. (From an activity called “Friendship” for youth in grades 3-4)
 If no child volunteers to lead a game after you play “Foxes and Squirrel,” suggest
games such as “Simon Says,” “Duck, Duck, Goose,” “Leap Frog” or others that
many children are familiar with so that they can be confident in leading the game. Or
ask if there are two youth who would like to volunteer to lead a game together. (From
an activity called “Leading Games” for youth in grades 4-5)
Helpful Hints
“Helpful Hints” is another optional part of the activity plan, but you are encouraged to share any
additional information that might help the helper facilitate the activity. This is a great place to
give tips on how to involve youth and adults in planning, implementing, and evaluating your
activity plan. You’re encouraged to try out your activities with kids and give specific hints based
on your personal observations. Here are examples from 4-H activities:
 There are many sources of games on the Internet and at the public library. Find games
that are appropriate to the youths’ abilities and to the physical environment
(inside/outside, small/large room) in which you’ll be working. (From an activity called
“Leading Games” for youth in grades 4-5)
 If the group will be looking at actual tracks in the field, it is helpful to discuss what they
are seeing. This involves discussing how animals move. For example, ask what a rabbit’s
tracks would look like as he hopped along. Tell the youth that a rabbit hops by moving
the front legs and then the back. The back feet actually track or “register” in front of the
front feet. Have the youth try hopping like a rabbit and imagining the tracks that their feet
would leave. A dog, in a normal trot, moves two legs on the same side of its body at once
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(right legs move, then the left). This gives the tracks they leave a characteristic pattern.
(From an activity called “Makin’ Tracks” for youth in grades 4 and above)
Additional Web Links
This is the final section of your activity plan. It’s also optional, but a list of related web links has
great potential for taking an activity even further.
When searching web links, use these guidelines to decide if a site should be listed in the activity:
 Is the web source credible and reliable?
 Is the web site connected to a non-biased, sound educational source?
 Is it a stable web site that has been in operation for some time?
 Does the web site reflect and support current youth development research and best
practices?
 Does it support the use of experiential learning?
 Is it sensitive to diverse audiences?
 Is it bias free?
When listing a web site, you cannot just cut and paste information from the site. You need to
rewrite it to fit the intended purpose of your activity plan and to make it your own work. To cite
the web site, you need to provide a name for each site and a complete, current URL, as well as a
brief description of what people can expect to find on the site and how the information will be
useful. For example:
 American Veterinarian Medical Association,
http://www.avma.org/careforanimals/kidscorner/default.asp – Has lots of activities to
teach youth about responsible pet ownership. (From an activity called “I Want A Pet” for
youth in grades K-2)
 BetterPhoto.com, http://www.betterphoto.com/home.asp – Site with great tips,
informative articles and lots of photos to enjoy. Excellent for beginners, intermediate and
advanced photographers. Check out the monthly contest entries. Looking at quality
photos is a sure way to improve your own photography. (From an activity for youth in
grades 3-12 on judging photos)
 RootsWeb.com, http://www.rootsweb.com – The oldest free genealogy site on the web.
(From an activity called “Genealogy – Going to the Source” for youth in grades 5 and
above)
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