Poultry 4H meeting ideas / leader & parent discussion thread

[Cloverleaf Farm]

THIS THREAD STARTED OUT AS ME SEEKING HELP FOR A 4H MEETING AT THE LAST MINUTE. IT HAS TURNED IN TO A 4H DISCUSSION THREAD, AS A WAY TO SHARE IDEAS AND PROMOTE THE POULTRY FANCY WITH CHILDREN. PLEASE JOIN IN AND SHARE ANY IDEAS YOU MAY HAVE, OR ASK QUESTIONS!!! THE MORE INPUT, THE BETTER!

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Original post:


Ok, it's all my fault....BUT I need help! I completely forgot that I was doing a backyard chicken keeping presentation at my son's 4H meeting tonight. The presentation is not the issue, that's done. BUT I also have to have activities for the kids to do that are related to my subject. I have 2 coloring sheets and a word find for the younger kids, but I have NO idea what to do for the older kids.

I am the poultry leader for our group, and we have our seperate meetings, but this is the general meeting for the entire club. 40-ish kids, ranging in age from 1st to 9th grade, and ALL project areas.

Any ideas would be FANTASTIC!!!!!

 

[dmiravalle]

I don't know if you have time, but there is always poultry bingo. You have pics of different breeds and make bingo sheets, then cut up pieces of paper with the breeds and play like bingo. I usually have prizes of some sort. I have a lot of them, you are free to steal any of them.

Oh, if you have any old eggs the egg floating contest is good. I mix a variety of old and new eggs, let the kids draw faces on them, then have floating contests. Great for the littler kids.

 

[danielle82]

I love this thread! I have a dughter who is 6 in aclub and I am the poultry leader, so far she is the only one in a poultry project. The main leader of the club asked me to do a presentation of some kind next meeting to drum up some interest. Most of the kids in the club are older than my daughter too...It is so hard to come up with ideas that are good for such an age range! I have been scratching my head and am so glad I found this!

 

[averytds]

IDK....have them draw up some coop or tractor plans????

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Quote:
LOL! I actually thought about that! Have them create plans for "the coop of their dreams"...ooo, or for a coop that would work in THEIR backyards....good idea! Thanks!

 

[Illia]

Wait, so, are these kids who already know chickens or don't?

My suggestion would be a little quiz on things like chicken breeds - Get some photos and quiz the kids, something like that.

 

[dmiravalle]

One of our meetings we talked about bio security and the activity that went with it was they had to draw their farm or dream farm including barns, driveways etc.

Then I had each kid dip their fingers in a different color finger paint and they went and "visited" each others farms letting their fingers do the walking.

When they were done, they each help up their sheet and I told them what colors the diseases represented and to see what diseases they had on their farm.

Some kids were smart enough to only let the "visitors" to the front of the house and not behind where they kept their animals. Plus the kids ALWAYS like making a mess. Hope it helps.

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Only some of the kids know chickens already. Of the 30-40 kids in the club, 7 of them are in my chicken group. We are a fairly rural area, so some of the other families have chickens for egg production, but there will be several others that don't know anything about chickens at all. I REALLY like that paint idea for one of my poultry meetings though!!! That's AWESOME!

 

[dmiravalle]

Oh and one more is breed swap, does your 4-H office have any kits?

Breed swap is where 1/2 your kids get pics of the chickens, the other half gets descriptions. Then they have to try to pair up. Kinda cute.

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Quote:
Ooh, I like that too, but probably more for a poultry meeting, rather than a general meeting. I think for this general meeting, I might go with the idea of the kids that don't have chickens make a plan for incorporating a coop into their own backyard, and have the kids that DO have coops already create plans for their dream coop...

Your ideas are really fantastic! I love the breed bingo too! Wow - so many things I never would have thought of!

I doubt the 4H office has anything for poultry as far as kits like that goes, but I can make some on cardstock pretty easy I think.