4-H activities are great fun, but their purpose is not just entertainment. It’s teaching skills and values through putting them into practice.

Projects
The core 4-H activities revolve around projects. 4-H has both individual and group projects.

Club members choose from a wide range of individual projects, based on their interests and the availability of a knowledgeable adult in the community to serve as a mentor/leader (matching facilitated through clubs). Through these projects, members set goals, learn the skills needed to achieve goals, and exhibit/demonstrate their skills at events like county fairs, speaking contests and other competitions.

Project Categories

Exploring 4-H (a project sampling for ages 7-9)	Forestry	Poultry
Arts & Crafts	Geology	Rabbits
Clothing, Textiles & Fashion	Health & Wellness	Reading
Communications	Home Environment	Self Determined
Dog Care & Training	Horse	Shooting Sports
Electric	Leadership	Small Engines
Entomology (Bugs)	Livestock (Beef, Dairy, Sheep, Goats, Pigs)	SpaceTech
Family Studies	Pets	Wildlife
Fiber Arts (Knitting, Crochet, Weaving)	Photography	Woodworking
Foods & Nutrition	Plant Science

Members are also involved in group projects in their clubs, which usually revolve around community service or learning how to lead/run groups or meetings.

Fairs, Shows and Contests
The county fair is usually the biggest 4-H event of the year, and this is where 4-H’ers  bring samples of their projects to be evaluated by a ‘judge’, who visits with each 4-H’er about what they did well and how they can improve. Top projects at the county fairs are eligible to be entered at the Kansas State Fair.

Other contests are held throughout the year, like speaking contests, pet/livestock shows, or skill contests for things ranging from identifying plants to marksmanship to horse anatomy. At the end of the year, 4-H’ers complete short reports/stories about their projects and can submit them in achievement contests that start at the county level and progress through regional and state competitions until a state project winner is named.

4-H Camp
Kansas 4-H has its own camp at Rock Springs State 4-H Center,south of Junction City, where groups of counties bring 4-H’ers for several days each summer. 4-H’ers stay in cabins, ride horses, sing around the campfire, explore nature and make memories to last the whole year.