If your child joined a 4H archery club and now it’s project time, don’t worry – I’ll show you what we did that worked really well for my eight year old. I also would love to share some fun and cheap archery games to practice at home (or with your 4H archery group!)
Goals for Our Son’s 4H Archery Project
Before this club, he had never touched any type of bow – we wanted his project to reflect that, and show a mastery of all the basics. Anything more difficult wouldn’t be realistic to his age/experience, and I really wanted him to be capable of doing nearly all parts of the project – including the presentation part.
Since we homeschool, I especially love opportunities like this where he can present to someone else other than us. It’s so different to present to your parents vs a teacher and peers (and nearly impossible to recreate in a homeschool classroom… you gotta go find those experiences!).
P.S. – Do not forget to go into Zsuite and prepare your books with your kids! I didn’t know this was needed till the very end, but it would have been helpful so that he could have been logging his attendance and such.
With that being said, we ended up focusing his archery presentation on:
- 6 of the most common archery range safety rules
- the 4 whistle commands
- parts of a compound bow
- parts of an arrow
How We Made the Tri Fold Board Display
Since I have never been in 4H, and we didn’t get a ton of explanation on what to do or what the expectations were, I referred to various documents directly from the 4H organization. It was super helpful to make sure we knew “officially” what the rules were as well as what is even expected for his age group to do.
This University of Idaho 4H website has a super helpful PDF!
Rules Section – We picked 6 rules together that he felt he could confidently remember and read from his board. These just went on the top middle in two rows, under the title.
Whistle Meanings – These are easy enough to show with pictures, and it’s nice to not have all text on a presentation so we decided to include some here. He LOVES Lord of the Rings and Legloas (it’s what inspired him to join!), so this was a fun way to give a no to that. You can see him in the picture for the meaning of one whistle!
Parts of a Compound Bow – I initially thought we could print a bow out and make labels, but my son said he wanted to “show his personality” and I LOVE IT! I also love that the labels are for his bow specifically, vs the generic diagram online.
Parts of an Arrow – Figured if we have the bow, might as well have the arrow!
What I MEANT to Also Include – My printer ran out of ink and I live somewhere far from town so I never got to fill in that corner! But I had intended to print some of his pictures from throughout the 4H season and put them there.
How We Practiced the Presentation
This being our first year in 4H and having now bow experience, it felt like I was getting practice in too! =P. We had about 1 1/2 days to practice, so we did one big session reading through everything in the morning and then practiced at random times throughout the day.
Either I’d point at a part of the bow/arrow and he would tell me, or I’d pick a random rule for him to read. It may have also helped he got a peanut butter pretzel everytime he got one right! 😛
3 Fun Ideas to Practice Archery at Home
I know not everyone can do this at home, but if you can, it’s so fun! We learned alot from the 4H teachers about fun games as well as some practical tips like getting comfortable shooting when sitting down as that’s how you’ll be shooting from a blind when hunting.
With my son being eight, it was *really* fun coming up with different targets to shoot. Evil orcs, dragons, giant attack spiders and all sorts of stuff you might imagine shooting in a video game!
Of course, ALWAYS practice this safely – there should be absolutely no one in front of the shooter and you need to make sure the arrows won’t sail through the target and hit someone. My husband built a plywood backing to put behind the target so that the arrows wouldn’t keep going and go right through our vinyl fence into the neighbor’s yard.
Balloon Shoot
We learned this from his 4H club – I can’t believe I didn’t think of it myself! Just tape a balloon onto a target and let it rip! There is something so satisfying and fun in getting to pop a balloon vs just seeing where you hit.
For extra fun, draw an “evil creature” on it (like my evil spider below!)
Pool Noodle Target “Cans”
While cans are definitely fun to hit, they are not so great for the tips of your arrows. So use a foam version! I originally created these foam can targets for my son’s Nerf collection- turns out they are great for a bow too!
We just taped ours to the target, but I’m sure we could have also put a table on the range and stacked them as well.
Printing Out “Bad Guys” Your Kid Knows About
I’m talking everything from orcs and dragons to the last boss of a specific game your kid loves! My son personally loves Halo, Skyrim and Lord of the Rings… so and endless selection of crazy looking creatures!
Print out your kid’s favorite and just tape it to the archery target! I love making stories as he’s shooting like “The orc narrowly missed L’s arrow. But then he stumbled and was hit!” etc.
Download the 4H Archery Project Pack
I know it can be hard to make the time to do a project with your child, so I have provided parts that I created for you to use as well! Of course, still have your child cut everything out and talk about what you’re putting on the board – after all, the goal shouldn’t be to get a good score, but rather to teach your child how to put together information.
Download the Presentation Board Pieces Here
- 4H Archery Worksheets for Kids – Parts of a Compound Bow + More! - June 30, 2024
- 4H Archery Project Idea + Fun Archery Practice Ideas! - June 30, 2024
- DIY Nerf Orc Targets – Perfect for a Nerf Themed Party! - June 15, 2024
