About the 4-H Communications Project

Communications Project Manuals

You can learn more about communications by completing one of the project activity guides, based on your grade level:

• Communications Module 1 (Grades 3-5)
• Communications Module 2 (Grades 6-8)
• Communications Module 3 (Grades 9-12)

Project manuals may also be available to purchase at the Marion County Extension office, and older editions of manuals (if available) are free. Contact us to ask about availability!

Showcasing What You’ve Learned

The following events take place at the annual Marion County 4-H Showcase in two levels: Junior (grades 3-8) and Senior (grades 9-12).

• Demonstration: Show the audience step-by-step procedures for how to do something related to any 4-H project.
• Informative 4-H Presentation: Present a topic of your choice related to a 4-H event, project, or activity to the audience.
• Professional Persuasive Presentation: Research a public issue in your community, collect data showing how this issue is or could affect your community, formulate a plan to address this issue, and present it in a professional manner using digital media such as PowerPoint, Prezi, etc.
• Public Speaking: Give a prepared speech to the audience from a stage or stage-like setting.
• Creative Writing: Write a story, biography, journal entry, poem, children’s story, skit/play, song lyrics, movie script, etc. Digital upload required.
• Promoting 4-H (only offered at Showcase; not eligible to advance to the State Fair): Create a poster, video, digital presentation, flyer, or something else that promotes 4-H and encourages people to join!

Exhibit Guidelines

• Communications exhibit guidelines for 4-H members grades 3-12
• Interactive Demonstration Information and Checklist

Score Cards

• Demonstration Score Card (Junior)
• Demonstration Score Card (Senior)
• Informative 4-H Presentation Score Card (Junior)
• Informative 4-H Presentation Score Card (Senior)
• Public Speaking Score Card (Junior)
• Public Speaking Score Card (Senior)
• Creative Writing Score Card
• Promoting 4-H Score Card

Advancing to the State Fair

• Yes! Communications exhibits for Demonstrations, Informative 4-H Presentations, Public Speaking, and Creative Writing are eligible to advance to the State Fair. Exhibits for Promoting 4-H are only eligible for the Marion County Showcase.

Cloverbuds (Grades K-2)

Exhibits

• Practice your communication skills through one or more of the following:
  • Creative writing: Write a poem, a letter, a story (three pages or less), or make your own comic strip.
  • Public speaking: Get up and say the 4-H pledge, a poem, or recite something of similar length. You are not expected to write a speech or prepare a demonstration, but you can if you are comfortable!
  • Promoting 4-H: Create a poster, video, digital presentation, flyer, or something else that promotes 4-H and encourages people to join!
  • Reading for fun: Design a book jacket for a book that you liked, make a mobile which contains characters from favorite books, create original illustrations for a story, make a poster about a book you liked, or make puppets or masks of favorite book characters.
• Cloverbud projects are for exhibition only (not judged), so there are no score cards, and exhibits are not eligible to advance to the State Fair.

More Communications Project Resources

• See Indiana 4-H’s communications project page for more resources.