What's Hoppening
Grades 3-5
In What’s Hoppening, youth will discover how to identify breeds, handle and show rabbits, identify rabbit parts and equipment, recognize a healthy rabbit, read a pedigree and kindle a litter.
The American Rabbit Breeders Association
ARBA Rabbit Breeds
Sample Showmanship Scorecard
Rabbit Pattern
Rabbit Pattern Directions
Making Tracks
Grades 6-8
In Making Tracks, youth will recognize body types, judge and show rabbits, tattoo a rabbit, keep records, identify diseases, administer medication, record growth rates and market products.
All Ears
Grades 9-12
With All Ears, older youth will develop a breeding program, design a rabbitry, cull based on production, prevent diseases, develop sportsmanship and develop a marketing plan.
Chapter 3 - European Wild Rabbit
Chapter 5 - USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Chapter 5 - Rabbit Skins and Pelts
The Rabbit Helper’s Guide features group activities and answer keys. The Model Rabbit Pattern is an excellent tool for identifying parts, determining sex, practicing handling, trimming nails and other management practices.
Your Role as a Project Helper
Your role as project helper is to support youth and make learning more fun. As youth complete activities, you’ll discuss what they did and learned. Sometimes you will need to work with youth to find people, groups, events magazines and books to help them complete an activity.
Ages and Stages of Youth Development
As you work with young people, it is important to take into account where they are in their stage of development. Not all people develop in the same way at the same age. There are certain patterns within youth development that are commonly expressed. Understanding these characteristics will help you better reach and teach your audience.
Basic Life Skills Development
As a helper for the rabbit project, one of your primary goals is to help youth gain knowledge about rabbits. However, it is equally important to emphasize the learning of “life skills.” These skills transfer beyond the actual activity. Life skills are critical in helping young people become self-directing, productive and contributing members of society. The Targeting Life Skills (TLS) Model (Hendricks, 1996), identifies and divides the major life skills targeted in 4‑H youth development by the four H’s from the 4‑H clover that represent Head, Heart, Hands and Health. These four are further divided into categories and then into specific life skills as shown.