Want to learn more about working with wood? Woodworking projects teach skills such as measuring, cutting, nailing, and finishing. Create beautiful works of art using wood!
Objectives
Youth will:
- Mark, measure, cut, drill, and sand various kinds of wood
- Use hand and power tools
- Use nails, screws, bolts, staples, glue, hinges, and brackets appropriately
- Construct various kinds of joints
- Apply paints, stains, finishes, adhesives, and strippers
- Use safety practices when working with wood
- Understand lumber dimensions and enlarge a wood plan
4-H Woodworking Curriculum
Available from the Extension office or online.
Woodworking Wonders Level 1: Measuring Up
Youth will develop skills that woodworkers use, such as measuring, squaring & cutting a board, driving nails, and using clamps and screws. It is suggested that all youth begin with this guide to be grounded in the basics of woodworking.
Woodworking Wonders Level 2: Making the Cut
Youth will measure, cut, sand, drill, use advanced hand and power tools, apply finish, and use bolts and staples.
Woodworking Wonders Level 3: Nailing It Together
Youth will practice measuring angles, cutting dado and rabbet joints, using saws, and smoothing lumber with a hand planer.
Woodworking Wonders Level 4: Finishing Up
Youth will learn specific woodworking skills including using a router, portable planer and jointer, making a blind mortise and tenon joint, making dovetail joints, and experimenting with adhesives and various chemical wood strippers.
Woodworking Wonders Helper’s Guide
This guide provides the helper with a variety of group activities that will help youth broaden their understanding of the basic woodworking concepts. A number of ideas for additional woodworking activities are included.
Washington 4-H Records, Forms, and Guides
For youth members
Sheet to record articles made, costs, and safety practices.
For adult helpers and club leaders
C0663 – Woodworking Exhibit Scorecard
To be used to judge 4-H woodworking project entries.
Helpful Resources
Activity Ideas
Woodworking Additional Plans: Level 1 – Indiana 4-H (PDF)
Woodworking Additional Plans: Level 2 – Indiana 4-H (PDF)
Skill-a-Thon Woodworking: Driving a nail – Missouri 4-H (PDF)
Skill-a-Thon Woodworking: Measuring a Board – Missouri 4-H (PDF)
Skill-a-Thon Woodworking: Parts of a Hammer – Missouri 4-H (PDF)
Create Your Own Clock – University of Minnesota Extension
In this independent learning guide, youth use reclaimed materials to create their very own clock. Designed for grades 3-8, this project may require adult assistance for younger youth or youth who have never used a drill or hammer.
Washington Specific Reference Material
IsGood Woodworks Online Learning Library
Other Reference Material
From 4-H Programs
4-H Woodworking Project Activity Guide – Canada 4-H & Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (PDF)
4-H Woodworking Project Reference Manual – Canada 4-H & Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (PDF)
4-H Wood Science Leader Guide Glossary of Terms – from 4-H Wood Science Leader Guide (PDF)
Working with Wood and Tools: Unit 1 Member Manual – Oregon 4-H
This is the first unit of the 4- H Wood Science series. This manual tells you some important things about using wood tools and building objects with wood.
The Wonderful World of Wood: Unit 2 Member Manual – Oregon 4-H
This is the second unit of the 4-H Wood Science series. If you have completed Unit 1, you are probably asking: “Now what?”
Building Bigger Things: Unit 3 Member Manual – Oregon 4-H
This is the third unit of the 4-H Wood Science series. This unit introduces new concepts of wood science and provides activities and experiments that can help you better understand these concepts.
4-H Wood Science Leader Guide – Oregon 4-H
From Higher Education Institutions
From Related Organizations, Journals, and Professionals
Early Childhood Woodworking – Scholastic Parents
When most people think about woodworking for children they picture the final product – maybe the birdhouse or the napkin holder. But a typical woodworking project is about much more than the product. It’s about the processes and the practices that make up the steps of the project.
Woodworking does not have to be for adults and teenagers only. A good way to introduce woodworking to young children is to explore the processes using real tools and real processes, and practice these before you start to build anything. It is also important for young children to practice a skill many times over to get the hang of it.
Here are some tips and tricks for parents and educators for using tools and woodworking materials with a younger audience.
American Hardwood Information Center Species Guide
This Guide features 20 of the most abundant and most often used Hardwood species. In addition to the basics – where they grow, general description, and abundance – each Hardwood profile includes working and physical properties, availability, strength and mechanical properties, and main uses.
Additionally, each species is shown in clear, light, medium and dark finishes to help visualize stain combinations of flooring, cabinetry, moulding and furniture co-existing in a single design space.
The Router Workshop is a television program which teaches the use of router and woodworking procedures. The Router Workshop was first produced in 1995 by Woodgrain Productions Inc and it spans 183 episodes and 14 series.
- Kits, Projects, and Activities from National 4-H
National 4-H Hobbies Curriculum Collection
This retractable 4-H branded measuring tape is 16 feet long and 3/4″ wide. For added convenience, the measure tape also has a lanyard and a belt clip.
This Reversible 4-H branded screwdriver includes two magnetized ends, one that is a flat blade while the other is a Phillips head.