Have you ever been a Boy Scout or Girl Guide and enjoyed the challenge of completing their badges?  Well adapting the same concept. let us bring the badge programme to our students with 130 categorized badges they can strive for, all housed within an exciting booklet that can be carried from school to home.

 

The badge programme provides activities for family members to have fun interactions with their children as they share their own knowledge and skills to many real life situations.

 

The badge challenges allows all primary children to strive for personal goals.  If teachers can provide class reward schemes as well,  then watch with amazement how enthusiastic the children become as they see their personal badge chart grow.

 

The badge challenges have been trialled in my classroom for over four years and the impact on student learning has been remarkable.  Each child has their own personal badge folder and they make their own choices as to which badges to complete at home from the categories of Family.Arts,Community Spirit, Exploring Our World, Sports and Outdoors, Life Skills, Science and Technology.

 

Last year we completed over 1200 badges as a class and this year hope to surpass this feat.

 

Teachers and parents who have been exposed to this exciting new initiative that links home and school so successfully have all commented this is exactly the type of challenges we should be providing to our children to have them think creatively and become more active.

 

The badge programme can provide many surprises.  One example was when a child in the Write to a Celebrity Badge received a letter from Matt Groening the creator of The Simpsons.  The boy now has his letter proudly framed on the family wall.  So if you are a person who also believes the home environment should never be underestimated as a valuable place for student learning then the Primary School Home Badge Challenges is for you.

 

Rick Berry

Author