One more badge
Choose a badge
- Everyone should sit in a circle. They should talk to the person next to them about all of the Activity Badges they’ve achieved, and which one they enjoyed most. People could look at their uniforms to remind them what they’ve done – the Activity Badges are circles.
- The person leading the activity should explain that the Activity Plus Badge is the next big challenge once someone has an Activity Badge.
- Everyone should choose one Activity Badge they really enjoyed doing and would like to do more of for their Activity Plus Badge. They shouldn’t choose a Staged Activity Badge unless they have the highest stage already. They shouldn’t tell anyone what they’ve chosen.
- Everyone should take it in turns to mime their favourite Activity Badge. A mime is a silent action. For example, someone could pretend to dig a flowerbed for the Gardener Activity Badge, pretend to spacewalk for the Space Activity Badge, or do some star jumps for the Health and Fitness Badge.
- Everyone else should try and guess the Activity Badge the person is miming.
- Once everyone’s had a turn at miming their chosen badge, some people should share their ideas for what they could do to earn their Activity Plus Badge. How might they improve their skills?
Make a plan
- The person leading the activity should give everyone a small piece of paper.
- Everyone should write or draw the Activity Badge they want to earn, or the Activity Badge they’re going to build on for their Activity Plus Badge.
- Everyone should write or draw what they’ll do to achieve it. An adult should check people’s targets and agree them with them. They could also help with writing.
- Everyone should give their targets to the person leading the activity. The person leading the activity should keep a record of people’s targets – they could copy, photograph, or photocopy them.
- The person leading the activity should give everyone their targets back.
- The person leading the activity should check in with people over the next few weeks. How’s their Activity Plus Badge going? Do they need any support?
- Everyone should celebrate whenever anyone earns an Activity Plus Badge (or an Activity Badge, if they’ve been working on that instead).
Reflection
This activity helped everyone to understand that to get better at things, people need to try, try again. Can anyone think of something that they can do now that was hard when they first started? People might think about things like counting, tying their shoelaces, or learning to ride a bike. Just like that, Activity Badges are about people having fun while challenging themselves. If people have already done the Activity Badge, they’re ready for another challenge, so they should have confidence as they tackle the Activity Plus Badge. Everyone should make sure they recognise other people’s achievements. Well done to everyone who’s working hard and making progress – everyone’s so proud of you!
Safety
All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.
Split into two groups for the miming if you have a lot of people.
You could have a chart or display that shows the badges everyone’s working towards and how much progress they’ve made. You could use this to encourage everyone to support each other.
People could work in pairs. People could mime in front of fewer people – maybe one or two friends – if they don’t want to mime in front of everyone.
All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.
Everyone doing the Activity Plus Badge could keep a diary (or a video diary) to share their journey with the group. Once they’ve achieved their badge, they could talk to the rest of the group about what they did.
Everyone should work with the adults to choose the right Activity Plus Badge for them.