Making the Scholar Activity Badge Fun!

The scholar activity badge can be more than just having the boys do paperwork. Here are two ideas we came up with to make it fun!

Careers in Education Charades - Instead of just writing down and discussing full-time positions in the field of education, we decided to have our boys act out these careers. We came up with the positions, wrote them down and put them in a bowl. The boys acted them out and when the others had a hard time guessing, they used words to describe the career.

School System Chart with Chalk - Using information found online about our local elementary school and school district, I made five difference charts, one for each boy. After explaining each section to the boys and how they fit together, we had each of the boys recreate each chart on a section of my driveway with chalk. This was a very interactive and fun way for the boys to learn about their local school system and how each job fits together.

Keeping parents informed

The best way that we have found to communicate with our parents is through email. Especially for requirements that need to be done at home. We have found that the notes we send home with the boys may or may not be seen by parents. My co-leader and I like to meet quickly on Sundays so we usually send an email to all the parents on Sunday. The email tells them what we have done in our last den meeting, what they need to do at home, what is coming up in future den or pack meetings, and what requirements of Faith in God (LDS church) correspond to the activities we have worked on so the parents can sign off in the Faith in God booklet. I think it is nice for the parents to have announcements in email form so they can refer back to them for dates in the futures.

I have heard that other leaders like to send a weekly email and follow up with a text to the parents the day of den meeting if there are any reminders like a change of location or something the boys need to bring with them.We email weekly, then give each parent a phone call if we need to remind them of something.

We spoke with our parents and this seems to work the best for them...and us!