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How it Works for
Teachers
Get started by adding your children’s names quickly and easily (no surnames or contact information needed). Choose a kid friendly critter for each child from our cute and cuddly designs or upload their own face photo if you prefer.
Badgical is a great beginning of the year ice breaker. It creates a sense of belonging to a class as children learn to recognise their own names and those of their peers on the class screen.
1.Choose goals for awarding points
Decide what you wish to award points to your class for, for example, teamwork, manners, respecting toys, tidying up or kindness. Points can be awarded for areas that the teacher feels the children would benefit from focusing on.
You can set well-being goals, such as being a kind friend, and academic goals such as staying ‘on task’ or ‘great effort.’ These can be changed as the year progresses and the children’s behaviours develop. You might start the year with simple targets such as ‘whole body listening’ on the mat and later add ones with higher expectations such as working well in a team or showing empathy.
2.Set Individual Targets
Set a target e.g., 10 or 20 points depending on the childrens’ understanding of numeracy and ability to recognize numbers. Children will then see their point score increase over the course of that day/week. Badgical is a great numeracy learning tool as children work out ‘how many more’ they need to reach ‘magic 10’ or ‘magic 20’.
3.Set Class Targets
You can link your whole class target into a whole class reward such as extra play time or a special toy that the class love.
4.Set up a team / group
If your class has working groups for literacy, numeracy or Fundamental Movement Skills, groups can be set up on Badgical. A whole group can be awarded a point each just on one click. By rewarding a group of children that is demonstrating the desired behaviours, other groups can be motivated too.
5.Reaching your magic number
When a child reaches their magic target they have the chance to change their critter to a new one of their own choosing by approaching the chosen device (smart board or interactive whiteboard) and tapping on their reward critter.
You may also choose to link Badgical points to other general class incentives such as stickers, the class prize box and certificates.
6.Special Critters
Add birthday children and Star of the Day children if your classroom uses these strategies.
If it is a child’s birthday, use the Birthday Critter for that child. This will ensure they feel special and valued all day.
If your class has a ‘Star of the Day’ this child can be represented by the Star critter to add excitement and importance to their special role in the class that day.
7.Links to other learning areas
Learning is integrated in the early years. Badgical offers opportunities for teachers to make links with the early literacy and numeracy curriculums. These include name recognition, letter and sound links. For example:
- How many children in the class have a name that starts with the same sound?
- What letter shape makes this sound?
- Which children have the same sound at the beginning of their name, but the sounds are represented by a different letter shape e.g. Kai and Carl.
- Which children have long names with many letters and short names with just a few letters?
- How many children have the same critter?
- How many children have 4 letters in their name?
- I have 8 points so how many more do I need to reach my Magic 10?
And finally
Start awarding points and motivating your class. See their smiles! Watch their excitement!
