Badge & Playing Card Magic with Buncee!

I love to create. It brings me joy and allows me to express myself in a variety of ways.  As an educator, I get pretty excited when I find a tool that allows me to tap into that creativity in a new and innovative way. My mind starts swirling with possibility when I begin to think about what it could mean not only for my learning, but for students as well. In the past few months I started to explore a new digital tool called Buncee! As usual when I discover a digital tool that I love, the ideas just keep coming! The beauty of this tool is in its intuitiveness, functionality, and the variety of choice it opens up for creativity and demonstration of learning for students of all ages.

As I began to explore the possibilities, I began to think about my gamified classroom and how fun it would be to create cards and badges for my students with Buncee! One type of badge that I love to create is a mystery badge. This is a badge that has a mystery amount of experience points on it covered by a scratch off sticker.  I give these out to teams or individuals that win specific challenges or accomplish missions in my class. Covering up the card’s worth adds a bit of mystery and wonder as well as encourages students to strategize. With all of the amazing features within Buncee coupled with it’s intuitive design, making Mystery Badges was a breeze and they look AMAZING!  I created this tutorial video to show you just how easy creating Mystery XP Badges in Buncee can be!

---

Creating Playing Cards and Badges in Buncee

Now let’s take it a step further and think about what this could look like for student learning! As amazing as it is to create your own badges and cards within Buncee, imagine how empowering it could be if students did the creating! When we let go of some of the control and put it in the hands of students they will amaze and inspire you! In this tutorial video I will show you how your students can create amazing mystery badges to use in your classroom.

---

Student created badges and playing cards in Buncee

Download student badges and upload them into the Google Drawing template as in the first tutorial. Now badges are ready to print, laminate, and cut! Place a scratch-off sticker over number and Voila! Your Mystery badge is ready to award!

The more I create with Buncee, the more my imagination goes wild with the possibilities for magical learning!! There are so many other cards and badges you can create as well!

Chance Cards: Think about what students are always begging you to do and turn it into a chance card! “Get out of homework card”, “You choose your seat for the day” card, “Cross off one question on the quiz” card., etc. You want chance cards that students are motivated to earn? Have them think about what they are always wanting and they create the cards!! When students demonstrate great employability skills, or win a classroom challenge they can reach into the box and draw one out to redeem at a time they choose. Students love them!

Badges: Create badges for completing certain tasks or achieving specific skills. Award the badges as they are earned! They may contain experience points (XP) that allow them to level up or maybe they try to collect all of the badges in a set. There are lots of ways badges can be issued. You choose what is best for your grade and content!
I have my students store badges and chance cards in a baseball card sleeve. They are durable, inexpensive, reusable and will clip into a 3-ring binder. You can find them HERE.

Card Game: I love creating card games for learning. Take the elements of your favorites and make your own! Better yet, have your students create the game! It’s amazing what students come up with when we give them a chance to unleash their creativity!!

I’d love to see you what types of cards and badges you create with this incredible digital tool! Check out the ideas lab for inspiration! It is an incredible source to launch you and your students into a world of creation! Share on Twitter and make sure to tag me @tishrich, @buncee and include #MLmagical! 

---