Bear Badge

The requirements for the Bear Badge were revised in the 1998 edition of the Bear Cub Scout Book.

GOD
(DO ONE OF THE FOLLOWING)

  1. WAYS WE WORSHIP
    Practice your religion as you are taught in your home, church, synagogue, mosque, or other religious community.
  2. EMBLEMS OF FAITH
    Earn the religious emblem of your faith.

COUNTRY
(DO THREE OF THE FOLLOWING)

  1. WHAT MAKES AMERICA SPECIAL?
    Do requirement a and any three of the other six requirements:
    1. Write or tell what makes America special to you.
    2. With the help of your family or den leader, find out about two Americans. Tell the things they did or are doing to improve our way of life.
    3. Find out something about the old homes near the place where you live. Go and see two of them.
    4. Find out where places of historical interest in or near your town are located. Go and visit one of them with your family or den.
    5. Pick your favorite state or home state. Name the state bird, tree, and flower. Describe its flag. Give the date it was admitted to the union.
    6. Be a member of the color guard in a flag ceremony for your den or pack.
    7. Display the U.S. flag in your home or fly it on three national holidays.
  2. TALL TALES
    Do all three requirements:
    1. Tell in your own words what folklore is. List some folklore stories, folksongs, or historical legends from your own state or part of the country.
    2. Name at least five stories about American folklore. Point out on a United States map where they took place.
    3. Read two folklore stories and tell your favorite on to your den.
  3. SHARING YOUR WORLD WITH WILDLIFE
    Do four of the following requirements:
    1. Choose a bird or animal that you like and find out how it lives. Make a poster showing what you have learned.
    2. Build or make a bird feeder or bird house.
    3. Explain what a wildlife conservation offier does.
    4. Visit one of the following: Zoo, Nature center, Wildlife refuge, Game preserve.
    5. Name one animal that has become extinct in the last 100 years. Tell why animals become extinct.
  4. TAKE CARE OF YOUR PLANET
    Do three of the following requirements:
    1. Save 5 pounds of glass or aluminum, or 1 month of newspapers, and turn them in at a recycling center.
    2. Plant a tree in your yard, or on the grounds of the group that operates your Cub Scout pack, or in a park. Be sure to get permission first.
    3. Call city or county officials or your trash hauling company and find out what happens to your trash after it is hauled away.
    4. Do a water usage survey in your home. Note the ways water is used. Look for any dripping faucets.
    5. Discuss with one of your parents the ways your family uses energy.
    6. Find out more about your family's use of electricity.
  5. LAW ENFORCEMENT IS A BIG JOB
    Do four of the following requirements:
    1. Make a set of your own fingerprints.
    2. Make a plaster cast of a shoeprint in the mud.
    3. Check the doors and windows of your home.
    4. Visit your local sheriff's office or police station.
    5. Be sure you know where to get help in your neighborhood.
    6. Be sure fire and police numbers are listed by the phone at your home.
    7. Know what you can do to help law enforcement.

FAMILY
(DO 4 OF THE FOLLOWING)

  1. THE PAST IS EXCITING AND IMPORTANT
    Do three of the following requirements:
    1. Visit your library or newspaper office. Ask to see back issues of newspapers.
    2. Find someone who was a Cub Scout a long time ago. Talk with him about what Cub Scouting was like then.
    3. Start a pack scrapbook and give something to it.
    4. Trace your family back through your grandparents or great grandparents; or, talk to your grandparents about what it was like when they were younger.
    5. Find out some history about your community.
    6. Keep a diary for 2 weeks.
  2. WHAT'S COOKING?
    Do four of the following requirements:
    1. Bake cookies.
    2. If your parent or guardian says it is all right, volunteer to make snacks for the next den meeting
    3. Prepare one part of your breakfast, one part of your lunch, and one part of your supper.
    4. Make a list of the 'junk' foods you eat. Discuss "junk" food with your parent or teacher.
    5. Make some healthful after-school snacks or some snacks for watching television.
    6. Make a dessert for your family.
  3. FAMILY FUN
    Do both of these requirements:
    1. Go on a trip with members of your family.
    2. Have a "family-make-and-do-night."
  4. BE READY!
    Do the first four; the last one is recommended, but not required.
    1. Tell what to do in case of accident in the home. Parent needs help. Clothes catch on fire.
    2. Tell what to do in case of a water accident.
    3. Tell what to do in case of a school bus accident.
    4. Tell what to do in case of a car accident.
    5. Have a health checkup by a physician (optional).
  5. FAMILY OUTDOOR ADVENTURE
    Do three of the following requirements:
    1. Go camping with your family.
    2. Go on a hike with your family.
    3. Have a picnic with your family.
    4. Attend an outdoor event with your family.
    5. Plan your outdoor family day.
  6. SAVING WELL, SPENDING WELL
    Do four of the following requirements:
    1. Go grocery shopping with a parent. Compare prices of different brands of the same item. Check the prices at different stores. Read the ads in your newspaper.
    2. Set up a savings account.
    3. Keep a record of how you spend money for 2 weeks.
    4. Make believe you are shopping for a car for your family.
    5. Discuss family finances with one of your parents.
    6. Play a board game with your family that involves the use of make-believe money.
    7. Figure out how much it costs for each person in your home to eat one meal.

SELF
(DO 4 OF THE FOLLOWING.)

  1. RIDE RIGHT
    Do requirement a and three more:
    1. Know the rules for bike safety. If your town requires a bicycle license, be sure to get one.
    2. Learn to ride a bike, if you haven't by now. Show that you can follow a winding course for 60 feet doing sharp left and right turns, a U-turn, and an emergency stop.
    3. Keep your bike in good shape. Identify the parts of a bike that should be checked often.
    4. Change a tire on a bicycle.
    5. Protect your bike from theft. Use a bicycle lock.
    6. Ride a bike for 1 mile without rest, and be sure to obey all traffic rules.
    7. Plan and take a family bike hike.
  2. GAMES, GAMES, GAMES!
    Do two of the following requirements:
    1. Set up the equipment and play any two of these outdoor games with your family or friends.
    2. Play two organized games with your den.
    3. Select a game your den has never played. Explain the rules. Tell them how it is played, then play it with them.
  3. BUILDING MUSCLES
    Do all of the following requirements:
    1. Do physical fitness stretching exercises. Then do sit-ups, push-ups, the standing long jump, and softball throw.
    2. With a friend, compete in at least six different two-person contests.
    3. Compete with your den or pack in the crab relay, gorilla relay, 30-yard dash, and kangaroo relay.
  4. INFORMATION, PLEASE
    Do requirement a and three more of the following requirements:
    1. With an adult in your family, select a TV show. Watch it together.
    2. Visit a newspaper office, or TV or radio station and talk to a news reporter.
    3. Play a game of charades at your den meeting or with your family at home.
    4. Visit a place where computers are used.
    5. Write a letter to a company that makes something you use.
    6. Talk with one of your parents or another family member about how getting and giving facts fits into his or her job.
  5. JOT IT DOWN
    Do five of the following requirements:
    1. Make a list of the things you want to do today. Check them off when you have done them.
    2. Write two letters to relatives.
    3. Keep a daily record of your activities for 2 weeks.
    4. Write an invitation to someone.
    5. Write a story about something you have done with your family.
    6. Write a thank-you note.
    7. Write about the doings of your den.
  6. SHAVINGS AND CHIPS
    Do all of the following requirements:
    1. Know the safety rules for handling a knife.
    2. Show that you know how to take care of and use a pocketknife.
    3. Make a carving with a pocketknife. Work with your parent or den leader in doing this.
    4. Earn the Whittling Chip card.
  7. SAWDUST AND NAILS
    Do all of the following requirements:
    1. Show how to use and take care of four of these tools. (Tools listed in book.)
    2. Build your own tool box.
    3. Use at least two tools listed in requirement a to fix something.
  8. BUILD A MODEL
    Do three of the following requirements:
    1. Build a model from a kit.
    2. Build a display for one of your models.
    3. Make believe you are planning to change the furniture in one of the rooms in your home.
    4. Make a model of a mountain, a meadow, a canyon, or river.
    5. Look at a model of a shopping center or new building that is on display somewhere.
    6. Make a model of anything - a rocket, boat, car, or plane.
  9. TYING IT ALL UP
    Do five of the following requirements:
    1. Whip the ends of a rope.
    2. Tie a square knot, bowline, sheet bend, two half hitches, and a slip knot. Tell how each knot is used.
    3. Learn how to keep a rope from tangling.
    4. Coil a rope. Throw it, hitting a 2-foot square marker 20 feet away.
    5. Learn a magic rope trick.
    6. Make your own rope.
  10. SPORTS, SPORTS, SPORTS
    Do all of the following requirements:
    1. Learn the rules and how to play three team sports.
    2. Learn the rules and how to play two sports in which only one person is on each side.
    3. Take part in one team and one individual sport.
    4. Watch a sport on TV with a parent or some other member of your family.
    5. Attend a high school, college, or professional sporting event with your family or your den.
  11. BE A LEADER
    Do three of the following requirements:
    1. Help a boy join the Cub Scouts, or help a new Cub Scout through the Bobcat trail.
    2. Serve as a denner or assistant denner.
    3. Plan and conduct a den activity with the approval of your den leader.
    4. Tell two people they have done a good job.
    5. Leadership means choosing a way even when your choice is not liked by all.