Topaz & Sapphire Achievement Overview
This page provides an overview of the achievements available at the Topaz & Sapphire elementary levels.
Modules & Badges
Topaz and Sapphire girls will regularly rotate through nine modules over the course of three years. These nine modules mirror the core competencies taught and evaluated in the core badges of the Emerald- Diamond sequence.
| Year | 2 Week Module | 3 Week Module | 3 Week Module |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | First Aid | Family & Home | Hiking & Nature |
| 2 | Common Cents | Cooking & Nutrition | Water Safety |
| 3 | Good Citizen | Fitness & Health Living | Weather & Emergency Preparedness |
Outdoor Skills: 2 weeks annually
Compared to badges, modules are somewhat shorter with an emphasis on breadth rather than depth. Modules are designed as structured curriculum of weeks, as opposed to a list of required items that could be arranged in several different ways for instruction. This allows a variety of interesting topics for the girls while maintaining a manageable planning task for the leaders. Modules are further discussed on the blog.
Outdoor Skills
Outdoor skills will be covered once per semester before the corresponding family camp. While skills are helpful for those camping, the topics are designed to be interesting to girls not attending the camp as well. Examples could include fire safety, basic knot tying, packing for camp, soap carving (age-appropriate knife safety), etc. Unlike the other modules which are rotated annually, these activities are phased based on years of membership and offered in parallel.
Topaz
| Year | Fall Activity | Spring Activity |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Topaz Year | Hiking Safety & Skills | Camping Skills (roll sleeping bag) |
| 2nd Topaz Year | Fire Safety & Skills | Compass Skills |
| 3rd Topaz Year | Basic Knots | Map Skills |
Sapphire
| Year | Fall Activity | Spring Activity |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Sapphire Year | Hiking Safety & Skills | Camping Skills (pitch tent) |
| 2nd Sapphire Year | Fire Safety & Building | Wayfinding |
| 3rd Sapphire Year* | Advanced Knots [Outdoor Cooking*] | Knife Safety & Use |
*If girls completed “Knots” in Topaz Year 3, they will do outdoor cooking in lieu of knots in Sapphire Year 3.
Two elective badges, prepared by Shepherd’s Girls, are also completed annually. These will range in topic and are intended to provide girls with a chance to explore a couple varied topics each year in greater depth. These topics are driven by leader skills and girl interests.
Ruby Award
Topaz and Sapphire girls have a wonderful opportunity to earn the Ruby Award, an annual award that shows they’ve participated in the various aspects of the Shepherd’s Girls ministry - leadership and service, discipleship, outdoors (optional, but encouraged), and life skills (badges).
As a participation based award, a girl can fully complete this award by attending and participating in Monday meetings. However, if she needs to miss a meeting here and there, we have a means of making up the discipleship and life skills that were covered in the meeting so she can remain on pace to earn this award! Girls starting later in the year will need to complete aspects at home to earn this award.
Gem Award
Highly motivated Topaz and Sapphire girls have the opportunity to go a step further than the Ruby Award and earn the Gem Award at the end of their time at each level. Much of this award can be done in the course of meetings, but some aspects must be done at home or other Flock events. Most notably, girls are expected to attend either Flock camp(s) or Flock outdoor events, to fully realize this objective for the top award for this level. Girls starting after the beginning of their Kindergarten or 3rd grade years will also need to complete aspects at home to earn this award.
Please note that girls are not required to earn the Ruby Award (annual) or the Gem Award (level) but many will find it very achievable and rewarding to earn the Ruby Award. Promoting into the next age-level of the ministry never requires completing any award.
