Our school participated in a Destination Imagination competition this year. Our school formed 3 elementary teams, and in February we competed against 155 other elementary schools' teams.
Though at the time we weren't exactly sure what we were getting into, Lucas and I volunteered to be coaches. Our team, the "Creative Cats," met in the evening once a week, from September through February. The kids had to work on creatively solving a big "fine arts" challenge. Click
HERE and scroll down to read more specifics on the fine arts project. Basically, the kids chose the board game LIFE to base their skit and props on.
The kids are responsible for determining and making all the parts to their final solution. Read: a lot of work!! Also, each week the kids practiced "instant challenges" to improve their teamwork and creativity. An example of this would be, "Using only a lint roller, build the tallest tower you can in 4 minutes." [Go ahead, try it.] ;-)
Needless to say this was a big learning curve for all of us. But we had fun along the way! And our 6 kids were so proud of their presentation in the end. Hurrah!
HERE is the link to their presentation at competition.
We did not place 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. But we did get the "Spirit of DI" award. This was an honor! Only 6 teams out of the 155 total teams received this award. The judges decided that our team,
"...took the 'Spirit of DI' and turned it into a wonderful, uplifting story. They incorporated their optimistic spirits and made it come to life in their presentation. They made sure to highlight the importance of looking on the brighter side of things even if life gives nothing but hardships." Our kids wrote the entire script themselves, and how wonderful that their thankful/positive attitudes shone through!
