Heading to Global Finals!

To Friends of Creative Problem Solvers:  

Teams from Edgar Murray Elementary Gifted education classes recently participated in the MO state final creative problem solving competition called Destination Imagination (DI).  Both fourth grade teams qualified to advance to Global Finals, an international competition to be held over 5 days, May 24-28, on the campus of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.  Students from over 15 countries, grades three through university level, will be competing, and 8,000 students and 17,000 attendees are expected to participate.

The four-member team, "Secret Cypher Squad," won first place in the Scientific category, Top Secret, and the five-member team "Red Ripe Potatoes" came in second in the Fine Arts category, “Vanished!”  Because there was only one point separating them from first place, they were chosen as the state "Wild Card" team.

We are very excited to be representing the state of Missouri at Global Finals, but we need help to get there. It costs $750.00 for each student to attend plus one adult team manager.  This includes housing, meals, and activities for the entire stay.  We need to raise $7,500.00 in order to participate in this amazing opportunity!

We are setting up a variety of fundraisers locally, including a lock-in at the school, car wash, flower sale, and bake sale.  Because we are a small, rural community, we are also seeking sponsors.  Several of our team members do not have the financial means to cover the costs involved.  It is our hope that you will consider helping send these talented kids to compete!

Platinum sponsor (Sponsor 1 Student) - $750 or more:  an ad on the back of our teams’ t-shirts, a free t-shirt, a framed 5 x 7 photo of the teams at Global Finals, a team pin, and recognition in the Bulldog Bulletin, our Facebook page, and Twitter.  

Gold sponsor - $200:  4x4" ad on the back of our teams’ t-shirts,  t-shirt, pin, 5x7 photo, and recognition in the Bulldog Bulletin.

Silver sponsor - $100:  2 X 3 1/2" ad on the back of t-shirt, 5x7 photo

Bronze sponsor -$50:  1 line on the back of the team t shirt

If you’d like more information about Destination Imagination, Global Finals, or our Challenge classroom, you can visit the following:  

Global Finals

Destination Imagination

Challenge Webpage

For questions, feel free to contact Jennifer Hawkins:  jhawkins@stcmo.org

Checks payable to:  St. Clair R-XIII

Please send donations to:

Edgar Murray Elementary

Challenge Program                                       

1044 High School Drive       

Team Building

We are starting the school year off with a lot of team building. Team building is important for many reasons. It promotes collaboration between classmates, fosters creativity, enhances leadership skills, and aids overall communication. Each class participated in three team challenges.

 1. Marker Message: Several strings were tied to a dry-erase marker. Each student held a string, and they worked together to write a message. This challenge is much harder than it looks, but all teams were ultimately successful.

2.  Toxic Waste:  A bungee cord was attached around a bucket holding tennis balls.  Ropes were tied to the bungee cord.  Each student held the end of a rope.  The object was to dump the tennis ball into the empty bucket without touching the toxic waste or bucket.  

3.  Hollywood Improv:  This was an acting challenge.  Students had to choose a random character, setting, problem, plot, movie quote, and props to use in an original team-created movie trailer.  

Missouri Creative Adventures

It was another great year at MOCA, Missouri's Destination Imagination state competition!  All three of our teams earned trophies, and the SelfieZ are advancing to Global Finals in Knoxville, Tennessee! We're so proud of our creative problem solvers!  

DIgos:  Jace and Tara earned 3rd place for their Fine Arts Challenge, "Get a Clue."  They successfully acted out five characters with two people!  I absolutely loved the performance and the artwork!

SelfieZ:  Oliver and Alana earned 2nd place for their Project Outreach Challenge, "The Meme Event," and they are moving on to Global Finals!  They have been teaching others about self-acceptance!  Everyone should love their "SelfieZ."

Quintuple Quiddities:  Emily, Jolee, Lilly, Ashton, and Alyssa earned 3rd place in their Improv. Challenge, Close Encounters.  Their performance had the audience going bananas!  

What's Your Favorite Pun?

^{This year's Family Trivia Night theme is "A Night of PUN." Some of my younger students have been asking, "What is a pun?"}  

^{The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines pun as:}

a humorous way of using a word or phrase so that more than one meaning is suggested

Some examples of puns are:

1. The delicatessen is sandwiched, if you'll pardon the pun, between two stores.

1. She's a skillful pilot whose career has—no pun intended—really taken off.

There are many different ways to write puns. A pun can be of two types: Typographic and Visual. Therefore, yes, you can dress in a "Punny" costume for Family Trivia Night!

Typographic is further divided into five categories:

• Homophonic -They use homophones (similar sounding word pairs) which are not synonymous. Example: Why is it so wet in England? Because many kings and queens have reigned there.

• Homographic - These kinds of puns are where words are spelled the same (homographs) but have different meanings and sounds. Example: You can tune a guitar, but you can't tuna fish. 

• Homonymic -These words are both homographs and homophones.  Example: Bank (meaning embankment) and bank (where money is kept).

• Compound -That contains two or more puns in the same sentence. Example: Where do you find giant snails? On the ends of giants' fingers.

• Recursive -In this case, the second aspect of the pun relies on the understanding of the first. Example: Infinity is not in finity.

Visual Puns - They are those which use non-phonetic writing.
Example: In 'The Muppet Movie', Kermit and Fozzie are driving. Then Kermit looks at the map and says they need to turn at the fork in the road. At this point, he lowers the map at which point and sees a giant fork in the middle of the road.

PLEASE SHARE YOUR FAVORITE PUNS IN THE COMMENTS.  MAKE SURE THEY ARE SCHOOL APPROPRIATE!  

Building a Crane

This week's Instant Challenge required students to build a crane to hold weight.

Ice Cream Cone Stack

We started the year off with some Instant Challenges...SWEET!  This week, students were challenged to stack as many ice cream cones on a basketball as possible.  They were given string, rubber bands, clothes pins, pipe cleaners, spoons, Dixie cups, and a CD to assist with this task.  The cones could not touch each other or the table.  We have some very creative problem solvers!

Alphabet Photography

We are going to be doing an "Alphabet Photography" project at all grade levels (to display in the hallway).   If your child sees an object that looks like a letter in the alphabet, please let him/her take a picture of it and send it to me.  You can share the pics on the Challenge Facebook page, email them to me, text them to me,  or send them in on a CD or jump drive...whatever works best for you!  Here are some examples!