Destination Imagination

For the past few months, J.D. has been participating in an after-school program called Destination Imagination. He and his team met with their team leader (a parent) once a week after school for an hour to create things using their imaginations. Then they prepared for a regional competition where they would present a structure they created out of newspaper and a skit they created as well. They were judged at the competition, but everyone received a medal and certificate for First Grade, just for participating. J.D.'s team decided to build an alien structure out of newspaper and also an alien ship out of a box and various other items. Their skit was a news report of a strange structure and also a commercial about eating fruit. The kids came up with all of the ideas by themselves. Their team leader just guided them and wrote everything down.

The competition was yesterday at a local high school. Here is J.D. and one of his friends with the structure.


Here is their skit. I'm not proficient at editing video with my new camera yet, so you get the whole thing, with the judges asking them questions at the end. (You'll probably have to turn up the volume to hear.)



After they presented their skit, they also had an "instant challenge" where they were given some materials and they had five minutes to create characters or things out of paper bags and other materials and to plan a skit, then they had two minutes to present the skit. J.D.'s team of six First Graders spent the whole five minutes in silence, just working on creating different things and didn't plan a skit. When the judge said, "Time's Up," J.D. said, "But we didn't talk about our skit yet." The judge told them just to improvise, so they got up and just goofed around for two minutes. Oh well! After the instant challenge, the judges presented them with medals and certificates. Here is the whole team with their structure and their medals and certificates.


Here is J.D. with his medal and certificate.

He had a great time and on the way home, all he talked about was what they would do next year and how much fun it would be. So, hopefully he will be able to do it again!