Reflections Results

We found out that Caleb's story "The Come-to-Life Origami Paper" won an Award of Excellence at the state level of the Reflections contest for grades K-2. Caleb was delighted to be recognized at the school and totally amazed when his entry went past the district level. I thought he'd be ecstatic to be one of ten students in about 7,500 entries to win the Award of Excellence for writing. Up until this point, all the Awards of Excellence have advanced to the next level, but each state can only advance one entry per category. There was one Outstanding Award of Excellence winner who will go to nationals. When I told him the results, Caleb initially thought his entry would advance to nationals, and when I explained it wouldn't, he had to fight back tears. It was hard for him to come so close and miss meeting his ultimate dream. The family went out for cookies at Celebrity Bakery to celebrate, and the sugar rush seems to have brightened his spirits. Maybe Texas is big enough that it's almost like its own country anyway. Hooray for our little author!

Journey to the Center of Cyberspace

Caleb's Destination Imagination team competed last weekend in the regional tournament. He and his six teammates have been working since September to write a play; make their own costumes, props, and backdrops; and practice performing for the competition. They all did a great job, and Caleb was in his element as the silly villain, a computer bug who messes up the websites in cyberspace by giving them confusion juice. The kids won the Renaissance award for their engineering, design, and performance. As you can see from the photo afterwards, they were VERY excited! DI has kept me busy this year--I coordinated the program at the school and coached Caleb's team--so I'm looking forward to a little more free time.

Here's the Youtube clip of their performance if you're interested. The play is hard to hear, so if you'd like to follow along, let me know and I'll email you the script.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-nYKAArh9A