Destination Imagination

Joshua participated in Destination Imagination (DI)this year for the first time. Most people don't know what DI is. Here is a short explanation:

DI is a global (yes global) competition that kids in Kindergarten thru 12th grade can enter. With the guidance of a Team Manager, who serves as a facilitator, not a coach, the team creates an action plan and works together to create everything needed for their Presentation. There are different categories to choose from, but all Team Challenges can be broken down into two parts: the Central Challenge and Side Trips. All DI Challenges have different required elements that teams must include as part of their solutions; these requirements comprise the Central Challenge.

The kids have to prepare a skit of some kind that includes costumes, props, and the script itself. They perform this in front of various judges who are judging them on their creativity as well as how well they followed the rules of the topic they chose and got their message across. Every aspect of this is 100% kid directed and executed. Our team chose the "instinct messaging" category. They had to choose an animal and creatively show how this animal communicates with each other. There were MANY steps involved in this including having 3-d props, two "sidetrips" etc. The kids chose seahorses for their animal.

Needless to say, the costumes and props they came up with were outstanding. And the judges thought so too. Our team not only came in 2ND PLACE for this category, but they won the coveted Da Vinci medal for their outstanding props. This is a REALLY big deal. These kids worked on this for almost 6 months. They competed against 23 other elementary schools in this category. Just placing 2nd place was outstanding on its own, but to be awarded this Da Vinci award is quite impressive. There were only 3 or 4 of these given out in our entire regional competition. We are talking 50 plus schools, and our 4th and 5th graders at Bluebonnet got this award.

Way to go "Go Lows" (that is their team name). We are so proud of you!!!



Joshua and Julia do some last minute repairs to the seaweed habitat! The two male seahorses get their costumes on. About 30 minutes before the performance. Here is a side view of this great seahorse costume. In addition to the seahorses, there was an angelfish in the performance...



and a clown fish too! So clever.











Here it is! Click play to see all 7 minutes of their fantastic performance.