OM Regional Competition

Our Odyssey of the Mind team competed in the Regional Competition on Saturday, a culmination of 5 1/2 months of their ideas and hard work! Lucky for us, it was being held at our School District. When I and my assistant coach and her husband arrived to register and bring in the vehicle and all the props, we had a small scare when the vehicle was too large to fit through the door!! We finally found a double-wide door and got it in to our designated area. Whew! 

Here's the team waiting for our 11:00 am Long-Term Problem time.... 

and waiting...  (Stephanie and Max)

practicing lines, and waiting...  (Carley and Emily and the girls)
butterflies... and waiting... (Caroline, Carley, Meg, Emily and Hannah)

Here's Laurie, my assistant coach and me! Laurie is a first grade teacher in our district and the mom of Foster (our pirate). She is one of the most fun people I've ever met....she makes me laugh constantly!!!Waiting outside the performance doors, ready to go on!

With one of the check-in judges. That's Foster as our pirate and "ship" driver! And his dad Steve, who was a huge help too. He taught the kids how to use a saw and drill and a lot of the tools needed to build the vehicle... Waiting for the judges to signal them to begin!!!!....Foster looks pretty cool about everything, doesn't he?? He was up at 4 am thinking he had strep throat!! Poor guy... he's on tylenol!!Our vehicle! It is a pirate ship which will perform 4 tasks: pushing a soccer ball across an 8 ft. area, there's an oar to push a hockey puck across several feet to knock down a "ship", a catapult to throw a tennis ball into a treasure chest, and a homemade bow to shoot an arrow across the mountain range!! The kids designed the pedals out of pvc pipe and created the whole axle and steering themselves. It was pretty impressive for fifth graders!...

"Team are you ready?"

"Aye, Aye, Matey!!!"

"Bring it On!!!" (the judges!)...

Max started out introducing the skit: 3 grandchildren visit their grandparents. They ask for a bedtime story and are told a story of their great-great-great grandfather who was a pirate in a "Road Rally" and the tasks that he needed to do to win it!

Max is making the "water" of the sea move, as Foster is driving the vehicle to perform the tasks. They played "Bad to the Bone" by George Thorogood when Foster first comes out in the pirate ship!!..That pearl (tennis ball) went right into the treasure chest on the first try!!!! A huge applause from the audience!!!...
The panel of judges questionning the kids afterwards and scoring everything... yikes... I'm just watching and waiting....

Stacey taking photos of the team... the parents were so proud!!!!...Then the kids had to do a spontaneous problem. They went off into a room without me, were given a problem to answer and scored on how creative those answers were. They all came back out to us beaming from ear to ear!!!!... Now to wait for our scores!!!
We waited in the auditorium....and waited, and waited... they were an hour behind getting the results tallied.

Carley's parents: Paul and Christylee...
Meg's mom Stephanie and Emily's mom Jean... and Scott, our school coordinator and Caroline's fifth grade teacher...Finally... they're ready to announce. They do third places first. Not us. Hmmm. Then they announce the first and second places for each of the different events. "Division I- Odyssey Road Rally. Second Place goes to... John Henry Neff Elementary!!! That's US!!!!! The team all goes down to get their trophy and ribbons! We're going to the State Competition in 3 weeks in Altoona, PA!!!!!! (Where's Altoona?!!!)... YIPEEEEE!!!!!

Watch out Pennsylvania... here we come!!!Yippeee... now let's all go celebrate!!! Pizza at Uncommon Pizza!!!!.....Happy parents and one very happy coach (though if we had gotten third place, then I could breathe a sigh of relief! On to the next one!...)My favorite fifth graders in the whole world!!!!:

Hannah, Caroline, Max, Foster, Meg, Carley and Emily
And my favorite parents!!!:

Me talking to Chad and Stacey, Stephanie, Christylee, and Tim (By the way Chad, Tim and Stephanie P. judged ALL DAY LONG!!!! They had just as hard a day!)Paul and Kevin with Stacey, Christy, Tim, Jean and Stephanie....
Scott, Chad, Stacey, Stephanie R., Doug, Tim, Jean and Stephanie P.... There's Craig at the end of the table too! Steve and Laurie were there too and some other siblings....