DI Day

Busy day Saturday as we attended the east-metro Destination Imagination (DI) competition. [Tried to link the MN DI site, but it wasn't working.] Both M and the Dude competed. M's team went first and put on a nice little play - with M as the Queen of England. Her team competed later that day in the Instant Challenge portion of the competition.

The Dude was "competing" in the Rising Stars division which is a non-competitive gathering for K - 2nd graders. The Hobbled Runner coached the team, whose team nickname was T-JAM (the initials of the four competitors). We did our play - - 1-2-Changeroo was the theme. The "rules" required that the play be no longer than 8 minutes in length, have some sort of changing device with a hole. One of the kids had to enter the hole, and come out changed. We also had to design/use something with newspaper and duct tape. Finally, we had to "have a number" in the play. In true DI spirit, if the rules are "silent" on a matter, that means you can do it - - so it gets pretty creative.

It was a kid-created script and kid-designed set. They kids designed an "apple orchard" out of an old refrigerator box. The kids started out running around "the tree" collecting fake apples. The buckets used for collecting "apples" were made of duct tape. They counted the appled out loud, thus satisfying the number requirement. All the kids decided to disappear into the box (tree) and come out changed - - as animals. It went over very well - despite my fear that they would forget their lines or what to do next. This is a very kid-oriented affair, and as coach I could have offerred no assistance had they gotten lost.






After the play, they were given their Instant Challenge - - an event that they had no chance to prepare for. The challenge is very secret. I'm not sure if I can talk about it even now. Suffice to say it involved building something. They cooperated very nicely - though hardly speaking a word to one another - all four worked to build the structure. In the end it wasn't quite high enough to pass the test. The judges encouraged them to talk more next time. I was quite proud of the fact since it was really the first time - - despite many practice Instant Challenges - where they actually worked together. Usually they would have tried to build four separate things. So - - great job T-JAM!