Teams, Vehicles, Structures, Plays, and PAC Support

It's been a busy couple of weeks, with lots of good achievements- our thanks to all those that helped make them happen!

We had our first practice session, which was well attended both by kids and parents. We all played a couple of ice breaker games, and then we split off into two groups- kids, and parents.

Sarah and the helpers organized the children into two groups and set them their first challenge: build the tallest structure they could using only tooth picks and plastecine. Part of the challenge was a time limit.

At the same time Julian talked with the parents about Odyssey, and what the teams will need from their parents. Right away we had enough volunteers (many thanks to Neville, Pam, Sylvanus, Fion, Bruno, Chris, and anyone else I've forgotten to mention) step up to field a team; and kids for three.

Everyone then admired the structures, and the parents acting as judges gave feedback to the teams.









Then the second challenge: build a vehicle from straws, balloons, and tape that can
get from one side of the room to the other. Both teams tried different strategies, but the Mouse Express (my name) was the best performer.



At the end of the day all the kids commented that teamwork is hard- especially when it comes to sharing ideas.

During the following days enough other volunteers (thanks Deborah, Constantin, and Gisela) came forward allowing us to field a second team. Sarah also presented Odyssey of the Mind to the PAC and asked for funding. Thanks to the other supportive parents present we were granted funding for both this year and next- which is great news!

Our next session had us arranging into potential teams and creating a play which had to use a random assortment of items. Partway through their preparation I was a little worried that this was too big a challenge for either team, but they did it! One team created a play about a Princess going for a walk to chop a tree that ends up jointing the towns band. The other, a dark tale of a young vampire rejecting her Father's feeding habits, and resuscitating one of his victims. They were both spellbinding; taking a bite out of some old jingles; full of cutting insight... ok enough of the puns!

The kids then choose two long term problems (the "Good as Gold...berg" and "Structure" challenges) and re-arranged themselves into teams around them.

And here is where I must draw this post to a close.