A little imagination goes a long way.
A lot of imagination sends you to the Destination ImagiNation state tournament at Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant Saturday, April 22.
That’s where two teams of Oxford Elementary students are heading after placing second and third in Destination ImagiNation regionals March 4 at Waterford Kettering High School.
Sponsored by the Michigan Creativity Association, Destination ImagiNation is a program where students compete and cooperate in teams, solving one of five challenges and pushing the limits of their imaginations.
Placing second in the regional competition, OES Team I consisted of fifth-graders Tim Denninger, Lauren Moloney, Dominic Messina, Grant Heinrich, Marina Ibarra and third-grader Emmauel Ibarra.
Placing third was OES Team II which included fourth-graders Paige Bradley, Phillip Christiansen and Christina Chizmadia, third-graders Jamy Lee and Stephanie-Ann Chizmadia, and Teegan Duong, a home-schooled third-grader.
Parents Mindy Denninger and Tony Bradley managed Teams I and II respectively.
Both teams competed in a challenge called ‘On Safari,? which focuses on improvisational acting, story development, research, theater arts and teamwork.
Prior to the regionals, each OES team researched facts about six different environments and six different living inhabitants, one from each environment. The day of the regional tournament both an environment and inhabitant were randomly selected along with some type of disaster to overcome using an ‘original innovative device? created by the students.
Each team then has 30 minutes to create a six-minute improvisational skit that includes facts about the environment and inhabitant along with an imaginative way to overcome the disaster.
Team I’s skit involved a stingray in the desert. The team’s disaster was the desert environment has turned cold.
So, the kids invented a machine to heat the desert, powered by the stingray, which they found in a mud puddle.
Team II? skit involved a barn owl on a snowy mountain. The disaster was a couple kids on an expedition through the mountain had lost their mother’s ring. Fortunately, their magician friend, who has a pet barn owl, located the ring using his magic wand.