Held the middle school DI team’s end of year party tonight. The awards were a big hit, and they emphasized how much the kids’ grew this year – in leadership, persistence, organization, focus, and initiative. I also made them a video of the team’s year. 

Megaphone Award to show confidence

Smiling Duck Award to show that initiative starts with a good attitude

Wooden Piano Award to show that talent + focus brings success

Climbing The Ladder Of Success Award to show that leadership and persistence can be a struggle well worth the effort. (The structure is the actual competition structure)

One principal component of their challenge was to make a structure, 20 grams or less, that could support as much weight as possible using only wood (less than 1/8″ thick), aluminum foil and glue. Their structure held 195 pounds!

I was happy to take the scraps from this effort and make awards. The awards are shown.

There are back stories to all the awards. Each award emphasized something the kids did well. And it showed something they really improved throughout the year.

All the kids loved the awards. It was worth the time to make them. And I had fun too!