Nick and the Gophers

Destination Imagination 2011-2012

"The Flying Gophers"

Nick, Malik, and my Asst Coach, Stacie. FUN-N-CRAZY!

Our fundraiser, to help the kids earn their own money to go to the State Destination Imagination Tournament in Corpus Christi (8 hours away driving)... We had a blast face painting, doing nails, and spraying crazy colors into kids' hair.

Team Meetings:

Prop design

Instant Challenge practice

Brainstorming

Workshops

Team Party at our house last Fall

Nick's big flip...

Me and Stacie cruising the neighborhood as kids go on a boys vs. girls alphabetical scavenger hunt. This was SO fun! They came back with so many crazy things (26 items for each letter of alphabet!)

Two of our girls know how to make anything out of newspaper

and origami paper. This was the result...

The kids had all year to come up with solutions to the following challenge: Create a Movie Trailer for an original movie, use and Original Soundtrack, write script, make props, costumes, etc, that includes characters from two different nations. Also, employ a "Cinematic Effect" (something noisy or visual to help simulate the 'actuality' of the events in their Trailer.

So these seven creative brains put them together and came up with a movie about a modern-day British philosopher (Nick a/k/a "Neville") who really wants one of Leonardo Da Vinci's journals (out of 65+ only half have been found in actuality). He goes back in time (1521, year after DaVinci's death), kidnaps two Italians and two Brits (related to DaVinci) and brings them to England and traps them inside of Big Ben.

They also had to compete in "Instant Challenge" where they are given a TASK, some random items to use, some pretend scenario, and they have to use Teamwork, Creativity, Brain-power to solve it. It's timed and judges look for all three and award points accordingly. No one can watch, except the coach. The kids did amazing and choked up my asst. coach with their supportive, encouraging teamwork! Go GOPHERS!

WE TOOK FIRST PLACE IN OUR CHALLENGE AND AGE DIVISION!!

Time to raise money

to "fix" or improve the areas that scored low points...

The team has to work alone with NO help from anyone (including coaches)

So, Nick re-wrote the script,

Two characters traded parts to better show off their talents

One girl re-built our Time Machine

Another built a new Portal (for time travel)

And off we went to Corpus Christi, TX for Texas State D.I. Tournament

On the USS Lexington, where we had a "mixer" the night before the Big Competition

Here they are right after rockin' their Movie Trailer presentation:

Nick is wearing a "bald head" made out of paper-mache; note BIG BEN, our Brits, our Italian artist, our Italian jester and our "nerdy" janitor (glasses). Plus our karaoke machine with mic came in handy for our talented narrator!

These are from the loud, fun, energy-filled stadium party that night at the American Banking Center right across the street from the beach--

 My asst coach bought us these crazy glasses to wear and then bought our kids these two "dry ice drinks" which were super cool!

This is how we drove to and from Corpus...car paint really ROCKS!