Students demonstrate an understanding of art history and interpret ideas and moods in original artworks while making informed judgments about the artwork.  This contest involves the study of paintings from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and paintings or pictures from selected Texas museums.  

Practice Information:

Mondays until 4:00 with Mrs. Marrs

The contest is designed to promote creativity in an academic format and to encourage writing skills at an early grade level. Contestants will be given a prompt with several captioned pictures. From these pictures, students will create an original story based on their selections in 30 minutes. 

Practice Information:

Wednesdays until 3:45 with Mrs. Hatla 

Thorough knowledge of the dictionary is a way to increase a student's ability to find the information that is needed for classwork as well as everyday living. Each Dictionary Skills test consists of 40 objective and short answer questions to be completed in 20 minutes. Contestants use dictionaries during the competition, which may be tabbed. Contest questions cover word origins and histories, parts of speech, pronunciation, variant spellings, plurals, alphabetizing and other such elements. Test questions are also taken from charts, tables and lists contained in the dictionary. 

Practice Information:

Wednesdays until 3:45 with Mrs. Holland

The focus of the Music Memory contest is an in-depth study of fine pieces of music literature taken from a wide spectrum of music genres to expose students to great composers, their lives and their music. In the course of preparing for the contest, students should be given the opportunity to describe and analyze the music, relate the music to history, to society and to culture, and to evaluate musical performance.    Students will listen to approximately 20 seconds of up to 20 musical selections and identify the name of the major work, selection and the name of the composer. Spelling and punctuation are considered in the grading of this contest.

**Access to a device and wifi at home is HIGHLY suggested for at home practice 

Practice Information:

Mondays until 3:45 with Ms. Eney

Students will be given a 10-minute, fill-in-the-blank test which they must complete without doing calculations on paper or on a calculator. Erasures and mark-outs are not permitted. 

Practice Information:

Wednesdays until 3:45 with Mrs. Montgomery 

Students read a selection of poetry. Each selection may be one poem, a cutting of a poem, or a combination of poems.  Reading literature out loud provides opportunities for students to analyze the text, to grow and to develop as a performer, to communicate a message to an audience and to perform an artistic creation. 

Practice Information:

Thursdays until 3:45 with Mrs. Williamson

Ready Writing builds upon writing skills and helps students refine their writing abilities. In particular, this contest helps them to learn to write clearly and correctly a paper that is interesting and original.

Contestants are given a choice between two prompts which defines the audience and provides the purpose for writing. Various writing strategies may be stated or implied in the prompt. Some of these include:

• description to inform -- describe the happening or person/object from imagination or memory;

• narration -- write a story;

• persuasion -- describe and argue just one side of an issue; describe both sides of an issue then argue only one side; write an editorial; write a letter to persuade, etc. 

Practice Information:

Tuesdays until 4:00 with Mrs. Holland

The spelling contest is designed to give students exposure to a wide variety of vocabulary words. It is not a contest of memorization. For the most educational value, preparation for this contest should include instruction in the rules of the English language, meanings and definitions, and root words. 

Practice Information:

Tuesdays until 3:45 Ms. Kelly

To tell a story, the participant must develop skills in listening, thinking and speaking. This contest also allows for the development of creative expression, something being given more attention in the professional world. Contestants listen to a storyteller read a brief story (between 600 and 1100 words long) only once, and then retell that story in their own words before a judge or judges.  

Practice Information: 

Wednesdays until 3:45 with Mrs. Jensen