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:

Tuesdays until 3:40 with Mrs. Holland

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 3:40 with Mrs. Williamson

The maps, graphs & charts contest is designed to help students learn to get information from a variety of maps, graphs and charts including world maps, pie charts, bar charts and local area maps. The objective test will measure skills such as using a reference book to locate information, making comparisons, estimating and approximating, using scale and interpreting grid systems, legends and keys.

Students will be given an objective test containing approximately 75 multiple choice and true/false questions, which must be answered in 45 minutes.

Practice Information:

Wednesdays until 3:40 with Mrs. Williamson

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 3:40 with Mrs. Grady

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:

Wednesday until 3:40 with Mrs. Allen

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:

Monday until 3:40 with Mrs. Jensen

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: 

Tuesdays until 3:40 with Mrs. Cruz