Orchard Odyssey of the Mind Teams

        “What’s red?  A newspaper! That’s what Odyssey of the Mind (OM) teaches you to be, creative and be a good team member.  It has been a great experience for me the last two years.  OM is really fun!”  This is what one member of the Orchard team remarked about his experience this year. 

Two Orchard teams participated in Odyssey of the Mind this year.  A Primary team and a Division I team.  The Primary Team of five kindergarten and 1^st graders found a solution to a problem called ‘The Time Capsule’.  As a team they decided their solution would take place in Egypt with a pyramid block as the time capsule and an array of interesting ancient artifacts inside.  In the time capsule they found date candy, could it be “old tree bark”, a perfume flask shaped like a fish, “hey, it looks like Nemo”, and a mummy head made from band aids.  Their meetings had a good dose of getting to know each other as well as coming up with their own script and creating the pyramid block and artifacts.

            The Division I team was comprised of seven second through fifth graders.  Three were members of last year’s team.  These Orchard students met weekly since November to practice spontaneous problems and work on their long term problem ‘Around the World in 8 Minutes’.   As one participant explained, “You choose a problem and you brainstorm a ton.”   Their solution needed to include a main character and traveler which visit three locations.  After much weighing of decisions and creating pro and con lists they decided the main character would be a Stamp (depicted as Abraham Lincoln) and the traveler a Letter.  These characters traveled from St Basil’s in Russia, to the Arctic and ended in Caveman Land.  They painted a large backdrop which folded out for each scene. With the help of the Interpreter, Russian and Cave Land language were deciphered.  Other characters included a Hand (which lost the letter), an Airplane, a Cave Dude and Cave Teacher and a Polar Bear chanting ‘Stop Global Warming!’  This team received high scores in the State Tournament on the quality of their performance.  They looked comfortable on stage, you could clearly hear them and they moved smoothly throughout the skit.   

            One participant summed it up in these words, “Odyssey of the Mind was a very good experience where you can think out of the box.”  Orchard is proud of these students.

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Page created by Donna Macdonald, Orchard School's Library Media Specialist.

  This page last updated: 12/02/07.