We Need a (Pumpkin) Hero!

Just before Halloween, I presented my students with our first Destination Imagination instant challenge of the year:

Challenge:    Carve a pumpkin and use it as a character in a performance.

Scenario: Your team will come up with a pumpkin design that represents a new super hero—a hero that helps people in our school community with a pressing issue.

During a DI challenge we use and develop the following core skills:

   Critical Thinking
  • Identify and clarify problems.
  • Ask questions.
  • Plan and manage time and responsibilities.
  • Explore a variety of solutions.
  • Analyze, synthesize, interpret, and evaluate information.
   Communication
  • Use various media and technologies in different ways.
  • Share ideas and information to solve problems.
  • Listen carefully and respectfully to the ideas of others.
  • Follow directions.
  • Encourage others to expand their ideas.
   Creativity
  • Use strategies, such as brainstorming, to generate ideas with the group.
  • Apply prior knowledge to develop new ideas.
  • Experiment with different solutions.
   Collaboration
  • Take an active part in the challenge.
  • Be flexible and willing to compromise.
  • Share responsibility for completing the task.
  • Learn from other group members.

Students attacked the challenge with enthusiasm as you can see in the video below. We laughed a lot during the skits!

Huzzahnians, think back on this challenge and your group’s efforts. Describe the hero you created. Using the language of the four C’s, above, what were your strengths? Use specific examples from the challenge. What is a next step to work on to develop your skills. What suggestions do you have for me as a teacher to help you learn and grow at critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication?

Blog visitors, have you ever done a DI challenge? If so tell us about it. If not, what ways do you use creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication in your life and learning?

I look forward to hearing from you!

17 comments

  1. Hey Ms.Smith!

    This challenge was challenging hence the name challenge, although it was very fun carving an interesting face into a pumpkin. The not so fun part came when I forgot I was allergic to the insides of a pumpkin and I had a pretty bad reaction to it. I got fully red arms and they were very itchy. I also did love the skit part at the end, where we had to make up a skit involving the pumpkin into a problem that happens in the school. My team did a bully skit.

    See ya later, Will.

    1. Hi Will, I am glad we were able to get that pumpkin glop off you quickly. Doing a drama activity to show what you have learned or what you are thinking can be really fun as well as a challenge. I wonder what laughs we will get out of our next DI event?
      ~Ms. Smith

  2. Hey Ms. Smith,
    This challenge was really fun, it was challenging because were used to being with people we know really well, so for some teams it was challenging because we all had to collaborate with each other when we didn’t really know each other as well. But we all managed to work together as a team.

    sincerely, Eric

  3. Hi Mrs. Smith,
    That was a great activity we did. My group was Ethan. V, Faith and myself, we could have done a better team work because we didn’t all work at the same time, the hero we built was named Wilber, his job was to put a needed smile on everybody’s face.

    Trevor

    1. Hi Trevor, I am glad you were able to see the difficulty you had–it’s part of the learning curve with anything. Collaboration and communication require meaningful conversations. Looks like we will need to have opportunities to do just that so our next DI event is more successful.
      Thanks for your honest reflection,
      Ms. Smith

  4. Hey Ms.Smith,

    This comment is just a better one than the last one I made, because last time I didn’t really answer the questions, so. My team and I created a pumpkin hero that stops kids from bullying other kids, we had great collaboration skills by letting each member of the team take turns with each job. We also had good communication skills we talk about everything we did and made sure we agreed with all the decisions. Well I got to go see you later!

    Your friend, Will.

    1. Hi Will, (my friend)
      Thanks for describing how your team worked during the Challenge. I agree, your team collaborated well because you talked so much but still listened to each other.
      Bravo!
      ~Ms. Smith

  5. Dear Ms. Smith,
    the pumpkin carving looked like it was a lot of fun, and I hope to do it this year as well! The faces were hilarious, and the skits (from what I could see) looked silly and great! Although, the classroom probably stank of pumpkins for a while 😛
    The video was really well made and the music was perfect 🙂 Good Job! Again, I would look forward to doing this challenge.
    -Autumn

    1. Hi Autumn,
      That does sound like something we should do again… however, I don’t know if there will be many pumpkins because they matured so early this year. We shall see.
      Merci!
      Ms. S.

  6. Hello Ms.Smith
    The pumpkin carving you guy did looked very cool and even though we might not be able to do it this year, I think that it would be something you should do with the next grade 7 class, I think they would I joy it!

    – Brooke J.

  7. Hi Ms. Smith,
    That looks super fun. That looks super creative and I hope we get to do something like that around Halloween. Halloween is my favourite holiday and I love doing creative fun pumpkin crafts with my friends at school. I did that in grade 4 and it was really fun and I’d love to do it again. 🙂

    Sincerely Tyler M.

    Tyler M’s blog

    1. Hi Tyler, I would appreciate your expertise in pumpkin carving. I too love Halloween and the creativity people bring to their costumes and decorations.
      Now to find some pumpkins!
      ~Ms. Smith

  8. Hello Ms. Smith,
    I think the pumpkin carving you guys did looked very cool I hope to do it this year! 😊
    ~Fayth

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