Making History in 4th Grade

I'm so proud of my Zekers for bringing home the gold from the District History Fair! 

Zeke and his buddy Israel partnered up to research something that fit the category 'Explore, Ecounter, Exchange.' They chose Neil Armstrong. The boys wanted to do a documentary, which I thought was a great idea and volunteered to help them create an iMovie. Hence the birth of the documentary 'Neil Armstrong: Creating History on the Moon'.

The boys did their research at school. We brought Israel home from school one day to get started on the movie. I discovered they had strayed off the prompt, so I got them back on track with the goal of doing more research the following week focusing strictly on the prompt of explore, encounter and exchange.  

At one point, a group of moms from school were texting asking questions about it. I asked Zeke if this was a big deal. The other moms seemed to be freaking out about this project, and should we be? His response was that moms freak out about a lot of stuff, so how was he supposed to know if this time was legitimate. 

We met again with Israel the next week. It was a long weekend, so we met on Friday when there was no school. The boys worked hard for several hours. Click here to see the final product.

Judging took place at school. There were categories for 4th and 5th grades for individual projects and group projects. There was a separate documentary category combining both grades since there are not as many of those. We were thrilled to learn that Zeke and Israel won 1st place! 

His project was entered into the district competition. He was very excited and nervous going into it.

 It started with Honorable Mention, 3rd, and 2nd place. I whispered that he either didn't place or he won it all. That was when he became really nervous.

Here is his reaction as they called "Neil Armstrong: Creating History On The Moon." It took him a second to realize they had won.

Then he ran up front to accept his gold medal.

He was quite chuffed, skipping around on Cloud 9 the rest of the evening.

 Several Carlson kids won awards. Here are the 4th graders who were awarded for the individual project, group project, and a documentary.

 Shout out to Grannie who was there supporting Zekers.

I was so proud we had to stop by Braum's for some celebratory ice cream.

 God is present in the big things in life as well as the little things; the good things as well as the hard things. I am praising Him for reminding Zekers of this tonight. Last night Zeke asked for us to pray for him to do well. Tonight he exclaimed, "God answered our prayer!"

'Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.' Psalm 73:23