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MJS POG Family Challenge Winners!

Today we chose the winners on the morning announcements! We want to say a huge thank you to EVERYONE who participated! We hope this challenge was fun and enriching to your family!

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Some of Charles’ grandparents made egg crepes stuffed with grated cheese and served in chicken soup for thanksgiving. This is a normal tradition every holiday and a special recipe on Charles’ mom’s side of the family called scrippelles, because it orginates from Abbruzzi in Italy. This supports the global citizen category as we embrace where we came from and others from other countries.

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First grader Charles loves to read to his brother, James. As a family we listened to Charles read James’ favorite book, spidey and his amazing friends popup peekaboo. We used critical thinking to discuss what happened in the book so far and to wonder what happened next.

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Callie and Barrett Rockefeller:

Holiday Music Exchange:

Today we spent the day making some Italian Christmas Favorites. While baking and cooking we each shared our favorite Christmas songs and whey they were our favorite.

Callie: rocking around the Christmas tree

Barrett: Dominic the donkey

Dad: Father Christmas

Mama: Grandma got run over by a reindeer

We had to be effective communicators in explaining why each song was our favorite and practice patience till it was our turn to share and listen to our song.

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Callie and Barrett Rockefeller:

Tonight we played “what’s the question”. We played the global version and came up with global landmarks and asked questions about each one such as the great pyramids. We talked about what it may be like in other parts of the world around Christmas time.

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As a family, we have been working on designing and creating new ways to make bird toys for our rescued and foster feathered family. We used the concept of critical thinking skills to solve problems and teaching each other. Mina learned from the adults and then used her skill to teach Luci how to build the toys. We used Adaptable Learning skills to repsond to constructive feedback. We used Effective Communicator skills to teach each other and show how to put the toys together. The girls are especially proud that these toys are environmentally friendly and reduce waste too.

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Here are some challenges for this final week! Have fun, and don't forget to add which competencies you used!

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The final week of the Melissa Jones Portrait of a Graduate Family Challenge is upon us! Here are seven more challenge ideas to get you started, but you can do ANY of the already existing challenge ideas! Just scroll down on this padlet to find more lists of challenges!

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Kindess Jar - Every year starting December 1st leading up to Christmas we do a kindness countdown calendar - Abby and Riley need to communicate and collaborate when picking the kindness act for the day that they can realistically complete that day and be adaptable if they need to choose another activity for the day. We love that it teaches kindness - we brainstorm what we can do and then regroup later to discuss what was done

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Today Dahlia and her parents volunteered to perform setup work at Guilford's community garden's new location. We measured out a few plots (and learned how to make perfect squares by measuring diagonals), covered them with cardboard, and moved compost and mulch on top to get them ready for the spring. We also were lucky enough to find a few worms to study before they burrow deep for the winter.

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We took turns describing pages from our favorite book, dragons love tacos! And drew what our partner described.

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You all are doing some amazing work with these challenges! Here are 10 more to get you thinking and working together as a family!

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Did you include the POG competencies in your post? Before posting what challenge you did, make sure you connect to the competencies and include the ones you needed to be successful in your post!

Click here to access the list of Portrait of a Graduate Competencies! Which ones did you use to be successful in the challenges you chose?

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As a family, Grant and Quinn created a Benoit Family Turkey Trot on the day after rainy Thanksgiving. In our very hilly neighborhood, we conquered each hill by naming something we were thankful for at the bottom and keeping that gratitude in mind if we were struggling. We practiced effective communication in planning the run and empathy as we stayed together and cheered each other on.

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Bennett & Emilia practiced empathy & effectively communicating with friends and family. We debated several scenarios using a card game and then debated the big question of whether apple pie or pumpkin pie is better (which is a very tough call)!

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Peyton researched some Thanksgiving facts and created a trivia game for everyone. She calculated the scores and awarded the winner with a special prize!

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Riley helped with a family cooking day getting ready for Thanksgiving- he helped make the fresh cranberry sauce since it’s his favorite dish for the meal - we communicated effectively going over the steps and ingredients verbally as he mixed!

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Peyton and Tatum worked together to create their own gratitude banners. They collaborated and brainstormed different things they were grateful for to include on them. They then worked together to write and decorate the banners before sharing with the family and displaying in the house.

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After we closed it in we brought the baby goats out to check it out and they loved it !

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He showed me how to use a drill !

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me and my stepfather built our baby goats a pen this weekend

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Valerie Sorrentino:

We took the idea of the gratitude garland and changed it a little bit to make gratitude trees. Every leaf represents something we are each grateful and thankful for. After we were done we each took a turn presenting our tree and leaves to our family. Skills we used were responsible collaborator - we gave each other feedback and ideas when working on our projects and sharing art supplies to make them. We also focused on being an effective communicator - when we presented and listened to others present.

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Avery helped to enrich the learning of others while teaching us about some Thanksgiving traditions and history by designing a list of trivia questions for the family.

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The Rockefeller Family:

Role reversal day!

Callie and Barrett wanted to play Mom and Dad. They made lunch(yogurt tarts) worked in the yard and did some cleaning. Dad and I were the “kids” that helped.

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Callie and Barrett Rockefeller:

Debate challenge:

As a family we came up with bracketed battles of the Disney villains and had a debate about each battle taking a side of the character we thought would win. It turned into a pretty lively debate.

Storytelling challenge:

Sitting around the fire we told a story as a family. Each person said one word. The next person had to come up with the next word in the sentence to weave a story that made sense. Ours got a little silly but was a lot of fun.

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Tonight the boys planned out a family movie night. They used collaboration to create a concession stand, tickets, and a seating arrangement. They communicated their ideas with each other and we all debated which movie to watch. We watched IF and empathized with the main character’s situation.

Eli and Liam Davidson

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Mystery Treasure Hunt

Florence did a family treasure hunt. She matched our shirts with crayons and make treasure of the color of our shirts and hid them in the house. We had to search and find it.

Outcomes:

Two way tie!

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Check out Week 3's Special Thanksgiving Edition of the P.O.G. Challenge! These challenges are specifically geared to do with extended family members such as aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. Have fun and don't forget to connect back to the P.O.G. competencies!

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Preston Sorrentino:

Tonight we did family show and teach! Everyone took a turn telling us about a topic and we learned so much! Topics included axolotls, handstand skills, the role of a wide receiver and safety, and the Dude Perfect group. We practiced our listening skills, our communication skills and being empathetic. Everyone had fun!

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Evelyn and her family created a kindness jar and also wrote down what we are grateful for. We had to communicate ideas, collaborate with one another, and brain storm. We tapped into our empathic side to come up with ways of helping others! Kindness goes a long way! 🩵

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Valerie Sorrentino:

We created a mystery prize scavenger hunt. We worked collaboratively to assemble clues - each kid writing a clue of their own that led to the next clue written by another sibling. We had to communicate with each other to plan the locations in the yard to hide each clue that ultimately led Dad (who got the honor of doing the scavenger hunt!) to the “Prize.”

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We didn't get to carve or paint our pumpkins until last week because of our sports schedules. In hindsight, we should have done them with a Thanksgiving/Christmas theme, but we had a good time working and creating these together. Go Grizzlies!

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Our family made a traditional Polish meal from scratch! Pierogi! Many members of our family are immigrants from Poland so we enjoyed making this meal while listening to traditional

Polish folk music. We all faced a challenge keeping the filling within the dough. A few pierogi didn’t have a secure enough seal and came apart when we boiled them. But we had plenty of perfect ones to enjoy a full meal.

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Week 2 Challenges! Here are some additional challenges for you to try!

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As a family, we engaged in the family cooking challenge! We had to use collaboration to work together, and we needed to be adaptable when things didn’t go as planned. We also needed to think critically when we doubled the recipe to share with our friends!

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Click here to access the list of Portrait of a Graduate Competencies! Which ones did you use to be successful in the challenges you chose?

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Challenges List: Click here to access the list of challenges!

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