The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America

MY PLACE is a project designed for fourth through sixth grade students and helps promote patriotism through a creative outlet.  The project illustrates their place in their home, neighborhood, school, community, state, nation and world.  All of these places must be represented in the completed project. Our four winners for the school year 2013-2014 are as follows:

Click here to view My Place guidelines

Pierce County Middle School 6th Grade – First Place Award – $650 – Sponsored by the Waycross Town Committee

Pierce County Middle School 6th Grade

Pierce County Middle School 6th Grade
First Prize

JUDGES COMMENTS:  The use of crayons is one of the most creative methods of constructing a collage that I have ever seen.  The goal of the My Place project is to work with the students to develop their sense of themselves in their communities, their state, the nation and the world.  This project certainly met those criteria.  I was particularly impressed with the way the collage placed the students in the center and their community, the county and the world surrounded them.  The project involved a number of students (at least 44) and I believe that their participation will have a lasting effect on their feelings of their place in the world.

Southland Academy 4th and 5th Grades – Second Place Award – $550 – Sponsored by the Americus Town Committee

JUDGES COMMENTS:  Most importantly, this project originated with the students, who took an idea and expanded on that idea (perhaps taking it a step farther than needed).  However, I believe that the 70 students will remember this project for a long time.  I was very impressed to see that they wrote essays about their feelings of their place in their community and the larger world.  So while I thought that the art project might have been more cohesive, it was definitely the work of the students themselves who obviously understood the goals of the My Place project. 

Morgan County Middle School 6th Grade Art Students – Third Place Award – $450 – Sponsored by the Madison Town Committee

Morgan County Middle School 6th Grade Art Students

TEACHER’S COMMENTS:  The initial phase of the project involved the whole group brainstorming the topic using a circle map, with the “student” in the center, surrounded by concentric circles for community, Georgia, United States, and the world.  Student responses included:  student, friend, brother, sister, cheerleader, dancer, singer, scout, sports team member, church member, citizen, hunter, fisherman, and cheerleader.  Symbols included flags, a book for education, team logos, Nike swoosh, basketballs and a net, baseball and other sports equipment, M for One Morgan, pets, and flowers or trees to represent our responsibility to care for the environment.

Students added words or symbols to the circle map that show or instill a sense of patriotism and pride in self, community, state, country and the world.  Students wrote:  care, concern for others, helping friends and neighbors, be nice, be respectful, love, peace, pledge to allegiance to the flag, celebrated the July 4^th  with fireworks, parties, picnics, fly a flag or wearing clothing symbolic of our US citizenship.  My Place provided a valuable opportunity for them to spend time thinking about their purpose and meaning of our country’s values in their daily lives.

JUDGE’S COMMENTS: The narrative accompanying this project indicts that the concepts represented in the art installation definitely originated from the students themselves.   The project involved at least 27 students and I believe it will have a lasting effect on them.  I was slightly disappointed to see that rather than creating a single art project, the students created two projects that while connected were still two, not one project.  The concept of the students’ place in their community and the world are not as clearly shown in their final project.

Memorial Drive Elementary 4th and 5th Grades – Fourth Place Award – $350 – Sponsored by the Waycross Town Committee

Memorial Drive Elementary 4th and 5th Grades

TEACHER’S COMMENTS: Take chances, make mistakes, get messy.

JUDGE’S COMMENTS: This tapestry project involved an impressive numbers of students – 114.  It also showed the students understanding of their place in their community, the state, the nation and the world.  However, it would have need more effective if the tapestry had been designed in a method that showed the students at the center of the project with their community surrounding them.  In addition, it is difficult to determine whether the students or the instructor led the design of the tapestry.