When more than 30 students in Dave Brinklow and Toni Kinsey’s fourth grade classes arrived at South Meadows Elementary School earlier this week, touching an alligator, toad, lizard or tortoise at the end of the day wasn’t something they were expecting.
The surprise hands-on educational presentation was a reward for the many recess breaks they gave up to devote their time to what ended up being award-winning films in the Meijer Great Choices student film competition.
More than 95 films were entered and the South Meadow fourth-grade film makers placed nine films in the top eight in two categories.
You can view the films here.
In the Promoting Healthy Lifestyle’s category, the South Meadows films placed second, fourth and fifth.
Kinsey says the second-place entry was titled “It’s Your Choice-Eat Healthy.”
In “Character Counts” category, the six films placed third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth, while “Come Out of Your Shell” finished third.
“Although prizes were awarded for the top four in each category, we were only allowed one prize in each category,” she says.
When she entered the films, Kinsey says she didn’t realize that the films were not judged on content, but rather had to be voted on, she says, adding, “After we found this out, we decided to enjoy our film without thinking about the prizes.”
“We appreciated those who logged on to vote because it brought us our $400 prize winnings,” she says, adding, the Stump family hosted a video creation weekend for the second-place winning group, and also got votes for every film.
“What a success, our films combined had more than 4,500 total views,” Kinsey says.
In total, the films won $400 in prize money, which was used for the special presentation on Tuesday, June 4, from David Critchlow of Critchlow’s Alligator Sanctuary in Athens, Mich.
According to his website, Critchlow began his reptile park in the mid 80’s — with a small habitat for small cold-blooded animals indigenous to Michigan as entertainment for his two growing children. Since then he’s expanded into tropical exhibits and rescuing reptiles.
Plus, he takes some of his animals on the road for educational purposes.
“The theme behind Critchlow Alligator Sanctuary is to create a natural environment similar to those found throughout the world,” according to his website, while its mission “is to inspire and educate people to care for the environment by providing fun and educational experiences that lead to understanding the natural world.”
And experience the cold-blooded creatures up close and personal the students did. They were able to hold and touch them, ask questions and test their knowledge of the animals.
In preparation for his surprise visit, Kinsey says, the students studied habitats and wetlands in science class and read about the American Alligator.
Did you happen to snap more photos that weren’t used? My daughter was curious. thanks!!
Yes I did Sheri. There were a number of group shots. What was your daughter wearing that day. I’ll see if I kept any that had her in them. Please email me at [email protected].
Lisa