Two Destination Imagination teams bring home prizes at international competition
Two Destination Imagination teams bring home prizes at international competition
![Group of students]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1749667362/blindbrookorg/b0a7ov90ibh889edcx0m/20250524_090755.jpg","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_2/v1749667362/blindbrookorg/b0a7ov90ibh889edcx0m/20250524_090755.jpg","width":512},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_3/v1749667362/blindbrookorg/b0a7ov90ibh889edcx0m/20250524_090755.jpg","width":800},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_4/v1749667362/blindbrookorg/b0a7ov90ibh889edcx0m/20250524_090755.jpg","width":1200},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_5/v1749667362/blindbrookorg/b0a7ov90ibh889edcx0m/20250524_090755.jpg","width":1600},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_6/v1749667362/blindbrookorg/b0a7ov90ibh889edcx0m/20250524_090755.jpg","width":2200}])
Two Destination Imagination teams are celebrating victories in a recent international competition.
The Dazzling Six Bananas, a group of fourth graders at the Bruno M. Ponterio Ridge Street School won First Place and The Toto-ly Oz-some Girls, comprised of sixth graders at Blind Brook Middle School, received a fifth-place prize. Both teams competed in the 2025 Global Finals in Kansas City, MO in the Fine Arts Challenge.
Wearing bright yellow t-shirts, the “Bananas” got together at BMPRSS to discuss their recent victory. Still full of excitement, the group was ready to try another challenge next year and hopeful that more students would join their team.
“It’s just really cool because you get to problem solve and brainstorm ideas,” said Santiago P. of what makes being a part of DI so compelling.
Teammates Abigail G., Wyatt M., Maggie M. and Cooper M. echoed that sentiment, noting that they joined because it offers a creative outlet, and they learn new skills.
Teams meet weekly, and more often as the competition approached. They spent time solving different challenges. Once it’s decided in what category they will compete in, the team works to draft a script, build a set, get costumes and put on a mini production showcasing their hard work.
The Bananas team wrote their script in rhyme thinking it would be easier to memorize. They worked to tell a story about the famous “Susie,” a colorful fish who becomes ill, due to pollution in the ocean where she lives. Susie had swallowed a water bottle causing her to turn gray. Her story goes viral, and eventually Susie regains her health and returns to her beautiful, rainbow-colored self.
“It was amazing,” Abigail B. said of being at the competition. “It’s really an amazing experience.”
Martha Rosen has been overseeing the DI team for years and said it’s a wonderful way for students to learn new things outside of the classroom.
“It offers students a format to think in a way they don’t get to normally,” Ms. Rosen said. “It’s an open-ended problem to solve with no adult intervention. The children have to do all of the brainstorming and coming up with ideas.”
“I love watching them approach each level. They pushed themselves to improve,” she said.
As part of the competition the team had to participate in an Instant Challenge, where they were given a problem and had to develop a way to solve it within a certain time. In addition, they all agreed with one another that great part of being there was trading and collecting pins with the other teams at the competition.
The entire team said it took a minute before they realized they had won a first-place prize. They saw BMPRSS flashed on the screen and it was a few seconds before they realized it was indeed them and their school.
“It was amazing,” said Abigail B.
The BBMS team “Oz-Some Girls,” is comprised of two teams that decided to join together, finding they worked well together, Bhoomi D., Arya E., Reha P., Ella S., Megan T. Ellie T. Some of them had been part of DI while in elementary school and enjoyed it so much they stayed involved. DI is open to students through college.
Ella S. said the team’s challenge this year was to tell the story of something small that had a big impact relating to historical fiction, as they were competing in the Fine Arts “Less is More” category.
The team opted to tell the story of the Boston Tea Party, with a twist—a loyalist spy misconstrues the plan, rather than TIPPING the tea (into the Boston Harbor), the plan they thought they heard was SIPPING the tea. So, a tea party was planned resulting in the colonies remaining under British rule and future patriots meeting at “Starpounds” (rather than at Starbucks) for tea.
“We were a mix of both nervous and excited,” while at the global competition, said Ella S., adding that ultimately the team was happy with their finish.
The thing that most upsets them now is they no longer get to meet.
“There’s so much preparation and now it's gone,” Bhoomi said.
There is something to look forward to however, they all plan to continue in DI next year.
“One of our main goals is to inspire younger kids,” Araya said. “If you don’t do DI you are missing out.”
- BBMS
- District
¡Hola! Spanish comes to BMPRSS
This year, Foreign Language in Elementary Schools (FLES) is back at the Bruno M. Ponterio Ridge Street School, and both teacher Jasminne Paulino and students are exclaiming “¡Olé!”
Each day, Ms. Paulino steps into the classrooms of third, fourth and fifth graders where she spends 20 minutes introducing students to the Spanish language. She brings with her a rolling basket of resources that includes everything from message boards with images pertaining to vocabulary students will be learning, a speaker for them to listen to authentic Latin music and worksheets to help them write in a new language. Occasionally, she surprises the students with some playful puppets that she uses to enhance their engagement. Among these puppets, Arturo seems to be the favorite.
Ms. Paulino takes the approach that students want to be active and engaged. To that end, her lessons usually begin with a physical warm up where she and the students stand and recite the names of their body parts in Spanish—shoulders, ears, knees etc. Throughout her interactions with students, she uses Spanish 95 percent of the time. English is reserved for providing instructions that may be challenging for students to understand.
“There’s a lot of repetition, switching up activities, playing games,” Ms. Paulino said. “Everything is meant to establish that connection so while they are not in the classroom, they are using the language as much as possible.”
The teacher is spending the first half of the year teaching students’ everyday language, with the second half focusing on units of study about Spanish speaking countries.
“Opening their minds to that level of diversity is something I love to see,” the teacher said, adding that when she informed students those different regions have a different way to say the word “cool,” the students were impressed.
“You are giving kids a glimpse into the culture,” she said.
“Starting a foreign language in elementary school is so wonderful,” Ms. Paulino continued. “It leads into the language program at the middle school. It will change the whole K-12 world language program.”
Most of the students she is working with are not native Spanish speakers. Many of them have relatives who are fluent in Spanish, or they possess some prior knowledge of the language. Some of her students have told her they are practicing what they have learned with older siblings who are also studying the language.
“I think the trick is to make it fun, make it engaging,” she said. “I feed off their enthusiasm. It’s a lot of fun for me.”
Just a few weeks into the new school year, Ms. Paulino has seen how students have embraced what they are learning. One afternoon as she left the building after school, two fifth graders spoke to her in Spanish.
“Seeing the children this excited a month in, it makes me look forward to the rest of the school year,” Ms. Paulino said.