Great Trees, Great Kids, Great Stories

The Great Tree Story Contest is designed for the Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD) third grade students studying living systems. The focus of the contest is to identify and celebrate trees that are significant to an individual or community, while integrating science, social studies, and language arts third grade curriculum.

2011 Contest

On March 30, 2011, six great stories were selected from among 191 entries for special recognition in the fourth annual Great Tree Story Essay Contest. Judges included representatives from the Great Tree Ring as well as the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and the Fort Worth Public Library (joining the panel for the first time). Essays were received from thirteen schools, including four who were participating for the first time.

The 2011 Winning Essays:

• Grand Prize Essay:
“The Great Tree Fort” by Nina Williams, Tanglewood Elementary

• First Prize:
“The Story of the Red Oak Tree” by Karino Margaret Gibson, Daggett Montessori

• Honorable Mentions (all from Alice Carlson Applied Learning Academy):
“The King of the World” by Brantley Belcher
“The Heart of my Yard” by Sean Moulton
“The Tree of Joy and Happiness” by Mackenzie Acuña-Taylor
“Hugging Tree” by Harper Jackson

Recognition and Award

All participating students received a certificate for their work. Winning authors and their teachers also received native tree saplings from Mike’s Garden Center as well as the book, Sky Tree: Seeing Science through Art, by Thomas Locker and Candace Christiansen.  

On May 16, the Grand Prize and First Prize winning authors and their classmate enjoyed a day of Science and Art at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

Students from Tanglewood Elementary and Daggett Montessori began their day participating in an interactive distance learning program from the Carter galleries exhibiting the Hudson River School’s splendid works of art where they read their winning stories to classrooms across the country, including Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. Later, at the Modern, they sketched and ate a picnic lunch under the magnificent outdoor sculpture by Roxy Paine, Conjoined, in their open courtyard.

In the top-left picture, Karino Gibson reads her winning story to her classmates and students across the country participating through videoconferencing.

In the top-right picture, Erin Starr-White, director of Education at the Fort Worth Museum of Modern Art, engages the students in an art activity.

And in the middle picture, students enjoy a picnic lunch under Roxy Paine’s outdoor sculpture, Conjoined, at the Fort Worth Museum of Modern Art.

Partners

This project was developed in cooperation with the science, social studies, reading and language arts departments of FWISD. The goal is to involve children in the discovery and inquiry of “great” trees on their school campus and around Fort Worth. Each year, the Great Tree Story Contest is made possible by members of the Great Tree Ring and other organizations who love trees and children!

Partners for 2011 also include the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.