A Statewide Young Writers Contest to Motivate Your Middle Schooler

I'm always poking around the internet for fun things I can get my kids involved with during school vacation weeks. My husband and I both work, so it's hard to take every school vacation week off. We usually have to wing it for at least two out of the three breaks each school year.

Anyhow, I've got this February vacation week pretty packed with activities for them, including a day at home to just chill out.

In my online searching, I came across something that I think is so cool and would be right up my seventh graders' alley. It's a statewide essay contest for middle schoolers grades 5-8 and also high school kids grades 9-12. The essay should focus on the upcoming 400th anniversary of the Mayflower arriving in Plymouth, which will be celebrated beginning this spring. So cool, right?

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On this day in 1620 (old-style calendar), the original Mayflower passengers, anchored at Provincetown, signed the Mayflower Compact and established themselves as a "civil body politic." Many credit this agreement as laying the foundation for the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.⠀ ⠀ Find out more about this historic event at plimoth.org.⠀ ⠀ #Plimoth #Patuxet #livinghistory #17thcentury #museum #mayflowercompact #historicPatuxet #otd

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AmericanAncestors.com has all of the info you and your child need to know about this awesome essay contest. For instance, they say this contest is open to students currently enrolled in grades 5–12 in public, private, and parochial schools, and those in home-study programs across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

 

 

 

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🎶 Pilgrims' Progress: Music of the Plimoth Colony Settlers 1590-1650 🎶 Featuring Seven Times Salt . . Contrary to what the history books tell us, the Plimoth colonists, or “Pilgrims” as they were later called, were a highly diverse, sometimes fractious group of Separatists and Anglicans, religious zealots and irreverent opportunists from many walks of life. They brought with them experiences of music as varied as their reasons for coming to the New World. Join us on FEBRUARY 13 for an hour-long performance that follows the settlers from their homes in turbulent 1590s England to religious refuge in the Netherlands, and onward to challenging new lives on the unfamiliar shores of New England. . . On February 13 from 6:00-7:30 pm, we’ll mark the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower landing with music of the Elizabethan tavern and theater, spirited catches by Thomas Ravenscroft, selections from the Dutch ‘t Uitnement Kabinet, stirring psalms from the Ainsworth Psalter, and vigorous tunes from Playford's English Dancing Master, all performed with period instruments and dialect. . . Tickets $20 . . Visit AmericanAncestors.org Events Page for More Info and Tickets 🎫! . . #nehgs #pilgrimsprogress #seventimessalt #colonialmusic #song #genealogy #2020 #mayflower

 

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And the prizes are pretty darn good, check this out: fifth through eighth-graders have a shot at three $500 giveaways and for kids grades 9-12 there are three $750 prizes. With that, the kids have an opportunity to present their essay at a special upcoming event in Boston.