There’s nothing like a little healthy competition in the classroom. It motivates students and drives them to put forth their best effort. It sparks interest, passion and ignites a fire within. Now I said healthy competition. What’s the difference between healthy and unhealthy competition? I like this definition from HowToLearn.com. Healthy competition “requires teamwork and positive participation.  Participants are encouraged to improve themselves and learn a new technique.  Winning is just an added bonus.” I love the idea of winning as an added bonus. It keeps students aligned with the purpose and process while practicing good sportsmanship. Each year at our annual field day I loved when students would cheer for their classmates, give high fives and most of all just have fun! A healthy competition while building relationships.  Other years were a bit different and that’s where the unhealthy competition comes in. Unhealthy Competition “focuses on winning and being the best. The pressure to win is more important than having fun or learning a new skill.” During our field day unhealthy competition led to arguments, name-calling, bullying and sad children. Not what I want going on in my classroom.

Fortunately, I came upon a fantastic project which is dear to my heart that promoted a culture of healthy competition that became a student favorite, and a teacher favorite as well. Each year my class entered The Scholastic Kids Are Authors writing competition.  Kids are Authors is an annual competition open to students in Grades K-8 in the US and is designed to encourage students to use their reading, writing and artistic skills. To enter participants had to write and illustrate a picture book, fiction or nonfiction. The teacher acts as the facilitator and guide and the work must solely be done by the students. Students could either choose to work in small groups or as a class to submit their entry. Only 2 top winners are selected (1 in each category) and receive a prize of $5000 for their classroom plus the book would be published and sold in book fairs around the country. Such a great accomplishment and honor! In addition, 25 Honorable Mention winners are selected nationally, winning $500 for their classroom, which my class proudly took 3 years in a row!!

Promoting a Culture of Healthy Competition

Some rules and expectations need to be established to promote a culture of healthy competition. We had to commit and work hard because we only had 8 weeks to work on this project. We had to make sure we stayed focused on the process and the quality of the product. We stayed positive and encouraged each other.  We listened to ALL ideas. No idea was ever off the table. Ideas were selected based on what fit well within the context. All decisions were team decisions. We brought out the best of our talents, skills, and abilities. We looked for ways to improve and grow. And finally, we learned from each other and our competitors.

We began right after the New Year and worked until March 1^st to meet the requirements and deadline by March 15^th. As an elementary teacher, I teach all subjects throughout the day with little wiggle room, so this project became part of our writer’s workshop. My mini-lessons would focus on the writing, like coming up with ideas, moving the plot along, developing characters, ideas or settings, illustrative techniques, etc. We worked on illustrations while students worked in academic learning centers while I pulled small groups of students to brainstorm and create the illustrations. My students would have gladly given up their recess, lunch, specials and personal time after school for this project but we managed to balance the project with all of our other school commitments during the school day. Let me tell you I was one tired teacher but it was well worth it. Parents reported to me that their child actually wanted to come to school and was so excited about this project. That made me one happy teacher.

There are so many benefits of healthy competition. Healthy competition:

• builds classroom community by strengthening relationships

• helps develop problem-solving skills

• bring out skills, talents, gifts, and creativity that may not have seen within traditional classroom projects

• builds confidence

• is just downright fun, Fun, FUN!!

Hands down this is my all-time favorite project and not only did this project incorporate reading, writing and artistic skills, but it brought a community of students together. It motivated them to use skills and talents they may not have had the opportunity to do so without a project like this, making us better together and in the end achieving something so amazing.

And the Winners are…

Honorable Mentions Winners 2013- 2nd Grade

Fiction book: Misused, Misplaced and Misunderstood: Commas Really Do Make a Difference, a story about how the comma is the most misused, misplaced and misunderstood punctuation mark of all. In the story, the comma teaches the class how to use, place and understand him with clever examples that show that commas really do make a difference. The illustrations were hand drawn by students with colored pencils and a cutout for Comma.

Honorable Mention Winners 2014- Third Grade

Many of my students from second grade looped up with me to third grade for this win, but the “newer” members of Team Weis contributed amazing ideas to help us come in the top 25 once again.

Fiction Book: No Two Snowflakes are Alike, a story about a snowflake’s journey to finding someone like himself. The theme or message throughout is that the snowflake is unique is his own way and special just the way he is.  The book also incorporates the water cycle in the snowflake’s journey. The illustrative technique involves beautifully painted backgrounds with unique cut-outs to create each scene.

Honorable Mention Winners 2015 – Third Grade

Fiction Book: The One In your Hands, a humorous fiction story in clever rhyme about the Kids Are Authors judges who judge books by the book covers rather than actually reading them to find out what the book is really about. The theme of the book is taught by a little bookworm to not judge books by their cover. In the end, it is our book that teaches the judges this big idea and is selected as the grand winner. Our illustrations were phenomenal! We used bright colored construction paper for backgrounds and cut out paper for each intricate detail.  We used a black marker for outlines and oil pastels to add some texture. With a huge help from a parent volunteer and friend with an art degree, we were able to help the students individually and in small groups to create the beautiful illustrations they dreamed of with attention to every detail. Each student had the opportunity to work on several pages to add their individual touch to the detailed artwork.

As you can see this project brought out the best in my students. It brought out their strengths, creativity, gifts, and talents. With our prize money, we purchased books for our reading pleasure, books for our units of study and mentor texts that taught us how to be better readers and writers. We made a big stink about our honorable mention win and celebrated our hard work, dedication, and teamwork. Each student received a copy of the book, a certificate of participation and some other goodies along with a class celebration. This wouldn’t have been possible without a little healthy competition made possible by Scholastic’s Kids Are Authors competition.

The Scholastic Kids Are Authors competition was a project continued for 30 years, recently retiring in 2016, submitting our last entry, breaking my teacher heart, as well as my students. Read about it here.

Have any of these Kids Are Authors titles in your classroom library? These “winners” were sold at your school’s Scholastic book fairs around the country. Check them out here.

Have you and your students entered any competitions? If you need some ideas, check out these competitions:

31 Writing Competitions

PBS Kids Writers Contest

I hope you have fun with some healthy competition in your classroom.

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