Pinkerton UIL A+ Academics Competition

UIL Academics Coordinator: Julie Waters, j.le.waters@gmail.com

 A+ Academics competition events span the curriculum. The events are designed to complement and expand upon what students learn in the classroom, both through learning specific subject knowledge and through learning skills that are valuable in many disciplines. Approximately 3,000 Texas schools participate in A+ Academics, competing in more than 300 district meets each year.

The district meet will be March 4, 2023 in Southlake. 

Event breakdown by grades

• Creative writing: 2nd grade (coached by Julie Waters)

• Storytelling: 2nd and 3rd grades (coached by Julie Waters)

• Number sense: 4th and 5th grades (coached by Gabor Toth)

• Music memory: 2nd grade, 3rd/4th grades and 5th grade (coached by Julie Waters)

• Chess puzzle: 2nd/3rd and 4th/5th grades (coached by Aman Parekh)

Creative writing: 2nd grade (3 participants max)

Contestants will be given a prompt with several captioned pictures. From these pictures, the students will create an original story based on their selections in 30 minutes. The stories must contain at least one of the pictured items, but it is not required that all items on the page be included.

Storytelling: 2nd and 3rd grades (3 participants max per division)

Contestants in the second and third grades shall listen to a storyteller read a brief story (between 600 and 1100 words long) only once and then retell that story in their own words before a judge or judges.

Music memory: 2nd grade, 3rd/4th grade and 5th grade (5 participants max per division)

Students will listen to approximately 20 seconds of up to 20 musical selections and identify the name of the major work, selection, and the name of the composer.

 Event Practices, Tuesdays at 5:30 pm start Oct. 4, 2022, weekly thru Nov. 15, 2022

Music memory: 5:30 - 6:00 pm

Creative writing and storytelling: 6:00 - 6:30 pm

Coach Julie Waters, j.le.waters@gmail.com

Location: TBA

Chess puzzle practice: 2nd/3rd, and 4th/ 5th grades (3 participants max per division)

Typically, on Wednesdays at 4:30pm at Cozby Library, starting Sept. 21

Coach Aman Parekh, pinkertonchess@gmail.com 

Chess puzzle competition is very different from tournament chess play. In a chess puzzle contest, contestants receive a paper-and-pencil test that includes a series of chess boards with pieces in particular positions. Questions are based on analysis of material or possible moves in each given diagram.

Number sense practice: 4th and 5th grades (3 participants max per division)

Wednesdays at 4:00 pm at Cozby Library: Oct. 12, Oct. 26, Nov. 2, and Nov. 16, 2022

Coach Gabor Toth, gabortiger@gmail.com

Students will be given a 10-minute, fill-in-the-blank test, which they must complete without doing calculations on paper or on a calculator. It is all about learning quick mental math. Erasures and mark-outs are not permitted.