Kemp's Reflections Blog: 2013

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Entries are not due until OCTOBER 18 - This Friday!

Hi Everyone!

I'm not sure what happened; but somehow the date on the Kemp website got messed up and it said that entries were due today - October 15. They are not actually due until the morning of Friday, October 18. Please assure all of your kids that they still have time to finish their entries up and that I look forward to seeing them Friday morning.

Monday, October 14, 2013

Packaging Rules

Just thought I'd post the rules for packaging here:

Musical Composition
Submit on CD, with name, grade and school on CD and holder
+ Submit entries in a 9x12 brown clasp envelope with a sheet
protector stapled to outside of envelope with entry form inside the
protector
+ Have student make a copy to keep, works not returned

Dance Choreography
+ Submit on DVD with name, grade, and school on DVD and holder
+ Submit entries in a 9x12 brown clasp envelope with a sheet
protector stapled to outside of envelope with entry form inside the
protector
+ Have student make a copy, works not returned

Literature
+ Submit 1 original and 2 copies, in a manila folder with entry form
stapled at the top to the back of the folder
+ Have the student make a copy, works not returned

Film Production
+ Submit entries on DVD with name, grade, and school on DVD and
cover
+ Submit entries in a 9x12 brown clasp envelope with a sheet
protector stapled to outside of envelope with entry form inside the
protector

Visual Art
+ Submit entry backed by canvas board or pressboard not exceeding
3/8”
+ Shrink wrap is highly recommended to protect artwork
+ Do not laminate or use food wrap
+ Place the entry form in a sheet protector; secure with masking tape
on the back of artwork, on top of protective wrap

Photography
+ Mount photo on cardboard mat or some sort of sturdy material
+ Shrink wrap is highly recommended to protect artwork
+ Place the entry form in a sheet protector; secure with masking tape
on the back of artwork, on top of protective wrap

A few things for getting those visual arts entries ready

For Visual Arts entries - don't forget that they can only be 3/8 of an inch thick. If your child painted on a mounted canvas, remove the wooden frame and wrap the canvas instead around a firm board - you can get a foam board or thick cardboard at Wal-Mart.

Please try to have some sort of protection for your child's entries. I do have to take them for judging and we have had a wet year. I worry so much about keeping all of the entries in great condition; but it is much easier for me if they have shrink wrap or even a plastic sleeve. Do not laminate the entries though.

Also, don't miss the part that says no noodles or other 3D art.

These entries can be larger than the photography entries. The maximum size for visual arts entries is 24 x 30 inches, including the mat.

Please, please, please - make sure the kids don't have their teacher's name, their own name or other identifying information written on the front of their entries.

If your child's artwork is on paper, please mount it to something more sturdy. Last year I bought a white cardboard from Wal-Mart and used spray adhesive to put my kids' art onto the board.

I'm excited to see what comes in this week! We already have a few entries in and they are great!

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Some tips for photography entries

I thought that I'd take a moment to give some tips for photography entries. I'll try to come on each day and do tips for each category. (Though my photography tips will likely be my best since that is something I actually know more about.)

First, the rules:
http://www.georgiapta.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/13-14_Photography_Rules.pdf

Now for some tips:

- The kids CAN enter as many photos as they want. As a parent though, I will be encouraging my kids to only enter photos that are strong or that they truly love.

- I strongly recommend using a lab like www.MPIX.com for printing the pictures. When ordering there you can go ahead and order the photo "mounted" on styrene. This will give the photo the stability that it will need, especially if it moves on past our level. As I looked at the photos that placed at state, the majority of them seemed to be good prints, i.e. printed through a lab, not at home.

- Because of my 2nd tip, I recommend that you as a parent try to weed down the number of pictures that they enter. Otherwise it will get expensive to print all of them.

- If possible, have the photos printed on luster or matte photo paper. Try to avoid glossy. Luster and matte just show better for most images. (Metallic is another option that might look good; but some images do NOT look good on metallic. I would only go this route if this is something that your kid is familiar with and they request it.)

- If there is writing in the photo that your child takes, then that is allowed. Writing on the photo, or using a program like photoshop to write on it is NOT allowed. This would change the entry to a "visual arts" entry.

- Collages ARE allowed as long as they are ALL photos. Using other media in a collage changes it to "visual arts".

- For the two tips above, consider this collage:

As it is, this would have to be entered as "visual art". However, if it did NOT have the writing on it, it would be eligible as a photo. For this particular one, even the background is a photo. It would be fine if it was a solid background though. Do NOT use something like a digital paper as the background, as that would put it back to being visual arts.

- While it is OK to do a collage, make sure the kids know that often a single STRONG image will be better than a series of images. If your kids are like mine, they might really want to do the collages since sometimes kids don't get "less is more". You might even encourage them to do an entry with a collage and an entry with a single image.

- Photo submissions can not exceed 11"x14" INCLUDING the matting. This means that for most store bought matting you would be looking at an 8x10 print if you are going to mat it.

- Your child can edit the images in programs like Photoshop, Lightroom and Gimp. Remember that any editing done must be done by your child.

- I'm going to stress the artist's statement again (this will be a regular theme from me ;-) ). Please have your kids put thought into a strong artist's statement. This was very important last year at the district and state levels.

- I'll wrap this up with showing our Kemp entry that won last year at the state level. William's photo tied at the Kemp level for 1st place. He won 1st place at the council level for 3rd grade. At the state level he won 1st place for 3rd grade entries as well as being selected as the entry for 3rd, 4th and 5th grade to go on to the national level. Last year's theme was "The Magic of a Moment" and William's artist's statement was something along the lines of, "Every moment while you are reading is magical because like magic, what you are reading becomes real in your mind."

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Oops! They changed the URLs!

Sorry about that. The GA PTA website seems to have done some updating and all of the links changed. I have updated all of the links in my previous post (http://kempreflections.blogspot.com/2013/09/get-those-entries-finished-or-started.html ).

I apologize for any confusion!

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Get those entries finished (or started)! :-)

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Information for the 2013 - 2014 entries

Here is a link with the rules from last year. They shouldn't change much, you should be safe to use these rules if you want to go ahead and start working on entries over the summer: http://www.georgiapta.org/resources-student-reflections.html This link shows the winning entries from 2011 - 2012: http://www.pta.org/programs/ArtsinEducation.cfm As soon as I have more information I will post it here. :-)

A Big Congrats to William Landa!!

William Landa's photo entry won first place for 3rd grade at the state level and was selected as the photo entry from Georgia from 3rd, 4th and 5th grade to move on to the national competition. We are all so excited for him. Good luck at the national level!!

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Artist's statement

As I think of them, or come across them, I thought I'd pass on some tips that I have learned this year. My first tip will be on the artist's statement for each entry. It appears that a lot of weight was put on the artists' statements this year. So if you had say... a strong photography entry; but a weak artist's statement, then that picture might have lost to a not quite as good (though close) photo with a strong statement. Please make sure that your kids give some thought to their statements so that their entries will be that much better.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Hello!

Welcome! I hope to use this blog to update everyone on what is going on with the PTA Reflections contest. You can look here for links to rules, extra explanations on how different entries should be presented, deadlines, dates for awards ceremonies and much more. We had some great entries for the 2012 - 2013 school year theme of "The Magic of a Moment". I hope to have even more entries for the 2013 - 2014 school year. The theme will be "Believe, Dream, Inspire". You can expect the entries to be due somewhere around the end of September, though I won't have a due date until I get more date information from the state.

I did want to take a chance to let everyone know that you will now be able to enter as many times as you want to in each category. No choosing which photo to enter, or which literature topic to go with. Enter all of them!!