Children love colorful lights, sound systems and good old-fashioned competition, and Beechwood students recently had the opportunity to experience all three.

Beechwood Elementary put on its annual Minute To Win It game show for the third year Monday, Beechwood art teacher Stacie Schrader said.

“At the end of every nine weeks there is a big event is to reward students who have had good behavior and are following our expectations and have not had any major write ups for that nine weeks,” she said.

This nine weeks’ reward was the Minute To Win It competition.

Schrader said Minute To Win It is comprised of different challenges that last a minute.

“They love it,” she said. “We plan to keep doing it. We just try to change up the games.”

Peyton Rouse, a fifth-grader, said for his challenge he had to use a metal spoon to launch plastic spoons into three different plastic cups.

“It was difficult,” he said. “It was also really fun, and I hope we do it again next year.”

Rouse said he got to participate in the event because he did not get any major write-ups for the past nine weeks.

“The challenge that I liked the most and the one that I thought I would be the best at was the one where you put the pencil on the back of your hand and throw it up and try to catch it,” he said. “The teachers did that.”

Rouse said his teacher did well and almost completed the challenge, but the timer ran out. Rouse said he was proud of her regardless.

Sixth-grader Destiny Mayfield said her teacher did a good job during the teachers’ competition as well.

“She had trouble at first, but she came along,” she said.

Mayfield said her competition involved holding a piece of uncooked spaghetti in her mouth to pick up other pieces of pasta.
“It was very challenging but fun,” she said.
Mayfield said she was able to pick of the most pieces of pasta, three.

“My favorite was the Kleenex box with the ping pong balls inside,” she said. “They had to jump up and down and move all around to get the ping pong balls out of the Kleenex box.”

Mayfield said she’s attended Minute To Win It in the past but she has never been selected as a contestant.

“This is my last year at Beechwood,” she said. “I’m going to miss it.”

Schrader said programs they put on at the end of every nine weeks are a part of their Positive Behavior Intervention Strategies.

“We reward positive behavior in kids that follow the expectations,” she said. “They also get honey money, and they use the honey money to buy things in their classroom through their honey money store.”

Schrader said Beechwood has seen a dramatic improvement in our number of write-ups since we’ve been doing PBIS.

“We appreciate Alex Hill who came out to be our game show host and Elevate Church for donating and setting up the lights,” she said.