Star Wars Forever

FORCEFUL: Saturday was big fun, Star Wars being the focus of most of our doings. Oct. 10 was international Star Wars Reads day and, lucky for us, The Museum of Flight just south of Seattle, was host to a day's worth of activities and adventures.

We reported to The Museum of Flight bright and early for Death Star Ground School at 10 a.m. sharp. 

The kids sat through an entertaining briefing about the Death Star. At one point, the schematics on the screen looked very familiar to CJ. He raised his hand and asked, "Excuse me, sir, but aren't those the graphics from the Star Wars arcade game from 1983?" 

He earned his squadron an extra 10 points for his superior geek knowledge. ;)

After the ground school, the kids partook of Star Wars-themed craft activities. That included making some cool fingertip sized light sabers!

 They also visited a station where they got to try their hand at some programming. 

Pushing the directional buttons on a little unit could make it navigate a route - or not!

 It was super cute how they made Star Wars themed masks to ride atop the robots. 

Princess Leia nailed the program on the first try. :)

In the early afternoon, we reported the museum's main theater for the awards ceremony for the "Empire Writes Back" contest. CJ and Annabelle were each winners in their age categories, and had the opportunity to read their stories on stage. 

Here's a video of Annabelle reading her story ..,. 
https://youtu.be/-Mxf05s7Pg4


And here is CJ reading his creation ...
https://youtu.be/rZV1-fzsc7w


Here is CJ's brief regarding his Saturday. ... 

On October 10th, 2015, we went to The Museum of Flight, a place we frequently visit, for their Star Wars Reads event. Star Wars Reads Day is an international event about Star Wars fanfiction that is often celebrated a libraries and bookstores, according to the official Star Wars website. Both my sister and I had submitted stories for our grade categories. My sister wrote "Chewie Makes His Mark," a story about how Chewbacca became a pilot, and I wrote "Modal Nodes: The Untold Story," a tale about the iconic cantina band.

That day, we went to the "Death Star Ground School,, a 30-minute class about the specs of the Death Star, and how to take it down. During the class, our instructor showed us "what it looked like inside the capsule", which was a screen cap from a 1983 Star Wars arcade game. After the class, our instructor had us take slap-rocket toys, and we aimed them at something that looked like a hole in the Death Star.

After that, it was time to read our stories to an audience at the Museum of Flight's theater. Other winning stories read at the presentation included "The Three Ewok Friends," which is exactly what it says, "The Attack on Tatooine," a survivor of an attack on Tatooine and the events from his point of view, and "Gray Area." I enjoyed reading my story to the audience.

Overall, I enjoyed this year's Star Wars Reads Day at The Museum of Flight.

Here's Annabelle's version. ...

 On October 10, I went to an awards ceremony for the “Empire Writes Back” contest at The Museum of Flight, where I was one of the 6 winners in the Seattle area. There are thousands of these ceremonies going on around the country. The story I wrote that won was “Chewie Makes his Mark,” the tale of how Chewbacca became a pilot. I was inspired to write this book because I wondered how a wookiee of all things became the pilot of a rocket ship, or what a younger wookiee would look like. My brother also wrote a winning story, called “The Modal Nodes: the Untold Story,” which was about the cantina band. He was inspired by listening to the cantina music on a 10 hour loop on May 4^th (also known as "Star Wars Day"). We both got certificates and other prizes like cool Star Wars pencils and gift certificates. I am looking forward to participating in the contest next year, too! 

All of the winning stories were so different and so impressive in their own way. What a fun weekend! It's so great to see the Star Wars universe alive and well in the minds of today's youth!