November Update

A quick update for you on all things Clague AG:

1) 37 students attended the tournament for Clague on Saturday at Northville High School.  Clague again finished first in top five with a score of 96 out of 100 (2nd place was 93), and second in average with 14.76 (1st place was 15.39, third place was 14.61).  For the year, Clague is in 1st place in the Region for Top Five, and in 2nd place for Average.  Top Scores (18 or higher) were recorded by the following Clague Students:

Claire W.

David C.

Kevin S.

Lucas L.

Matthew Z.

Nathan L.

Pierce C.

Rogan G.

Shulamite T.

Congrats to all the Clague students for a great tournament.  Our next tournament will be December 7, at the University Activities Center at the UofM Dearborn.

2) We begin learning Linguishtik at practice this evening, while continuing to work on the other games.  The WFF practices from 5-5:30 on Friday have been going well, and we have uploaded the WFF guide to the right.

3) A reminder that Equations worksheets are due next Monday.  We will be posting On-Sets worksheets here shortly thereafter, and they will be due before winter break.

4) This Friday the Thurston and Logan team will be joining our practice from 4-5:30.  Our elementary students will be working with them and playing a round of Equations.

5) Finally, this Wednesday 4-8pm Ann Arbor AG will be holding another fundraiser, this time at Chipotle on Washtenaw.  Show this flyer when you purchase dinner and A2AG will receive 33% of what you spend.

Thank you for your support of AG at Clague,

Your coaching staff,

Eric, Lee & Yuxuan

October Update

Some updates as we start our second month of AG:

1) We did well at our first Saturday tournament on the 28th.  We had 44 students at the tournament, averaged 14.66 points, good for second place in the tournament (first place was 15.04, third place was 13.65) and had a top five score (sum of our five highest score) of 93, good for first place in the tournament! (second place was 90).  Our next tournament will be October 19 at Pioneer High School.  This is a change in location from the original scheduled Huron High School (see updated schedule to the right)

2) The students are continuing to learn Equations variations and strategies, and we will be playing Equations at the next tournament.  We have uploaded Equations worksheets to the to the right.  There is a packet for Elementary players (6th graders) and one for Middle players (7th and 8th grade).  We will not be printing out copies, so it is up to each student to print them out on their own. Worksheets are due before Thanksgiving break.  

For every page completed, students will get one point added to their Friday tournament score, regardless of the number of problems they get correct. The idea is to reward effort. Students are encouraged to bring their worksheet packet with them to all practices, as we will often have times when they can work on them with other students.

6th and 7th grade students can get a maximum of 20 points from the worksheets, while returning 8th grade students can only get points for the worksheets that have not been in previous years' packets (Pages 7L, 7N, 7O, 7P, 7Q, 8A, 8B, 8C, 8D, & 8E)

3) The students have also begun learning a second game, Presidents.  We will be competing in Presidents amongst our team on every Friday, after our normal cube game round is over (Pres. Progression).  We have uploaded some Presidents study guides to the right.  Although students will not receive points for completing those worksheets as they do with Equations, they are very helpful in improving their Presidents scores.  Additionally, our 8th graders are putting together some Quizlets to help all the students study.

4) A quick reminder to turn in your registration sheet (Welcom letter linked to the right) if you have not already.

5) Finally  on October 29th, we will be holding a fundraiser at Panera on Washtenaw for all of Ann Arbor Academic Games.  A flier for that event is also linked to the right.

Equations Worksheets

Equations worksheets are linked on the right. There is a packet for Elementary players (6th graders) and one for Middle players (7th and 8th grade).  We will not be printing out copies, so it is up to each student to print them out on their own. Worksheets are due before Thanksgiving break.

For every page completed, students will get one point added to their Friday tournament score, regardless of the number of problems they get correct. The idea is to reward effort. Students are encouraged to bring their worksheet packet with them to all practices, as we will often have times when they can work on them with other students.

6th and 7th grade students can get a maximum of 20 points from the worksheets, while returning 8th grade students can only get points for the worksheets that have not been in previous years' packets (pages 9G, 9H, 9I, 9J, 9K, 9L, 9M, 9N, 9O)

Summer AG work

Dear Friends,

Although there are no regular practices over the summer, there is still a lot that students can do to improve their Academic Games skills.  This summer we are asking Clague students to concentrate on getting better in Presidents.  We are providing the attached worksheets for students to work on.  While we will not be collecting these worksheets in the fall, and completion of the worksheets will not count in either our Friday or Saturday tournaments, we are confident that completion of these worksheets will help the students in Presidents competitions in practices in the fall, and eventually at the State and National tournaments next spring.

We'd also like to share a list of possible Presidents resources that students could explore for more in depth dives into American History, particularly as it relates to the presidents.

American Experience - An excellent American historical series on PBS that occasionally has episodes specifically about certain presidents (i.e. they did a recent short on Barbara and George Bush when she passed), and always provides great insight into all aspects of American History

The Roosevelts: An Intimate History - A great Documentary series by Ann Arbor's own Ken Burns about Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt.

American Presidential Series - A series of short biographies on the US Presidents written by different authors, edited by historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr.  Used copies of these books can be found from time to time on Amazon for next to nothing.

The Complete Book of US Presidents - by William DeGregorio - one of the most complete reference books on US Presidents.

Good luck to all in your presidential studies this summer.


 

January Saturday Tournament

The January Saturday Tournament was held at Northville's Hillside Middle School on January 20.  Clague won in Team Average with 16.55 and in Top Five with an almost-perfect 99.

Top Clague players on the day -- those with an 18 or higher -- were Amy, Hassan, Yaseen, Ethan, Avani, Claire, Daniel H., David L., Ismael, Karinne, Nathan, Simon, Kevin, and Natalie.

13 Clague players have attended all five Saturday Tournaments so far this school year.   How many will make the trip to St. Lawrence in Utica to complete a perfect six-for-six season?  We will find out on February 10. 

This Month In Academic Games: Closer To States

About a month ago we blogged about what was going on in Academic Games.  At that point we were playing four of the six games.  We have since added LinguiSHTIK (a grammar game) and started on Propaganda (a game about rhetorical methods) so we are playing all six of the games (Equations, OnSets, WFF 'n' Proof, LinguiSHTIK, Presidents, and Propaganda) that we will be playing at the State Tournament.


A blog entry from last year tells a lot about what happens at the State Tournaments which happen this year on March 7-9 (for 6th graders) and March 14-16 (for 7th and 8th graders) in Grand Rapids


Academic Games families will be getting signup information for the State Tournament this week.  Payment is due the first week we return to school.  The State Tournaments are a lot of fun and a lot of work and are something the team looks forward to all year. 

December Saturday Tournament

The December Saturday Tournament was held on December 9 in Jackson with 180 players participating. 

Clague finished first both with an average score of 15.68 and a perfect Top Five score of 100.

Congratulations to the whole Clague team, including the following people who earned scores of 18 or higher:  Catherine X., Arav, Amy, Claire, Natalie, Aarnav, Alex V., Peter, Simon, and Karinne. 

This was the fourth tournament of the year.  15 Clague students have attended all four tournaments so far.  A total of 42 students have attended at least three tournaments already, which is part of the preparation Clague expects for those participating in the State Tournaments in March.  Another 13 have attended two tournaments.

The next Saturday Tournament is on January 20, at Northville Hillside Middle School.