Welcome Back to a Crazy School Year
There is some good news for you in all this craziness. We are planning to move ahead with SALT for the 2020-2021 school year!
We have made the decision to shorten the reading lists by 25% since we might not be back on our campuses full time until at least November. We have been working to shorten the reading list and we will have that posted for you soon.
We will be extending grace on timelines to register your schools since getting your teams up and running might take some extra time.
We aren’t sure exactly what the tournament will look like on April 30th, 2021, but we are committed to making something happen if possible. It might even be a virtual tournament, but we will see what the guidelines look like closer to the spring before we make any major decisions.
Please contact us with any questions you might have. We are here to help figure out how to facilitate this and keep the momentum rolling for our kids!
Junior High Added for 2020-2021
We’re happy to announce the addition of junior high students to our SALT program! We are excited to get this up and rolling for the coming 2020-2021 school year. The junior high team will function the same as an elementary team but will have a shorter book list. Our hope here is that the 7th-8th Grade Division teams will be able to dive into more content-heavy books at this level. Please spread the word!
A Wonderful First Year
Thank you, parents and coaches, for allowing your kids to participate in SALT this year. It was a wonderful first year! I am so proud of the kids and how hard they worked.
We will post a partial SALT reading list for 2019-2020 in the early summer so please be watching for that if your kids want to get a jump on reading the books for next year. We will have the complete list of 2019-2020 SALT books posted to the website in late summer.
Thank you again for all of your support this year!
—Jeneé Orso, Director
Tournament Preparations
April is right around the corner and we are in full swing with our tournament preparations! We are looking forward to seeing you all there!
If you haven’t already done so, please submit the names of your SALT kids so we can make sure the spellings are correct for the tournament roster. Those can be emailed to jorso@saltvault.org.
Also, please remember to bring a full set of 16 SALT books with you to the April 6, 2019 tournament. These will be used for team challenges that are allowed at the end of each round. Please make sure the books are placed in a closed box or bag so competitors cannot see them during a skirmish. The sets of books will be placed next to the team coaches during competition.
Author Pronunciations
Please remember that the teams need to memorize and pronounce author names correctly during competitions. A great site for learning those more difficult pronunciations is TeachingBooks.net and their Author Name Pronunciation Guide. This audio guide is really helpful. There are other sites out there with similar resources so this one is only a suggestion.
Salem Academy Competition
Salem Academy is hosting an in-house SALT School Competition on Friday, March 1, 2019. The competition begins at 2:15 pm in the elementary gym. Coaches are welcome to bring their teams to watch. It will be a great opportunity to see a skirmish in action and see some of the details you may not have encountered with your club yet.
Mini Skirmishes start in January
Mini Skirmishes (battles) will start in January when students return from Christmas break. Mini Skirmishes will be held during regularly scheduled club times for your school. This is a great time to practice and sharpen skills for your own school competition in February, and the tournament on Saturday, April 6, 2019. Salem Academy is planning a school competition for February. A specific date will be announced as soon as possible so that you can make plans to attend and get an inside glimpse of what the tournament in April will look like.
Show off your club
Send us a picture of your club and tell us about your school and what your students are enjoying about SALT so far this year. You can upload your text and photo using the form located on the School Club page. All participating schools will be displayed so everyone can get to know each other.