Google has announced the State winners of the 2012 Doodle 4 Google contest, which is held every year and sees thousands of entrants from across the county. Each year children make submissions on a certain theme. This years theme: “If I could Travel in time, I’d visit…”

The 50 State finalists were chosen by Google employees and a penel of guest judges that included pop star Katy Perry, American Idol Winner Jordin Sparks, creator of Phineas and Ferb Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, Spiderwick Chronicles writer Holly Black and the Caldecott winning illustrator of the series, Tony DiTerlizzi. The national finalist will be decided by you, by voting on the Google 4 Doodle webpage.

This year’s contest saw a record number of entrants, 114,000 to be exact.

50 state winners and all 250 state finalists will have their work displayed in local exhibits in their state. The 50 finalists will be exhibited at the New York Public Library.

You can still vote for the national winner, here, until May 10th. The winner will be announced on May 17th, ,and their artwork featured on the Google Homepage on May 18th.

I have selected a couple of my personal favorites from each age group. You can see them all, including all of the 250 state finalists HERE. Obviously, they get a little better as the ages progress, but for some of these, it’s impossible to believe they were done by students as young as 8.

K-3

4-5

6-7

8-9

10-12

[Source: Mashable]