Spelling Bee

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Home : 2004 : August : 19

Spelling Bee
By Barb

I have organized my school's Spelling Bee for the last couple of years--I'm finally getting it where I want it to be (lol)! I live in the St. Louis area, so I use the guidelines set up by our local newspaper, the St. Louis
Post Dispatch. The support they give participating schools is awesome! They will send padeias (how ironic, I'm not sure of the spelling!) which are the official lists of words used in the national bees. Also, a booklet with official rules and guidelines is included in the packet. I would contact your local newspaper to see if they participate in this program.
As far as school

procedures go, I ask homeroom teachers from grades 4 through 8 to hold a spelling bee in their rooms, and send the names of the top two spellers to me. This is usually done in early December. The school-wide bee is held the second week in January. The winners then have their holidays to concentrate on studying for the bee. Each speller is given the word booklet supplied by the Post. This booklet has several levels of difficulty--I tell the students to concentrate on the first level for our school-wide bee, because the words in that level are unfamiliar enough to make it a challenge for all.

The day of the bee, get a couple of teachers--the librarian is a logical choice!--to act as judges, and to look up words in the dictionary for defintions, etc. etc. You will also need an announcer to read each word, unless you feel comfortable doing that as well as organizing. There are usually about 12 to 14 spellers in our bee. Pull names out of a hat for order--the only fair way. Don't go easy on the younger spellers--they'll suprise you anyway and be best prepared! The entire bee has never run over an hour and fifteen minutes. The whole school watches--makes posters for their homeroom rep, cheers, etc. The winner's name is sent to the newspaper, and then participates in a city-wide bee. Winners from that level then go on to state, etc., etc.
Last year I printed up some participant/ winner certificates on the computer, and the kids loved them!
I know I rambled on and on--if you have any questions, email me. I have all of the info (including websites) at school. I can get it to you! I have really enjoyed organizing this event for my school, and am now getting excited about this year, too!