Scripps National Spelling Bee

2017-2018 Audubon -  Scripps National Spelling Bee

Audubon 2017 Scripps spelling bee - oral rounds - at the MPR was truly an epic!

Starting at 5:30PM, about 30 spellers from grades 3 to 5 displayed their command of words, with many of them lasting through the initial rounds that included words at the 8th grade level from their study list.

When it got down to the final 5, it seemed like the event would go on past midnight. At that time, the words were from outside of the study list - They were tested on relatively obscure words from the dictionary. Per contest rules, the champion had to spell their word correctly in two successive rounds. Due to the difficulty level of the words, for 6 rounds, the final five continued in a tie. Then the pronouncers ran out of words from the Scripps provided list!

Pronouncer Kristin Sanchez, English teacher at Hillsdale High had to search hard to find high school level words from the Scripps provided list. The final three - Aiden R (5th grade), Leilani T (4th grade) and Sameera S (3rd grade) had many challenging rounds amongst themselves. Young Leilani emerged as the 2017 Audubon School Spelling Bee Champion after 2.5 hrs. The championship word was "Leaden". She will proceed to the higher rounds of the Scripps National Spelling bee tournament representing Audubon. Congratulations to her.

Prior to the Scripps bee, the Junior bee event from 4:30PM was held for 1st & 2nd graders in a non-competitive, 3-round format. Students prepared from word list that covered all the way up to 4th grade words. Amazingly, every student got every single word right, exhibiting their preparedness.

Overall, it was a very fulfilling night for those of us in the PTA Spelling Bee Committee - Eden Beck, Tripthi Kamath, Archana Bhuta, Ruchita Sinha Saxena, Minnie Cho & myself with months of planning and preparation culminating in such a wonderful display of interest and achievement by the students.

Thanks to judges Catherine Mahanpour, Prof Amy Sobel & Audrey Ng for their time, to Mrs Brady & Ms Burns for their continuing support and to Audubon PTA for sponsorship.

Audubon Spelling Bee is sponsored by Audubon PTA.

The following parent volunteers serve in the PTA Spelling Bee committee representing all grades:

Archana Bhuta, Ruchita Sinha, Tripthi Kamath, Srini Venkat, Minnie Cho & Eden Beck.