Spelling Bee
Spelling Bee practices will begin on Friday, Oct. 28 and will meet in the basement of Grace Church from 3:00 – 4:30 pm (after Geography Bee practices). After this first meeting, the practices will take place on the third Friday of each month through January (and perhaps February). Here is a list of the dates for the practice bees. We will not know the date of the county bee until sometime in January.
Oct. 28
Nov. 18
Dec. 15
Jan. 19
Feb. 16 This will be our final home-school bee, which will determine who goes on to the county competition, unless the county bee is scheduled before this date. Then our final bee will be in January.
Fees
This year FHEA has decided not to pay the $89 registration fee, so there will be no charge for participating in the practice bees. If we do not register, our students may still compete at the local and county level, but if a homeschool student is one of the top three winners at the county level, he or she will not be eligible for the state competition unless our group is registered. I don’t think we have had a homeschool student in the top three at county in the eight years that I have been involved in the spelling bee, which is part of why we decided not to pay the fee this year. We will discuss this again for next year, so if you prefer that we pay the fee on the chance that we do have a winner, please let me know.
Word Lists
This year we are using different word lists. Instead of using the Spell It! words for the practice bees as we have in the past, we will be using the 2010 graded word lists attached to this email. Because the county and state spelling bees take words primarily from the Spell It!, students who hope to go to county should master the graded words lists (grades 1-8) as well as the Spell It! words (My Spell It!).
First Grade Words
Second Grade Words
Third Grade Words
Fourth Grade Words
Fifth Grade Words
Sixth Grade Words
Seventh Grade Words
Eighth Grade Words
Practice Bees
This year’s practice bees will be led by Trina Miller and will meet from 3:00 – 4:30 in the basement of Grace Church on the dates listed above. The practice bees will begin with the younger students, working up to the older students. For the practice bees, grade level groups may be combined (for example: grades 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8), depending on how many students attend. Younger students are allowed to “spell up” with older students. Trina Miller, the facilitator for these practices, will be using a classroom pronunciation guide, provided by Scripps and based on the above lists, for the practice bees. This guide will provide pronunciations, definitions, sample sentences, and other information for which students may ask during the practice bees. After the 8th grade practice bee, Mrs. Miller will hold a practice round using the Spell It! words (found at www.myspellit.com) for those students who hope to win the final bee and go onto the county bee.
Homeschool Final Bee
Our final homeschool spelling bee is tentatively set for Feb. 16. (This is also the date of the MCAA state tournament, so we may have to reschedule if this will affect many of our participants. Also, if the county bee is set on a date prior to this date, we will definitely reschedule. Our final bee may be on Jan. 19. As soon as we know the date of the county spelling bee, we will finalize the date of our final home-school bee.) Although we allow students of all ages to compete in the final bee, the official winner, who will go on to the county competition, must be in grades 5-8. According to the county superintendent’s office, the official winner and runner-up must also be home-school students who have filed a letter of intent. Our home-school bee will determine one winner and one runner-up from among the 5th – 8th grade competitors. The words for this final bee will be taken from the 2010 School Pronunciation Guide, which is provided by Scripps and is also based on the graded word lists attached to this email. If we run out of words from the graded spelling lists, I will be using words from the Spell It!
Students may find tips on preparing for the bee at:
Spelling Bee Resources
Another great resource for learning spelling words is Spelling City
Questions? Contact Lyn at connectionsineducation@gmail.com