BY
BILL CAMPEAU - SIERRA STAR
BILL CAMPEAU
Joshua Solso, who attends kindergarten at Rivergold School, displays
his trophy for winning the kindergarten spelling bee.
BILL CAMPEAU
Samuel Delk from Chawanakee Academy won the first grade competition
out-spelling seven other entrants.
BILL CAMPEAU
Devon Potter, a second grader at Wasuma Elementary, spelled ‘watch’
to win the trophy over eight other contenders.
When you were
in kindergarten, could you spell the word c-r-a-s-h? Joshua Solso,
who attends Rivergold Elementary, can — and did, to take first place
in the eighth annual Eastern Madera County Regional Spelling Bee
last Thursday at Coarsegold Elementary School.
An SRO audience jammed the school’s meeting room to watch Samuel
Delk, attending Chawanakee Academy, spell “pail” to win the first
grade competition. Devon Potter, from Wasuma Elementary, spelled
“watch” to place first in the second grade bee.
The three divisions of young pupils, 23 youngsters in all, participated
in the bee for children in the K through grade 2 division. The spelling
competition for grades 3 through 5 took place Monday night (March
15). The Championship Bee for spellers in grades 6 through 8 is
set for March 23 and the winner in that division will receive an
all-expenses-paid trip for two (the winner and a chaperone) to compete
in the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. in May.
Fourteen Mountain Area schools are represented in the total competition,
though not every school has entrants in each of the three divisions.
Placing second in the kindergarten division was Taylor Santos, from
Raymond-Knowles Elementary. In a run-off to break a tie, Ethan Soloman
placed third.
Jack Priessman, from Oakhurst Elementary, was second in the first
grade competition and Ellen Saunders, attending Coarsegold Elementary,
placed third.
The second grade bee presented the spellers with words that were
a little trickier. Three of the nine spellers missed “hunting” and
two more misspelled “orange.” “Painter” and “castle” were run-off
words to break ties for second and third place. Madison Nelson,
from Rivergold Elementary, edged out the competition for second
and Travis Ratzlaff, from Sierra View Elementary, placed third.
Wordmaster Tami Michel said the all the words were selected from
the Scripps-Howard standard spelling bee lexicon and increase in
difficulty as the spellers progress. Judges were Mary Lee Gowland,
a Coarsegold poet and creative writing teacher and Sue O’Connor,
a member of the Coarsegold school board.
The contestants were seated at desks facing the wordmaster with
the audience able to observe the proceedings. They wrote their answers
on boards with grease pencils. Proctors stood beside each entrant
to assist in wiping their boards after each spelling entry. Nancy
Flynn flashed the correct spelling of each word on a large screen.
The spellers then held up the boards to show the audience their
answers. The process was repeated with each new word.
Remembering that the K through grade 2 spellers are very young,
there was a surprising air of a serious, almost professional, attitude.
There was very little wiggling and the spellers were attentive to
the directions given by the wordmaster.