The Carlyle Elementary School held its Spelling Bee on Tuesday, Jan. 10th in the school gymnasium.
The principal of the school, Shelley Sargent, administered the event, while the grade six teacher, Pam Kresowaty, the grade five/six split teacher Carrie Durealt, and the learning support teacher, Rayanne Freitag, judged the event.
Students in grades four, five, and six, completed a written test in class to determine eligibility for the spelling bee. Those who passed the test would compete in the spelling bee, while the rest of the students from grades four, five, and six would fill the gym as spectators. Ten grade six students qualified for the spelling bee, eight grade five students qualified, and three grade four students qualified. The grade three class was also present to watch, as they will become competitors next year.
Competitors sat in order at the front of the gym, and would take turns getting up in front of the judges to attempt to spell the word given. If spelled correctly, the competitor would return back to their spot until the next round. If the competitor spelled the word incorrectly, the judge would state 'incorrect' and continue to correctly spell the world, the competitor would then join the other student spectators in the gymnasium.
Round one started out with 21 students taking part in the spelling bee, and as the rounds went on, the number of students competing gradually decreased as words were spelt incorrectly. By round seven, only five competitors were left, by round eight only three competitors remained, and round 11 left only two students.
Jorja Bendtsen of grade six and Anna Doty of grade five were the two remaining competitors, with Doty eventually misspelling a word. If Bendtsen were to also spell the next word incorrectly, they would both continue on to the next round, however, Bendtsen correctly spelled the final word, becoming the spelling bee champion! Bendtsen will now write a regional qualifier to earn the chance to represent the Carlyle Elementary School in Regina on March 10th.
