It was an exciting evening as kids eagerly awaited the first spelling bee hosted at the White Bear Education Complex.
A fun way to learn, compete, and build confidence as they stand in front of an audience ready to spell. The spelling bee is a great new addition to the White Bear Education Complex.
The competition included three age categories including Primary (ages six to eight), Junior (9 to 11), and intermediate (12 to 14), which includes youth in grades three to nine.
The top three in each category have earned their way to Provincials in North Battleford on April 8. There they will compete with the top three spellers in each category will go on to compete in Nationals in Toronto on May 15.
With difficult words thrown at them, it was a challenge, but one the kids rose to. Spelling words included yawn, enzyme, solicit, medallion, impromptu, narcoleptic, intermittent, bereavement, silhouette, and Mesopotamian. Some words the crowd watching commented they didn’t know how to spell, after all Mesopotamian isn’t a commonly used word.
A total of two youth were participating in Primary, eight were competing in Junior, and five challenged each other at the intermediate level.
Winning first place at the Primary level was Isaiah McMann-Ross, with Mercedez Littlechief finishing second. Both did an extremely good job at tackling tough words including tricky words like yawn.
The Junior winners (from first to third) were Delilah Littlechief, Katie Desjarlais, and Taya Lavallee. This group too had tricky words including solicit, which doesn’t follow the typical rules of the English language where a “c” needs an “e” following it to sound like an “s.”
It was then time for the Intermediate group to challenge each other resulting in Mystique Bigstone earning first, Taryn Cappo taking second, and River Lavallee-Whitebear earning third place.
