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St. Paul's hosts spelling bee
St. Paul's School in Haymarket held a spelling bee on May 7 for children in pre-K4 and junior kindergarten. The four-year-olds competed by spelled three- and even four-letter words like “tent” and “fast.”
The first-place winner was Lydia Osei, who was followed by Will Bucey in second and Angelina Berrera in third.
The other top-10 winners, in order, were:
Camille O'Connor, Sarah Stone, Kellyn King, Kyle Jachimski, Josef Spaid, Faith McKinney and Cole Hollis .
The difference between the pre-K4 class and the junior kindergarten class is that many students in the pre-K4 class do not start the year recognizing all of the letters in the alphabet. The junior kindergarten students, on the other hand, are often ready to begin reading by December.
This year, however, the pre-K4 students advanced so rapidly that they wanted to challenge the 4-year olds in the junior kindergarten class.
The spelling bee involved 50 three-letter words. However, after the teachers were unable to stump the children, they moved on to four-letter words, even though the students had not practiced them. The children sounded the words out loud and then spelled them.
Director Kathleen Katz, director said “Most educators would guess that any school holding a spelling bee for 4-year olds uses only teacher-centered pedagogical methods. Not in our case.”
Junior kindergarten teacher Justine Wald and pre-K4 teacher Chris Powers believe children learn through play.
“We used Play-Doh, magnets, letter stamps and other creative ways to spell words,” said Powers.
Pre-K4 student Courtney Gustafson, 4, told her mother, "We aren't learning. We just play!"
Her mother, Jessica Gustafson, said her daughter is very enthusiastic about learning to spell; however she thinks it is a game.
"Courtney tries to spell everything. She is even attempting to spell words her older brother (age 7) is learning at school. And she is getting the words right by sounding them out," Gustafson said.
Powers said the two 4-year-old classrooms have been practicing for the spelling bee since mid-March, treating spelling as just another game.
All of the students who participated received a ribbon for excellence in spelling.
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