The Big Spelling Bee and Name it Contest
In 2021 our Bilingual Program held the first 'Spelling Bee' and 'Name It' contest.
Since May, our students have had, in their classes, 'Spelling bee' and 'Name It' moments. They had no idea that all the practice would lead them to a Contest. Our School, with Edify’s support, understood that this was a motivating and fun way to celebrate their achievements.
Spelling Bee is a famous competition in which students must spell correctly and loudly words assigned by the teacher or a judge. As our first and second graders are not ready to spell words, their competition was different. All they had to do was to 'Name' the image shown by the teacher.
Promoting such a big event was challenging for all teachers and staff involved. Our classes were carefully organized to hold the first two rounds of the competition. In total, there were three rounds.
In the first round, our students received a list of words or a slide with images. They studied and competed among their classmates. Only one student per class remained in the competition to round 2, the semi-final.
Another list of words, or slides, was given to the competitors for the semi-final. In round two, they competed among the winners from round 1. In this stage, only one student would go to the Big Final as the great speller of each Leonardo da Vinci branch.
For the Big Final, we had a total of 30 finalists. They were not only representing their branches, but also their classmates who were cheering from home.
The Judges, in the Finals, were all Edify mentors. They had the difficult task of validating the performance of the competitors during the five rounds.
“Being part of this competition, in the final round, as one of the judges was amazing. Before getting to this final moment, I was delighted to help prepare all the lists of words together with other Edify Mentors. Speaking specifically of the final, it was thrilling. You can be sure that we, judges, also cheered a lot for all of the students who got this great accomplishment. In fact, they were all winners.” (Carlos Mansilha - Edify Mentor)
“I have been the judge of “Name it” for 1st graders. I guess I was more anxious than the competitors themselves. They did such a great job! Despite their very young age, these little ones were very confident and knew exactly what to do.
I have no doubt how hard they’ve worked for this competition and I'm sure it was a great opportunity for improving their language skills as well as engaging them in a healthy and supportive environment. They rock!” (Jaqueline Viegas - Edify Mentor)
All the competitors must be proud of their academic accomplishments and for the benefits gained from this competition, such as vocabulary improvement, self-confidence development, and learning how to compete.
Congratulations to our dedicated teachers, coordinators, Edify mentors, and all the staff involved in this project.
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