Get ready to dust off your dictionaries because 24 of the best and brightest students in the Culver City Unified School District are getting ready to s-p-e-l-l – their way to the top.
A week from Monday, on Feb. 8, four students from each of the five elementary schools and the Middle School will compete in district-wide spelling bee at Robert Frost Auditorium, 4401 Elenda St.
The competition, sponsored by Westfield Culver City, will begin at 7. Admission is free, and the community is invited.
Every year, millions of students around the country participate in spelling competitions, said Supt. Dr. Myrna Rivera Coté. The winner will advance to the countywide competition on Friday, March 19, in Alhambra. The County champion will qualify for the state bee on Saturday, May 15, at Sonoma State University.
In addition, the Culver City winner will receive a $250 savings bond from Westfield Culver City. Second- and third-place finishers will also receive savings bonds, and every participant will receive a certificate.
All fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade students will have an opportunity to compete at the school level first. The top four will be eligible will compete at the Robert Frost.
How It Came to Bee
This is the fifth year the County Office of Education is holding a bee, 85 years after the first National Spelling Bee was launched in Kentucky by the Louisville Courier-Journal in 1925. With competitions, cash prizes, and a trip to the nation’s capital, the Bee hoped to stimulate “general interest among pupils in a dull subject.”
The Scripps-Howard News Service took over the Bee in 1941. The Bee has grown from nine contestants to the 2005 high of 273. The County Spelling Bee, however, is not associated with the Scripps-Howard competition. Just for fun, check out the winning words that made spellers into national champions in the Scripps Howard event over the past 17 years:
2009: Laodicean 2008: guerdon 2007: serrefine
2006: Ursprache 2005: appoggiatura 2004: autochthonous
2003: pococurante 2002: prospicience 2001: succedaneum
2000: demarche 1999: logorrhea 1998: chiaroscurist
1997: euonym 1996: vivisepulture 1995: xanthosis
1994: antediluvian 1993: kamikaze
