Mary Frank takes 1st place in Elementary Spell Bowl

Penn High School’s Center for Performing Arts brimmed with excitement as nearly 200 third, fourth and fifth graders participated in the 32nd annual P-H-M Elementary Spell Bowl on Tuesday (March 20, 2018).

Mary Frank had a great showing by taking 1st place in fourth grade and 2nd place in fifth grade! The fourth-grade team had a perfect score of 30 points!

Click to see a full photo gallery of the Spell Bowl on the District website. (To download a high resolution jpg file from the photo gallery, you will just need to simply click the “DOWNLOAD” button on the bottom right hand corner of the photo wile viewing it in the Photo Gallery function). 

Spell Bowl consists of three six-person teams (plus one alternate) from each of the 11 elementary schools representing grades 3, 4 and 5.

3rd Grade Winners:

• 1st place – Northpoint with 28 points, coached by Mrs. Nichol Mondy and Ms. Molly O’Rea
• 2nd place – Bittersweet with 25 points
• 3rd place – Horizon with 22 points

This year's winners were a mixture from the schools:

4th Grade Winners:

• 1st place – Mary Frank with 30 points, coached by Mrs. Lindsay Helman​
• 2nd place – tie Horizon, Northpoint, Prairie Vista and Walt Disney with 28 points each
• 3rd place – tie Meadow’s Edge and Bittersweet with 20 points each

5th Grade Winners:

• 1st place – Northpoint with 30 points, coached by Ms. Rosane Morehouse
• 2nd place – Mary Frank with 25 points
• 3rd place –  Prairie Vista with 24 points 

Preparation for the Spell Bowl takes weeks, as teams work with their teacher coaches. Preparation includes spelling under pressure, studying word lists, learning about word sources (e.g., Latin roots) and rules such as capitalization and pluralization.

The format used for the Spell Bowl is very similar to a test. Much like a traditional spelling bee, the host, or emcee, reads a word aloud and then uses it in a sentence. The students then have a time limit of 15 seconds to write the word on paper. A panel of judges reviews the answers and then posts the scores for the audience to see. Scoring is one point for each correct spelling.

P-H-M’s K-5 High Ability Coordinator, Mrs. Anne-Marie Reininga, is the Spell Bowl manager and works very hard to provide students with an enriching experience.