The Park Record Spelling Bee

THE PARK RECORD SPELLING BEE

Coming up on March first is the annual Park Record Spelling Bee. There is one bee for the fourth through eigth graders, and one for the second and third graders. Students who are participating, have a chance at winning the bee and getting a free trip to Washington for the National Scripp’s Spelling Bee. This is a big opportunity, and is also a fun way to get good at spelling.

The Park Record Spelling Bee started in 2006. In the last 10 years, it has gone from seperate spelling bees for different grade/age groups, to all together. Tania Kanuer founded the spelling bee. According to parkcityspellingbee.com, it says,” Tania discovered that her daughter, and several other 3rd grades, not only liked to explore new worlds and stories through reading books, but also enjoyed spelling mainly new encountered words.” Also, in the article, it said that after she witnessed this, she talked with a woman named “Mrs. Dugins,” who was  a region rife with spelling bees, and together they came up with a 3rd grade spelling bee. Somehow, the word got around about the spelling bee, and after a few years, it was an annual thing for many age/grade groups.

Sandra Van Leuven, the director of the spelling bee, told me her opinion on the bee. She said that she thinks that it is a great and fun educational way to get good at spelling, as well as very fun for the kids participating. Sandra also said that she’s glad that we have a spelling bee because Park City is known for it’s sports like skiing. Also, that it is good to have Park City not only be a place of sports, but also education. Sandra has been a member of the bee for seven years, ever since her son liked to spell. Her main focus when beginning the spelling bee, was she wanted to get kids going to the Scripp’s Bee because you never hear about anyone from Park City going, and we are a great place.

In order to be in the spelling bee, you have to take a qualification test. It consists of many different words you have to spell. There are usually about fifty words, and some vocabulary definition questions. After the test, the volunteers grade them, and they pick the people who do the best. It also depends on how many people they have wanting to be in it. After they are done grading, they send the qualifiers an email, with the link to the words, so they can print them out and study.

At the spelling bee, they give you a word and you have to spell it correctly, and if you don’t, they ring a bell, and it means you are out. Everyone claps for that person, and then you proceed with the bee. Some of the rules include, you can restart spelling a word but you can’t change any of the letters you had previously said, you can ask for the definition, origin, or to use it in a sentence, you can ask them to repeat the word twice, as well as, you can’t re-say a letter when you mess up. Overall, it is fun and educational, and will get Park City known at the Scripp’s Bee.