Two Northside Elementary students compete in district spelling bee
DECATUR — Some of the top elementary students in Decatur tested their skills in the ultimate spelling test, the school’s annual spelling bee.
Third- and fourth-grade students gathered on stage at Northside Elementary school Dec. 1 to participate in the school’s annual spelling bee. Fifteen students honed their spelling skills to vie for a chance to represent Northside in the countywide spelling bee in Bentonville in January 2018.
Students participating in this year’s event included R.J. Trejo, Sara Lydon, Sophia Hill, Samantha Hill, Alexis Standefer, Allen Medel, Giovanni Puga, Aubrey Roach, Gracie McGarrah, Alexis Garcia, Ruby Frye, McKenna McLeland, Sam Strachan, Rose Chupp and Rickey Thor.
The students were given a list of 100 study words for their particular grade level from the 2018 School Spelling Bee Study List. Once the students mastered the 100 words, they were ready to compete in the spelling bee.
During the Northside competition, each of the participants was given a word to spell out loud. The participants could ask to have the word used in a sentence or the word’s definition to better understand the meaning and usage of that word. Those who misspelled their words were out of the contest.
Soon the bee, which started with 15, was down to two competitors, Alexis Standefer and Samantha Hill. Standefer missed her word. All Hill had to do was spell her word correctly and she did, winning the right to represent Decatur and Northside Elementary in the next round of competition.
Hill will travel to Bentonville Jan. 13, 2018, to compete in the Benton County Spelling Bee, which will be held at White Auditorium on the campus of Northwest Arkansas Community College, beginning at 9 a.m. Standefer will serve as Northside’s alternate.
Should Hill win the Benton County bee, she will advance to the state spelling bee which will be held in the Harold E. Cooper Educational Complex at Central Baptist College in Conway on March 10, 2018.