Cole and the Bee!
So today was Cole's spelling bee! We arrived at the place (another school around the corner) met up with grandma, and waited. We went into an assembly where they gave us the location of each grade's spelling bee and then a few other things, like rules and such, and we headed into the first grade spelling bee room. My stomach was in knots let me tell you! I was more nervous than Cole was! They did a practice round (which by the way, they can spell the word they get wrong and they get to stay in), then came the real deal.
Cole got the word "back", then "five", then "torch", then "motel", all of which he got right. In the fifth round, however, he got the word, "rude". That one was not one we really practiced, so he spelled it "r-o-u-d". Don't ask me why, but whatever, he did great!!! We are very proud of him for even making it to the bee! I mean he got through his class spelling bee (only 4 went through to the grade level bee) AND the grade level spelling bee (4 kids out of the entire 1st grade class -that is about 118 kids!) And during this spelling bee he stayed in through about 10 kids (there were about 20 in all) and then he got out. So he was pretty much in the middle of the group. During the last round he was in, a whole bunch of kids got out. But he stayed in until the next round. He was a really good sport too! No complaints at all. One of the kids from his school that really practiced like crazy, I mean this kid practiced through the Christmas break and started going into the dictionary once he knew all the 500 words on the given list! Of course with all that pressure, he got so nervous, he misspelled "jumped" He was devastated, crying and hugging his mom. He actually got out before Cole! I was pretty surprised, because I know the mom said how much they worked on stuff. I didn't say much because we only practiced every once in a while and not at all during the Christmas holidays! So, way to go Cole!!! Good Job!! Can you tell I am super proud of my boy?
5 comments:
Mine never did a spelling bee. I don't even know that they tried in class.
Diana did "battle of the books" and got into the tail end there. Sadly, tho, the mic system at the competition made it too hard to hear the questions from the judges, and they got out because they didn't hear the question right.
Yeah - she was bummed. We took her to Dairy Queen and she was over it a lot faster than I was!!
Good Job Cole!!! Maybe he'll be in it again next year? Nice to have the experience this time :)
yeah it is pretty hard on the parents more than the kids! Although like I said there were a few kids that cried! But Cole's attitude was pretty relaxed and non-stressed. So I am happy that he isn't so competitive that he gets upset about it. We will see about next year. Reading and words and spelling are all kind of shiny and new right now, that may change. He is still into picture books and being read to more than reading on his own even though he could probably master 2-3 grade level reading. But I am not pushing!
You're all missing the point. The important thing isn't to end up spelling more words than a classmate in a competition; it's about learning to spell. Otherwise they'll end up like Uncle Lee
Yeah, that is what Cole's teacher said. She basically said Cole got in it because he has a good knowledge of phonetics. We just helped him with some of the non-phonetic words. Some parents really push though and have the kids memorize all 500 words that they get to practice on. Eek!
Yes - thankfully our kids inherited the spelling gene from me :)
The reading gene comes from their dad tho. And the joking gene.
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