S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G B-E-E

Andrew was one of seven students from his school who qualified to go to the district spelling bee. He had to pass a written round and several oral rounds of spelling to qualify. When we were there, we had a practice written round, an official written round and finally oral rounds until there were only 5 students left.

Andrew did so well, but was not one of the 28 on stage. Out of 76, only 28 get to the oral rounds and only 5 (or less) can go forward. We were so proud of the other students from his school. Three out of 7 made it to the stage. Woo Hoo!!!

Due to 'confidentiality reasons', we weren't allowed to take any photos or videos during the Spelling Bee. Thankfully, we got a group shot (with the principal) before we started.

I think Andrew was a little bummed not to make it to the final rounds, but he was a great cheerleader for the others. We all felt so bad for the kids as they got knocked out. It was heartbreaking to hear them misspell the word. Quite a few tears were shed as they left the stage. One of our students made it to the last oral round before misspelling a word. (Go Kyle!)

The competition is open to 4-6th grade students. It was no surprise that 4 of the 5 going on were all in the 6th grade. We were just proud that so many of our fourth graders qualified. It was an amazing competition and lots of fun. It will be interesting to see if Andrew decides to try again next year. I'll admit we didn't study much for this so now he knows more of what it would take to continue onward.

Any way you look at it, we're so proud of him for trying and doing his best! It was a really fun day. (Andrew's bee is at about 5 o'clock around the hive.)