A Georgia Girl in Germany

After doing well in the 5th-grade spelling bee the week prior, Zachary was ready Wednesday for the school-wide spelling bee with the top four spellers from the 3rd, 4th and 5th grades. This time, the spellers competed in front of a much larger audience -- the entire 3rd, 4th and 5th grades! The 12 contestants assembled together in front of their classmates before listening to the rules for competition. After one practice round, they began the official competition.

During the practice round, he correctly spelled “caboose,” and was ready to tackle the words that would determine the best speller in the school. His first official word was “petunia,” which he spelled with ease. After the first round, however, the field had been narrowed from 12 to six.


During the second round, the field narrowed to five, and he moved on to the next round after correctly spelling “Newton.”

When it was his turn in the third round, his word was “rotunda.” He paused, repeated the word, then began spelling “R-O-U...I mean R-O-T-U-N-D-A.” But, the damage had been done. According to spelling bee rules, while you can re-start a word, once you say a letter you cannot change the order of the letters. So, since he got ahead of himself by saying “U” before “T,” the judges had to rule his spelling incorrect. He knew what he’d done as soon as he uttered the letter “U,” and was disappointed. But, he made it to the top five of the school-wide competition and earned a medal for his efforts, so wasn’t totally dejected.

And, he really knows how to spell “rotunda” now.

Labels: Zachary