News

Monday, May 10, 2010

California State Spelling Bee

La Colina Junior High’s Quinn Hensley had a great day at the State Junior High Spelling Bee in San Rafael on Saturday, May 8. There were 60 entrants representing 32 California counties competing. Quinn came in second place, winning a trophy and a $250 savings bond.

It was a long day of spelling. This was a written test, and the students stay in the competition until they misspell four words. After more than four hours of competition, where the students were asked to spell words from a list with approximately 2,000 words, only six students remained in the competition. Of those six students, only two students, Quinn and this year's winner had not missed a single word. A small sampling of the words Quinn correctly spelled includes: agglutinated, arenaceous, brumal, cromlech, equipollent, inspissate, irenic, jodhpurs, malapropos, mendacious, meretricious, neurasthenia, ochlocracy, oneiromancy, ophiology, oriflamme, pleuston, postiche, ptarmigan, pullulate, querulous, tergiversate, velutinous, sansculotte, stramonium.

The California State Elementary Spelling Championship will take place on Saturday, May 15. Peabody Charter School’s sixth-grade student Delaney Smith will be one of the two Santa Barbara County participating spellers.