Congratulations to all who participated in this year’s spelling bee at BCMS. The following students finished in the top four and earned the right to advance to the Annual Capital Region Spelling Bee at Proctors in Schenectady on February 2, 2016. This year’s winning word was “gorse.”
- Cece Amory – grade 8
- Claudia Grimaldi – grade 6
- Navid Mazidabadifarahani – grade 8
- Aleks Wood – grade 8
When asked if they had studied for the school spelling bee, each of the four had the same answer: “no.” All said that while spelling comes naturally to each one of them, they would probably be reviewing spelling words prior to the regional bee.
“I can see patterns in most words,” said returning regional competitor Navid Mazidabadifarahani, who placed seventh at last year’s competition at Proctors. “Especially those with Latin roots. Words with an Arabic or Germanic root can be more difficult.”
The spelling bee champs had some sage advice for those looking to compete in future spelling bees.
“You know more than you think,” said Aleks Wood.
Navid Mazidabadifarahani said it helps to ask for the language of origin before attempting to spell a word. “Languages usually follow certain rules. Greek uses ‘ph’ and the letter ‘k’ is used in often German words.”
“It’s hard to prepare for the scary things you might see in Welsh,” said Aleks.
“Take your time,” was the advice provided by Cece Amory. “And don’t be frightened by long words.”
Her fellow BCMS spelling champions agreed with Cece, including Navid, who was asked if he had ever been challenged with a spelling bee word as long as his 18-letter last name.
“No. Not yet anyway,” said Mazidabadifarahani with a smile.
Good luck, Bethlehem champs!
Learn more about the Annual Capital Region Spelling Bee here.
