Weekly Online Lesson Online Lesson Archives Grade Level: 5-9 Subject: Language Arts

How Do You Spell Bee?

On Friday, June 4, 1999, an excellent young speller named Nupur Lala of Tampa, Florida, won the 72nd Annual Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. We congratulate Nupur, 14, sponsored by The Tampa Tribune. Not only is she a television celebrity, she's now $10,000 richer.

It was a week of tense and difficult competition for the 249 champion spellers who won in their local and regional competitions. They moved on the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., which began May 30 and ended June 4.

In this week's online lesson you will visit the Scripps Howard Spelling Bee site. Better dust off your dictionary and keep it close by for this one.

National Spelling Bee

You'll find everything for this week's lesson at the Internet home of the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. Begin by reading a little bit more about the spelling bee competition at the Frequently-Asked Questions page. Find out where the term spelling bee came from, learn the rules of the competition, and find out why sponsors play such an important role. Next, read from the Bee Week Archive, where you'll find a recap of the 5 days of competition, including the exciting final day.

If you'd like to know more about the E.W. Scripps Company, the newspaper and media organization responsible for the national spelling bee for the past 72 years, visit their site. Hint: Do you enjoy reading comics like Peanuts or Dilbert?

Logorrhea

What is a spelling bee? It's a competition held in rounds to see who can spell the hardest words. It's quite simple, really. When it's your turn, the judge says a word and you have to spell it. If you spell it right, you stay in the game. If you spell it wrong, you're out. What's not so easy are the words the judges ask you to spell. Here are some of the words from the first round of this years' national competition:

To learn more about the 1999 competition, read the round-by-round results. See which words the contestants missed, and more amazingly, which words the kids got right. Also, read about all 249 Contestants, including a picture and a short biography. Look up the kid who represented your state!

Study Activities and Tips

So maybe you'd like to participate in next year's competition. Or maybe you participated this year, but you'd like to do a little better. Visit the Study Activities and Tips site and try these five learning activities:

At Carolyn's Corner you'll find 36 weeks of activities aimed at turning you into a spelling bee champion. She should know—she coached her son Ned to a national championship in 1994.

The 1999 Audio Paideia is like being there in competition. You listen as words and definitions are read by Dr. Alex J. Cameron, the pronouncer for the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee since 1981. Write the correct spelling of the word as if you were competing. It comes via the Web through RealAudio, and you can pause the practice session anytime you like. Just click any of the categories to start.

Word of the Week is a way to keep your skills polished. Each week you'll find a new word, together with a fascinating story explaining what the word means. And visit Logodaedalyland to read about past words of the week.

Finally, take a lesson from Mrs. Brooks to learn spelling. There are five lessons for you to try.

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