On Thursday, May 3, teachers, parents, judges, and participants gathered in the Calhoun Primary cafeteria for the 2nd grade Spelling Bee, the culmination of the 2011-2012 2nd grade Super Speller program.

Throughout the school year, students in 2nd grade were given the opportunity to be “Super Spellers” by taking home packets filled with enrichment activities to promote spelling practice that would lead to correctly spelling difficult words.

Each homeroom teacher used the words that were issued throughout the year in the monthly packets, in classroom Spelling Bees conducted.

Altogether, fifty-five students participated in the Super Speller program throughout the entire school year and competed in their classroom contests. The winner from each individual classroom then represented his or her class in the grade level Spelling Bee.

Winners from each homeroom included Andrea Anderson (Mrs. Amy Tate), Lexi Baxter (Mrs. Amy Hartsfield), Anthony Bouchard (Mrs. Ashley Everett), Angel Chavez (Mrs. Leslie Kerns), Aryan Kevat (Mrs. Angie Gravitt), Sarah Kitchens (Mrs. Heather Hamilton), Christian Lewis (Mrs. Shelly Hood), Miriam Morales (Mrs. Camille Hall), Mauricio Siliezar (Mrs. Joy Clark), Lily Stephens (Mr. Ken MacKnight), Jalee Suggs (Ms. Misty Webster), Jacob Tolson (Mrs. Sarah Brown).

For the last several rounds of the competition, two students, Anthony Bouchard and Andrea Anderson, went head to head correctly spelling each word that was called; however, after 13 rounds, Mr. Bouchard was declared the winner, earning a gold medal, when he correctly spelled both Columbus Day and cornucopia in succession after his closest opponent misspelled her word. Miss Anderson proudly finished the contest in 2nd place and was adorned with a silver medal. Third place and a bronze medal were awarded to Lily Stephens.

After the competition, participants, parents, and judges were treated to a brunch to celebrate the efforts of the 2 nd grade Super Spellers.

Calhoun Primary would like to thank the 2nd grade teachers for promoting and organizing this event, as well as Mrs. Hayley Gilreath, Calhoun Primary Academic Coach, Mrs. Misty Dorsey, Calhoun Primary and Calhoun Elementary Teacher of the Gifted, and Mrs. Jaime Garrett, Calhoun Primary and Calhoun Elementary Media Specialist and Calhoun Elementary Teacher of the Year, who served as judges.