Moraga Schools held their spelling bees over the last two weeks and four students have been named as the top spellers. Each winner is moving on to participate in the 37th Annual Contra Costa County Spelling Bee, which will be held March 23 in Walnut Creek.
Each school held preliminary written tests to qualify finalists for their respective, school-wide oral spelling bees. Students made it through several grueling rounds of challenging words before the final winners were determined.
At Joaquin Moraga Intermediate School, the winning word "delinquency" was spelled by Daisy (EunJi) Cho, an eighth-grader who competed against 25 other finalists. At Camino Pablo Elementary School, fourth-grader Emma Connor spelled her school's winning word "mosque" in the fifth round without needing clarification such as a definition or language of origin.
Los Perales Elementary School students experienced "déjà vu" as they cheered on their peer, Lucia Pirone, a fourth-grader who won the school's spelling bee for the second year in a row. Rheem Elementary School fifth-grader Leo Naylor took the school's top spelling honor as his peers watched and applauded; Naylor also received a certificate and a coveted "Super Speller" pencil to use as he studies for the next round.
The county-level spelling bee was in jeopardy of being cancelled this year due to lack of a local sponsor. Thankfully, the Contra Costa Times stepped in at the 11th hour to sponsor it again. The champion of the Contra Costa County Spelling Bee will receive an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., courtesy of the California Lottery to compete in the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee in May.
Best of luck to our local spelling champs!
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA