2016 Spell Success December Meeting Recap

by Allison He

 December’s meeting covered Latin words and roots - some that are commonly used like “current”, and others that are rarely seen like “corpuscle”. A good percentage of words in the English language originate from Latin, so having our spellers learn Latin roots definitely expanded their vocabulary. To strengthen our spellers’ knowledge on Latin words, the mentors set up activities like crosswords, a story consisting of Latin words in the word list, and a mini practice spelling bee for the upcoming spelling bee in January.

 

As an introduction to the meeting, Justin, our previous head mentor, gave a few inspirational words, saying, “I’m glad to be back with Spell Success. I’ll assist you guys to the best of my abilities, and in return, I hope you can learn to the best of your abilities, too.” Ximei, Jesse, and Richard, previous Spell Success mentors, were also at the meeting to help out while they could. 

 

Afterwards, our spellers split up into age groups -- 1-3 grade, 4-5 grade, 6-8 grade, and the mentors had the groups do crosswords to give them an introduction to some Latin words. While the youngest age group struggled with words like “jovial” and “optimal”, the oldest age group had to think harder with words like “perennial” and “soliloquy”, meaning “existing or continuing in the same way for a long time” and “a speech”.

Rooshi helped out with the 4th and 5th graders during the “creating a story” assignment while Kyle, Richard, and Jacqueline spent their time completing the crosswords with the youngest group. The 6-8 grade group were entirely focused on completing the crosswords, occasionally with Neha and Emily’s help, and moved on to the next task in almost no time. For the second activity, our spellers wrote stories using the Latin word lists and shared them to their group. Then the group members decided who had the best story, and the stories have been posted on a separate blog. The winners were Allison in the 1-3 grade group, Keran in the 4-5 grade group, and Kaaviya in the 6-8 grade group.

After all of the winners were selected, our spellers lined up for the mini we we moved on to a practice spelling bee in order to prepare them for upcoming spelling bees. Rooshi had them go through a practice round and gave them words like “cat” and “hair” that each of our spellers had, of course, no trouble with. Unfortunately, six of our spellers were knocked out in the first round because of challenging words like “fastidious” and “corpuscle”, but four of them remained. Two of the four remaining spellers were knocked out in the third round, which left William and Kaaviya. The points were tallied up, and Allison and both Williams placed first in their age groups. In the end, everyone who participated was rewarded with Kit Kats and Jolly Ranchers for their effort within the hour and a half.

Without the help of the mentors, their parents, and definitely the spellers, this meeting wouldn’t have been possible! Happy Holidays!