Last May, Sarah was in the 4th grade spelling bee. She got 2nd place. Since that day, she has said that she wanted to win the 5th grade spelling bee! Within the first couple weeks of school this year, she told her teachers that she'd been in the 4th grade bee & wanted to be in it this year. They just laughed because that was MONTHS away & she was already hopeful to be in it. As recently as 3 weeks ago, her teacher told me that Sarah asked every day who would be in the spelling bee but they had not picked anyone yet. She thought it was funny that Sarah was SOOO pumped about it even before it was on the school calendar. So needless to say, there has been this huge build up 'til today in her little mind.
About 2 weeks ago, she came home and announced that she'd been chosen from her class to be in the spelling bee. There were 3 kids per class (5 classes represented) so she was in the top 15 spellers for the entire grade, which is already a cool honor. We have practiced all the words nightly in preparation for this day, but for the last couple of days her nerves have threatened to get the best of her, always messing up on simple words that I know she knows. This morning when she stepped onto the stage, she fidgeted & rocked & twisted her hair throughout the whole program. I was SO worried that she'd miss a word and fall apart on stage in front of the whole 5th grade class & all their parents.
In the end, it came down to her & 1 other little girl. The other little girl froze on a word & blurted out the wrong 1st letter. In their bee, you can re-start if you freeze mid-way through the word, but you must repeat the same letters you've already said--you can't change them to make a correction, you can only start over. So right away, this little girl knew that there was no way to recover on the word she messed up on. She just mumbled some letters & stepped out of the way & it became Sarah's word.
Now here's the cool part. On the way to school this morning, we were talking about the spelling bee. Sam & Savannah were arguing over the correct spelling of raccoon. One of them thought it was 1 C, the other thought it was 2 Cs, so Sarah pulled out her spelling list to show them! And wouldn't you know it? RACCOON is the word the little girl messed up on! I think it's soooo cool for God to have worked out that little detail because she stepped up to the microphone & nailed it!
In the end, it came down to her & 1 other little girl. The other little girl froze on a word & blurted out the wrong 1st letter. In their bee, you can re-start if you freeze mid-way through the word, but you must repeat the same letters you've already said--you can't change them to make a correction, you can only start over. So right away, this little girl knew that there was no way to recover on the word she messed up on. She just mumbled some letters & stepped out of the way & it became Sarah's word.
Now here's the cool part. On the way to school this morning, we were talking about the spelling bee. Sam & Savannah were arguing over the correct spelling of raccoon. One of them thought it was 1 C, the other thought it was 2 Cs, so Sarah pulled out her spelling list to show them! And wouldn't you know it? RACCOON is the word the little girl messed up on! I think it's soooo cool for God to have worked out that little detail because she stepped up to the microphone & nailed it!
WooHoo!!!!!!!!!!!!! First place, baby!!!! She is one proud little girl today!!
After the spelling bee, the 5th grade teachers handed out awards. Sarah got Perfect Attendance, Library award (no idea what this is---maybe she was best behaved while in the libary?), Best Math grade in her class, Citizenship for her class & A Honor Roll. But you better believe it's this little bobble head bee trophy that she's most proud of.
3 comments:
Great job Sarah!
Great job Sarah!
Way to go Sarah :)
Post a Comment