By Stone Hendricks, student author
Dogwood hosted its 5th grade spelling bee on January 6. 16 students competed to be named Dogwood’s top speller.
"The spelling bee was a good opportunity for students to be part of a competition,” said Alexa Guynes, 5th grade teacher. “They worked really hard and it was a good experience for students with being on stage and for them learning new words and definitions.”
This spelling bee was one of the longest spelling bees because the students were determined and worked very hard. Finally, the spelling bee was down to the 3 people: Will Andrews, Garv Rustogi, and Kanav Karki. Tension was getting high. Students had worked hard to prepare for this moment.
“To study I got my mom and the study paper, and I read it over and over again,” Kanav Karki said.
Nerves were very real for these contestants. “At first I was nervous, but throughout the spelling bee I got more comfortable,” Will Andrews said, “and I was excited and happy when I came on the stage.”
There was a lot of preparation that went into the spelling bee. Mr. Phillips set up the stage, Ms. Light worked on the technology, and Mrs. Dodge created posters. Classes had to hold pre-tests to determine who would make it to the bee. Students who scored 17/20 made it to the spelling bee.
Teacher Ms. Linda Fredrick had to pick out certain words to be put in the study material.
When the final three were on stage, the crowd knew there could only be one winner. Garv Rustogi took that title. Runner up was Kanav Karki, and 3rd place was Will Andrews.
“I was very surprised when I won,” Rustogi said. “I did not think I would win, and I wasn't nervous when I went on stage.”
“Because we had such strong competitors,” Guynes said, “we had to move into the extra words list this year. It showed us how much they knew about words and word origins. The spelling bee was a good opportunity for students to be part of a competition. They worked really hard.”