Paris Spelling Bee

Registration is now closed.
We wish our participants best of luck.

All registered contestants should have received an email confirmation by now. More information coming soon.

The Paris Spelling Bee Team

TODAY, January 19th, is the last day to register.
All registration forms must be postmarked
on or before January 19.
Update: Gazelles (CE2-CM2) are full!
Spaces still available in the Cheetahs (6ème-4ème) division!

2011 Paris Spelling Bee: 1st, 2nd, 3rd place winners, Cheetahs division

Registration for the 5^th Annual Paris Spelling Bee (PSB) is now open. Please visit our 2012 Invitation page for details and also visit our FAQ page for more information. We have also created a 2012 Registration page for easy access to the registration form. Please keep in mind that the deadline is Thursday January 19, 2012. Form must be signed and mailed in with the participation fee. Here are some important dates for your 2011-2012 calendar.

COMMUNITY BEE EVENTS

• Saturday October 15, 2011 Spelling Hornet 15h00-16h00, at The American Library in Paris. This is a modern-day twist on the Spelling Bee using American slang. For Ages 8-14. Space limited to 15 participants, must RSVP with Celeste rhoads@americanlibraryinparis.org. For more information click here and for questions about this activity, please email Ashley Miller at aemiller02@gmail.com.

• Saturday January 14, 2012 Introduction to Spelling Bees 15h00-16h00, to be held at the ALP. For children ages 7-14. Must RSVP with the ALP. This event is now FULL.

• Saturday January 14, 2012 PSB Family Pizza Movie Night 18h30-21h00, to be held at the ALP. Join us for a special screening of the movie Akeelah and the Bee. This event is now FULL.
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MAIN PSB DATES FOR 2011-12:

• Thursday November 10, 2011 Paris Spelling Bee Registration Opens Registration opens for children in CE2-4ème. See our Invitation, FAQ and Registration pages on this blog.

• Thursday January 19, 2012 Registration Deadline!! Last day to register for the PSB. Registration is first come first received, and limited to 100 applicants. To add your name or your school’s contact to our electronic updates, please email parisfrancespellingbee@gmail.com.

• Saturday February 4, 2012 PSB Written Preliminary Round This is the written round for preregistered participants. Tentative time is 09h00-12h00. Location, in 75005, to be announced later. Confirmation, by email, will be sent to preregistered participants. Up to twenty finalists will be chosen from each division: Gazelles CE2-CM2, Cheetahs 6ème-4ème. Study List for the Preliminary Written Round will be made available 1 December 2011 on our blog under “2012 Study List,” and emailed to registered participants.

• Sunday March 11, 2012 PSB Mock/Practice Session Tentative time: 10h00-13h00: This event is organized for
  Finalists chosen from the February 4^th Preliminary Written Round. To be held at the American University of Paris. Study List for the Oral Finals of the Paris Spelling Bee will be made available to the Finalists after the Written Round.

• Sunday March 25, 2012 Oral Finals of the Paris Spelling Bee Tentative time is 10h00-16h00. This event is open to Finalists and their invited guests. To be held at the American University of Paris.

• FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions about the Bee, FAQ page of our blog.

To sign up for PSB updates and registration information, or if you have questions about the Paris Spelling Bee, please email Helen Sahin Connelly at parisfrancespellingbee@gmail.com.

The Paris Spelling Bee is organized by Gifted in France, in collaboration with the The American Library in Paris and hosted by the American University of Paris.

PSB is grateful to the ALP and AUP for their continued support of this community-wide enrichment event open to children throughout Paris. The 2011 PSB drew more than 100 children, grades CE2-4ème, from over 30 schools in the greater Paris area. Twenty students from each division, Gazelles CE2-CM2 and Cheetahs 6ème-4ème, advanced to the Oral Finals on March 20, 2011. For more information about the 2011 Bee and the winners- please scroll down.

Best of luck to everyone entering or following the 2012 Bee.
We are very excited about our 5^th season!
Helen, Jude, Naida, Ashley, Amy, Cate, Kim and Rose
2012 Paris Spelling Bee Committee

2011 Paris Spelling Bee- Gazelles (L-R): Thea Voyles, 2nd place and Yanis Cavrel, 1st place.

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2011 Paris Spelling Bee, Cheetahs: (L-R) Benjamin Macintyre 3rd place, Anita Youngblood 2nd place, and Loic Lescoat - 1st place in the Cheetahs division

Thirty-nine finalists from 15 elementary and secondary schools competed in the 4th annual Paris Spelling Bee on Sunday, March 20, held at the American University of Paris.

Spellers were grouped into two divisions: the Gazelles, in third-fifth grades (CE2-CM2), and the Cheetahs, in sixth-eighth grades (6ème-4ème).  Yanis Cavrel, a fourth-grader from Ecole Active Bilingue Victor Hugo, won first prize in the Gazelles group by spelling `Labyrinth’ correctly in the 25th round. Thea Voyles, a fifth-grader from Ecole Active Bilingue Jeannine-Manuel (EABJM), took the second-place trophy after dueling with Cavrel for 10 rounds..

In the Cheetahs division, Loic Lescoat, a sixth-grader from EABJM, won first place by correctly spelling his championship word ‘indigenous.’  Seventh-grader Anita Youngblood, from Lycee International St. Germain-en-Laye, took the second-place trophy after a 13-round duel with Lescoat. Youngblood held her ground on words including philippic, tchotchke, aggregate, edelweiss, bezoar, bildungsroman, extravaganza, geothermal, omnivorous, chauvinism and mistletoe, before stumbling on picaresque. Lescoat correctly spelled words including pentathlon, contraband, meistersinger, vivace, maelstrom, pneumatic, algorithm, zeitgeber, mesmerize, fusillade and recidivist. His triumph comes two years after he won first place in the Gazelles group at the 2009 Paris Spelling Bee.

In the Gazelles division, after 10 spellers were still standing into the 15th round, judges moved off the study list provided to participants to the ‘surprise word list.’

Cavrel and Voyles went back and forth for 10 rounds. Cavrel correctly spelled patience, lyrics, plague, casserole and monarch before winning with labyrinth. Voyles earned the second-place trophy by spelling docile, woebegone, gyrate and idiocy before tripping up on buoyant.

The third-place trophy in the Cheetahs division went to Benjamin Macintyre, a seventh-grader from La Source. In the Gazelles group, eight spellers tied for third place: Molly Dugan, fifth grade, Ecole Massillon; Bryan Gu, fifth grade,  Marymount International School of Paris; Mallory Lewis, fifth grade, American School of Paris; Hugo Scherer,  fourth grade,  EABJM; Sebastian Macintyre,  fourth-grade, La Source; Mizuki Morio, fourth grade, EAB Victor Hugo;  Momo Ohji, fourth grade, EAB Victor Hugo;  Abdoulie Sarr, fourth grade, EAB Victor Hugo.

The Paris Spelling Bee is an annual community enrichment event organized by Gifted in France in collaboration with the American Library in Paris. For the first time, the event was hosted by the American University of Paris. Pronouncers for the Gazelles were Charlie Trueheart, director of the American Library in Paris and journalist Anne Swardson. Naida Kendrick Culshaw, the executive-assistant for the ALP, was the pronouncer for the Cheetahs.  Celeste  Schenck, President of the American University of Paris, was on hand to congratulate the Cheetahs and share an anecdote from her days as a young spelling bee participant.

In January, more than 100 students from schools in the Paris region registered for the Bee. Twenty finalists were selected in each division after a preliminary written round was held on January 29. The written round consisted of a dictation of words from a study and surprise list.

Words for Sunday’s Oral Finals were taken from Spell It! an official study guide published by Merriam-Webster in association with the National Spelling Bee in the United States. The list is often used in regional spelling bees across America.

In addition to the trophy,  first-place winners in each division received a one-year family membership to the American Library in Paris along with an ALP tote bag, silver USB key from the Singapore Club, iPhone protector from Phillips Netherlands,  a fish-bowl paperweight from Marc Labat and a digital camera from Office Depot. Second prize winners also received a digital camera, iPhone protector, fish-bowl paperweight, international plug adapters and a tote bag from the ALP.

All 39 finalists received books from the ALP, as well as a computer mouse from Office Depot and accessories from Marc Labat. The International Herald Tribune donated flashlight key chains, notepads, and sweets to the children, and the weekend edition of the newspaper for the audience.

The Paris Spelling Bee is grateful to the American Library in Paris for its continued support of the Bee and thankful to the American University of Paris for being the host.  Special thanks go to the organizers who made this growing event possible: Jude Smith Matisse, Karen Simpson, Ashley Miller, Amy O’Hara, Cate O’Connor of The Roaming Schoolhouse, Rose Burke and Kim Siew Ngoh.  Bee organizers are appreciative of the time and energy that Naida Kendrick Culshaw put in helping the team.  Additional thanks go to Charlie Trueheart, Anne Swardson, ALP’s Children’s librarian Celeste Rhoads, Janet Sahin (in the US), Cathy Altman Nocquet, Janet Hoffman, Ghazala Azizullah, Frank Connelly and Chrise de Tournay Birkhahn. Thanks also to former Paris Spelling Bee champs Amelie Matisse (2008) and Shannon Connelly (2010), and three-time Bee participants Emma Newman and Julia Connelly for helping out at the Oral Finals.

As the Paris Spelling Bee continues to grow, we are always in need of donors and sponsors to help defray the cost of trophies, venues, prizes and office supplies.  We welcome parents, teachers and others interested in helping with the organization of this enrichment activity, which takes months to prepare.

Congratulations to all the children who registered for the 2011 Paris Spelling Bee and to those who made it to the Oral Finals.

Finally, we want to congratulate Tuli Bennet Bose, our 2010 winner in the Gazelles division, who recently won 2nd place in the city-wide spelling bee in Washington, D.C. Tuli’s family relocated to the US last summer.

See you in 2012!

Kind regards,
Helen Sahin Connelly
Coordinator, Paris Spelling Bee
giftedinfrance.blogspot.com

2011 Paris Spelling Bee- Gazelles - waiting for the Bee to start

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2011 Paris Spelling Bee, Cheetahs

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2011 Paris Spelling Bee Trophies

ALP Director Charlie Trueheart presents Yanis Cavrel with a free annual membership to the library

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Gazelle participant Hugo Scherer on his way to the Preliminary Written Round

2011 PARIS SPELLING BEE

Results of the Preliminary Written Round

29 January 2011

Congratulations to all the registered contestants who braved the cold weather early last Saturday morning, 29 January, to participate in the Preliminary Written Round of the 2011 Paris Spelling Bee.

• 63 of the 75 registered participants in the Gazelles group and 28 of the 34 Cheetahs turned up for the mandatory written competition where children were given a dictation of words.
• Participants were provided with a study list ahead of the event.

• The Preliminary Written Round was divided into two sections: First Round consisted of 25 words from the study list, and the second round included 5 words from the study list and 5 more words off-list.
• 20 Finalists from each group were selected based on their marks.
• Over 30 schools were represented.
• Gazelles– CE2-CM2 (3^rd-5th grade),  and Cheetahs– 6ème- 4ème (6^th-8^th grade).

We congratulate every student who registered for this event, even those who were unable to make it to the competition.

Below are two lists of finalists chosen for the Oral Finals, which will be held on Sunday 20 March 2011 (10-16h00 approx) at the American University of Paris. There will be a mock/practice session on Sunday 6 March (10h00-13h00) for all the finalists to learn useful tips on oral spelling bees, PSB contest rules and have a chance to meet fellow participants. Tentative time: 10h00-13h00. This event will also be held at the American University of Paris.

1. Gazelles: Finalists for the 2011 Paris Spelling Bee

2. Cheetahs: Finalists for the 2011 Paris Spelling Bee

IMPORTANT: Finalists will have until Thursday 3 February to confirm by email to parisfrancespellingbee@gmail.com their participation in the Oral Finals of the 2011 Paris Spelling Bee. They must also pay their registration fees, as indicated on the registration forms. Deadline for payment of registration is Friday 4 February. If there is no confirmation and payment, that spot will go to the next person with a qualifying mark. (Checks payable to Gifted in France, 39 ave de Versailles, 75016; same fees apply as the registration for the Preliminary event: 12 euros per child, 5 euros per each additional child in the same family. )
** A new study list for the Oral Finals will be emailed to all finalists upon confirmation.

A big thank you to everyone who participated and supported the efforts of the Paris Spelling Bee, especially the American Library in Paris who has been so generous to the Bee with their space, time and membership prizes for the top winners.  An even bigger thanks to all the volunteers who helped out at the event with pronouncing the words, correcting papers, and watching over the venue. Thank you to the key players  who put in countless hours to make the Preliminary Round possible: Jude Smith, Rose Burke, Ashley Miller, Kim Siew Ngoh, Janet Sahin, Amy O’Hara,  Cate O’Connor (on behalf of the Roaming Schoolhouse) and Naida Kendrick Culshaw (on behalf of the ALP).

Also, a final thanks to all the participants who registered, studied and came to the Preliminary Written Round. Even if you didn’t become a finalist,  you tried something new and showed up for it. Bravo to you! There were many participants this year who returned from last year and the year before. We hope you’ll do the same.

The Paris Spelling Bee is an annual community enrichment event organized by Gifted in France in collaboration with the American Library in Paris, and this year hosted by the American University of Paris. We are grateful to both of these institutions for their support of the Bee.  We are also in search of sponsors to help us offset the costs of venues, trophies, supplies and prizes. If you would like to donate prizes and supplies or be a sponsor please contact us by email.
Best regards,

Helen Sahin Connelly

Coordinator,

2011 Paris Spelling Bee

parisfrancespellingbee@gmail.com

Parisfrancespellingbee.wordpress.com

giftedinfrance.blogspot.com

Paris Spelling Bee

Registration is now closed. We wish our participants best of luck.

Cheetahs: Finalist for the 2010 Paris Spelling Bee. Top L to R: Sibylle Xatart, Casper Sanderson, Jivahn Moradian, Cody Vance, Paris Pryor, Shannon Connelly, Sasha Tsovma, Yasmeen Karkachi. Bottom L to R: Christopher Heim, Julien Dudas, Benjamin Macintyre, Mia Cabantous, William Brown

Gazelles: Finalists at the 2010 PARIS SPELLING BEE: L-R, Holly O'NEIL, Celine SON, Sooan OH, Alexia HASHEM, Julia CONNELLY, Emma NEWMAN, Tuli BENNETT-BOSE (397), Niamh HOWLEY (behind out of view), Matteo BOISSIERE (215), Mallory LEWIS, Taylor LANGDON (in the back), Sophia FUNG, Sabrina BLACK (765), Maxim BOUFFARD (in the back), Elodie FREY, Shane HOEBERICHTS (586)

Best of luck to our next round of participants!!

The Paris Spelling Bee Team

Today is the LAST day to register…

All forms must be received with registration payment

on or before 18 January,

or postmarked by 18 January.

• Registration for the 2011 Bee is now open, Click here to get your copy of the registration form.
• Tuesday 18 January, 2011: Registration, by mail, closes on Tuesday 18 January.
• Saturday 29 January, 2011: Written Preliminary Round, for preregistered participants, to be held at Ecole Sainte Catherine, 75005. Tentative time: 09h00-12h00.  Confirmation will be sent to preregistered participants.
• Study List for the Preliminary Written Round is available by clicking here, or going to the ‘Study List’ page of our blog.
• Sunday 6, March 2011: Mock/Practice session. Tentative time: 10h00-13h00:  This event is organized for finalists chosen from the Written Round.  To be held at the American University of Paris.
• Sunday 20 March, 2011: Oral Finals of the Paris Spelling Bee.  Tentative time: 10h00-16h00: This event is for finalists and their invited guests, to be held at the American University of Paris.
  
• FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions about the Bee, FAQ page of our blog.

Community Events at the American Library in Paris

• How Spelling Bees Work: Saturday 15  January, 15h00-16h00. Activity for children 7-14 years-old.

• Pizza Bee Movie Night: Saturday January 15, 18h30-21h00: Open to parents and children.  Join us for the special screening of the award-winning documentary Spellbound. RSVP for this event is now FULL.

Best of luck!

2011 Invitation

PARIS SPELLING BEE

Students in CE2-4ème (3rd-8th grade)

Dear Sir or Madam,

We are writing to invite students from your school to participate in the 4th annual Paris Spelling Bee, which is open to children in CE2 through 4ème (3rd through 8th grade).  Participants will be divided into two groups:  Gazelles for CE2-CM2 and Cheetahs for 6ème-4ème.  Registration for the 2011 Bee (by mail) is now open and closes on Tuesday 18 January, 2011. For a copy of the registration form Click here: 2011 PSB Registration Form .  Registration is first come, first served.

The Spelling Bee consists of two stages.  First, a preliminary written competition, which will be held on Saturday 29 January. Finalists from the preliminaries will then compete in the oral finals on Sunday 20 March.  Trophies are awarded to first and second place winners in each group. Certificates and medals will be given to all finalists.

Last academic year, 29 finalists from 13 different schools in the Paris region competed in the 3rd annual Paris Spelling Bee held at the American Library in Paris. Visit our blog ParisFranceSpellingBee.wordpress.com for highlights of the 2010 Bee.

This is a community-wide enrichment event organized by Gifted in France, in collaboration with the American Library in Paris, and for the first time, the event will be hosted by the American University of Paris. The Paris Spelling Bee is modeled after those held by schools and other organizations at the local, state and national level in the United States.

Benefits of spelling bees:

“Spelling bees help to promote literacy by providing children with a positive goal to work toward, and give them a forum to display the fruits of their hard work. But they also do much more: In addition to improving spelling, the bees also aid children in learning concepts, improving comprehension and developing study skills. The benefits of spelling bees extend beyond language: Since children are required to spell words while on stage, kids also develop self-confidence, communication and public speaking skills, and the ability to thrive under pressure.” (CanSpell)

The preliminary and the final event:

The preliminary event on Saturday 29 January for all preregistered participants will be a written spelling test, while the final event on Sunday 20 March will be in oral format where children will be asked to spell out loud before an audience.  There will be a mock competition/practice session on Sunday 6 March for all the finalists. This mock session is designed to give contestants a chance to make new friends, practice oral spelling under similar conditions as the real Bee, and to review the contest rules and regulations of the 2011 Bee.

Kindly circulate this information to the heads of your English department, your English teachers and parent representatives of your school. A copy of the registration form is  here: 2011 PSB Registration Form , and can also be requested by e-mailing: ParisFranceSpellingBee@gmail.com. We encourage anyone who is interested in registering or following the events to regularly check our blog, ParisFranceSpellingBee.wordpress.com for updates on registration, contest rules of the 2011 Bee and any other relevant notices.

Suggested material:

We have enjoyed and benefited from the following resources:

How to Spell Like a Champ, a book that includes a 75-minute interactive audio CD following a child from a classroom bee to the finals.
Spellbound: an award-winning documentary, which follows eight American spellers from their regional bees through to the conclusion of the 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.
Akeelah and the Bee: a motion picture about a young girl from South Los Angeles who tries to make it to the National Spelling Bee.
Other useful links your students and teachers might enjoy are:  Welcome to the Spelling Bee Hive! –  The Times Spelling Bee/UK –  Canwest Canspell/Canada (teachers) —   Canwest Canspell/ Canada (students)–   Denver Public Schools Semantics/US and some word games at Merriam-Webster online — Funbrain.com’s spellcheck.– Quia’s most commonly misspelled words and Spelling Bee Hive. (These can all be found on the Paris Spelling Bee blog).

Organizers:
Gifted in France is a 1901 association for English-speaking families. We organize educational meetings for parents, teachers and other professionals on the social, educational and emotional needs of gifted and twice-exceptional children (gifted children with learning issues).  We also organize activities for children, such as science and creative writing workshops as well as the annual Paris Spelling Bee.

The Paris Spelling Bee is a volunteer-run not-for-profit event. We encourage parents and teachers who are interested in helping the Bee Committee to please contact us as soon as possible. We are also looking for donors or sponsors who wish to contribute prizes or help defray other costs of the Bee.

We are grateful to the American Library in Paris for their continued support and collaboration and to the American University of Paris for hosting the 2011 Paris Spelling Bee.

We look forward to hearing from you, your students and your children.

Best regards,

Helen Sahin Connelly
Coordinator, Paris Spelling Bee
parisfrancespellingbee@gmail.com
parisfrancespellingbee.wordpress.com

Gazelles: Tuli Bennett-Bose, 1st place winner and Niamh Howley, 2nd place winner

Cheetahs: Shannon Connelly 1st place winner; Cody Vance, 2nd place winner

Twenty-nine finalists from 13 schools competed in the 3rd annual Paris Spelling Bee on Sunday May 30 at the American Library in Paris. Students were grouped into two categories: Gazelles for 3^rd-5^th graders (CE2-CM2) and 6th-8th graders (6ème- 4ème).

In the Gazelles group, Tuli Bennett-Bose, a 5th grader (CM2) from International School of Paris, won first prize by spelling ‘demarcate’ correctly in the 29^th round. Another 5th grader, Niamh Howley from Institute de l’Assomption Lubeck, took the second place trophy for the second year in a row. Niamh also attends the Roaming Schoolhouse for English instruction. Tuli and Niamh are 10 years old.

In the Cheetahs group, 13-year-old Shannon Connelly, from Ecole Active Bilingue Jeannine Manuel, won first place by correctly spelling her championship word ‘serendipity.” Twelve-year-old Cody Vance, from College International Fontainebleau, clinched second prize by spelling ‘catalpa.’  Shannon is in 8th grade (4ème) and Cody is in 7th grade (5ème). It was the third time Shannon has competed in the bee.

Both first-prize winners also received one-year family memberships from the American Library in Paris, as well as iSpy Binoculars from Office Depot. Additional prizes for all finalists were provided by the library, Hachette Livres International, Marc Labat, The Roaming Schoolhouse, and WH Smith.

The event is an annual community enrichment activity organized by Gifted in France in collaboration with the American Library in Paris. ALP’s director Charlie Trueheart and journalist Anne Swardson served as the official pronouncers.

For the Gazelles, Celine Son from the Lennen Bilingual School finished in 3^rd place in the 25^th round, while 5^th grader Matteo Boissiere from Massillon and 4^th grader Holly O’Neil from Ecole Georges Cogniot in Malakoff finished in 4^th and 5^th place respectively. Both Matteo and Holly are 9 years old.

Tying for 3^rd place for the Cheetahs were 12-year-old Casper Sanderson from EABJM and 11-year-old Benjamin Macintyre from La Source. Finishing in 5th and 6th place were Mia Canbantous from EABJM and Sasha Tsovma from Stanislas.

Seventy-eight students from more than 30 schools participated in the preliminary written round on April 10th, and 16 finalists were chosen for both the Gazelles and Cheetahs based on their performance. This year’s spellers showed remarkable courage and unprecedented dedication to learning their words and coming to the scheduled events –the preliminary written round, practice session and the oral finals.

The Paris Spelling Bee is grateful to the American Library in Paris for hosting the bee for the third straight year. Special thanks go to the organizers who devoted countless hours over the last several months to making the event possible: Jude Smith Matisse, Cate O’Connor, Rose Burke, Melanie O’Neil, Kim Siew Ngoh, Shellie Holubek, Ashley Miller and Emine Pelin Ariner. Additional thanks go to Naida Culshaw Kendrick,  Janet Sahin, Nati Jiminez, Cathy Altman Nocquet, Janet Hoffman, Helen Stathopulos Géhin and Sophie Field.

Paris Spelling Bee is modeled after typical bees in the United States.

Spelling bees provide an opportunity for students to expand their vocabulary, learn about word origins and have a chance to improve their public speaking abilities.

A family movie night was also organized by the bee committee and ALP in March where over 80 parents and children showed up at the American Library to have pizza and watch the award-winning documentary Spellbound.

2011 Paris Spelling Bee is already looking for co-sponsors to help defray the costs and donate educational prizes. The committee is also seeking volunteers who are passionate about providing an enriching experience to young spellers, readers and those curious about words, words and words.

Schools and individuals interested in helping or participating in the 2011 bee can email Helen Sahin Connelly at parisfrancespellingbee@gmail.com.

Congratulations to all our 2010 winners and finalists!!

See You Next Year!