St. Pius V. Spelling BEE!

St. Pius Spelling BEE

"Do your best, and be kind to one another."
St. Pius V School/Church Mission Statement


My 10-year-old daughter Sabrina attends forth grade at St. Pius V. School in Lynn, Massachusetts. Sabrina has been a student there since Kindergarten and my plan is to have her graduate at the end of her eighth grade year.

I love this little Catholic School. http://www.stpiusvschool.org/ Starting with top of the chain - the Principal Mr. Maestranzi, the teachers, support/Pastoral staff, even on down to the janitors! I love the uniforms, the structure, the discipline. I especially appreciate that Sabrina’s First Holy Communion was built into her second grade curriculum. I further enjoy the Mass that is held one Friday each month that the entire school community attends as well as parents, family, friends and others who are also welcome. I am even serving my third year term on the Parent Teacher Organization PTO?

Most importantly, I also believe in the in the St. Pius V. School/Church Mission - “Do your Best, and be kind to one another”.

Yesterday St. Pius V. held it’s Annual Spelling Bee Event and although Sabrina was not competing we still attended to support some of her forth grade classmates; Devin, Joseph and her eighth-grade buddy Jackie. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scripps_National_Spelling_Bee

If you have ever witnessed a Spelling Bee you can guess that it is exciting to see some of these youngsters spell some difficult words correctly. AND it is equally discouraging to witness some of them spell words incorrectly. The winner did well he will go on to compete Lynn City Hall in March.

If you are interested in seeing a movie that taps into this subject watch Akeelah and the Bee. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akeelah_and_the_Bee

On the way to an appointment in the car today Sabrina said to me “Mommy, I wouldn’t want to go up there…the hard part would be getting a word wrong” referring to yesterdays Spelling Bee. OK time for "MOM ADVICE" - I said, “Sabrina, even though it is a SPELLING BEE and the objective is to spell the word correctly, it is not JUST about spelling the word right…it is about taking a chance and participating in the event”… “like you did for the St. Pius V. Talent Show”… “remember even though you and Brenda didn’t win”…“you both had a great time practicing your routine, performing it for the school and being a part of the event”.


I have an absolute love of English and words and spelling (I don’t mean some of the typing mistakes you may find on my BLOG) I love spelling words. I taught 1:1 reading instruction for three years at a special education school (Lakeside School).
AND although reading and writing are MY strengths and MY passions. They are not Sabrina’s strengths, or Sabrina’s passions. In truth, reading and writing are very tough for her.

In fact, Sabrina has been diagnosed with Dyslexia which causes her to see words and letters backwards and to write words and letters backwards. I hope that her having dyslexia does not stop her from participating in the St. Pius V. Spelling Bee event next year…

because even if she TRIES and she misspells the first word she gets that would be fine with me and the school because after all St. Pius V. Mission States "Do your best, and be kind to one another."


Word of the Day -

Dyslexia is a learning disability that manifests primarily as a difficulty with written language, particularly with reading and spelling. It is separate and distinct from reading difficulties resulting from other causes, such as a non-neurological deficiency with vision or hearing, or from poor or inadequate reading instruction.[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyslexia

Great resource for your children – frequently misspelled words

http://www.writerspost.com/literatefolk/spellingb/


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akeelah_and_the_Bee


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scripps_National_Spelling_Bee

The Scripps National Spelling Bee (formerly known as the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee and commonly referred to simply as the National Spelling Bee) is a highly competitive annual spelling bee. It is run on a not-for-profit basis by The E. W. Scripps Company and is held in the ballroom at the Grand Hyatt Washington hotel in Washington, D.C. Historically, the competition has been open to, and remains open to, the winners of sponsored American regional spelling bees. Over the years, the competition has been opened to contestants from Canada, Mexico, Jamaica, New Zealand, and the Bahamas. Participants from countries other than the United States must be regional spelling bee competition winners as well. In recent years, the Championship Finals have aired live on ABC from 8:00 PM to after 10:00 p.m. EDT.

Frequently Misspelled Words
Homeschool Your Child For Free! project

Great resource for your children – frequently misspelled words

http://www.writerspost.com/literatefolk/spellingb/


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akeelah_and_the_Bee


====

FACT

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_year


For the 1921 film starring Fatty Arbuckle, see Leap Year (film).
A leap year (or intercalary year) is a year containing one or more extra days (or, in the case of lunisolar calendars, an extra month) in order to keep the calendar year synchronised with the astronomical or seasonal year. For example, in the Gregorian calendar, February would have 29 days in a leap year instead of the usual 28. Because seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of full days, a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would, over time, drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting (or intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. A year which is not a leap year is called a common year.

Thought for Today: "A single day is enough to make us a little larger." — Paul Klee, Swiss-German artist (1879-1940).

Today is Friday, Feb. 29, the 60th day of 2008. There are 306 days left in the year. This is Leap Day