Spelling Be

The King’s School Spelling Bee (K-8th grade) takes place annually. Please contact the office for specific dates and times. Click here for a printable list of rules.

There will be Champions for two levels; Level 1 (K-4th) and Level 2 (5th-8th). Each classroom winner earns 1000 points for their team! The Level Champions may participate in the annual Bee at Lake Avenue School, Saratoga Springs, NY. 

SPELLING BEE RULES

1. The contest will be entirely oral.

2. The competition will be conducted in each classroom in rounds. Each speller remaining in the spelling bee at the start of the round will spell one word in the round.

3. The teacher/judge will make every effort to pronounce the words according to the diacritical markings in the word list.

4. In competition, after the judge gives the speller a word, the speller will be required to pronounce the word before spelling it and after spelling it.

5. The speller may ask the judge to say the word again, define it, use it in a sentence, provide the part of speech, and/or provide the language of origin. Root word questions will not be entertained by the judge.

6. The judge may disqualify any speller who ignores a request to start spelling.

7. Having started to spell a word, a speller may stop and start over, retracing the spelling from the beginning. In retracing, however, there can be no change of letters or their sequence from those first pronounced. If letters or their sequences are changed in the respelling, the speller will be eliminated.

8. Upon missing a spelling of a word, a speller immediately drops out of the competition. The next word on the judge’s list is given to the next speller.

FINAL ROUND

9. At the end of the classroom spelling bee, a final round will commence in the Sanctuary with the classroom winners.

10. If none of the spellers remaining in the spelling bee at the start of the round spells a word correctly during this round, all shall remain in the competition.

11. All spellers eliminated in the same round will be tied for the same place. 

12. If only one of the spellers remaining in the competition at the start of a round spells a word correctly during that round, a new round will begin and the speller will be given an opportunity to spell the next word on the list. If the speller succeeds in correctly spelling the new word, the speller will be declared the champion. Otherwise (that is, if the speller does not succeed in correctly spelling the new word,) all the spellers remaining in the competition at the start of the previous round shall remain in the competition. A new round will begin, with these spellers spelling in the original order.

13. The champion is not the champion until he or she has spelled correctly two more words than the speller(s) placed second have spelled. These two words will be spelled consecutively only if the champion is the last speller in a round.