A spelling bee is a competition where contestants, usually children, are asked to spell English words. The concept originated in the United States, and is usually perceived to be a solely American practice.^[1] Spelling bee may refer to: Spelling bee, a competition in which contestants are asked to spell words Specific spelling bees: Scripps National Spelling Bee, a highly competitive U.S. spelling bee held in Washington, D.C. Spelling Bee of Canada, a Canadian spelling bee which operates mostly in Ontario CanSpell... A male Caucasian toddler child A child (plural: children) is a young human. ... Proper spelling is the writing of a word or words with all necessary letters and diacritics present in an accepted standard order. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

History

The earliest evidence of the phrase spelling bee in print dates back to 1825, although the contests had apparently been held before that year.^{[citation needed]} The etymology of the word "bee" in this sense is unclear. Historically, it has described a social congregation where a specific action is being carried out, like a husking bee, a quilting bee, or an apple bee. A key impetus for the contests was Noah Webster's spelling books. First published in 1786 and known colloquially as "The Blue-backed Speller," Webster's spelling books were an essential part of the curriculum of all elementary school children in the United States for five generations. Etymologies redirects here. ... A bee, as used in quilting bee or spelling bee, is an old word to describe a gathering of friends and neighbors to accomplish a task or to hold a competition. ... Noah Webster Noah Webster (October 16, 1758 – April 28, 1843) was an American lexicographer, textbook author, spelling reformer, political writer, word enthusiast, and editor. ...

The United States National Spelling Bee was started in 1925 by The Courier-Journal, the newspaper of Louisville, Kentucky. In 1941, the Scripps Howard News Service acquired sponsorship of the program, and the name changed to the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee (later simply "Scripps National Spelling Bee"). As well as covering the 50 U.S. states, several competitors also come from Canada, the Bahamas, New Zealand and Europe. The Courier-Journal, nicknamed the C-J, is the main newspaper for the city of Louisville, Kentucky, USA. According to the 1999 Editor & Publisher International Yearbook, the paper is the 48th largest daily paper in the United States and the single largest in Kentucky. ... Louisville redirects here. ... Official language(s) English[1] Capital Frankfort Largest city Louisville Area  Ranked 37th  - Total 40,444 sq mi (104,749 km²)  - Width 140 miles (225 km)  - Length 379 miles (610 km)  - % water 1. ... The E. W. Scripps Company is a media conglomerate founded by Edward W. Scripps on November 2, 1878 originally known as the Cleveland Penny Press. ... 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 run on a not-for-profit basis by The E. W. Scripps Company, held in the ballroom at the...

In the United States, spelling bees are annually held from local levels up to the level of the Scripps National Spelling Bee which awards a cash prize to the winner. The National Spelling Bee is sponsored by English-language newspapers and educational foundations; it is also broadcast on ESPN. Since 2006, the National Spelling Bee's championship rounds have been broadcast on ABC live. In 2005, contestants came from the Bahamas, Jamaica, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Canada, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, and a German military base, as well as the United States. This was the first year that spellers from Canada and New Zealand attended the competition. The final authority for words is the Merriam Webster unabridged dictionary, Webster's Third New International. The annual study list is available from Scripps, either online or in print. 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 run on a not-for-profit basis by The E. W. Scripps Company, held in the ballroom at the... ESPN, formerly an acronym for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, is an American cable television network dedicated to broadcasting and producing sports-related programming 24 hours a day. ... [--168. ... The United States Virgin Islands is a group of islands in the Caribbean that is a dependency of the United States. ...

The Spelling Bee of Canada started with a local contest in 1987 in Toronto, Ontario. In 1996, contestants were accepted from other provinces. However, it has been overtaken in media coverage by the newer (and newspaper chain-affiliated) CanSpell National Spelling Bee. The Spelling Bee of Canada is a charitable, educational organization founded in the Greater Toronto Area in 1987, which aims to create a national Canadian spelling bee. ... Template:Hide = Motto: Template:Unhide = Diversity Our Strength Image:Toronto, Ontario Location. ... The CanWest CanSpell National Spelling Bee is a spelling bee held annually in Canada since 2005. ...

The National Senior Spelling Bee started in Cheyenne, Wyoming in 1996. Sponsored by the Wyoming AARP, it is open to contestants 50 and older. Maria Dawson is the only contestant to ever win two back to back titles at The National Spelling Bee. Nickname: Location in Wyoming Coordinates: , Country State County Laramie Founded 1867 Government  - Mayor Jack R. Spiker Area  - Total 21. ...

The Internet is now home to a virtual version of the Spelling Bee, launched in September of 2007. The Word Cup is an annual global vocabulary challenge for all ages. Hosted by eSpindle Learning, the event is quizzing both vocabulary and spelling skills in a time-restricted environment. All three rounds of the competition take place online, with increasing levels of supervision. Over $75,000 prizes wait for the top contestants in each of four age categories, as well as participants of varying proficiency levels Future events will reward those who show the largest improvement, making this an event where everyone has a chance to win.

Word Cup also includes a fundraising campaign for literacy organizations, whose funds are distributed by the Word Cup winners to participating projects.

School, District, and Regional bees

Spelling bee students usually start competition in elementary schools or middle schools. For elementary schools, children usually have a class bee to select children for the school bee, and are given a list of words to study. For middle schools, a bee is usually given in one's English class, or is open for anyone. A list of words is also given to middle school students. Primary or elementary education is the first years of formal, structured education that occurs during childhood. ... Middle school and junior high school cover a period of education that straddles primary education and secondary education and serve as a bridge between them. ... English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S., Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, the Philippines, India, South Africa, and the Middle East, among other areas), English linguistics (including English phonetics, phonology...

Usually, but not always, the student who places 1st place at their school bee goes on to a district or regional bee. There is no given list to study for at either. The top 10 children at the district bee, (ie. 1st place-10th place) goes on to the regional/state bee. Many schools in the country stop spellers at this point from continuing on to the national bee, mainly because of inexperience. The number of students who do head on to the national bee varies from state to state. If a student succeeds the regional bee, they usually hire tutors to help them prepare.^[2] . Local government areas called districts are used, or have been used, in several countries. ... A region can be any area that has some unifying feature. ... Local government areas called districts are used, or have been used, in several countries. ... A region can be any area that has some unifying feature. ... Scripps can refer to The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. ... 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 run on a not-for-profit basis by The E. W. Scripps Company, held in the ballroom at the...

National spelling bee

Scripps National Spelling Bee logo

Serious spelling bee competitors will study root words and etymologies, and often foreign languages from which English draws, in order to spell challenging words correctly. Spellers also study words used in previous bees; there are several preparatory materials published in connection with the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The previous resource was called the Paideia word list (from the Greek word meaning education and culture), and has since been discontinued. 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 run on a not-for-profit basis by The E. W. Scripps Company, held in the ballroom at the... Etymologies redirects here. ... To the ancient Greeks, Paideia (παιδεία) was the process of educating man into his true form, the real and genuine human nature. ...

In the year 2006-2007, the Scripps National Spelling Bee started publishing a new book of words called Spell it! Devoted spelling bee participants also use other reference books, which feature strategies, methods and lists to help the contestant further develop their spelling skills. Tutoring materials to aid spelling skills are also becoming available on the web.

For the first several decades, the Scripps' annual study booklet was named "Words of the Champions", and it offered 3,000 words in a list separated into beginning, intermediate, and advanced groupings. In the early 80s Hexco Academic started offering Valerie's Spelling Bee Supplement ^[3] to spellers to give them a phonetic pronunciation and definition for each word. This product grew out of Valerie's own experience in working with the Scripps' word list, looking up the words, and committing them to her then TRS/80 computer. She was the youngster that prompted the company to offer "her notes" for sale to other spellers. From there the small company developed computer software, products for conducting bees, and ultimately a line of advanced study products. Every National Spelling Bee Champion since 2000 has used Hexco Academic [1] study materials in preparation for the higher rungs of competitions, particularly Nat's Notes [2] and Spelling Rules Book [3].

As Hexco began offering the only study materials available for preparation for the National Spelling Bee other than the 2,600 page "Webster's Third New International," spellers became more competitive, and the National Bee started using more and more difficult words to conduct their bees. In the mid-90s the annual study list changed to be "Paideia" which ultimately contained 4,100+ words, then again changed in 2006 to be the shorter list, entitled "Spell It!" Hexco has continued to provide annual products for studying the annual Scripps study list, and they continue to add advanced products to prepare spellers for the esoteric words spelled at the National Spelling Bee.

Spelling bees in popular culture

Some examples of spelling bees featured on television include:

• A British television show called Spelling Bee, featuring adult contestants and broadcast by the BBC on 31 May 1938, is generally held to have been the world's first television game show.^{[citation needed]}
• A game on The Price Is Right in the United States, called "Spelling Bee", requires the contestant to spell CAR by selecting cards from a board, in order to win a car. The contestant also has the opportunity to take up to $2500 instead of the car.
• A game show on the former Black Family Channel cable network, Thousand Dollar Bee engaged children in a spelling bee-like competition.[4][5]
• The 1986 ABC TV-movie The Girl Who Spelled Freedom, about a Cambodian immigrant girl who competes in spelling bees.[6]
• The 2002 Academy Award-nominated documentary, Spellbound, featured eight competitors in the 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
• The 2004 game show The Great American Celebrity Spelling Bee featured four teams of four celebrities playing for charity. The show was hosted by John O'Hurley, and help for the celebrities was provided by Scripps National Spelling Bee participant Samir Patel.
• Five episodes of the ESPN show Cheap Seats presented and satirized the taped television coverage of the 1994, 1995, 1996, and 1997 Scripps National Spelling Bees.
• The NBC game show The Singing Bee is like a spelling bee but instead of spelling words, contestants have to identify lyrics to popular songs.

For other uses, see BBC (disambiguation). ... is the 151st day of the year (152nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Quiz show redirects here. ... The Price Is Rights US 36th season logo. ... Bob Barker and a contestant standing in front of the Spelling Bee board Spelling Bee is a pricing game on the American television game show The Price Is Right. ... Black Family Channel (founded in 1999 as MBC Network) is the only black owned and operated cable television network for African American families. ... Academy Award The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent and most watched film awards ceremony in the world. ... Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to document reality. ... Spellbound is a 2002 documentary, directed by Jeffrey Blitz, nominated for the Academy Award for Documentary Feature. ... John Gerald OHurley (born October 9, 1954, in Kittery, Maine) is an American actor best known for his recurring role as J. Peterman on Seinfeld. ... Samir Patel (born January 14, 1994) is an academic competitor who won the North South Foundation National Spelling Bee, and has placed 2nd, 3rd, 13th, and 27th in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. ... Cheap Seats is a television program broadcast on ESPN Classic hosted by brothers Jason and Randy Sklar. ... This article is about the television network. ... This article is about the American version. ...

Fictional works about spelling bees

• The 1878 Bret Harte poem "The Spelling Bee at Angels" describes a spelling contest held at a California gold mining camp.
• A spelling bee features as pioneer family entertainment in Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder, in which Pa 'spells down' the whole town.
• the 1969 animated film A Boy Named Charlie Brown
• Eleemosynary, a 1998 play by Lee Blessing, uses the spelling bee as a key story element.
• An episode of Friends titled "TOW The Late Thanksgiving" Rachel lies to Ross, saying that she took part in a spelling bee
• the 1994 film Billy Madison
• the 2001 novel Bee Season and its 2005 film adaptation
• the 2005 musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
• the 2006 film Akeelah and the Bee
• "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can," an episode of the animated television series The Simpsons
• "Spelling Bee," a Saturday Night Live comedy sketch in which Will Forte's character delivers a 75-letter misspelling of the word "business" that includes 12 consecutive q's
• An episode of The Proud Family titled "Spelling Bee"
• An episode of Roseanne titled "Aliens"
• An episode of Psych titled "Spelling Bee"
• An episode of Hey Arnold! titled "Spelling Bee"
• An episode of My Name is Earl titled "The Professor"
• An episode of South Park titled "Hooked on Monkey Phonics"
• A scene in the movie Mean Girls shows a girl spelling the word 'xylocarp.'
• An episode of According to Jim titled "Spelling Bee"
• An episode of Full House titled "Spellbound"
• An episode of Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide titled "Sick Days & Spelling Bees"
• An episode of Mr. Belvedere titled "The Spelling Bee"
• An episode of Drawn Together titled "Spelling Applebee's"
• An episode of the CBC series The Red Green Show titled "The Spelling Bee"
• An episode of Frasier titled "War of the Words"
• A character in The Phantom Tollbooth, a novel by Norton Juster, is named the Spelling Bee.

Portrait of Bret Harte - oil painting by John Pettie (1884)[1] For the professional wrestler, see Bret Hart. ... Laura Ingalls Wilder (February 7, 1867 – February 10, 1957) was an American author. ... Animation refers to the process in which each frame of a film or movie is produced individually, whether generated as a computer graphic, or by photographing a drawn image, or by repeatedly making small changes to a model (see claymation and stop motion), and then photographing the result. ... A Boy Named Charlie Brown is a 1969 animated film produced by Cinema Center Films and Lee Mendelson Films for National General Pictures, directed by Bill Melendez, and based on the Peanuts comic strip. ... Eleemosynary is a 1985 one-act play by Lee Blessing. ... Lee Blessing (born October 4, 1949) is an American playwright. ... For friendship, see friendship. ... Billy Madison is a 1995 comedy starring Adam Sandler in the title role about a slacker who must go back to school in order to take over his fathers company. ... This article is about the literary concept. ... Bee Season is a 2000 novel (ISBN 0385498799) by Myla Goldberg. ... Bee Season is a 2005 feature film based on the 2000 novel by Myla Goldberg. ... Musical theater (or theatre) is a form of theatre combining music, songs, dance, and spoken dialogue. ... The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a one act musical comedy with music and lyrics by William Finn and a book by Rachel Sheinkin. ... Akeelah and the Bee is a 2006 film written and directed by Doug Atchison. ... Im Spelling as Fast as I Can is the twelfth episode of The Simpsons fourteenth season. ... Simpsons redirects here. ... This article is about the American television series. ... Sketch Show redirects here. ... Orville Willis Will Forte IV (born June 17, 1970) is an American actor, writer, and comedian best known for appearing on the television show Saturday Night Live, where he has been a cast member since 2002. ... The Proud Family is an American animated television series targeted toward African-American pre-teens and teenagers. ... Roseanne Cherrie Barr (born November 3, 1952) is an American actress, writer, talk-show host, and comedian. ... For the style of music often known as psych, see Psychedelic music. ... Hey Arnold! was an American animated television series that aired from October 7, 1996 until June 8, 2004 on Nickelodeon. ... My Name Is Earl is an Emmy Award-winning American sitcom created by Greg Garcia. ... This article is about the TV series. ... Hooked on Monkey Fonics is episode 313 of Comedy Centrals animated series South Park. ... Mean Girls is a 2004 film directed by Mark Waters (Freaky Friday), written by (and co-starring) Tina Fey and stars Lindsay Lohan with Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried and Lacey Chabert and featured several Saturday Night Live cast members, including not only Tina Fey but also Tim Meadows, Ana Gasteyer... According to Jim is an American situation comedy television series originally broadcast by ABC. The show premiered with little publicity in October 2001, following the surprise hit comedy My Wife and Kids. ... Full House was a popular American television family sitcom that originally ran from September 22, 1987 to May 23, 1995 on ABC. // Full House is set in San Francisco, California, where Danny Tanner is left to raise his three young daughters D.J., Stephanie and Michelle following the death of... Neds Declassified School Survival Guide, sometimes shortened to Neds Declassified or Neds, was an American live-action situation comedy on Nickelodeon that debuted in the channels Sunday night TEENick scheduling block on September 12, 2004 in The United States of America. ... Mr. ... Drawn Together is an American animated television series that uses a sitcom format with a TV reality show setting. ... Spelling Applebees is the twenty-fifth episode of the animated series Drawn Together. ... Radio-Canada redirects here. ... The Red Green Show is a television comedy that aired on CBC Television in Canada and on PBS in the United States from 1991 until the series finale 7 April 2006 on CBC. Reruns currently air on CBC Television, CBC Country Canada, The Comedy Network, and various PBS stations. ... Frasier is an American sitcom starring Kelsey Grammer as psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane. ... The Phantom Tollbooth (1961) is a childrens novel and a modern fairy tale full of wordplay and adventure. ...

See also

• Dictation (exercise)

Dictation is the transcription of spoken text: one person who is dictating speaks and another who is taking dictation writes down the words as they are spoken. ...

References

1. ^ RTÉ Television - The View
2. ^ SEMMLAA (Southeastern Michigan Middle Level Administrator's Association) regional spelling bee administrator's packet
3. ^ Valerie's Spelling Bee Supplement : Hexco, Inc

External links

• Official website of the Scripps National Spelling Bee
• Information on the origins of "bee"
• Denver Public Schools Students and Teachers Spelling Bee Information
• Online tutoring website maintained by non-profit organization; includes free online forum for Spelling Bee enthusiasts
• Online Word Cup - global spelling bee for all ages, free tryouts
• SpellBEE: A web-based two-player spelling bee, designed to motivate appropriate challenges
• Franklin Spelling Bee
• Spelling Bee of Canada
• National Senior Spelling Bee
• Spelling Bee Protesters
• CanSpell Spelling Bee