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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Twelve Hilltop Elementary School fourth-grade students put their spelling skills to the test as they participated in the school’s annual Fourth-Grade Spelling Bee on June 4.
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.On June 4, Hilltop Elementary School fourth-grade student Gwen Blumetti (left) was crowned the 2017-18 champion of the school’s annual Fourth-Grade Spelling Bee with John Drodouski (center) named second place winner and Jake Litwin (right) named third place winner.
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.A fourth-grade student at Hilltop Elementary School took his turn at the microphone during the school’s annual Fourth-Grade Spelling Bee, as the other contestants looked on.
By ABBY SLANKER
Twelve Hilltop Elementary School fourth-grade students had their spelling skills put to the test as they participated in the school’s annual Spelling Bee on June 4.
Three students from each of the four fourth-grade classrooms qualified for the grade-wide spelling bee by winning one of three classroom spelling bees.
Hilltop Elementary School Principal Joe Maroni was the announcer. Monica Coliadis and Beth Sich served as judges. Third- and fellow fourth-grade students, friends and family were also in attendance to support the spellers.
Maroni welcomed everyone in attendance and explained the Spelling Bee rules.
“Good morning and welcome to our annual Fourth-Grade Spelling Bee. We welcome our third-grade and fourth-grade students and guests. Thank you for attending our Spelling Bee today,” Maroni said.
Maroni started the Spelling Bee, during which the students competed for several rounds, with the words getting more difficult as the students moved through the rounds, until it came down to the final two spellers, Gwen Blumetti and John Drodouski, at the end of the 14th round.
For the last two spellers, the rules changed. Maroni would say the word and use the word in a sentence. The contestant must then spell the word correctly to move on. If the word was misspelled, the other contestant must spell that word correctly and then spell a new word correctly to win the Spelling Bee
After some stiff competition, Blumetti was crowned champion of the 2017-18 Hilltop Elementary School Fourth-Grade Spelling Bee, by spelling ‘protested’ and ‘amusing.’
“Congratulations, Gwen, you are our Spelling Bee champion. And congratulations to our runners-up and to all our Spelling Bee contestants,” Maroni said.
Drodouski was named second place winner, with Jake Litwin named third place winner. Blumetti, Drodouski and Litwin each received a dictionary and a Barnes and Noble gift card, courtesy of Hilltop PTA. In addition to her prizes, Blumetti also received a gold crown as she was named champion.