The Woodbridge township school district spelling bee was an event for middle school students and took place may 10th at WHS at 4:30 and lasted about 2-2.5 hours.

A few of the students and staff at WMS said they started out easy and a little too easy for middle schoolers. Mr. Malmstrom, one of the language arts teachers, said one of the words was “world” and he was a little curious as to why they were giving elementary school words, but he was “very proud” of his two 7th grade students; Chloe Monsanto and Christhalia Jusuf for getting so far.

He would have enjoyed helping train them, but that’s against the rules. He felt that the two students “represented WMS with poise and aplomb”.  Monsanto and Jusuf both agree at the beginning of the spelling bee the words were “very easy”. The hardest word in both of their opinions was “azalea”. Monsanto got out on that word, but finished in the top 20.

Jusuf says “it was super nerve wracking and really hard even if you knew the word. Just to get up and stand in the front of an audience and spell words that you may not even know.” Reportedly, they used a lot of “science words, easy words, and also older words; like words that wouldn’t really be used in today’s generation.”

Monsanto agreed there were a lot of science words, as easy as “insect” to “difficult science words” that they “could not remember”. They both regret not studying, but for future spellers Jusuf says “always ask for a definition; it’s helpful so you don’t mix up words”.

8th grade language arts teacher, Mrs. Nemeth, said that although the earlier rounds may have been easy, the later rounds were “much more difficult than last year.” She thought the two most difficult words were “slantindicular” and “linguistically”. The advice she gave for future spellers is to “study the list, study the rules, and know the spelling patterns”.

Two 6th graders from WMS, Bailey Casanova and Aaron Riggins both agree the spelling bee was very easy. Riggins says “there was no challenge.” Casanova got out on the word “herrolding” and she mentions that was the hardest word to her. The advice she gives future spellers is to study.

Riggins got out on a spanish word that was pronounced without the accent he says “if the [announcer] pronounced it correctly I wouldn’t have been out because I speak spanish”. His advice for future spellers would be “to pretend you have a pen or pencil in your hand and write the word on your arm; it prevents many mistakes”. Casanova doesn’t remember what place she was in, but Riggins finished in the top 15. They both agree the spelling bee was a great opportunity that they look forward to next year.