Last past Friday afternoon Bright Elementary held its first spelling bee in five years. There were 24 finalists that earned their way to the stage for the finals.

To make it to the finals contestants had to have one of the top 24 scores on a difficult spelling test that more than 70 fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade students attempted. After round one there were 21 competitors remaining. Round 2 and round 3 eliminated another six participants to leave a final 15 remaining.

Round 4 of the increasingly difficult words whittled the group down to the top 10. The top 10 students proved themselves very worthy as it took four more rounds of tricky and lengthy words to reach the top five. Round 9 eliminated two more competitors to leave the school with three remaining students for Round 10.

In Round 10, fourth grade student Zeke Noe misspelled “provocation” and classmate Ethan Brill misspelled “re-enactment” to leave only sixth grade student Natalie Burnett. She successfully spelled “subsidence” to move her on to round 11 and the opportunity to become the winner. In round 11, Burnett correctly spelled ‘pneumonia” to become the Bright Elementary Scripps Spelling Bee Champion.

Winning the Scripps Spelling Bee qualifies Burnett to the regional qualifying round of the Scripps Spelling Bee. This will be an online spelling test and the top 20 scores from all over and around the Cincinnati region will advance to the Southwest Regional Spelling Bee in Cincinnati this spring. The winner of the Southwest Regional Spelling Bee will advance on to the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. that will be televised on ESPN.

Submitted by Doug Hughes, Bright Elementary School.