Brain power: MBE spelling bee

Mortgage. Libertarian. Electrolysis. Episcopal. This year’s Mountain Brook Elementary Spelling Bee champion, fourth-grader Sally Moore, and runner-up, fourth-grader Charlie Hill, can spell those words and many more.

Twenty-three fourth, fifth, and sixth grade MBE students competed to be the school’s 2018 Bee champion. To prepare, Hill said, “I studied with my parents. My first-grade sister even called the words out that she could read. All of us had to look up pronunciations and definitions of the unusual words.”  

The 2018 Bee lasted more than two and a half hours, and went on for more than twenty rounds – including more than 10 rounds between Moore and Hill – before Moore correctly spelled the championship word: abridged.

“I loved the experience of being in the spelling bee,” Moore said. “I got to learn a lot of new words along the way.”

The 2018 MBE Spelling Bee was organized and facilitated by Mrs. Allyson Martin, Mrs. Kim Hall and Mrs. Lindsey Ehsan, judged by Mrs. Suzanne Andrews, Ms. Meredith Collins and Mrs. Missy Wright, and videoed by Mr. Bill Andrews. Moore will go on to represent MBE at the Mountain Brook District Bee on January 10 with all of MBE supporting her!

– Submitted by Kitty Rogers Brown