The active Spelling Bee season started with the school round. The school competitions took place in the last week of February. Each school had the opportunity to choose the day and time for the school competition within that week. In emotional „spelling battles“ the schools managed to select their champions and runners-up who qualify for the regional round.
The regional qualifiers received lists with additional words – 250 words for the Spelling Bee participants and 100 words for the juniors.
The regional competitions (10 for Spelling Bee and 8 for Spelling Bee Junior) were held on March 25th and 26th and 30 Spelling Bee national finalists and 24 Spelling Bee JUNIOR finalists were selected.
The national finals happened on April 22nd for Spelling Bee and on April 23rd for Spelling Bee JUNIOR at the big hall of the American college of Sofia.
30 national finalists competed at the Spelling Bee final and demonstrated impressive knowledge of English language. They went through 12 rounds of words from the study list and the best of them had to show their expanded knowledge while spelling unstudied words. After a long (almost 3 hours) competition from Math & Science High Scholl in Kyustendil won the title National Spelling Bee Champion. All participants received certificates for participation, trophies and other gifts. But the most anticipated award for all the finalists is the summer Spelling Bee camp which will be organized in the first week of July.
The JUNIOR competition on April 23rd was even more intense and Boris and Denis (both from Sofia) were announced co-champions. The junior finalists also received certificates for participation, trophies and many other gifts. They will have the chance to participate in an on-line summer camp during the last week of June.
Together with the preparation for the competition, all the participating schools were offered the opportunity to take part in the BEE active campaign which was announced in November. Its goal is to encourage the students to be physically active and to take part in various activities offered by the organizers. Every week a challenge was sent to all registered schools and they could choose in which to participate. Famous athletes, physically active professionals, teachers and students presented different sports and activities and challenged the students to take part in long walks, hikes, biking, dancing, sport games, etc. The schools prepared videos about the activities they organized and Geo Milev Secondary School from Belozem won the 1st place and 81 Secondary school “Victor Hugo” from Sofia won the 2nd place. The winners will receive certificates and awards.
The Spelling Bee summer camp for the national Spelling Bee champions and their teachers will be organized in July.
Links:
The next stage of the competition is related to the preparation of the registered students for the school round and organizing the school competitions.
The participants had 3 months to study the words (500 for Spelling Bee and 250 for Spelling Bee Junior) for the school round. The organizers provided variety of on-line resources to facilitate the learning process and make it more interesting. Flashcards, Spelling city and Quizlet are among the resources the students used most during their preparation period.
The school competitions were scheduled for the last week of February. Each school had the opportunity to choose the day and time for the school cmpetition within that week. 267 school for the students from 5th to 7 th grade and 189 schools for Spelling Bee Junior (2nd – 4th grades) organized their school competitions and after serious and emotional „spelling battles“ managed to select their champions and runners-up. They will advance to the regional round which will be held on March 25th and 26th in different towns around the country.
The regional qualifiers received lists with additional words for the regional round – 250 words for the students from 5th till 7th grade and 100 words for the juniours. They will have around a month to prepare for the rgional competitions and compete with the best spellers in this country.
A photo contest for pictures expressing the emotions of the schools competitions was announced and many schools sent already their entries. A jury will review all the submissions and will choose the winners.
Together with the preparation for the competition, all the participating schools were given the opportunity to take part in the „Be active“ campaign which was announced in November. Itsgoal is to encourage the students to be physycally active and take part in various activities offered by the organizers. Everey week video challenges were sent to all registered schools and they were able to choose in which to participate. Famous athletes, physically active proffesionals, teachers and students presented activities they were involved in and challenged te students to take part in long walks, hikes, biking, dancing, sport games, etc. The schools are expected to prepare videos about the activities they organized and the most active of them will receive special awards.
In the meantime the preparations for the regional round are underway and 18 competitions will happen on March 25th and 26th.
The promotional campaign for the 13th Bulgarian National English Spelling Bee started at the beginning of the school year in mid-September. After 3 challenging years, this school year started with normal conditions and all students present at school.
The registration for Spelling Bee and Spelling Bee Junior was open from October 15th till November 10th. 272 schools registered for Spelling Bee and 190 for Spelling Bee Junior. There is a serious increase in the number of the registered schools for both competition and this is a sign that things are getting back to normal after the COVID challenges. Some of the schools which didn’t participate during the COVID period return to the competition and a lot of new schools joined the Spelling Bee family. The registration for individual participants from schools which were not registered for the competition was open on November 15th and it will be open by the end of the month.
After the completion of the registration process, a pre-test was sent to the teacher-coordinators for the Spelling Bee competition in order to check the entry level of knowledge of the participants before they start studying the words from the competition list. A post-test will be given to all the participants after the end of the school round to measure the progress of the participants and their knowledge after 3 months of preparation.
The word lists were distributed after the completion of the pre-test and the preparation period started. CORPLUS developed a lot of materials to assist the teachers and to provide the participants with additional resources. Quizlet and Spelling city are the educational apps used during the preparation. Flash cards with all the words from the list were also prepared and are in use.
The students will have 3 months to prepare for the school round which will be organized at the last week of February.
The competition continued with the national finals for Spelling Bee and Spelling Bee Junior.
The Spelling Bee national final happened on April 16th at the big hall of the American colleagues in Sofia. All 24 national finalists and their teachers arrived the previous day and at the dinner the students got their competition numbers and were acquainted with the rules and logistics for the final.
It started with greetings from the main partners – representatives of America for Bulgaria Foundation, The US Embassy in Sofia and the Sofia Regional Education Inspectorate. The acapella choir of the American college presented a few songs and contributed to the high spirits among the competitors and the audience.
The competition was very emotional and all the participants demonstrated good knowledge of English and the ability to stay concentrated for long hours. After more than 20 rounds of serious “spelling battle” the 7th grader Teodor from Markovo won the competition and became the 12th National Spelling Bee champion. All participants and teachers received certificates, trophies and gifts. But the best award for all of them was the opportunity to participate in a week-long Spelling Bee summer camp in July.
The national final for Spelling Bee Junior was held on May 14th and gave the opportunity to the 22 national finalists to demonstrate what they have learned during the preparation period and after the first 2 rounds of the competition. The 4th grader Iva from Botevgrad proved that she deserves the victory and won the competition. She spelled correctly the word psychology. All the participants and their teachers were rewarded for their efforts and received certificates, trophies and gifts.
The summer camp for the Spelling Bee national finalists and their teachers was held from July 3rd till July 9th at Godlevo village, near Razlog. The program was very intensive and diverse and it aimed to satisfied the needs and the interests of all the participants. 5 Spelling Bee alumni served as camp counselors and demonstrated dedication to the Spelling Bee cause, as well as great organizational and presentation skills. They often say: "Once a bee, always a bee".
The 4th of July was celebrated with a trivia game about US followed by traditional American outdoor games. Around the camp fire the participants had the pleasure to make and try s'mores and sang American songs.
The agenda included also sessions on Internet culture and literacy, emotional intelligence, negotiation and cooperation, being grateful, as well as a lot of games, sports, hikes, etc. The teachers had the chance to share best practices with their colleagues and built a professional network for sharing resources and ideas.
The camp was instrumental for building long term friendships among the students, professional network among the teachers and added a lot of new members of the big Spelling Bee family.
After the long preparation period the Spelling Bee competition entered its active phase at the last weeks of February.
The school competitions were held from February18 to March 2, 2022. Several schools organized 2 school competitions due to the big number of registered participants. 220 school competitions took place during that week for the SB and 155 for SBJunior. The school competitions were organized “in person” and only 5 of them were online due to local quarantine requirements.
CORPluS staff visited schools in Sofia and the area which participate for the first time and provided support and guidance. All participants in the school competitions and the teacher-coordinators received certificates and small awards in appreciation of their efforts and hard work. 50 schools took part in the photo contest and sent pictures from the school competitions in 3 categories – “BEEs are better together”, “BEEcause we love yellow”, “We are a BEE school”. The results of the competition will be announced in April.
As every year, we offered all registered schools an opportunity to take part in an additional campaign under the slogan “Search BEEyound the obvious”. It is focused on the media literacy of the students and our efforts were focused on development of the critical thinking of the students, searching for information and analyzing it, team work, solving problems, creation of positive and high-quality digital content and safe online communication. The campaign is organized in partnership with Media Literacy Coalition. 2 trainings were organized for the interested teachers and 28 took part in them. They had the opportunity to work on the development of their own lesson plans on media literacy topics and also had the chance to create a network and exchange the materials they created.
The first two students from each SB school qualified for the regional competitions and studied 200 additional words. The school champions from SBJ schools also qualified for the regional competitions and had to study 100 additional words.
On March 26th and 27th eight regional competitions took place in 7 cities around the country – Sofia (2), Plovdiv, Blagoevgrad, Sliven, Varna, Razgrad and Lovech. CORPluS Foundation identified and trained volunteers to help with organizing the regional events. All the announcers were native speakers (Fulbright ETAs) with a teaching experience in the country and they contributed a lot to the success of the competitions. Former Spelling Bee finalists were also involved as judges and helped with organizing the competitions. They served as role models and many 7th graders already asked how they could get involved as volunteers in Spelling Bee events. This practice is very well appreciated and demonstrated that the Spelling Bee alumni still belong to the big Spelling Bee family. All participants at the regional competitions and their teachers were awarded with certificates and prizes for their achievements. The 3 best spellers from each regional competition qualify for the national final which will happen on April 16th in Sofia. The best 24 spellers received additional100 words to study in order to prepare for the final.
For the first time the school champions from SBJunior participated in regional competitions. 7 Spelling Bee Junior regional competitions were organized online on March 28th and 29th. The young spellers demonstrated impressive English language knowledge and skills, as well as a lot of enthusiasm and ambition. The first 3 spellers from each regional competition qualify for the national final which will be on May 14th in Sofia. The finalists received a list of 50 additional words for the final.
The preparation for both finals is underway and the results will be reported in the next report.
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
Make a monthly donation & get 
