Bulgarian National English Spelling Bee

The new Spelling Bee season is fast approaching and we created a video with the best moments from Spelling Bee 2018. You can get a glimpse of the school bees, regional competitions, national final and summer camp. You can watch the video at: https://youtu.be/lnIMRSfp6Fs

We can't wait to share with you all the exciting news about Spelling Bee 2019! This year the slogan of the competition will be "BEE BETTER TOGETHER". We will engourage the students to communicate, work in teams and help each other. During the preparation for the competition the teacher coordinator will create a portfolio of all group activities in which the students participated to improve their spelling, pronunciation and confidence. Through this campaign we will strengthen the sense of belonging to our bee hive and create a true community!  

Dear friends,

After the end of the school year the Spelling Bee finalists and their teachers took part in a week-long English Language summer camp with various language and recreational activities. The camp was held in the scenic town of Razlog from 8 to 14 July, 2018. In the mornings students participated in activities such as Environmental awareness, Volunteerism, Writing poetry. The teachers attended sessions on using technologies in the classroom and sharing ideas and good practices. In the afternoons the participants will choose from a variety of activities including hiking, cooking, languages, sports, arts and crafts, etc. In the evenings we organized fun activities such as Capture the flag, Quiz night and Amazing race. We had a visitor from the U.S. Embassy who spoke about social media hygiene and a representative from the American College of Sofia who shared with the students tips on how to organize clubs at their schools. All camp participants had the opportunity to experience American culture through learning about holidays and celebrations, playing baseball, making tie-dye shirts, enjoying s’mores at the campfire, baking chocolate chips cookies, etc. There were two day trips organized for the participants – one to the Pirin National Park and the other to the Belitsa Dancing Bears Park. The highlight of the summer camp was the Talent show during which both students and teachers performed. Camp was truly an unforgettable experience and all participants made lasting relationships and lifelong memories.

In 2018 more than 6600 students from 311 schools took part in the Bulgarian Creative Writing Competition.

This year we organized the eighth edition of the competition. The school bees were held in the week of February 24 – March 2, 2017. We were truly impressed with the enthusiasm with which the whole community was engaged in the competition. On March 24^th eleven regional competitions took place in eight cities around the country – Sofia, Plovdiv, Blagoevgrad, Sliven, Varna, Razgrad, Lovech and Montana. The first two students from each school qualified for the next round.

The national final was held on April 28^th in Sofia. Before the final all participants and their teachers visited the United States Embassy and had a chance to meet representatives from different sections and to hear about their work at the embassy. The students showed their knowledge of American history and traditions during the quiz. The National final was very competitive and everybody was impressed with the knowledge and language skills of the participants. All finalists received certificates, trophies and awards to commemorate their accomplishment. This year the Spelling Bee champion was the sixth grader Bianca from Doctor Petar Beron Secondary School, Pernik.

Over the years the Bulgarian National English Spelling Beeproject has proven that it is a successful educational tool. The competition promotes general language improvement, expanded vocabulary, accurate word usage and pronunciation. Moreover, it is fun and engaging and in this way motivates students to learn English. The CORPluS Foundation is honored to have the support of the Bulgarian-American Society. Through this partnership we can reach out to the most underserved communities and provide them with an opportunity to develop their English language skills.

The 8th Bulgarian National English Spelling Bee is fast approaching. In the week of February 24 - March 2 more than 6500 students will take part in the school competitions. In the past months the participants were studying the word list and learning the spelling of the 500 included words.

The slogan of this year's competition is BeeWare Online! Brian Tyers, a cyber security specialist at the U.S. Embassy in Sofia, will give useful advice on how to stay safe online in a series of videos.

You can watch the intro for the campaign at - https://youtu.be/W8yaM0jeLi8

 We look forward to sharing with you the emotions from the school bees!

In October we opened the registration for the 2018 Bulgarian National Spelling Bee. This year we had a record number of 309 schools that registered for the competition. What's even more impressing is that we will have 40 schools that will organize bees for the first time. Some of the schools are spelling veterans - 25 participants will take part for the 8th consecutive year.

In the following week we will send out the word list! Good luck to all Bulgarian students in their prepartation for the Spelling Bee!

Who will be the Spelling Bee Champion? Stay tuned for updates from the Bulgarian National Spelling Bee...