SPELLING BEE RULES GRADES 2 - 5 COMPETITION
1. Each team will consist of no more than four members, including the captain, who will be in charge of writing down the words and asking questions, if necessary. The words should be written largely and clearly enough for the judges to read.
2. The moderator will read the same word to all teams in a round. The moderator will pronounce the word, give the definition of the word or use it in a sentence, and pronounce the word once more. The moderator will then ask if any team wants the word pronounced one additional time, but not more than one time.
3. Team members should collaborate on the spelling of a word. The captain will then write the team’s answer on the paper provided. At the end of 15 seconds, the timekeeper will ring a bell and the moderator will instruct all teams in the round to hold up their answers for the judges to see. The judges will review each team’s answer.
4. When a team misspells a word, that team will place a red plastic cup on the table indicating one misspelled word. This process will continue until a winner is determined.
5. After misspelling a third word, that team is eliminated from the round. All teams will remain on the stage until the end of that round of competition.
6. The last team to spell a word correctly in that round will be declared the round winner and will move on to the championship round at the end of their school’s session.
7. After all preliminary rounds are complete, the winners from each round will play in a championship round. The championship round will follow the same rules as the preliminary rounds. The last team to spell a word correctly will be declared the winner of the Spelling Bee. There will be a Wheelock winner and a Dale Street winner.
8. Most, but not all, words used in the Bee will be selected from SCRIPPs National Spelling Bee study lists. Parent and student study resources may be found at https://spellingbee.com/study-list.
9. Words will be pronounced according to the diacritical markings in the American Heritage Dictionary: Second College Edition and/or Webster's Third New International Dictionary and its Addenda Section.
10. The judges’ decisions, in all cases, will be final.
11. Solo Spellers will be allowed to provisionally sign up for a potential Wheelock team or potential Dale team. MCPE will do our best to combine the Solo Spellers into school-based teams of 2-4 based on how many children sign up. As this is a team competition, we do not allow one child teams. If, unfortunately, we do not have enough Solo Spellers to create a team(s), we will notify the Parent(s) and refund as needed.