South Windsor Spelling Bee Let’s Ready Time to Create a Buzz

The Goals of the South Windsor Spelling Bee Conduct a Fun Competitive Spelling Bee Involve Parents and Children Together Send a Student and a Parent to the Scripps National Spelling Bee Raise Money for the South Windsor Community Foundation and Public Education Funds

Why a Spelling Bee? Spelling Bees Have Been Around Since the 1800’s Spelling Bees Have Been Popular Recently –Several Movies –A Broadway Play –National Competition

How the Bee Works Finals are among the 15 Elementary and 9 Middle School Students in February 2011 at Nomads Winner goes to National Spelling Bee Washington DC Orchard Hill Eli Terry Pleasant Valley Wapping P.R. Smith Timothy Edwards 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place Winners in each grade 3-5 in each Elementary School Playoff to choose 3 school winners in each Elementary School (15 Finalists) 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place From Each TE Grade (9 finalists) National Spelling Bee May/June 2011 Each School Oct –Nov 2010

Who is Eligible? Any South Windsor Student in Grades 3-8 South Windsor Elementary Schools and Timothy Edwards Middle Schools South Windsor Students in Grade 3-8 in Private, Parochial, Magnet, or Charter Schools are Eligible Home Schooled Children are also Eligible Age Restrictions to compete in National Bee Students Must Compete in the School they are Districted for No Exceptions!!

GradeOHETPVWapPRSTE X X X 6 XXXXX337 7 XXXXX339 8 XXXXX373 How Many Will Compete? Local school competitions will hopefully have children per grade Assume 15%-30% participation in each class Expected Enrollment

What Does it Cost? FREE for Students to Enter $99 /school $1,000 for South Windsor to Participate $3,000 (sponsored) to send the winner to the the National Spelling Bee in Washington DC Money will be Raised Through Corporate and Personal Donations and Some Fun- Raising

What are the Prizes A Bee-Yootiful Trophy for 1 st, 2 nd, and 3 rd Winners in Each Grade in Each School Savings Bonds for School Winners Plaques for 3 Finalists An All Expense Paid Trip to the National Spelling Bee in June 2011 in Washington DC for the winner and one parent/guardian

Fun-Raising Ideas $15 Official Spelling Bee T-Shirt $10 Official Plush Spelling Bee $20 Dictionary $10 Custom Dust Jacket $10 ea. 3/ $25 Family Sponsored Words Before a randomly chosen word is read, the judge will say: The next word is sponsored by the Jones Family.

How Competitors Can Fun- Raise Great American Spell Check Competitors Can Download a Packet with Sample Words and Conduct their own Spelling Bee at home. They Solicit Pledges from Friends and Family for each Word they get Correct. Incentive Prizes for Various Donation Levels Money Collected Goes to the Community Foundation COMPLETELY VOLUNTARY!

Important Dates May 2010 – Planned Press Releases –Meeting with Schools and PTO’s –Soliciting Corporate Sponsors June 2010 – August 2010 –Attend Summer Events with Booth for Publicity September 2010 – Publicity and Registration October 2010 Dinner and a Movie with a Practice Bee October - November 2010 School Competitions November 2010 Collect Fun-Raising Money February 2011 – Finals May-June 2011 – National Spelling Bee

How Do Competitors Register? Register On-Line –Register –Purchase T-Shirt, Dictionaries, Family Sponsored Words –Download Samples Word List –Download Great American Spell Check Register through Brochure

How We Will Publicize the Bee Tents at Major South Windsor Events, Concerts, Public Events, Sports Signs, Banners, Posters, Sponsors Schools - Backpack Express Open House, Gatherings ings, Web Site, Facebook

How Can You Help ? We Need Volunteers / Teams for Each Competition –Registration, Line Control, Readers, Judges Help with Planned Special Events –Dinner and a Movie with a Practice Bee Publicity to Parents and Children Collecting Fun-Raising Money and Distributing Incentive Prizes

Contact Information On-line Information 24/7www.swspellingbee.org South Windsor Community Foundation Cary Prague (860) Jan Snyder (860) South Windsor Public Education Fund Liza Love (860)