Students excel at Spanish bee

JOEL DAVIDSON

Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - Nearly 30 students squirmed, fidgeted, and breathed giant sighs of relief Friday during the third annual Spanish Spelling Bee at Larson Elementary School. Sitting in folding chairs on the gym floor, roughly 100 people quietly urged the contestants on. Nervous moms and dads, fellow Spanish students, and teachers were among the crowd of hand-wringing spectators who watched the grade schoolers and several high school students work to properly pronounce and spell a series of Spanish words.

Nine Wasilla High School students joined 18 Larson students. Beginning with the youngest grades, the competition moved round by round, marching toward the higher grades. At the end of each round, the winner got to move on to try their hand against the older students. Wasilla High School student Mayerly Beltran finished first place.

Larson began the competition three years ago. Larson has approximately 70 students in the Spanish immersion program, the only one of its kind in the Mat-Su that allows students to study standard subjects in math, history, science and others while learning the curriculum in Spanish.

The program began in 2001.

Jackie Cochran teaches a class of kindergarten and first grade immersion students. In preparation for the spelling bee she said students had to revisit their vocabulary words.

&#8220We do a spelling bee in the classroom the week before,” she explained. &#8220Then we pick the top three representatives from each grade level. Each year the spelling bee grows.”

First place winners from each grade level are as follows: Kortney Shaw, kindergarten; Alison, first grade; Emily Maxwell, second grade; Katie Stout, third grade; Emily Bohlman, fourth grade; Makenzie Thompson, fifth grade; Mayerly Beltran, overall high school winner.