Spelling Bee 2022 held at Kinross Sasol Club in Thistle Grove

Friends of the Thistle Grove Library held a spelling Bee recently

A Spelling Bee, that shouldn’t be so difficult to spell words? Well…. We listened to some of the words, and I am not sure that I could spell all those words.

The children enjoyed every moment of the Spelling Bee and took it very seriously. That was quite evident in the disappointment on their faces when they get a word wrong.

“We as the Friends of the Thistle Grove Library have come to an understanding that libraries are established through the efforts of the community members, recognizing the value of libraries in our communities. The library needs the total support of the community to survive and strive.”

This was the third year that the Spelling Bee was held and it has been growing every year. 12 Schools participated in this year’s event. There were even two schools from Northwest Province.

But just a little background first. What is a Spelling Bee? A spelling bee is a competition in which contestants are asked to spell a broad selection of words, usually with a varying degree of difficulty.

The origin story of just why it is called a spelling ‘bee’ is actually fairly unique. The ‘bee’ in ‘spelling bee’ is an alteration of a word that meant ‘the voluntary help given by neighbours toward the accomplishment of a particular task’. This descends from the Middle-English word ‘bene’. Before we had the term ‘spelling bee’ we had a few other terms that sounded much more competitive such as ‘trials in spelling’, ‘spelling combat’ and ‘spell down’.

The spelling bee and its name have come to us from America and first appeared in print in 1875 – that makes it a pretty old tradition! The name spelling bee is said to have originated from the Middle English word ‘bene’, which means ‘a prayer’ or ‘a favour’. In England, this has developed into a dialect form of this word – ‘been’. This refers to the voluntary help given by neighbours toward the accomplishment of a particular task.

The Bulletin spoke to Priscilla Naidoo and Witney Rasaka about the Spelling Bee.

This word, like many others, has developed and changed a lot over time. By the late 1700s, the word ‘bee’ was used to describe a group gathering together to accomplish a task – words such as ‘spinning bee’, ‘quilting bee’ and ‘husking bee’ were fairly common

The winning school this year was: SASOLIA PRIMARY SCHOOL.

But the most important awards went to:

1 st Prize Athandwe Kolobe Lamlile Primary

2 nd Prize Precious Van Wyk Lamlile Primary

3 rd Prize Ayesha Malek Thistle Grove Combined School

The Spelling Bee could not have been so successful this year were it not for all the support the Friends of the Thistle Grove Library received, especially with the various sponsorships.