Edith,
I wish you luck in DC next week! Have fun and enjoy Bee Week.
As I mentioned in the meeting, I would review the Round 2 word list and definitions. If you have time, look over the Spell It! words.
For Saturday, I will prepare "random" words. I will look back at previous years to match the level of the onstage words.
~Bernadette ...more
It is a fun privilege coaching Edith.
Here are links to follow her coaching sessions:
https://spellingcoach.expertcallingnetwork.com/kb/article/fun-coaching-with-a-5-year-old-spelling-star-
https://spellingcoach.expertcallingnetwork.com/kb/article/5-year-old-spelling-march-25-
https://spellingcoach.expertcallingnetwork.com/kb/article/5-year-old-spelling-april-1-
https://spellingcoach.expertcallingnetwork.com/kb/article/5-year-old-spelling-april-14-
https://spellingcoach.expertcallingnetwork.com/kb/article/5-year-old-spelling-april-29-
https://spellingcoach.expertcallingnetwork.com/kb/article/5-year-old-spelling-may-14--2
The title is pretty self-explanatory. This is the longest word in the English language, at least according to Merriam-Webster.It probably wouldn't be used in the bee, but it is loved by many language nerds nevertheless. Imagine, however, that you did get it in a bee. If you hadn't seen the word, you may initially be intimidated by it. At nineteen syllables (and 45 letters), it is a monster of a word. However, it can be broken down pretty simply:
"Pneumono-" is a Greek root meaning breath.
"Ultra-" is a Latin root meaning beyond.
"Micro-" is a Latin and Greek root meaning small.
"Scop-" is a Latin and Greek root meaning to see, or eye.
"-Ic" is a common adjective suffix.
"Silico-" is a Latin root meaning, well, silicon.
"Volcano" is, well, volcano.
"Conio-" is a German and Latin and Greek root meaning dust.
"-Osis" is a Latin and Greek suffix meaning disease.
There you have it: breath bey...more
During this call we discussed several things. A few of the main topics were:
-Best resources to study from (CWL, Words of Wisdom, Hexco's lists, etc.)
-Making an educated guess on spelling words you don't know (taking into consideration roots, language patterns, etc.)
-Strategies for learning spelling material (Quizlet is an excellent resource to use for review)
-Best sources to use for roots (the roots list in Words of Wisdom, as well as the Dictionary of Prefixes, Suffixes, and Combining Forms)...more
|
(This post's connection to flesh will become apparent in a moment). This summer, when I was at the Spelling Bee of China's North America Spelling Champion Challenge in California, I had the opportunity to give a short presentation. Cooper Komatsu, another speller who placed seventh at Scripps last year, also gave a presentation. When talking about his love of words, he mentioned the word "sarcasm" and how its etymology involves the phrase "to tear flesh like dogs." Since then, that has been one of my favorite etymologies, and, as it turns out, many words that share a root with "sarcasm" have interesting etymologies as well. All of the words I'm about to discuss share a common root: the Greek word sarx meaning flesh. The first one is "sarcasm." Sarx evolved into sarkazein, which means "to tear flesh like dogs." Since the caustic language often associated with sarcasm is usually figurative |