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Saturday, April 1, 2000

Area's top spellers to have words at bee

117 students compete today for trip to national contest in Washington, D.C.

By Aimee Courtice
Caller-Times

Twelve-year-old Becky Riddle hopes eating her mom's special oatmeal will help her remember to spell words like "flamenco" and "byssinosis" at today's South Texas Regional Spelling Bee.
   "She puts TLC in it," Riddle said. "Tender loving care."
   The competition begins at 9:45 a.m. at the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi University Center.
   Riddle will be one of 117 students vying for a trip to Washington, D.C. this June to compete in the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee.
   Students in today's competition won their school's contest. Each contestant was given a booklet of about 2,000 words to help them study.
   "I've been going through each page from the back to the front, because the harder words are in the back," said Riddle, a sixth-grader at St. Pius X School. "I figure if I got up to the higher rounds, they'd give me the harder words."
   For Amanda Chavira, studying was a more arduous task. She said her school's librarian tutored her after school two days a week.
   "I used the dictionary to look up language origins and the definitions of words," said Chavira, a fourth-grader at Wilson Elementary School. "I learned about certain language patterns. I know it's going to help me.
   "She's also teaching me to be a good guesser."
  

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Staff writer Aimee Courtice can be reached _at 886-3622 or by e-mail _at courticea@caller.com

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