SPELLATHON -Class 1
Spelling is a set of conventions that regulates the way of using graphemes to represent a language in its written form. So spelling is rendering of speech sound into writing. We at St. Columba’s strive hard to inculcate the skill of spelling correctly as a critical component of communication, reading and writing. In light of the same, on 20th May, a Spellathon was conducted for the students of Class-1. This was a one of a kind endeavour where we pioneered in conducting a virtual Spellathon for all 250 students of Class 1.
The programme started with an interesting prelude with the ‘Spelling Wizard’ who came to cast a spell on all participants to get into the “spellings” mode. It was a poetic recital by a student which left one and all impressed. However, spelling the words right wasn’t possible as the vowels and consonants were at loggerheads with each other! A peace treaty by two spelling bees finally brought an end to the fight. This interesting introductory story presentation drew applause and heralded the beginning of the main competition which included five interesting rounds of questions for the five respective teams of ten students per section.
The different rounds namely visual cue, unjumble the letters, riddles, fill in the missing letters and the phonic round surely tested memory, understanding, application and critical thinking of the children.
The programme unfolded with the students logging in to the Google Meet at the given time. As the presenter, Mrs A. Panda posed the questions in each round, the students wrote the answers on their respective cards and made sure that the spellings were visible to the presenter. The scorekeeper made note of the scores.
At the finale of the event, there were questions for our honourable Principal, Br Miranda, Mrs Sheel, Headmistress, Middle School and Mr. Chopra, Administrator, Senior School, where they had to walk down memory lane of their school days and share the word they found difficult to spell with the virtual audience .
In the end, Brother Miranda applauded the efforts of all and cited the significance of spelling. He was impressed by the way the boys were trained to answer on the online medium and to maintain discipline by following all the directions. He reiterated that speaking, spelling and reading aloud are important skills that aid in attaining language proficiency. The Headmistress of Junior School, Mrs Kaushal was all praise for the students, teachers and coordinators. She appreciated the teachers for the hard work they put in to train the boys.
It was indeed an exemplary online activity which once again proved that adapting to change and making the best of the given circumstances is the key to teaching with innovation.
