Test your skills this spelling bee season
Local students vie for spelling dominance the old-fashioned way. Now you can, too.
| 13 Jan 2026 | 07:31
A speller considers his word during the 2024 Delaware Valley Elementary School spelling bee. (
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Seventh-grader Eddie Arias with Delaware Valley Middle School Principal Dr. Pete Ioppolo. Arias won the middle school bee on Jan. 12; he is a past winner of the elementary school bee. (
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Seventh grader Eddie Arias, at podium, won the Delaware Valley Middle School spelling bee on Monday, Jan. 12 with the word “tournament.” (
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Delaware Valley Superintendent Brian Blaum reassures nervous students and parents before last year’s middle school spelling bee. (
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Inspired by the 101st anniversary of the Scripps Spelling Bee, Straus News decided to join our participating school districts in testing our skills. We hope you will, too.
More than 20,000 schools are taking part in the nationwide bee this year, including Port Jervis Middle School, CJ Hooker Middle School, Dingman-Delaware Elementary and Middle School, Delaware Valley Elementary and Middle School, Shohola Elementary School, Minisink Valley Middle School and Montague Township School.
“I love the spelling bee!” said Port Jervis Superintendent John Bell, who remembers the excitement from “when I was a middle school kid in Port in the late 70s.
“The same goes for Science Olympiad, Odyssey of the Mind, geography bees, science fairs etc. It’s all about providing as many different opportunities as possible for kids to shine.”
At school-wide bees that are happening around now, classroom-bee winners compete against one another until one champion is left standing. Those top spellers, who must be 14 years old or younger, will vie at regional competitions for a spot at Nationals in Washington, D.C., in May, where the winner goes home with a $50,000 prize.
“I feel so astonished about winning,” said Minisink eighth-grader Noah Watley, who correctly spelled “memoirs” to win his school bee and advance to the Orange-Ulster BOCES Regional Spelling Bee in March, according to a press release from the school. “I’m so excited about moving on to the county-wide spelling bee and if I win, then off to Washington, D.C.” Noah’s advice to future spellers: study the words for at least 15 minutes daily.
Even in the age of autocorrect, “I think we can all agree it’s still important to teach kids independence, and to build confidence in their own abilities,” said Sabrina Schlenker, a first-grade teacher who runs Delaware Valley Elementary School’s bee. “Kids really still do need to learn how to think for themselves.”
Delaware Valley School District has a long history of hosting a spelling bee, going back at least 28 years, said Schlenker.
“It is nerve-wracking, especially as a first grader going up against a fifth grader,” Schlenker said. But “it’s good practice, and you’re only going to benefit from it. I think it helps with self-esteem, like wow, I made it this far, let’s see how far I can go.”
We borrowed 25 words from the Scripps middle school study list to create our own mini-bee. Take the online quiz to see how you stack up!