National Spelling Bee is Coming!

Mark your calendars for May 31, when the finals of the National Spelling Bee will air on ESPN2. Rhode Island's contestant is from Cumberland!

Anyone who leaves a note in Ms. Moore's mailbox by the last day of school with the name of the 2009 winner gets to pick a free book from the donation box! (Hint: Fourth graders just found the answer last week when comparing whether the table of contents or the index works faster when searching for specific information in the Kids' World Almanac. You can also find it on the Spelling Bee site.)

Fun fact from their web site: XANTHOPHYLL is the word Laura Ingalls Wilder misspelled in an 1880s community spelling match. Read more about it in Little House on the Prairie.

Online Exclusive Giveaway for Halliwell Students!

Whether you're visiting the blog for the first time after reading the Q3 newsletter, or you've already been on for months making your parents watch Buster Keaton, we are happy to have you here. So happy, in fact, that we want you to choose a free book to keep for your own! Thanks to several generous donors, we have a selection of novels for you to choose from.

To qualify for a free book, leave a note in Ms. Moore's mailbox during the week of April 23. Include your name and classroom as well as the word "bibliophile" (which means a lover of books).

Disclaimer: Limited to the first 40 students. And also the picture does not necessarily represent the books in the giveaway box. But we have some really good ones!