What's the Buzz? Level One Bee (Beginning) Words for Grades 1-3

Students will learn what spelling bees are and how they might participate in one in their local communities. (While I can't guarantee every community will offer a spelling bee, I will try to help your student find one in which they can compete.)
Students will learn about the Scripps National Spelling Bee. (Although most of its participants are from the U.S., students from countries such as The Bahamas, Canada, the People's Republic of China, India, Ghana, Japan, Jamaica, Mexico, and New Zealand have also competed in recent years. Historically, the competition has been open to, and remains open to, the winners of sponsored regional spelling bees in the U.S. (including territories such as Guam, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, the Navajo Nation, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, along with overseas military bases in Germany and South Korea). Participants from countries other than the U.S. must be regional spelling-bee winners as well.
Each class, students will learn new words commonly found on spelling bee competition lists.
As we progress through the course, I will also share competition tips such as ways to calm nerves, how to speak into a microphone, remembering to ask all the questions needed to fully understand the word before spelling it, etc.
Students will learn that spelling can be fun, especially if you use shaving cream or any other fun, creative way of practicing spelling! The engaging spelling activities will come from various sources like ThoughtCo.com and Study.com. (I have a subscription to Study.com) and the activities on ThoughtCo.com are free to use. Some websites I will use are listed below.

I am offering this class in particular because of my experience coordinating the Tom Green County (Texas) Spelling Bee when I was special editions editor of the San Angelo Standard-Times in San Angelo, Texas. I ran the county bee and chaperoned the county winners and their families at the Scripps National Bee in Washington. D.C. for three years. I have also always enjoyed spelling and sharing my love of words with my students. I believe that learning to spell can be fun and I would love to help students succeed in spelling bees.

Practice Level One Bee (beginning) spelling 10 words per week. I will encourage the students to keep a spelling journal, so that they can see all of the new words they are learning to spell. I will ask them to go over each word (rainbow writing) in six different, colored pencil colors. This kinetic repetition helps them remember how to spell the words.
I will also assign reading outside of class on a quarterly basis. Students should be able to read 25-50 pages independently. Every three months, students should either purchase one of the books below or check out from their local library:

• Curiosity: The Story of a Mars Rover by Markus Motum
• Houndsley and Catina by James Howe
• Zoey and Sassafras: Monsters and Mold by Asia Citro
• Fergus and Zeke at the Science Fair by Kate Messner
• The Sandwich Thief by André Marois
• The Magician’s Hat by Malcolm Mitchell

These books were selected by the national spelling bee to show students Level One Bee (beginning) words in action. 

At the start of each class (after the first one), I will ask the students to show me their spelling journals and I will be able to see if they have done their practice the previous week by (rainbow writing) going over the words with six, different colored pencils.
Learner progress will also be assessed during class when I will ask students to take turns spelling the previous week's words.

55 minutes per week in class, and an estimated 0 - 1 hours per week outside of class.