Norwell students read up for final chapter of 'Vinal Book Bee' championship
NORWELL – A score of cheerful students from Gretchen Abbott's fifth-grade class at the William G. Vinal Elementary School formed a circle, raising a trophy decorated with three golden stars as high as possible.
"Grade 5 Book Bee Champions" was inscribed on the trophy.
The "Vinal Book Bee", which took place Friday, May 27, is an original event Abbott and school librarian Mary Howard came up with three years ago after being inspired by the "Battle of the Books" competition.
Howard sent out a list of 50 books to the around 100 fifth-grade students from four classes last year. The students were encouraged to read as many books on the list with no minimum requirements.
"I have read 39 books (for this contest)," Libby Carr, a student of Abbott's class said proudly.
Mary DeCoste, the mother of Elizabeth DeCoste, 10, said the different genres helped her daughter get out of her comfort zone when it comes to reading.
Elizabeth DeCoste said "Touch Blue" is her favorite on the list.
Howard and Abbott came up with trivia questions based on the stories in the books.
"Which book includes a landlady who is a potter who makes and has dragon figurines all over her house?"
The answer is "Fire Within."
Three rounds of Book Bee
Howard said the competition includes three different rounds.
During the first round, the four students who answered the most questions from each class became the "panelists."
The second round was for the students to practice.
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Panelists earned 2 points for their class for each correct answer during the third round.
When the panelists couldn't answer a question, they would pass them to their classmates sitting on the floor. Each correct answer from the classmates was worth 1 point.
"It keeps every single child in the game involved till the last question," Howard said, wearing a tiara that has a bee pattern in the center and a T-shirt that says "queen bee."
During the game, Amy Guman, who was sitting on the floor, proudly raised her hand twice, earning two precious points for her class.
"It's amazing seeing kids who are very quiet starting to answer the questions," Howard said. "That's the reason why we do it."
She said the event brought camaraderie to the students as they had to read different books on the list to secure success.
"I think we did pretty good," Ella Charest, 10, said after the contest.
Howard said she is also glad to see students recommending the books they read from the list to their peers while preparing for the contest.
"It really makes my heart sing," she said.
The fourth graders will hold the third round of the "Vinal Book Bee" contest for the first time on June 3.
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Reach Hongyu Liu at HLiu@patriotledger.com.
This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Norwell students at Vinal Elementary hold Vinal Book Bee Championship
