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LPS students showcase word wisdom throughout successful spelling bee

February 11, 2025

Charani proved that she was a wonderful wordsmith on Saturday with her winning knowledge of the dictionary.
 
Charani, a seventh grader at , was the champion of the 37th annual . She correctly spelled “trudged” in the 18th round to claim the top spot. She emerged in first place out of a field of 19 spellers from nine LPS middle schools.
 
Charani said she was happy with the way the morning went. She and her father practiced several pages of nouns, verbs and adjectives every night to prepare for the contest. That gave her a deep bank of word wisdom to draw from when she was on stage.
 
“I was excited because I’ve never done a spelling bee before, and I didn’t really think I was going to win, and I did win,” Charani said.
 
sixth grader Eleanor was also pleased with her performance. Eleanor earned a second-place medal by advancing to the final rounds. Her family encouraged her to sign up for the bee after she learned about it from a poster in her classroom.
 
“My dad loved doing spelling bees, and that really motivated me to try it out,” Eleanor said.
 
LPS Secondary English Language Arts Curriculum Specialist Sara Danielson said she was proud of every student for tackling words ranging from “avuncular” to “astringent.” She emceed an event that attracted competitors from , , , Irving, , , , Moore and middle schools.
 
“I just appreciate so much the amount of guts that it takes to show up, to stand on a stage all by yourself with a microphone, and have a word handed to you and get tasked with trying to get it 100-percent accurate,” Danielson said. “I love that students take a try at it.”
 
LPS Interim Superintendent John Skretta, Culler Middle School Principal Daniel Church and Lincoln Board of Education member Annie Mumgaard also lent their support to students prior to the contest. They joined a crowd that smiled every time the spellers delivered a c-o-r-r-e-c-t verdict on their words.
 
All LPS middle school students are eligible for the spelling bee, which is hosted in Culler’s auditorium each year. In addition to giving them experience with public speaking, Danielson said the event is also good preparation for many high school pursuits. That list includes Nebraska School Activities Association opportunities such as speech, debate, play production and journalism.
 
“This is essentially a jumping-off point for kids who are interested in language, who want to see the ways in which they can flex it and marry it with performance,” Danielson said. “It’s really a springboard opportunity for other activities that they might engage in once they get into high school.”
 
Judges asked students to repeat many words taken from “Words of the Champions,” which is the official study resource of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The annual guide features 4,000 words that are divided into three levels of difficulty.
 
Charani and Eleanor both used their investigative skills to solve many of the word puzzles. The English language features a wide variety of vowel sounds, silent letters and spelling patterns. There are also many words such as “hear” and “here” or “brake” and “break” that sound the same but are spelled differently. Students could ask judges to provide their assigned word’s definition and to use it in a sentence before trying to spell it.
 
“I didn’t know a lot of the words, so I just had to guess and try my best on them, and they turned out right,” Charani said.
 
“I wasn’t really feeling anything,” Eleanor said. “I was just thinking of how to spell the words.”
 
The suspense began to build as words like “bellwether,” “bandicoot,” “derivative” and “anonymity” came and went in each round. Five competitors remained after 27 minutes of action, and Charani and Eleanor went head to head beginning in round ten. They went back and forth before Charani was asked to spell “trudged” for the crowd.
 
“I knew the word, so I was excited,” Charani said. “I was like 99 percent sure how to spell it.”
 
Charani and Eleanor both received medals on stage and big hugs from family members after the contest. Charani will advance to the at the University of Nebraska-Omaha on March 15. The winner will represent Nebraska and the western portion of Iowa at the Scripps National Spelling Bee from May 27-29 in Washington, D.C.
 
Danielson encouraged all LPS students who will be in grades 6-8 next year to take part in the 2026 LPS Spelling Bee. She said it was a good venue to become wonderful wordsmiths like all 19 of this year’s competitors.
 
“I think that the students want to test themselves,” Danielson said. “They’re likely avid readers, they like their English class, they like learning about language and words, and this is a great opportunity for them to show up and kind of marry those two pieces together and say, ‘Give me a word. Bring it on. I think I can try this one.’”
 
Visit to learn more about the many English language arts opportunities that are available for LPS students.
 
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