Want to be a champion speller?
Stick to the basics — like chocolate ice cream and cookies — find a superhero you can identify with, read a lot and, of course, practice, practice, practice until you just don’t want to practice anymore. (And then practice some more.)
These are a few of the things the Wisconsin State Journal learned recently about Jacob Martonito and Ethan Robert, this year’s winner and runner-up, respectively, of the Badger State Spelling Bee. The Wisconsin bee is sponsored by the State Journal.
Jacob, a 12-year-old sixth grader from Classical Charter School in Appleton, and Ethan, a 12-year-old seventh grader from New Berlin’s Eisenhower Middle School, are on their way to the biggest American bee of them all — the 100th anniversary, in fact, of the Scripps National Spelling Bee this week in National Harbor, Maryland, a few miles south of Washington, D.C.
