Admit it. Maybe once upon a time you prided yourself on your precise spelling, but in recent years you’re perfectly content to let spell-check verify what you write. (Editor's note: or in my case, be corrected by fastidious readers when our Patch spell-check function's on the fritz!)

But that inventive-spelling complacency has not yet set in for the 62 fourth and fifth grade students at Irvington’s Main Street school, who willingly undertook the challenge at the fifth annual Spelling Bee to tackle words like “inauguration”, “grievance”, “discipline”, “carnivorous” and “counterfeit”—among many, many others.

Fifth graders took their chances at 9:15, followed by the fourth graders later that morning. Students had been given a pre-Bee test of 20 words to determine the top 31 scorers in each grade, with the finalists having the chance to study 400 target words before stepping onto the stage on Tuesday.

Here are the winners:

Fourth grade: Aidan Meaney, age 9

• Preparation: He studied with his dad for about 10 minutes a day, for three days before the Bee, from the target word list
• Hardest words: the winning word, “predecessor” and “evaporation”
  Favorite reading and writing: realistic fiction, like “The 39 Clues” and the “Writers’ Workshop” program at school
• Aidan also likes to play outside with his black Labrador and do his own creative writing at home.

Fifth grade: Chrysmine Wong, age 10

• Preparation: Her mother helped her study both the words that Chrysmine received from school, as well as a list that included ninth-grade words, for about an hour and a half the day before the bee. [She also studied when she had free time during the last two weeks.]
• Hardest words: the last word Chrysmine was given, “critique”
• Favorite reading and writing:  Chrysmine says she reads “because I like to read—it’s very interesting,” especially the fantasy genre
• Outside of school, Chrysmine plays piano and violin, and does gymnastics, swimming and ice skating

Besides competing in thespelling bee, Main Street School students are also afforded the opportunity to put their math skills to the test in the annual "Math 24" contest.  

While Principal Dr. Raina Kor doesn't necessarily like to "single kids out" for their exceptional skills, she does believe it pushes students to compete in areas in which they're instructed in school.

*Special thanks to MSS' Linda Luzzi for her great shots of the winners, runners-up and finalists.