Good Sport Gwen

Gwen’s Great Game

The next day at recess, Gwen gathers her whole team together. She apologizes for acting the way she did after the spelling bee the week before. She hopes they’ll forgive her, because she made a game to help them practice spelling. Avery, Connor, and Hallie are hesitant, but Delaney asks for more information.

Gwen explains they stand in a line facing the soccer goal. Gwen will pass the first person in line a ball, and give them a word. If they get it right, they can kick it into the goal. If they incorrectly spell the word, they go to the back of the line.

The children line up to play the game. Delaney spells dog right, and kicks the ball into the goal which a whoosh. Connor is asked to spell get, and spells it as G-I-T. In a flash, Connor runs to the back of the line. The team continues to play the game all recess long. They continue to play on Wednesday and Thursday, too. They practice spelling the words over and over again.

Finally on Friday, Miss Sparks tells everyone to line up for the spelling bee. The blue team is ready!

Delaney is asked to spell sat, and correctly spells it. Spencer correctly spells rug. Then Connor on the blue team spells bag. The words continue, and the blue team spells most of their words right, but the children on the red team do, too. When someone on her team misspells a word, Gwen says “That’s okay,” and she cheers when someone on her team spells a word right. Gwen is so busy cheering she is surprised when Miss Sparks announces the last word has been spelled.

Then, Miss Sparks tells everyone that there were twenty words in the whole bee. The blue team spelled nine correctly, and the red team spelled eleven. The blue team looks over at Gwen. She smiles. Now she knows that good sports win every time, no matter the score. She says “That’s okay, blue team. We will do better next time.”

Miss Sparks walks over and congratulates the whole blue team on doing better this week. Avery says that’s all because of Gwen’s spelling game. The red team looks over and asks if they can play Gwen’s spelling game, too. Gwen says “Sure!” The more the merrier. Miss Sparks’ eyeglasses glitter. She’s very proud of Good Sport Gwen.