Two teams representing Rivers Edge Elementary School competed in the recent WordMasters Challenge™—a national vocabulary competition involving nearly 150,000 students annually. The fourth-grade team scored an impressive 177 points out of a possible 200 in the first of three meets this year. The fourth-grade team placed 9th in the country out of 184 teams that were enrolled. The students were coached in preparation for the WordMasters Challenge™ by Mrs. Knapp. In addition, the fifth-grade team scored an impressive 194 points and placed 2nd in the country out of 173 teams that were enrolled. The students were coached in preparation for the WordMasters Challenge™by Mrs. Myers.
In addition, the fourth-grade team had many students with impressive scores. Congratulations to Advaith R. for scoring an outstanding score of 19 out of 20. Congratulations to Aarna G., Kaavya J., Skandan K., Ankit P., and Emmet R. for scoring an 18 out of 20. In many divisions, less than 5% of participants score 18 or above.
The WordMasters Challenge™ is an exercise in critical thinking that first encourages students to become familiar with a set of interesting new words (considerably harder than grade level), and then challenges them to use those words to complete analogies expressing various kinds of logical relationships. Working to solve the analogies helps students learn to think both analytically and metaphorically. Although most vocabulary enrichment and analogy-solving programs are designed for use by high school students, WordMasters Challenge™ materials have been specifically created for younger students in grades three through eight. They are particularly well-suited for children who are motivated by the challenge of learning new words and enjoy the logical puzzles posed by analogies.
The WordMasters Challenge™ program is administered by a company based in Indianapolis, Indiana, which is dedicated to inspiring high achievement in American schools. Further information is available at the company’s website: http://www.wordmasterschallenge.com.