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Under a spell
Vacuous gives RES 5th grader county title
spellingbee1
Jasmyne Kaye, a fifth grader from Rincon Elementary School, listens intently to the word being called out in Tuesday night’s countywide spelling bee. Ryan Nance, a sixth grader at Ebenezer Middle School, waits his turn. Kaye won the bee, and Nance finished as runner-up. - photo by Photo by Calli Arnold

The evening began easily enough.

“Water. W-A-T-E-R. Water,” said Jasmyne Kaye, contestant number one, a fifth-grader from Rincon Elementary School.

By the end of the first round, there were two who didn’t make it.

Round two spiced things up a bit with silent consonants and more and more left the stage.

As Judith Shuman, student/professional learning coordinator for the Effingham County Board of Education called out the words, ascending in difficulty, cameras were raised, flashed and lowered from the crowd of family and friends supporting the 17 contestants as they visualized and sounded out each syllable.

For more, see Friday's edition of the Herald.