Spelling Bee

I was asked to prepare my music students to play a couple of songs at their Primary School Spelling Bee, which was today. Most of my students forgot their recorders or to practice, but the four that were ready played "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," and "Ode to Joy," and sounded magnificent! We've been working on "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" this term. I've been trying to find more difficult songs for them to learn, but they only know six notes, which makes it hard. Also, recorder songs are tricky. There are lots of songs that use only three or four notes, and lots of songs that use all the notes, but very few that use six. I guess if you're going to play the recorder, you need to be able to skip straight from beginner to very advanced. Anyway, I'm always proud of them when they work up to and play a concert.
The spelling bee was fun to watch. There were two rounds. In the first round, one third and one fourth grade student from each house (blue, yellow, red, green) sat on the stage and spelled. Each student was given five words and if they were unable to spell a word, the word passed on to their third or fourth grade counterpart. A correct first spelling was worth five points, while a correct second spelling was worth three. In the second round, one fifth and one sixth grade student from each house went up. The second round words were a lot harder and included words like 'rheumatism!' I don't remember learning that stuff in sixth grade! I was sitting with the fifth graders and during the first round, the girl next to me kept saying, "These are easy words!" Naturally, she didn't say anything during the second round. I guess her spelling overconfidence doesn't extent to words at her grade level!