Chubby Chickens Rule Annual Spelling Bee Roost

After nearly six hours of words, bells, pronunciations and gummy bears, the Foundation for Belmont Education's annual Fall Youth Spelling Bee came down to a quartet of sixth-grade girls dubbed the Oceanic Dragon Bees and the Chubby Chickens, three fifth-grade boys for the championship.

"Let's do this," said eight-time host Greg Stone to the remaining two of ten teams that began the final competitive round, survivors of a preliminary "swarm" of testing words given to the students by pronouncers Laurie Graham (chair of the School Committee) and Anne Mahon (real estate broker extraordinaire).

But it didn't take long for the champions to be crowned; the next word on the list was "vociferous." While the tallest of the Chickens, Robert Sheng, busily wrote down his team's answer with the help of his partners, David Cui and Felix Xu, the Dragon Bees were a bit flustered. 

When timer and School Committee member Anne Lougee rang her bell, umpire Trey Grayson of Harvard's Institute of Politics judged that, yes indeed, the Chubby Chickens had correctly spelled the word meaning "vehement or clamorous" while the girls missed on their attempt. 

After being proclaimed champions, the fifth grade friends smiled and rejoiced on stage as their cheering section – some of their sisters – began chanting "Chubby Chickens! Chubby Chickens!"

(The name derives from the Chubby Cannons in the "Harry Potter" tales. They substituted "chickens" because "Chickens are cool.")

Also celebrating the afternoon-into-the-night yearly extravaganza of word knowledge was the Foundation which saw a record number of children register for the bee with 640 students from kindergarteners spelling words such as "out" and "some" to the middle schoolers in the competitive section. (One word that baffled all the top spellers was "infinitesimal.")

"This event has raised more than $20,000 but the numbers are still being tabulated," said Bee co-Chair Nancy Grayson, saying the funds will be used to support teachers and staff with grants to enrich learning in all of Belmont schools.

"We're able to support teachers who have innovative ways of adding to the curriculum and tapping into funds they would not have been able to secure. So its a win-win for teachers and the students," said Grayson.

As for the Chickens:

"Where just friends. We just choose each other," said Sheng. As for the best speller of the group, Xu made it known that he "saved the team" several times but that was disputed by this pals.

As for the first prize, a $100 Belmont Savings Bank certificate? 

"Video games!" said Xu, although the parents suggested the money will be part of their college accounts.