Students take first place in national WordMasters Challenge

Chestnutwold Elementary School’s third grade placed first nationally in the 2020-21 WordMasters Challenge™ — a national vocabulary competition involving nearly 125,000 students annually. They earned Highest Honors in each of the three meets, scoring 184 points out of a possible 200 in the first meet in December, an impressive 186 points out of a possible 200 in the second of three meets this year, placing first in the nation, and then clinching first place with a phenomenal score of 198 points out of a possible 200! Overall, Chestnutwold’s third grade earned a cumulative score of 568 points out of a possible 600.

Competing in the difficult Blue Division of the WordMasters Challenge™, third graders Lizzie Bedore, Bennett Cichowski, Ivory Dabney, Maia Grinshpan, Michael Matta, Griffin McMahon, Ryan Neidrauer and Jeeva Syam each earned a perfect score of 20 in the most recent meet. Nationally, only 16 third graders achieved this result. Maia Grinshpan had also earned a perfect score of 20 in the second meet. Other students at Chestnutwold Elementary School who achieved outstanding results throughout the year, assisting the team in becoming the national champions, include third-graders Francesca DelMastro, Rory Galvin, Nurit Kay, Carson Silver, Ryan Wray, Bennett Cichowski, Rory Galvin, Nathan Lefkowitz, Gillian Dry, Isaiah Garfinkle and Michael Matta.

Third graders Maia Grinshpan (58 points out of a possible 60) and Ryan Neidrauer (57 points) also earned individual Highest Honors in the overall competition. The highest Honors are reserved for students who place among the top 10-15 students in their division. As the top scorer for the year in third grade, Maia will be awarded a medal for her achievement.

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 3-8. 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.