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Spelling Night in Canada Returns to CBC

March 26, 2012 By Calum Shanlin | @calumshanlin

You see these kids? These are some very impressive kids. Ranging from Grade 4 to Grade 8, they are this year's contestants for Spelling Night in Canada - returning to CBC on April 1 at 7pm (7.30 NT).

Twenty one of the country's brightest young minds will come together after winning their respective spelling bees in January. Hosted this year by Day 6's Brent Bambury, he'll be joined by Hockey Night in Canada's Jim Hughson and spelling bee expert Paul Loeffler (from Scripps National Spelling Bee).

Spelling Night in Canada takes the traditional spelling bee to the next level. With celebrity hosts and commentators, it's a fast paced take akin to a game show that will put these kids under new kinds of pressure.

New this year, the show will be an interactive experience and we want you to get involved. You'll be able to play along at home to see if you can spell better than an eighth grader. Using Twitter and Facebook, if you can spell the most words correctly during the broadcast you'll win a prize. You'll be able to see how you compare with the rest of the online community, too.

Don't take anything for granted - these kids are smart. I don't even know what some of the words they can spell mean. For example, Jackson Hunter, age 12 from Sherwood Park in Alberta spelled umbilicate. Immediately you think of the umbilical cord, and yes, umbilicate is an adjective meaning to have a naval. That one was easy to figure out, but what about temerity? 14 year old Veronica Perry from Rockland, Ontario, spelled that correctly. At age 14, I'd never heard that word. Definition: a foolhardy disregard of danger; recklessness.

And hats off to 13 year old Chi Yan Lee from Penticton, BC, as he correctly spelled schadenfreude. Oh, the irony, had he spelled it incorrectly. Schadenfreude is satisfaction or pleasure at someone else's misfortune.

Congratulations to all the kids for getting this far, and good luck to them all come April 1st, at 7pm (7.30 NT) on CBC. The Postmedia Canspell 2012: Spelling Night in Canada contestants - vying for the $7,500 education award courtesy of Egg Farmers of Canada - are thus: