the speller experience
A trip to Bee Week is the biggest prize for our regional champions, and the fun goes way beyond the national stage. Here's a taste of the excitement Bee Week 2026 brought to each of our competitors.
sunday
champions' welcome
At the Champions’ Welcome, spellers connected over games from The Op Games, participated in a just-for-fun spelling bee from Chipotle, shopped at our very own Scholastic Book Fair and stepped in front of our broadcast team’s interview cameras. It was also spellers’ first chance to realize they had found their people: a true welcome to the Bee family.
the hive
The Hive was home base for spellers and their families. Whether they were watching the competition live, exploring the More Than Words exhibit, playing arcade games or just hanging out, this was the place to bee.
monday
bee week 101
Spellers kicked off Memorial Day with Bee Week 101, a chance to hear from competition officials and prepare themselves for both the fun and the challenge ahead.
rule the word challenge
Spellers teamed up to solve custom, wordy puzzles around the hotel in our signature ice-breaker event. Each member of the winning team home a $250 gift card, official Bee swag and serious bragging rights. But the real prize was a connection to a few new friends and that feeling of "bee-longing."
merriam-webster lexicography presentation
Every word has a story, and Peter Sokolowski is quite the storyteller. The lexicographer and Merriam-Webster editor-at-large captivated spellers and families with his new talk, "Creating an Icon: The Making of the New Collegiate Dictionary." Equal parts fascinating and entertaining, this was a must for any card-holding word nerd.
BEEtboxing
The Academy of Noise brought the house down with an interactive beatboxing experience unlike anything before seen at Bee Week. Spellers discovered how their power with words can translate to this vocal art form, and that it’s actually pretty fun to pronounce the “p” in “pterodactyl” (just not during the competition).
tuesday, wednesday and thursday
the national competition
Of course, the main event of the week is the National Competition! All 247 spellers competed in the Preliminaries on Tuesday with the Quarterfinals and Semifinals following on Wednesday.
The top spellers in the country battled against the dictionary on Thursday evening in the Finals, and our champion Shrey Parikh came out on top!
exploring washington, d.c.
With dozens of free museums, iconic memorials and landmarks just steps away, spellers and their families had the nation's capital. Downtime from the competition was filled with history, culture, learning and entertainment, with a match for any speller’s interests.
friday
bee week bash
The Bee Week Bash at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History included celebrations of our finalists and champion, a scavenger hunt, cake pops, and Dr. Bailly's legendary conga line. An unforgettable night and an exclusive event for our spellers and their families, our own night at the museum was the perfect farewell.