Eleven-year-old Keely Cahoon, from Ralph D. Butler Elementary School in Avon, Mass. defeated 10,000 other 4th through 6th graders in New England to win the first-ever U.S. Bananagrams Challenge. The fifth grader was crowned ‘Top Banana’ after triumphing over 11 other kids at the live Grand Final of the word game tournament, held on April 9 at the Omni Providence Hotel in Providence, RI, home state of Bananagrams.
Kids from more than one hundred schools competed in the classroom earlier this year, and the best player from each school went forward to compete in a series of online word games. The top 12 players stemmed from the online portion played in the live Grand Final. As the winner, Cahoon received a trophy designed by Bananagrams co-creator Rena Nathanson, an exclusive goody bag, and a $1,000 check for her school.
As part of its mission to get children playing with words, Bananagrams launched the challenge to help boost vocabulary and spelling skills in classrooms and after-school clubs across the country.
