During the second WordMasters competition of this year, a team of 4th grade students representing Milford’s Woodland School recently was informed that they had achieved highest honors in the challenge.

Competing in the Blue Division of the Challenge, and coached by Dolores Hirx, the students again tied for fourth place in the nation in the year’s second meet which was held in February at the school. This ranking was out of the 698 school teams nation-wide competing in this grade level division.

Students who achieved outstanding results in the meet included Leah Casman, Phoebe Hosley, Charles Litynski, Julia Riordan, Blas Cerda, Max Manor, Ava Juliano, Kara Schmitt, Michaela Michelson, Angela Pillarella, Grace Previlege, Lucas Rosa, and Michael Schmitt.

The challenge encourages students to learn a set of 25 above-grade level words and to use them to complete analogies showing various types of relationships. Though many of these types of activities are geared more for high school students, the WordMasters materials have been designed specifically for students in grades 3 through 8 who are interested in learning new words and who enjoy solving types of logical puzzles.

The WordMasters Challenge has been administered for the past 25 years by a company in Allendale, New Jersey, which is dedicated to inspiring high achievement in American schools. The students will participate in the final meet during the last week of April. Medals and certificates will be awarded in June to those who achieved and/or improved the most in the course of the year.