A student at Crabapple Lane Elementary School recently won highest honors in this year's WordMasters Challenge--a national language arts competition entered by over 225,000 students annually, which consists of three separate meets held at intervals during the school year.

Competing in the very difficult Gold Division of the Challenge, a fifth grader Logan Austin earned a perfect score in the year's third meet, held in April. In the entire country 132 fifth graders earned perfect scores. Other students at the school who also achieved outstanding results in the meet were fourth graders Sue Liang, Adam Wayton, Mamie Smith and Sarah Oso, and fifth graders Nathan Truex, Michael Plunkett, Meghan Plunkett, Jesse Hu, Michael Licitra, and Meghan Murphy. The students were coached in preparation for the Challenge by Heidi Johnson.

WordMasters Challenge is an excercise in critical thinking. Working to solve the Challenge analogies helps students learn to think both analytically and metaphorically. The WordMasters Challenge has been administered for the past 19 years by a company based in Allendale, New Jersey, which is dedicated to inspiring high achievement in American schools.