SANDPOINT —  Sandpoint Christian School seventh-graders Olivia Dyk and Emily McLeod had the audience laughing as monkey and alligator puppets portrayed the animals of Noah's Ark.

Alistair the alligator was prim and proper with an English accent, and Duke the monkey was a bit rough and tumble and "from the west." Duke thought himself pretty funny with quips like, "I was just monkeying around ... ha ha, get it?" But Allistor is the one who elicited the most laughter from the crowd when the pair were talking about their roommates on the Ark.

"My roommates are the grizzly bears. The mother bear is very nice, but the husband snores like a rusted chainsaw," said Olivia as Alistair, her voice rising for emphasis on "snores like a rusted chainsaw."

During Friday's Association of Christian Schools International regional speech meet, the mood of the seventh-grade room changed from laughter following the puppet show, to quiet contemplation as Helen Whiting from House of the Lord Christian Academy in Oldtown read the book, "The Little Match Girl." Helen only looked at the book on occasion as she read from memory. 

When she did look at the book, it was mostly to turn the page and let the others in the room see the lonely, barefoot little girl who dies in the dreadfully cold weather, but not before she sees several lovely visions.

The trio were among the 60 first- through eighth-grade students from around the region who participated in the ACSI regional speech meet at Sandpoint Christian School. Along with SCS and House of the Lord, students also came from Kootenai Valley Christian School in Libby.

SCS principal Liz Page said speech categories include Bible memorization, poetry, dramatic monologue, puppetry, original speech, fables and more. The students, at SCS anyway, started preparing for the meet in December and had a school-level meet prior to regionals. Page said the top students in each category for each grade moved on to regionals.

Three judges, one from each school, were in each of the rooms where the kids were split up by grade level. But although the kids were judged on their performance, it was a more of a tournament, Page said, not a competition.

"Every student can get a superior (ribbon), so they are really only competing against themselves," Page said.

When the speeches came to an end, each student was awarded a ribbon — white good, red excellent and blue superior.

As an ACSI school, SCS is involved in several of the events hosted by the worldwide association. Other regional events include the math olympics and a creative writing festival. The students who rate superior in the creative writing festival are published annually in an ACSI book.

There is also an ACSI spelling bee in which SCS sixth-grader Garrett Wuollet is heading to the national spelling bee May 6 in Washington, D.C. Garrett said he is a bit nervous, but excited to compete against students from across the country.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee