Five students from Community Consolidated School District 181 earned highest honors in this year’s WordMasters Challenge, a national language arts competition for kids in grades 3 - 8. Nearly 250,000 students enter the competition every year.

The following students earned perfect scores in the Blue Division, or "moderately difficult" division, according to the WordMasters website:

• Omar Nabelsi, grade 3, of Elm School in Burr Ridge

• Akshay Undevia, grade 3, of Elm School in Burr Ridge

• Max Paarlberg, grade 4, of Elm School in Burr Ridge

• Sara Thomas, grade 3, of Walker School in Clarendon Hills

• Daren Chen, grade 5, of Walker School in Clarendon Hills

In the April competition, Omar Nabelsi and Akshay Undevia were among 113 third graders to earn a perfect score and Max Paarlberg was one of 55 fourth graders to earn a perfect score.

According to District 181, other students who earned outstanding results were:

Walker School

• Dov Chen, grade 3

• Joseph Sullivan, grade 5

• Emmett Wilson, grade 5

• Grace DeAngelis, grade 5

• Michael Graef, grade 5

• Allie Moreton, grade 5

• Lily Podracky, grade 5

Elm School

• Stefan Lekovic, grade 3

• Elizabeth Sieger, grade 3

• Katerina Chess, grade 3

• Ethan Greenwald, grade 3

• Jack Doppke, grade 3

• Luke Rosenblum, grade 3

• Victor Buccellato, grade 4

• Derrick Brown, grade 4

• Perry Zhao, grade 4

• Amy Zhao, grade 4

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, NJ, which is dedicated to inspiring high achievement in American schools.

*The above rankings were provided by a media announcement from District 181. Other information was gathered through the WordMasters Challenge website. Milford Patch Editor Mary MacDonald contributed to the reporting of this article.