The age old adage, "No talking in the library," was far from possible at the fifth annual Merrick Kiwanis Club Scrabble Tournament Wednesday afternoon at the Merrick Library.

A room full of 48 fifth and sixth graders in royal blue t-shirts anxiously awaited the results of a day's work of shuffling around scrabble tiles to form words. Teams from all of the Merrick and North Merrick elementary schools and the Progressive School of Long Island participated in the event with smiling faces.

According to Linda Susman, organizer of the event, the tournament generates greater enthusiasm each year.  Susman was aware of Scrabble playing at some of the schools in Merrick and that students were disappointed when the Newsday tournament got cancelled, so she decided to step in and create a new version of the event herself.

"We quickly put together the first tournament; there were less students participating and not quite as many bells and whistles, but we did get it off and every year it's grown," Susman said. "It's a big deal event now."

Now in its fifth year, the tournment has spurred more and more schools to adopt the idea of using Scrabble as a way to promote education and teamwork.

"Some schools that didn't have any program now have a program going on," Susman said. "The school districts, the administrators, the principals are all very supportive and if they're supportive then it happens because they make sure that it fits into the curriculum."

And the kids have absolutely responded positively to the event and enjoy playing and practicing at school.

Lorraine Farron, a fifth-grade teacher at the Progressive School said, "As many years as I can come with as many teams as I can bring, I love it and the kids love it, and it's really an experience that I don't think they would have the opportunity to always get."

Each school does something different with Scrabble, whether it is playing during library time for fun, using it as a teaching tool or as a club.

"A lot of the teamwork and competitions are in the sports field and this is a different way of competing," Susman said. "It gives [the students] a different way to perfect some of their skills; thinking skills, strategy skills and of course, vocabulary and spelling."

All of the participants Wednesday received certificates and goody bags. Winning teams received trophies for first, second and third place, highest scoring word in a game and sportsmanship.

Susman said, "To us, one of the most special awards is the sportsmanship award, and that, bottom line, is what it's all about."

The sportsmanship award went to Natalie Gitin, a sixth grade student at Birch School.

Gitin said she thought she received the award because: "I was being fair. I complimented the other team on their scores and such and I said 'good game' at the beginning and the end."

Susman said, "There was such a consensus among the teachers of Natalie [Gitin] being so deserving of that award out of 48 kids. So that's really an honor."

Gitin plans to put her award in her trophy case next to her other trophy from last year's Scrabble tournament.

As for the other awards, in the fifth grade category, first place went to Birch 51 with a total of 819 points and in the sixth grade category; first place went to Progressive 62 with a total of 1205 points.