Welcome to Acorn Stories 2021!

Each year, the Live Oak faculty present various writing genres of writing to their students: fiction, poetry, informative research, personal narratives, realistic fiction, and persuasive historical research. The faculty guide students through the writing process, sharing with them examples as well as walking them through each of the steps. This edition includes pieces written before, during and after School from Home, which illustrates the continuous efforts of our faculty to nurture a love of and appreciation for writing within our classroom communities.

Acorn Stories 2021 provide our students with an opportunity to say, “I’m a published author,” as they share these writings with the extended school community. Within this online edition, they will show you their understanding of a particular genre, while giving you insights into their thoughts and personalities. We want to thank all of our lower school faculty and middle school humanities teachers for supporting and nurturing Live Oak students, giving them the tools to articulate a vision and share ideas through writing. And thank you to Savannah Guinn, Associate Director of Admission, for all of her work putting the site together. And thank you to Live Oak parents who helped edit student work. This summer, we hope you have the chance to sit back and enjoy the writing.

Victoria Ladew, Lower School Head

Emma Peat, Middle School Head

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Kindergarten

Tell me a story….

This year in Kindergarten has been like no other.  The usual systems of journal entries, class poems, and group writing experiences were upended by the many ways the school year changed due to the pandemic. Yet even with shelter in place, hybrid school, Zoom calls, and social distancing, children still have stories to tell. They might be about the joy of staying in pajamas all day or about missing their friends. Some are funny, some are factual and some are about their fears. While this Acorn Story might be the shortest piece of writing in their nine years at Live Oak, it is often the most personal and immediate. Each Kindergartener was asked to tell us a story that was important to them. The story was transcribed and then read back to them for edits and ideas for a title.

First Grade

April was National Poetry Month and we celebrated in first grade by reading and writing our own poems! Our poetry unit gave first graders the opportunity to read and notice that many poems have rhyme, rhythm and repetition. Students leveraged these elements to help them read poems on their own and also write like poets. Students were asked to identify the feelings and senses stimulated by words and whole poems and recreated these feelings and moments in their own poetry. Through exploring poems that were silly and serious, playful and profound, visual and vibrant, we hoped to cultivate and inspire a lifelong love of poetry and language. 

Second Grade

Second graders were immersed in poetry and scientific sketching in Writers’ Workshop and science this year. As they read different kinds of poems and observed the natural world, second graders learned how poets and scientists create lasting images with their writing and artwork. Second graders learned to write with an ear, using line breaks to control the pace and rhythm of words and to create special effects on the page. They learned to experiment with language, word choice, and comparisons and look closely to document what they see. Poetry helped our students open their eyes to the beauty of the earth, cultivate a belief in the power of language, and see connections between their learning as scientists and writers.

Third Grade

In third grade, we did a deep dive into Eve Bunting and focused on her writing techniques. She became our model to find new ways to improve our own writing. We read many of her books like Pop’s Bridge, Summer Wheels, So Far From the Sea, One Green Apple, Going Home, and Smokey Night. We became writing detectives as we read her books. We were able to find out how she hooked us into her writing. The classes split up into groups and each group focused on one of the Eve Buntings books. Each group found techniques, gave them names, and thought about why Eve Bunting used the technique. Here are the stories using Eve Bunting’s techniques. 

Fourth Grade

In their first writing unit of the year, fourth graders developed characters and story plots for realistic fiction stories. They worked on developing characters that had struggles and motivations and interesting traits that would engage their readers. Students created story arcs that helped them plan out the important scenes of their stories and develop exciting climax scenes that connected to the rest of the story. Fourth graders also spent a great deal of time revising and editing their writing pieces on their own, with a teacher, and with partners. Their hard work shines through!

Fifth Grade

The fifth grade humanities curriculum is steeped in stories. This includes a short story writing unit, book clubs of multiple genres, a literary essay study, and Great Migration history immersion which is aptly titled, Sharing Story. For our Acorn offerings this year, the student writers had a choice to showcase an original work of short fiction from the Fall or a literary essay, focused on their fantasy fiction book club selection, from the winter trimester. These student readers and authors are deep creators and consumers of literature! Please enjoy sharing some stories with us.

Sixth Grade

The Class of 2023 explored many aspects of their emerging identities through writing exercises, class activities, book discussions, and journaling. Each student wrote a poem that invites the reader to take a step into their world, sharing their homes and traditions through sights, sounds, smells, and emotions. These “I Am From” poems allowed students to get to know returning and new members of the community in new ways and to see each other’s unique perspectives. They went through many stages of the writing process, from making observations to brainstorming with webs, from brain-dumping to writing to rewriting and writing again, from proofreading to formatting. We invite you to discover something new about the sixth grade writers as you dive into their worlds of self, home, and family.

Seventh Grade

Students were asked to write their own short stories connected to our Power and Groupthink Short Story Unit, where they read fiction by authors such as Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, Shirley Jackson, and E. Lily Yu. In stories that are dark, humorous, and inventive, students chose questions to explore such as, What happens when a society’s capacity for individual thinking is reduced or eliminated? What does it take to stand up to groupthink and the herd, what are the risks and rewards, and what are the consequences?

Eighth Grade

In 8th grade humanities students studied The Civil War and Reconstruction during the second trimester. Throughout the unit students considered the questions “how do people maintain their humanity?” and “What does war change or accomplish?”. At the end of the unit they wrote  historical fiction pieces consisting of a journal entry or letter from the point of view of a civilian or soldier during or right after the war. Each piece considered the unit questions. Please enjoy the 8th graders thinking and learning as reflected in the letters and journals.