Everyone's a Writer, Whether He Wants to Be or Not

Whether or not you want to be, you are a writer. Everyone is a writer. As a student, you write answers to questions and tests practically every day. And it's better to be good at something, even if you do it because you have to.

The Inklets is a group that meets after school. They read, they write, and they try to get better at writing. One thing that has been practiced in this small group is the use of literary devices, techniques used within writing to help make words more than just words on a page.

Here's one: personification (the attribution of human nature or character to animals, inanimate objects, or abstract notions, especially as a rhetorical figure). Definition from dictionary.com

Have a look at what some of the students have done with this literary device.


Chair, by Essy, 7th Grade

The sad chair was tired. He was tired of people sitting on him. He was tired of hearing all the students do their lessons. He was tired of always being squashed and spilled on. Sometimes he thought sadly to himself, "Why am I here?"


Philip's Story, by Caleb, 6th Grade

Plop . . . plop . . . plop. Philip awoke as the raindrops from the previous night's rain dripped lazily from the towering treetops above onto his twitching whiskers. Few things bothered him more than waking up before the sun, but still, he was up, so he got up and stretched his four paws. Skurrrumph. He stopped period. Slowly turning his head he sniffed into the dark night. Breathing a sigh of relief, he said, "It's only you."
"Wake up," his father replied.
"What?"
"Philip, wake up."

Slowly Peter awoke and realized it had been a dream. Muttering to himself about breakfast, he got up and shook the leaves from his fur. He looked around for breakfast, but then groaned; today was the day that the hired fox hunter took his vacation. Impatiently he waited as his father went hunting. Two minutes later his father arrived with about a dozen squabs. "What is this?" Philip asked.
"The best," said his father.
"Yuck," and pushing it away he left for his tree.


My iPad, by Adharrsh, 2nd Grade

One day my iPad was waiting for me on its hard lonely, bed. It wasn't actually fully charged. It was just at 89%. It waited for two days, but I didn't unplug it. It waited for 48 hours, but I didn't come. It felt lonely, smelled fish, saw the ceiling and saw me come towards it. I took it to my bedroom and it felt like being in a mansion. I used its power until it was at 0%. Then I got the charger and it felt sad. But I did something different. I charged it to the outlet next to my bed. Now it felt comfortable and warm.


Big Bear, Lucas, 2nd Grade

Big bear came out of the tub; the faucet dripped every second. Pwup, pwup, pwup. The bathtub was wet, but everything else was damp. There was a knock on the door. Knock, knock, knock. "Come in," bear said. It was Mousey. Bear came downstairs. "You ready to go to the airport?" asked Big Bear. "Yes," said Mousey. The airport brought good and bad memories. When someone left, it was sad. When someones came, it felt good. But this time is was Mousey leaving. When he left, it was a bit lonely. But they always had the heart of an angel towards each other.

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National Gallery of Art

Written by Vu Tran

On Monday 11/15/2015, Oak Hill Christian School took a field trip to the National Gallery of Art. The trip was focused on Renaissance art. We took the metro train to Archives station, then walked to the gallery. When we arrived, we divided into two groups according to the two classes : art class and literature class; we each followed our own tour guide. I’m writing this as a student of the literature class.

Rembrandt's Lucretia

We sought, we hunted and we went after a lot of gems in the gallery. The most significant painting we saw was Alba Madonna by Raphael, painted in 1510. Our tour guide explained why it is a gem of the gallery : John the Baptist, Jesus and Mary were all looking at the cross, that’s first. Second, the pose of  Mary was unrealistic but she appeared to naturally cover both Jesus and John. Third, the painting was a circle, so we could focus more on the event happening in the picture. Finally, we couldn’t find any sharp lines sketched in the painting on any details such as the chin, the elbow… All of the features softly combined to create a masterpiece. We found another gem which the Omnibus class studied previously in the year: Rembrandt’s Lucretia. 

But the gems in the gallery were not only paintings, but also sculptures. Even though it wasn’t part of the trip, we managed to observe one sculpture : Little Dancer Aged Fourteen by Edgar Degas, made in 1878 and originally formed in wax. At this point, our tour guide had done her job but luckily there was a college art student over there who explained the statue to us: he said that this sculpture is famous because this is the only sculpture Degas ever exhibited publicly and it was through wax. Degas dressed her image with much detail from the hair, and the pose, to the cloth garments. And it was so real that people cast her in bronze after his death just in case the original statue became damaged. Through his sculpture, he portrayed a poor girl who danced for the Paris Opera, Marie van Goethem. Just in case you don’t know how big it is, here are some pictures we have (Asian for scale.)

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Shoe Box of Love

Shoe Box of Love

Written by Karis Kim and Calvin Tran

Christmas is coming closer! But before Christmas day comes and goes, don’t you want to do something meaningful? Why don’t you send your love to adorable children in a shoe box? It will forever be a valuable memory. Oak Hill organized a competition in which they collected these boxes that will soon be sent to needy children all over the world. Many in Oak Hill joined in this wonderful event.

Oak Hill Student Council collected the gifts into shoe boxes to help children at orphan asylums. We are hoping they will have a blissful time this Christmas with our gifts. Our Student Council prepared the main collection boxes for each grade, and these are the principal students who helped and decorated these boxes: Aleon Niu, Cris Cheng, Cindy He, Hannah Tran, Karis Kim, Zoe Lee, Mata Bai, and Whitney Yang.

The Main Collection Boxes for Each Grade

4-5 Grade and 11 Grade Collection Boxes

Collection Boxes

Thank you to all who helped this project, by bringing boxes and gifts. And a big thank you to Miss Fluegge for helping manage this event and for organizing the packing party.

On November 12  we had received 67 boxes from the students of Oak Hill Christian School. Our community hosted a contest to see which class brought in the most boxes from November 2nd to 13th. Although the 6-8 grade class appeared to be ahead from the beginning, K4 pulled ahead the last day, winning the competition. 

In the past, the school has donated about 40 boxes a year, but this year the total has reached 145 boxes! We hope this project makes the children and the students happy!

Oak Hill Christian School Shoeboxes of Love 2015

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A Day at the Science Fair

Written by Vu Tran

On November 4, 2015 at OHCS we witnessed a great event in the school created by Mrs. Door, the science teacher; it was the Science Fair. Believe it or not, she managed to do the whole thing within one day: morning plan, to noon preparation, then evening demonstration. Approximately fifty posters were shown, four live experiments were performed, and three projects won. My favorite experiment was Michael Lizarazu's Dry Ice Bubble. Roughly ninety attendees came from all grades as well as some parents. The atmosphere was absolutely wonderful; it was merely a convention in a small space. All the applause, the stares, the amazing faces...I must say I haven't experienced that much interest in a long time now. All the credit for an amazing science fair to the staff, mostly Mrs. Door. In brief, if there are any science fairs coming again, you better join them.

Mata demonstrates an experiment for some younger students.

Students browse the science fair projects.

A warm welcome to students and teachers as well as an invitation to judge the projects.

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