First Grade Authors Enter Bay Area Writing Contest

First graders have been hard at work writing, illustrating, and editing their own original stories for a local short story contest open to grades K-8. This is Alta Vista's first time entering, and the competition is fierce--more than ten other independent schools are participating! Each grade has an assigned theme, and first graders are focusing on the animals of the rainforest. Snakes, sloths, and poisonous dart frogs abound on the pages they've been carefully crafting over the past few weeks. 

The creative process is not without its challenges. Stella cites ideation as chief among them: "It can be hard to think of something to write sometimes," she admits. Physical hardship is a factor as well. As Natalia opines, "Adding lots of detail is important, but it can hurt your hand to write too many." 

Despite these obstacles, first-grade authors have persevered, motivated not only by the potential glory of penning a prizewinning piece but also by the sheer joy of storytelling. As Landon poignantly observes, "The funnest (best) part of writing a story is reading it out loud. Everyone claps and gives you compliments." 

Best of luck to our intrepid young contestants! We will all be anxiously awaiting the contest's results with bated breath (and lots of Aviator pride!).