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Middle school students have been actively engaged in movement, singing, and instrument playing during music class as they prepare for the upcoming Music Festival in April. Their focus has been on learning, practicing, and refining their songs to deliver a polished performance.

 

Get your tickets near the front desk starting at 8am on Thursday, March 13. Opening night will be Friday, March 14 with a 7:30pm showing. That will be followed by two shows on Saturday before wrapping up with two more on Sunday afternoon. Read more about the play below. 

Live Oak is excited to announce a collaboration with The Lunchmakers, an organization founded by local students to address hunger in the Bay Area. Together, on Sunday, March 30 from 9:30-11:30am at Live Oak, we will make 200 bag lunches to bring to Glide, a nationally recognized center for social justice, dedicated to fighting systemic injustices, creating pathways out of poverty and crisis, and transforming lives, including distributing lunches to those who are hungry in San Francisco. Spots are limited, so please sign up here by March 25 to attend and/or bring supplies or play a particular role at the event. Please contact Deedra Veerathanongdech (deedraveera@gmail.com) with any questions!

As we enter into the Spring, Camp Live Oak is on the horizon. Stay tuned for updates and volunteer opportunities in upcoming Live Oak weekly newsletters, via the Camp Live Oak tile located on the Live Oak Family Portal Resources tab, and the Camp Live Oak Website. In the meantime, read below for information about the schedule and lodging at Camp.

Live Oak recently recognized three student-athletes with the Winter Sports Student-Athlete Spotlight. Eighth graders Magnolia Doherty, Tula Patrick, and seventh grader Shoshi Kellerman, who participated in Live Oak basketball this year, were recognized for their hard work and leadership skills in the classroom and in athletics. Read their Q&A interviews below and learn more about these athletics leaders.

In February, second graders began their physical science unit on forces and motion. Throughout the year second graders are asked the essential question: How do people use the process of science to investigate questions about the natural world? During this physical science unit students explore the scientific method and investigate questions about how objects move and how forces act upon objects.

The Lightning capped off a historic winter sports season by claiming three league championships last week. It was the first time that Live Oak has won three basketball titles in the same season and continues a string of five straight seasons with at least one Live Oak hoops team claiming a league crown. Read all the finals results below. 

In a foreign language class, an effective and fun way to learn and practice new language structures is through games. The main vehicle for language acquisition in our program is storytelling in both the form of engaging stories from our curriculum units and entertaining or hilarious songs from Señor Wooly. So, how and why do students use games to build language acquisition? 

Three of Live Oak’s four playoff basketball teams advanced to the SFAL finals this week. Read below for all the playoff results and the finals schedules.   

Mark your calendars for one of the most popular all-school events of the year, connecting changemaker hands and hearts together! Family Service Night will be Thursday, March 6 at 6:30pm in the Grand Hall. Join other Live Oak families for a lively and fulfilling evening working on projects that benefit local community organizations. Read below for details on the projects we will be working on and how to sign up. 

During the month of February, kindergartners embarked on their first-ever Engineering Unit. They learned that an engineer is “a person who uses tools to solve problems and make life easier.” Students learned that there are many different types of engineers and honed in on civil, mechanical, software, and electrical engineering.

The 8th annual Black Joy Parade is happening in Oakland on Sunday, February 23. As part of our annual tradition, Live Oak’s African American Affinity Network will have a contingent participating in the parade. If your family has members who identity as Black and/or African American* we'd love for you to walk with us! The parade itself begins at 12:30pm with food, music, vendors, and celebration to follow. More information to come about specific parade and meet-up details.

Please fill out this form if you would like to join us. If you have a t-shirt from a past year, please wear it. I will bring extras for folks who don't have one. Please reach out to Adrian Takyi (adrian_takyi@liveoaksf.org) with any questions.

At Live Oak, our mission to cultivate compassionate, curious, and critically thinking students is woven into every aspect of our curriculum. The seventh grade humanities "Postcards Home" research project–which students completed while reading comedian Trevor Noah’s memoir, Born a Crime, and learning about Africa’s powerful medieval kingdoms, such as Ghana and Mali–is a prime example of how we foster global citizenship and a deep understanding of cultural diversity.

Toby got the seventh grade boys JV Green going early leading fast breaks with high energy in their 40-30 win over Friends. He finished the game with nine points and several great assists. Eddie led all scorers with 10 points. On the girls side, Maya and Rose made some big shots in the 33-11 win as the JV girls improved to 5-0. The varsity girls had another solid performance behind the strong all around play of Genevieve as they defeated Friends by a final of 45-14. They followed that up with a 44-21 victory over Kittredge as Magnolia put home 18 points and Ivy added 13 to help the varsity girls finish off their regular season undefeated. They will await their playoff matchup as they gear up for the postseason. Rounding out the week’s action were the varsity boys, who bounced back with another strong win against CDS to get to 2-2 on the season. Nate led all scorers with 25 points.

“We are the same. There is no difference anywhere in the world. People are people. They laugh, cry, feel, and love, and music seems to be the common denomination that brings us all together. Music cuts through all boundaries and goes right to the soul.” - Willie Nelson. Kindergartners through fourth graders have been getting ready to share songs with parents and families at our lower school music concerts! 

We are happy to announce the recipients of this year’s Young Alumni Changemaker Award, Justin Babler-Kuebler ‘21 and Nala Urrutia ‘21. The Young Alumni Changemaker Award began in 2022 to recognize that Live Oak students do not wait to make an impact in their communities. The award honors current high school juniors and seniors who graduated from Live Oak that model empathy and responsibility, demonstrate a capacity to create change in the community, and inspire actions in others. 

This month 3 East students visited 826 Valencia to learn more about the craft of writing and published their own book: Don’t Delete Us. The field trip was an excellent opportunity for our students to explore creative writing, work collaboratively, and grow their confidence in the writing process. While at 826 Valencia, students were supported by writing coaches, a ghost writer, illustrator, and four courageous parent chaperones.

Lower school musicians are hard at work perfecting their xylophone parts and memorizing their lyrics for the Lower School Music Festival. Join us in the Grand Hall for the kindergarten through second grade show from 8:35am to 10am on Thursday, February 6, followed by the third and fourth grade performance on Friday, February 7 at the same time. Both events will be livestreamed, so keep an eye out for a link to view that video if you can’t make it in person. This year’s theme is “Water” and will feature aquatic tunes ranging from traditional folk numbers to classic rock favorites.

After a comprehensive search and interview process, we are excited to introduce Regina Hardatt as Live Oak School’s incoming Lower School Division Director and Asha Weber as Middle School Division Director starting in the 2025-26 school year. 

Connell had 16 points and Eddie went 3-for-3 from three-point range to lead the seventh grade JV Green to a 47-30 victory over Children’s Day School. Meanwhile, the sixth grade JV White were led by Theo S. and Kaya on offense as Live Oak kept it close in the first half. CDS was a formidable opponent and pulled ahead in the second half to secure the victory. On the varsity boys side, Nate and Coleman came up with big shots down the stretch as the Lightning earned their first win in a tight 33-30 contest against KIPP Bayview. Finally, the varsity girls clinched a 31-15 victory over KIPP Bayview this past Tuesday to improve to 3-0 on the year.

Live Oak’s basketball teams started 2025 on a positive note by winning each of their first three contests in January. Read this week's results below.