Wrapped in Gratitude

Teacher Appreciation Week left our faculty and staff feeling wrapped in gratitude, thanks to the generosity and thoughtfulness of our community.

The week kicked off with thoughtful gifts from the PA, including RUMPL blankets, Uni Body Glow Kits, fresh flowers, and coffee, all warmly received and deeply appreciated. From there, the celebrations continued with a beautiful brunch featuring bagels, donuts, and quiche on Monday, followed by a delicious spread of Mexican food and desserts on Tuesday, bagels and crowd-pleasing burgers and fries on Wednesday, and a delicious potluck of family recipes today.

The week also brought kind notes that brightened the campus and lifted spirits. Each moment reflected the deep appreciation that families have for the educators who support, challenge, and inspire students every day.

We are incredibly grateful to the parents who contributed their time, energy, and creativity to make this week so special. Your generosity not only honors our teachers and staff but also strengthens the sense of connection that makes Saklan such a unique and supportive place to learn and grow.

#SaklanCommunity #SaklanPA

Mission: Save the Reef

As part of their Earth Science studies, sixth grade students have been exploring how pests and invasive species impact ecosystems. One focus has been the Crown-of-Thorns (COT) sea star, a species currently threatening the Great Barrier Reef. Students learned how the sea star’s rapid reproduction and lack of natural predators have led to significant damage in this delicate ecosystem. By feeding on coral, COTs are contributing to the reef’s decline at an alarming rate.

To better understand real-world solutions, students investigated how scientists are responding to this challenge. They explored using Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) to identify and inject vinegar into sea stars, a method that effectively eliminates them. These ROVs can operate continuously and in a variety of ocean conditions, making them a powerful tool for conservation efforts.

Bringing this learning to life, students worked collaboratively to design and build their own ROVs. Teams engineered frames, installed motors, learned to operate control systems, and added creative design features as they stepped into the roles of engineers and marine scientists.

On Tuesday, students put their designs to the test at the MCC Augusta Pool. Their challenge was to navigate their ROVs underwater and retrieve imitation Crown-of-Thorns sea stars, simulating the work of marine conservation teams on the Great Barrier Reef.

Students spent the first part of the session learning to maneuver their ROVs and coordinate as teams. Once they became comfortable operating the controls, teachers released the imitation COT sea stars into the pool for retrieval.

Armed with creative retrieval tools such as shovels, Velcro, and scoops, teams worked together to collect the sea stars from the bottom of the pool. By the end of the challenge, the class had successfully retrieved a record 38 Crown-of-Thorns sea stars.

This hands-on experience allowed students the opportunity to fully engage in the engineering design process while tackling a real-world environmental issue. Through collaboration, problem-solving, and innovation, students saw firsthand how science and technology can be used to protect ecosystems and make a meaningful impact on the world around them.

#SaklanHandsOn

Once Upon a Time in Kindergarten

Kindergarten students at Saklan have been immersed in a magical world of storytelling as their Project work has focused on fairy tale writing. The classroom has been filled with excitement as students bring imaginative characters and adventures to life. Dragons, evil magicians, brave princesses, talking animals, and mysterious villains have all found their way into their original stories.

While the final stories are full of creativity and humor, students are also learning an important lesson about the writing process: strong writing begins long before the final draft. Weeks earlier, students engaged in a carefully scaffolded planning process designed to build an understanding of story structure and organization.

Using a color-coded system, students mapped out their ideas across six parts of a narrative: introducing the main character, beginning the adventure, presenting the problem and villain, building to the “uh oh” moment, resolving the conflict, and concluding with a happily ever after. By focusing on just a few sections at a time, students were able to thoughtfully develop their stories and gain confidence in structuring their ideas.

Once their plans were complete, students eagerly began the writing process. Over the following weeks, the classroom buzzed with focused energy as young authors transformed their plans into full fairy tales. To support their work, students used a growing class word bank, along with table-specific word lists, to help with spelling and vocabulary. They also leaned on one another, asking questions, offering suggestions, and celebrating each other’s ideas along the way.

This collaborative and supportive environment helped students not only strengthen their writing skills but also develop confidence and independence. The process was both challenging and rewarding, resulting in stories that are as unique as the students themselves.

You are invited to experience these original fairy tales firsthand during the Kindergarten culmination on Friday, May 15, at 9:00 a.m. It promises to be a joyful celebration of creativity, growth, and storytelling!

#SaklanProjectWork

From Brain Science to Real-Life Application

What does it look like when students take what they know about the brain and use it to help others? That question came to life as our fifth graders stepped into the heart of their project work.

Building on their recent brain science studies, students are now applying their understanding of how the brain interprets, reacts, and sometimes gets it wrong to design tools that help people better understand and manage emotions and relationships. Working in three teams, they are focused on self-awareness (naming feelings), self-regulation (calming tools), and connection (conflict resolution, active listening, and problem-solving). Each team is designing visual teaching tools and co-creating stories that show characters using the strategies, and younger students will soon get to help shape key elements.

Last week, teams presented their prototypes and story drafts to guest experts who support children every day. Riva and Emily joined the self-regulation team, bringing calming tools for students to test. Annette and Coach Rob shared their Peace Talks training and Conflict Corner guidelines with the connection team, and Peta supported the self-awareness team in refining their tools using Zones of Regulation strategies. 

Students listened carefully, asked thoughtful questions, and immediately began refining their work.

One fifth grader captured the spirit of the project perfectly:

“We have a voice in project work. We made a real impact on the Redwood Grove earlier this year, and now we’re doing something that can help people understand their emotions and relationships. I like knowing our work matters.”

Families are invited to see this important work in action at CLAS on May 15, when fifth graders will present their projects and share the impact of their learning.

#SaklanProjectWork

The Family Tech Reset

Hope and Help for Rebuilding Connection

The average kid gets their first smartphone at age 11. By high school, they’re spending seven-plus hours a day on screens. With growing pressure to be constantly online, helping kids establish healthy digital habits is crucial for their well-being.

Andrea Davis, founder of Better Screen Time and mother of five, joins ParentMap and Saklan for a ParentEd Talk on how to create a slow-tech path, strengthen family connection, and raise confident, well-adjusted kids on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, 12:00 PM.

RSVP for the event using the button below to receive the event link and the recording.

RSVP To Attend (Promo Code SAKSCHL)

#SaklanParentEd

Cross-Divisional Project Collaboration

Beyond reading buddies, Saklan projects are intentionally designed for meaningful student collaboration that authentically supports academic growth. This spring, middle school is using their music production skills for kindergarten’s fairy tale recordings, 6th grade helped 1st graders organize their expository writing, and 4th graders helped our Pre-K Hoot Owls refine their Venn diagram skills! 

Kindergarten and Middle School Music Production

How can we write and share our own fairy tales to spread magic and joy? Through answering this driving question, Kindergarten students have learned the elements of fairy tales and deepened their reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills to write and record their own original fairy tale stories. 

In preparation for their readers-theater style culmination on May 15th, students recorded their stories, and middle school students are creating original backing tracks to support the narrative elements of the fairy tale. Sound mixing the Kindergarten stories gives our middle schoolers an authentic application of their digital music production skills.

6th Grade and 1st Grade Expository Writing

All year 6th graders have worked on expository writing in Humanities. Recently, while preparing to write artifact labels for their PBL unit culmination, the Museum of the Future, sixth graders reviewed structure and organization in expository writing. To practice this work, sixth graders analyzed 1st grade report writing drafts on extreme weather. They completed individual writing conferences to support improving the structure and organization of the first-grade reports. Not only did the first graders get to work with the big kids in a middle school classroom, but the sixth graders had the opportunity to grapple with the deeper cognitive task of teaching and explaining elements of writing to a younger child. This work improved the content of the first-grade reports and solidified the sixth grader’s understanding of writing structures and organization, while building community across divisions.

Hoot Owl and 4th Grade Venn Diagrams

Venn diagrams are a useful tool for many grade levels to demonstrate understanding of academic content. This spring, our Pre-K class has been learning all about oceans while their 4th-grade reading buddies have been working on a PBL unit about the California Gold Rush. Both classes planned to use Venn diagrams as a learning tool, and teachers needed an opportunity for some one-on-one teaching and practice. It was natural for these classes to connect and engage in some cross-divisional content learning! 

With fourth graders guiding the learning, the buddies made Venn diagrams all about each other! They chatted and recorded what they had in common and what was different about each other. As they got to know each other better by completing the diagram, both classes also deepened their understanding of how to use a Venn diagram. When each class returned to their own project work, they employed the same learning tool at different developmental levels with different content.  

If you want to see final products and culminating events, stay tuned for the next week at Saklan emails for updates on ways to come see and celebrate our students’ spring project work!

#SaklanProjectWork

A Day in Charge: Head of School for a Day

Not many schools give you a privilege like being the Head of School for the Day, but Saklan just happens to be so awesome that it does. This isn’t even the best day I’ve had at Saklan! (It is up there, of course.) At the time I’m writing this post, I’m simultaneously thinking about the fun to be had before the day is done! I’ll still have free recesses, and not miss out on classes that give homework, so the schedule is clearly well thought through and meets the needs of me, my friends, and my teachers!

This isn’t the only way Saklan is amazing; I could name a hundred more ways! Here are a few:

  • Off-campus lunch on the last Thursday of every month
  • Free dress passes that reward good behavior with a day of your outfit of choice
  • A host of other great activities to be bought at the auction, such as bowling and smoothies, an escape room, and Librarian for the Day
  • Sisi’s is a popular reward for the students after a long project!
  • Teachers have fun, interactive activities that help students understand what they’re learning, and have fun with friends while learning it

And that’s just a few reasons that Saklan tries (and succeeds) to help its students feel like going to school every day, and looking forward to it. 

There’s something else exciting going on today as well: The opening of the Art Show! As a student in the classroom during – and participant in – the creation of the Art Show artwork, I can personally say that the students worked hard, every last one of them. No matter which ones are less than perfect, great effort was put into them, nevertheless! There were some off-topic conversations, so a HUGE shoutout to Lauren (the art teacher) for ceasing conversation not about artwork, because getting a room full of middle schoolers to sit down and quietly work on artwork is a gigantic feat, one that I could never even come close to accomplishing!

All in all, Saklan is an amazing school, and the Head of School for the Day is a fun thing to bid on for your (grateful) child at the auction. An Art Show only adds to the fun! If you or someone you know is thinking of sending your kid to Saklan, then you’ve/they’ve got good taste and probably love carrot cake. (Am I right? If not, then what’s the matter with you? Go have some carrot cake!)

Now craving carrot cake,

Makena

Head of School for the Day

Experiencing the Industrial Revolution

Eighth graders at Saklan are bringing history to life through an immersive exploration of the Industrial Revolution and its impact on American society in the early 20th century.

As part of their studies, students have been examining how rapid technological and social changes transformed the way people lived and worked. They learned how home-based craftsmanship gave way to factory systems, where workers performed repetitive tasks on assembly lines, each contributing a small but essential part to a larger process.

To deepen their understanding, the Humanities classroom was transformed into a bustling factory floor. Students took on the roles of assembly-line workers for the fictional “Get In Line Skating Company,” mass-producing inline roller skates. Each student was assigned a specific task: cutting out right or left boots and blades, assembling pieces with glue or tape, or adding color to the finished product.

Just like in real factories of the time, efficiency and quality were key. Each pair of skates had to pass a final inspection, and any that didn’t meet the standard were sent back down the line. Students also experienced the physical demands of factory work; they were required to remain standing and continuously engaged throughout the 40-minute production period.

In a moment that captured the tensions of the era, the simulation took an unexpected turn when a spontaneous “wildcat strike” broke out. Despite posted warnings discouraging unions, several student workers halted production, with some even lying down on the factory floor in protest. One student called for higher wages, echoing the real labor struggles faced by workers during this time.

Although production temporarily stopped, the class ultimately produced 37 pairs of roller skates. Following some negotiation and a boost in morale, students completed their work and proudly displayed their finished products in the Humanities Room.

This hands-on experience gave students a deeper, more personal understanding of the realities of factory life during the Industrial Revolution—highlighting not only the efficiencies of mass production, but also the human cost and the importance of workers’ voices.

#SaklanHandsOn

May Brings Patience

At Saklan, social-emotional learning is an essential part of how students grow, not only as learners, but as thoughtful, resilient individuals. In May, the school community is focusing on an important and often challenging skill: patience.

Patience is more than simply waiting. It involves managing emotions, showing self-control, and understanding that growth, learning, and relationships all take time. Throughout the month, students across all grade levels are exploring what it means to be patient with themselves, with others, and within the learning process.

In classrooms, teachers are creating opportunities for students to practice patience in meaningful ways. Whether working through a complex math problem, collaborating on a group project, or learning a new skill, students are encouraged to pause, take a breath, and stay engaged, even when things feel difficult.

#SaklanSEL

Middle School Musical Tickets Now Available

The Saklan Middle School students are very excited for their culminating project for music class, a performance of Curtains Young@Part. Every student in the Middle School is participating in the production, whether performing in a lead role, managing props, supporting costumes, or working behind the scenes as a stagehand. The show is a true collaborative effort! 

On Friday, May 15th, the students will perform at 7:00 p.m. in the Town Hall Theatre in Lafayette. The entire community is invited to the show. Tickets are required for attendance and can be purchased by clicking the button below.

Curtains Tickets

We hope you can join us for what is sure to be a wonderful show!

#SaklanMusicals #SaklanCreative