Month: October 2016

5th Grade Autobiographies

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The fifth grade students just completed their autobiographies which culminated in sharing them with their parents and younger students.  The project consisted of 6 chapters:

Chapter 1….”My Early Years to the Age of Five”…The students interviewed their parents by asking them 20 questions.  Each child learned a lot of information and some of the responses were quite humorous!

Chapter 2…”Me Today”…The students wrote a composition in class that described their personalities, physical characteristics, qualities, and things they enjoy doing.

Chapter 3…”My Favorite Activity”…In this composition the students described a favorite activity that included a full description of the activity: Where, when, and who they do it with, as well as whey they enjoy it.

Chapter 4…”Activities The I Do With My Family”…In this composition, the students wrote about activities that they do with their family, as well as what they do with each member.  This even included their pets.

Chapter 5…”Timeline”…The students created a timeline of 20 significant events in their lives starting from birth to today; then they illustrated the events.

Chapter 6…”Choice Chapter”…..In this chapter the students were able to choose a topic of their choice that was of interest to them.

Each autobiography included a decorated cover, title page, table of contents, and photographs or pictures with captions that followed each chapter. These will be on display in our classroom for several weeks, and the students really enjoy looking at them over and over!  Please feel free to stop by and take a look at them!

News from the Sports Court

Last Friday during lunch, Saklan held its first known Hula-Hoop Contest. The contest was inspired by Camp Saklan which held a similar event during the summer. Twenty-three adults and students signed-up for the competition. After twenty minutes of hooping, there were five contestants left. Gracee (5th), Leo (5th), Makenna (4th), Meera (5th), and Will (5th) all participated in a championship round where they had to keep two hoops moving around their waists.

In the end, Will (5th) was the last one still hula-hooping. Congratulations to Will and all other competitors! This fun activity will take place again in the future so start practicing.

Also in the news, there will be a cross-country race for fifth thru eighth graders on November 8th. This race involves other schools and will take place at the Lafayette Reservoir. The course will be 2.8 miles and racers will start running at 4:10 pm. All foot racers please inquire with Mr. Crabtree if interested.

Let’s go Saklan!

Sharing Stories

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The second graders have completed a month long project. First, they read many books from The Monster Series by Ellen Blance. This monster is lovable and kind. The next step was to choose a title for their own “monster” story and map out the characters, setting, plot, and ending. Then they wrote a rough copy, proofread and revised, recopied, illustrated the story, and finally designed a cover.

On Monday they read their stories to the Hoot Owls.

They will continue this tradition by reading their stories to some of the other classes at Saklan.

Dia de los Muertos

Third Graders decorated sugar skulls in celebration of the Day of the Dead or “Dia de los Muertos.” Dia de los Muertos is celebrated in Mexico, other Latin American countries, and parts of the United States from October 31st to November 2nd.

On this important and joyful holiday, people celebrate the lives of their loved ones who have died. Altars are decorated with the deceased person’s favorite food and belongings. Marigolds are sprinkled on the graves and along paths to lead the spirits of the dead back home. In some places, spirits are believed to visit the earth on the wings of monarch butterflies.

Kindergarten Celebrates Diwali

Last Friday the Kindergarteners and Hoot Owls enjoyed a presentation on the Hindu celebration of Diwali. One of our Kindergarten parents, Abhinav Chandra came to school. He and his daughter Naryani dressed in traditional Hindu celebration dress; they showed us a video of how Diwali is celebrated and told us the story of Diwali.

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Diwali or Festival of Lights is one of the biggest festivals in India. It is a Hindu festival to celebrate the return of victorious Lord Ram to his capital city Ayodhya after he defeated the demon king Ravan. Hindus celebrate Diwali by lighting their houses with decorative lights, inviting friends and family for a festive meal, exchanging sweets, and above all, bursting fire-crackers.

Later kindergarteners were lucky to try a taste of some traditional Hindu sweets that are eaten during Diwali.

Head’s Corner

Dear Saklan Community,

Today we are launching the new version of the Friday Blog. Congratulations to our Communications Manager, Emoke V, who has been working on a number of important projects lately, one of which is creating a new look and feel for our Friday Blog. Even more exciting will be the launch of our new website on November 18th. To celebrate the conclusion of this major project, we will officially launch our new Saklan website at the Fall Follies. This is another reason to not miss this fun event.

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Starting next week, the first Friday of each month will be Spirit Day. All Saklan students can wear any of their Saklan t-shirts instead of the normal uniform top. New Saklan t-shirts were given out for the Walnut Creek parade and will be available for purchase shortly.

At this morning’s flag, which was unfortunately rained out, we had planned to present a total of 241 iKind pledges to Mr. Wendell Baker of the Moraga iKind Committee. Hopefully, we will be able to make this presentation at the next Flag. All Saklan students, staff, faculty, and some parents made a pledge earlier this year to promote and value kindness, treat all people with respect, show compassion and honesty, and demonstrate courage to be kind to each other. The Moraga iKind project was a perfect match for our own Social Emotional Learning program and we focused on Kindness as our first theme and family Group session. I was also pleased to learn that the Moraga iKind Project is offering the community a free showing of the movie “Screenagers” on Tuesday, November 1st at 7 PM at Campolindo High School. The Saklan faculty has recently seen this movie and we highly recommend it to all parents and students in grades 5 and up. The movie addresses many issues that have a great impact on school and learning. Here is a summary of what the movie deals with:

SCREENAGERS probes into the vulnerable corners of family life to explore struggles over social media, video games, academics and internet addiction. Through poignant, and unexpectedly funny stories, along with surprising insights from authors, psychologists, and brain scientists, SCREENAGERS reveals how tech time impacts kids’ development and offers solutions on how adults can empower kids to best navigate the digital world and find balance.

Yesterday we sent out a note about our lost and found situation which is becoming critical. Following some good suggestions, and the fact that Flag was cancelled today, we will put all of the lost and found articles out on Monday in front of the school when we have the Harvest Festival. Please come and search for any lost clothing. We will also put them out at next Friday’s Flag.

Finally, I have noticed a trend lately of cars parking at the side of the drive-through lane. This is impacting the flow of traffic and also presents a safety concern. I would kindly ask that parents waiting for students park on the road or in the parking lot across the street which is available for the use of the school.

Have a great weekend!

Peter

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