Month: March 2018

Saklan Goes to Senegal!

In a couple of weeks, Ms. Obenchain, Saklan’s Super-Science Specialist, is heading to SASTA-VickieObenchain copySenegal for her fellowship she won through Teachers for the Global Classroom. We are so excited for her!
She will be teaching Senegalese students science, and, particularly, about California and American culture. Our Saklan students and families are invited to share in this Global Classroom experience with 300 boys and girls ranging from the elementary school years through to the high school grades.
To do this, Ms. O was hoping to bring a few things, and thought maybe our entire Saklan community could help. If you come across any of these items and would like her to bring them to her Senegalese students, she would greatly appreciate it!
  • She would like to teach them about some American holidays, like Halloween, and is asking to receive gifts of individually wrapped candies – Jelly Bellies, Sour Candies, Ghiradelli Minis, Hershey’s Kisses, as examples.
  • For some younger Senegalese students, she would like to give small California/San Francisco mementos: erasers, pencils, bookmarks, key chains, etc.
  • Consider sending any of your photos that she could use to highlight American and California holidays and/or lifestyles: holiday pictures and/or vacation pictures that Ms. O can easily pack in her suitcase. Pictures can be emailed to development@saklan.org.
Your gifts and print pictures for Ms. O’s Senegalese students can be delivered to the office or the science lab NEXT WEEK by Friday, March 30th.
Thank you so much, in advance, for your generosity:-)

St. Patrick’s Day!

Group

As is the tradition every year, the Owlets, Hoot Owls and Kindergarten classes enjoyed St. Patrick’s Day celebrations last Friday. This entailed a lot of green, some sweet treats, a little magic, and lots of smiles! Those pesky leprechauns left green footprints, turned rainbow sorbet into green sorbet, and avoided those creative traps made by the Kindergarten class. There’s always next year….

 

Love Wine? Support the Instant Wine Cellar Raffle!

Wine raffle Sandy

2018 Instant Wine Cellar Raffle is finally here!  This year’s wine cellar collection features 50 top-rated bottles, valued at $4,000!  In the theme of Festival des Arts, we will use Tarot cards as raffle tickets and make 68 cards available for sale. Tickets are $100 each and are for sale now in the office until they are sold out.  Come get your tickets as soon as possible since this raffle sells out every year!

Two winning tickets will be drawn at the Auction Gala on April 21st. The first winner is the Grand Prize winner who receives the Instant Wine Cellar Collection and need not be present to win. The second winner will receive the Wine Connoisseur Basket and must be present to win. Both prizes cannot be won by the same family.

Wine raffle Sandy II

For questions about the ticket sales or wine collection, please contact Sandy Lo, wine raffle coordinator: sandralo@gmail.com

Sports Update

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Please come support the Sakan Suns in their final home basketball game next
Thursday March 29th @ 4:45PM.
volleyball

Spring time is coming and that means it is time for volleyball! We are scheduling six games this year: two in April and four in May. Once the dates are confirmed, we will post the season. Any fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth graders who would like to play are eligible. Just let Mr. Crabtree know.

Let’s Go Saklan!

Don’t Forget to RSVP!

Grandparents Day.jpg

Grandparents and Special Friends Day is next Friday, March 30th at 10AM!

Please remind your grandparents and special friends about this event so they join us!  RSVP to office@saklan.org by this Monday, March 26th.

Cast Your Vote!

It’s that time of year again – vote for “Best Of” in our local publications!  Through the end of March you have the opportunity to vote for the best Summer Camp in the East Bay at Diablo Magazine – diablomag.com.

BEST OF DIABLO

After that, and through the end of April vote for best Lower School, Middle School, Pre-K program and much, much  more at Parents’ Press – parentspress.com.

Parents'Press

And there are many options also at Bay Area Parent – bayareaparent.com.

BAY AREA PARENT

We are very grateful to our Saklan community and the parent support which has led to awards in previous years!

Shop with Saklan!

 

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Just outside of Macy’s, down the street from Old Navy, near access to the parking garage and across from True Food Kitchen you’ll find our newest advertisement – a “Standee.” If you find yourself at Broadway Plaza in Walnut Creek, show your Saklan pride. Stop by and take a look!

 

Head’s Corner

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Dear Saklan Community,

What an amazing concert we had yesterday evening! Our annual concert at the Lesher Center is always a great event, but this year we had truly one of the best concerts ever.  A big audience of over 500 parents, relatives, friends, staff and students were awed by the music, rhythms, choreography and energy that were packed into this 90 minute concert.  I would like to highly commend our music teacher, Mrs. Grace Chaffey, for another outstanding performance. I would also like to commend Mr. Isaac Narell, whose work with the 4th and 5th graders was superlative.  A big thank you to the band, which featured Saklan’s own Mr. Sam Prestianni, Mr. Isaac Narell, Ms. Ashley Jennings, Mr. Javier Yacarini and alumnus James Rokas.  The theme of our concert was, “Bailando” and this show was the culmination of a year-long educational exploration of dance music from around the globe. Highlighted on stage was a beautiful backdrop (pictured above) to showcase the theme; thank you to Ms. Natalie Palms and the 5th, 6th, and 8th graders for creating a lovely canvas for us to admire during the show. I am certain that the theater full of parents, relatives and friends were as impressed as I was by the unique talent, energy and joy that our Saklan students can pack into one show!

Have a great weekend!

 Peter

Middle School Walkout

On Wednesday morning, our Middle School students participated in their own version of the National School Walkout. To start off the discussion, students watched the below video to set a tone of safety and community before diving in to deeper topics.

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The themes that kept arising all relate back to the importance of empathy and kindness and compassion. To be able to listen and show respect to each other, even with differences in values and opinions, is a lesson that many students do not learn in schools. Saklan’s social emotional learning program, coupled with smaller class sizes, give our children a huge advantage when they move out in to the world.

After a moment of silence, groups presented on topics such as gun safety, improving schools in the United States, taking care of each other, and improving our mental health care system.

We are so proud of these students for their honesty, courage, and compassion, and we can move forward with hope about this new generation!