Month: February 2019

3rd Grade Weaving Project Continued…

After finishing their clay looms, the third graders used watercolor to paint the bisque ware. Using watercolor instead of glaze, the students can blend and overlay multiple colors. Miss Natalie sprayed the looms with a clear glaze overcoat before they started weaving.

Here, the students are learning to set up their warp yarn and begin the center of their circular weaving. The students worked together to help one another when we got a little stuck in the process. It was a great day of teamwork and problem solving. They were surely proud with the progress they made on their weavings! Next week, they will continue weaving with a second color.

First Grade Science

The first graders have been learning about penguins. First, they presented their group penguin posters to the rest of the class. They wrote a list of notes about the things they learned from each other and then they wrote penguin facts inside their cute penguins they made. They had fun walking like penguins with the help of an egg made out of play dough, and experimenting with feathers and blubber. They learned that penguins spend a lot of time applying wax to their outer feathers. The wax comes from a gland at the base of their tail. They use their beak to apply it. To find out how waxy feathers help penguins, the first graders did an experiment called Drenched and Dry.

To end their Penguin Unit, Mr. O’Connell visited the first grade class and read a book about the “Lost and Found Penguin.” The book is a profound story about the importance of friendship between a boy and a penguin. Thank you, Mr. O’Connell!

All About Polar Bears

Kindergartners have been very busy with STEAM activities and learning about polar bears. To understand polar bears…

the children tried to smell a Swedish fish hidden in an ice cube,

“swam” on mats from ice floe to ice floe,

felt ice cubes with and without a layer of blubber (saran wrap) and made bear biscuits.

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Kindergartners also read books about bears including The Three Polar Bears, by Jan Brett. At the Lower School Exhibition they shared their work with families and friends.

State Reports

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Fifth grade students have been working hard on their State Reports. Students researched many important facts pertaining to their chosen state. Each report consisted of well written sections and students also drew maps, state birds, state flowers and state flags for their reports. As a family project, students created a State Float.

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Floats were required to have specific facts as well as extra information the students found fascinating. How those state facts were represented on the float was up to their imagination. It was interesting to see all of the creativity in each of State Floats. Students and their families did such an amazing job!

Native American Studies in 3rd Grade

Third graders have been learning about Native Americans and got to enhance their classroom studies by visiting the Museum of the American Indian in Novato.

They enjoyed hearing stories about how the Coast Miwok tribe lived harmoniously with the land. The students got to learn how two types of Miwok homes are built (and go inside one of them) and experienced drilling a shell with a pump drill to make a necklace. It was a wonderful experience that really brought their learning to life.

Head’s Corner

#SaklanConnected

For the Heads Corner this week, I am going to cheat a little and link you to two outstanding pieces regarding the importance of relationships in education. As you are aware, strong meaningful relationships with our students are part of the secret sauce at Saklan.

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The first link is a 3-minute video from Edutopia discussing how Oxytocin is released in the brain when we feel connected to others. This release of Oxytocin has many positive effects on learning.

The second link is a recent opinion piece from David Brooks of the New York Times. In it, he shares some of the cognitive science that supports the idea that “A key job of a school is to give students new things to love — an exciting field of study, new friends……. It reminded us that children learn from people they love.”

I hope you have time to take a few minutes and delve into these two pieces, they help explain what makes Saklan successful at growing good people.

Warm regards,

David

Snowman Science Experiment

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In addition to their winter theme, the Hoot Owls began to learn about scientists. They learned that scientists ask questions, do experiments, measure, count, draw, write, learn from their senses, sort, test predictions and have fun! Their first winter experiment was building a snowman out of ice. First, balloons full of water were frozen in the freezer. Many friends were surprised to touch the balloons and find them not only hard but cold, too. The Hoot Owls helped cut the balloons open and pealed them off the ice. Next, they used salt to stack the ice balls together. Many Hoot Owls asked, “Why does the salt make them stick?” One of the first things they learned from this experiment was that four balls of ice were too tall, as the fourth ball of ice tumbled down and shattered on the floor!

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After the snowman was completed, they sat down and observed him. They did an observational drawing of what he looked like now. Then they made predictions by doing a drawing of what they thought he would look like later.

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The Hoot Owls’ drawings were all different but they all had the idea that later he would melt and he did! The snowman took a tumble right before lunch. By the end of the day there were only small pieces of ice left. By the next morning he was salty water! #SaklanHandsOn

Saklan Buddies

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Last week, the Owlet and 6th grade buddies collaborated their creative skills by creating Valentines for our neighbors at Aegis of Moraga. This activity tied into our January Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) theme of inclusion, as we are extending our Saklan Valentine celebration to others in our community. The buddy program at Saklan allows for students from various grade levels to build relationships, practice communication skills, and teaches the older buddies essential leadership skills. It is a well-loved tradition! #SaklanConnected #SaklanCompassionate #SaklanCreative

Washington D.C. Cultural Adventures, Part II

Exploring the world-class art museums in our nation’s capital is often one of the most challenging, mind-bending activities for many 8th graders during our DC field study. Many kids go into these places with severely limited, preconceived notions about what art is. Of course, one of the project’s goals is to vanquish (or at least diminish) such prejudices. It’s always fun to see how far students stretch their minds throughout the course of their cultural investigations. While in Washington and after we return to school, the kids process what they learned in many different ways. The extraordinary multimedia presentations below on the National Gallery of Art and the Hirshhorn exemplify the value of our experiential learning activities and Saklan’s commitment to providing students with rich opportunities to flex their creativity.

Kyle Yasumura on the National Gallery:

His final takeaway: “I will rethink what I see as art because until now I just thought that anything could be art as long as you thought of it that way, but now I’ve realized that sometimes art is about the craftsmanship and not whether you just call it art.”

Juliet Pecher on the Hirshhorn:

“I now have a broader perspective of what art is and will apply it to my own work.”

Indeed! #SaklanExperiental

Second Graders Take On Fairy Tales

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Second graders have now finished their Fairy Tale Unit with class presentations and a Friday Flag presentation.

 

 

The students showed how they worked on the writing process and what that involves. All their hard work has paid off and their amazing stories have now been published. The students enjoyed reading them to their friends in school. #SaklanCreative