November 2022 – Page 2

Protecting & Empowering Our Children & Youth

The Saklan Parent Association invites you to join them on Thursday, November 10th at 7:00 p.m for the next Parent Education presentation: Protecting & Empowering Our Children & Youth, presented by Kidpower.

All adults in the Saklan community are invited to join this session in which you will learn how to help children and young people build social-emotional skills to take charge of their own safety, and how to adapt these skills based on their ages, abilities, and life situations in person and online.

You don’t want to miss this event; See you on Zoom!

#SaklanPA

Costume Parade & Dancing

On Monday morning, the Saklan students were very excited to don their Halloween costumes and participate in our annual Costume Parade! The parade route took the students out the admissions door, through the front parking lot, and back to the Sports Court.

The students and teachers waved to the onlookers, as parents cheered and took pictures along the route.

Once on the Sports Court, Grace led the community in some Halloween songs and dancing!

Thank you to all the parents that joined us and cheered the students on. The students enjoyed waving to you and spotting their parents along the parade route!

#SaklanCommunity #SaklanCreative

Catching Criminals

The seventh graders have been learning about DNA. They explored the traits found on DNA, learned about the human genome project to map those traits, and then studied how technology can be used to isolate traits. The seventh graders now understand how technology is used to determine genetic similarities between parents and evolutionary family lines.

The students conducted an experiment to help them understand how criminals can be caught using DNA found at a crime scene. Through the process of gel electrophoresis, students separated colored dyes and tried to find out which colors were more closely related.

Next the seventh graders will learn about genetic engineering.

#SaklanScience #SaklanHandsOn

Visiting Cafe Ohlone

The fourth and third grade classes are both working on projects that are designed to answer their project driving questions:

“Why does learning the whole truth of the CA missions matter?”
4th Grade

“How can we show respect to the people whose ancestral lands Saklan is on?”
3rd Grade

As part of this work, the 4th and 3rd graders had the unique opportunity to visit Cafe Ohlone on the UC Berkeley campus. The students were excited and honored to meet with the owners and founders of the cafe, Vincent Medina (East Bay Ohlone) and Louis Trevino (Rumsen Ohlone), who also both have some Saclan ancestry.

To represent and share the living culture of Ohlone and Bay Miwok people, Vincent and Louis taught the students some words in the Ohlone language and shared some traditional games.

They also talked about the types of local species that are used in their foods, such as acorns, and the process of turning the acorns into flour. The students loved trying some delicious acorn flour brownies and tea!

Our students were very lucky to also get to ask Vincent and Louis questions about what they have been learning in the classroom, and see what they thought about each classes’ driving question for their unit. It was an incredibly enlightening experience for both classes and they are looking forward to using what they learned to help them finish their units!

#SaklanPBL #SaklanFieldExperience

Connecting with Experts

An important part of project-based learning is connecting with experts in relevant fields of study. The sixth grade class had two opportunities to be in conversation with experts in order to help them best answer the driving question, “Who does art truly belong to?”

They have been learning about ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Sumer through a selection of artifacts. After researching these artifacts and their cultural significance, students have been grappling with the modern arguments around repatriation of ancient artifacts. To where do these pieces truly belong?

On October 31st, the sixth graders interviewed Director of School and Family Programs at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Emily Jennings, via Zoom. She helped students understand perspectives, constraints, and considerations of large encyclopedic museums that hold ancient artifacts in their collections.

To follow up that conversation, students met with Dr. Aaron Brody, archeologist, Professor of Bible and Archaeology, and Director of the Badè Museum of Biblical Archaeology in Berkeley, on November 2nd. The sixth graders got to hold ancient artifacts and engage him in larger conversations around the laws and ethics of excavations as they seek to understand the circumstances under which the artifacts they have been researching were collected.