Month: May 2023

Class of 2023 Graduation

You are Cordially Invited to Attend

Wednesday, June 7, 2023

10:00 AM on the Saklan Sports Court

We are excited to invite you to a graduation ceremony celebrating the Saklan Class of 2023! This year’s ceremony will be held on Wednesday, June 7th at 10:00 a.m. on the Saklan Sports Court. RSVP is requested for those who will be joining us.

Seating: Will begin at 9:45 a.m.

What to Bring: The event is being held outdoors and weather can vary this time of year. Please prepare for potential sun (hats/sunscreen/glasses/water bottle) or for breezier cool weather (sweaters/jackets).

RSVP: Please RSVP by June 1st, 2023.

RSVP for Graduation Here!

We look forward to celebrating the Class of 2023 with you!

#SaklanGraduation #Classof2023

Buddy Breakfast

Last week, the fifth grade students prepared a pancake breakfast for the Preschool – 5th grade students to enjoy with their learning buddies. This annual celebration took an unexpected turn when they tripped the power grid in the Pavilion! 

However, the 5th graders persisted, stepped up, and all pulled together to help each other when they ended up spread across the school mixing pancake batter, cooking pancakes, and getting them to the Pavilion for the buddies to enjoy. Together, the students ended up flipping over 150 pancakes!

The 5th graders were very excited to hang up their spatulas and share in the pancakes with their Preschool learning buddies at the end of the morning!

Thank you very much, fifth graders, for a wonderful breakfast! Your teamwork, creativity and persistence were very admirable to watch.

#SaklanLearningBuddies #SaklanService #SaklanConnected

Moving Up Day

On Wednesday morning, the Saklan Preschool – fifth grade students participated in Moving Up Day. The students and teachers alike were buzzing with excitement!

This annual tradition allows the students to get a snapshot of what next year will hold. The teachers planned special activities that highlighted their grade level and enjoyed getting to know their rising students a little better. Morning meeting activities, questions, stories, art activities, classroom scavenger hunts, and enthusiasm for next year filled the classrooms! If your child “moved up” on Wednesday, please ask them all about it. They will likely have something enthusiastic to share!

#SaklanConnected

Chicha Morada

The middle school students recently learned how to prepare Chicha Morada, an iconic Peruvian beverage, in Spanish class. The drink is made from dried purple corn, boiled together with pineapple, cinnamon stick, and cloves. It is the most popular drink in the Andean region. As part of their study of the culture of the Andean region, yellow block students created videos describing the ingredients and process of preparing the refreshing, delicious Chicha Morada!

Check out their videos below!

Bienvenidos a Perú, es una bebida saludable y deliciosa. 

#SaklanHandsOn

Last Call for Sneakers

As we shared at the beginning of the year, the sixth grade partnered with GotSneakers, an organization that helps keep sneakers out of landfills by recycling and reusing them. Each pair of shoes donated can earn their class money, which they are using to symbolically adopt a species affected by climate change as part of their way to give back.

To date, 12 bags of sneakers have been sent to GotSneakers. Thank you to everyone who helped support this initiative. Your donations have really helped the environment:

  • Shoes displaced from landfill: 206
  • Carbon Dioxide: 6180 Pounds Displaced
  • Water: 464,942 Gallons Saved

It isn’t too late to donate sneakers! The 6th graders will be collecting sneakers through Friday, June 2nd.

#SaklanServiceLearning

Congratulations Middle Schoolers

A big congratulations go out to our middle school students on their wonderful performance of The Drowsy Chaperone at Town Hall Theatre in Lafayette last Friday evening.

Special thanks to the many people that helped make the show happen.

  • To Town Hall Theatre for their grace in allowing us to share their beautiful and historic space. We are so grateful to be a part of your community.
  • To Javier Yacarini, without whom nothing would ever happen. Special thanks for the refrigerator.
  • To Jayme Feldhammer for her time, sewing machine, and deep kindness.
  • To Emily, Mel and Shay for their help with the program.
  • To Kim Parks for all her help and organization. 💙
  • To the Middle School Teachers for their help with props and rehearsals, their willingness to share their class time, and their encouragement of all performers.
  • To the Middle School Students for their creativity and courage. Your performance was inspiring!
  • To Grace for all the hard work, dedication and passion put into the show. Your casting created magic on the stage, and allowed the students to shine bright. Inspiring middle school students to share their creativity, compassion and courage on the stage is no easy feat, but you do it with ease year after year. Thank you!

If you missed the show, you can watch the video of it below.

#SaklanMusical #SaklanExperientialLearning

Creating & Operating ROVs

As part of the sixth grade earth science curriculum, the students learned about invasive species and how they can affect an ecosystem. One species they focused on was the Crown of Thorns (COT) sea star. They learned how the sea star’s fast reproduction and limited predators on the Great Barrier Reef are creating quite a problem for that precious ecosystem. The COTs eat the algae in the coral which is causing the coral to die at rapid rates. Students then learned how scientists are using Remote Operated Vehicles (ROVs) to learn to identify and inject vinegar into the COTs. The vinegar dissolves them from the inside out. These ROVs can work 24 hours a day in all kinds of weather conditions. 

Ms. O recently attended an ROV course where she learned to create and operate SEAMate ROVs, and she was excited to bring this knowledge back to the classroom and share it with the sixth graders! Ms. O had the students team up to create their own ROVs in order to simulate the work of the scientists out on the reef. The students had to wire their electrical control box, wire the motors and assemble the propellers, design a frame, and decorate their ROV.

With the ROVs completed, the students were given the challenge of collecting COT’s from the local MCC Augusta Pool. Students had to figure out how to maneuver their ROV and remove the imitation COTs from the pool.

Through this process, the sixth graders learned a lot about electricity, engineering, design, scientific research and careers in both robotics and ecology. Many expressed how much they enjoyed taking part in and learning about robotics!

#SaklanScience #SaklanHandsOn

El Mar

In Spanish class, the third graders have been learning about the ocean, sea animals, and how they can help to keep the ocean and beaches clean. They learned vocabulary words related to the ocean, sea animals, cleaning, and recycling. They also learned how to answer the following questions in Spanish:

  • What are the five oceans of the world?
  • What is the difference between oceans and seas?
  • How many seas are in the world?
  • Which one is the biggest mountain in the world?
  • How can we help to keep the oceans and seas clean?

The class got extra practice with the newly learned vocabulary and ocean knowledge by sharing presentations in front of the class about ocean animals (in Spanish of course!). Presentations included questions like:

  • Which is your favorite sea animal?
  • How can you help to keep the oceans clean?

#SaklanSpanish

Packing Party

After lunch last Friday, our 1st graders had a packing party! No, they weren’t preparing to move, but rather packing lunch bags to be distributed to homeless individuals. Partnering with the organization 10,000 Lunches, the class packed 45 brown bags, carefully adding one of each food item per bag: tuna, instant oatmeal, Ritz crackers, fruit cup, sun butter, protein bar, and a can of Vienna sausages.

After a project-based learning unit on homes around the world, the first graders were interested in helping those who don’t have homes. Brett Lorie, one of the founders of 10,000 Lunches, was beyond thrilled to hear that the 1st grade students wanted to do something to help the unhoused. He spoke to the class, sharing about the organizations mission and the people (and dogs) they serve. Brett’s talk helped to humanize the problem of homelessness in the Bay Area for the first graders. Having students interact with changemakers like Brett helps to spark their own social consciousness. 

Gina delivered the brown bags the 1st graders packed to Brett’s house after school last Friday.  On Saturday, Brett emailed the following message:

Thank you again, Gina!  It was wonderful meeting you and the kids.  They were a great bunch!

The students were so proud and happy to do something to help unhoused individuals. This experience was a great way to build their empathy and compassion muscles.

#SaklanCompassion #SaklanServiceLearning #StudentInquiryDriven

Alumni Highlight: Cyrene Puno

Kim Parks recently caught up with Saklan Alumna, Cyrene Puno. Cyrene graduated from Saklan in 2017, and then attended Campolindo High School. Following graduation from Campolindo in 2021, she began my her semester at Diablo Valley College (DVC), majoring in Film, Television, and Electronic Media. Cyrene has enjoyed taking many film courses, and has a real passion for film making.

Cyrene with her Parents during her Saklan Graduation in 2017

During the fall 2022 semester, Cyrene began tutoring DVC students in English, helping them with essays and other writing assignments. This past semester (Spring 2023) she interned in DVC’s Film and Digital Media department. As an intern, she helped students check out equipment and produce promotional videos commissioned by departments around campus. She was especially excited to get to work in the new art building. A ribbon cutting ceremony took place to celebrate the opening of the building, and Cyrene was honored to speak about her experience in the building, as well as invited to cut the ribbon alongside the president of DVC!

Cyrene is Honored to Participate in the DVC Art Building Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

Cyrene is graduating with Honors from DVC and transferring to California State University, Long Beach in fall 2023. She has been accepted into the Narrative Production program at Long Beach State, where she plans to continue studying and creating films to earn a BA in Film and Electronic Arts.

Thank you, Cyrene, for sharing your experience with the Saklan community. Best of luck at CSU Long Beach!

#SaklanAlumni

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