Month: December 2024

Spreading Holiday Cheer

The Middle School Choir musicians have been working on mastering the harmonies of “Happiness” from You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. They have also added a few more songs to their repertoire, including “Together, Wherever We Go” from Gypsy and “It’s Possible” from Seussical. In addition, the student musicians are learning choreography to enhance their song performances, as well as adding in handbell parts!

Their harmonizing, choreography, and handbell work came together on Wednesday when the choir shared a holiday performance with our neighbors who live at Moraga Royale (a senior living community). To prepare for the show, the students learned holiday songs that they thought the seniors would know. During the show, they invited the audience to sing along with them, and to their amazement, they did!

The heartwarming performance brought smiles to the faces of the Moraga Royale staff and residents and filled the room with great holiday cheer. We hope the video below does the same for you!

#SaklanCompassionate

Portraits of Kindergarten

In art class, kindergartners recently worked on representing themselves through portraits. First, students observed well-known self-portraits by Vincent VanGogh and Frida Kahlo, and then used the art elements of line, shape, and color to create their own self-portrait drawings.

Next, the kindergartners observed the artwork of contemporary artist Cindy Sherman, who photographs herself dressed up as different imagined characters. In collaboration with their PBL unit exploring the driving question of “How can learning about each other’s names make us better friends?” students planned their own Cindy Sherman-inspired photoshoot that visualized the meaning and stories behind their names. Each student posed for photographs wearing costumes and props that not only represented their names but that superbly matched their unique personalities. Check out their photos below! 

#SaklanProjectBasedLearning

Amazing Tour Guides

Last week, the preschoolers were very excited to welcome their parents, buddies, and other community members into their classroom for their Nocturnal Animal Project Culmination.

The Owlets spent two months learning about nocturnal animals after a student brought up the concept during circle time at the beginning of the year. The other students had a lot of prior knowledge about animals and were very interested in learning about animals that are more active at night, so the teachers designed a project based on their natural curiosities.

As part of their project, the Owlets took on the role of surveyors, going around the school to ask other classes an important question: Which garbage collector is your favorite—raccoon, opossum, or skunk? After gathering all the votes, they counted them together as a class. It was a close race, but in the end, the preschoolers discovered that Saklan’s favorite animal is… the raccoon!

During the project, the Owlets created an Owlet Wildlife Center, after learning about Lindsay Wildlife’s Rehab Hospital. During their study they learned an important lesson: once an injured animal heals, vets usually release it back into its natural habitat. With this in mind, it was time to return the now-healed animals in their care. Maggie’s hippo and Shay’s hairy cow were delivered with care back to their “homes.” Maggie and Shay were so happy to be reunited with their stuffies, and the Owlets were just as excited to see their hard work pay off!

To get ready for the culmination, the Owlets reviewed all the facts they had learned by creating colorful infographic posters. Their attention to detail was spot on as they helped color the giant animal drawings, carefully choosing the real-life colors of each animal. In addition to coloring the posters, they did some fun math with them, measuring the length and width of the animals using unit cubes.

Finally, all their learning and hard work came together for their Nocturnal Animal Culmination, which was a great success! Teachers, parents, and buddies were all very proud of the Owlets. They were amazing tour guides, confidently sharing everything they’ve learned.

Winter 2025 Enrichment Classes

As the fall session of enrichment comes to an end, we are excited to share the classes that will be offered during the second half of the year! For the winter session the following classes will be available:

Check out the class descriptions here. Classes begin the week of January 27th, and have limited space available. Registration for winter enrichment classes is now available on the Saklan Enrichment Webpage.

Join Us for Movie Night

All members of the Saklan community are invited to join the PA on Sunday, January 26th from 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. in the Founders Auditorium at the Orinda Community Center for a movie night!

Popcorn will be provided for all attendees. Please bring your reusable water bottle with you, as well as nut-free snacks, blankets, chairs, beanbags, pillows, or other items to get cozy (limited folding chair seating will be available).

#SaklanCommunity

Head’s Corner: Saklan Tuition Assistance

At Saklan, we strive to make education available to families who share what matters most to us: a love of learning and love in learning. Our tuition assistance program is part of that commitment, helping to create a vibrant community that strengthens our school.

Families are often surprised to learn that tuition assistance isn’t just for families with a below-average income. Our tuition assistance supports a wide range of family circumstances and income levels. Whether you’re managing multiple children’s educational needs, working to support your parents, or experiencing an unusual financial event, we encourage you to explore your options. While we can’t guarantee assistance to every family that applies, we work diligently to support as many qualified applicants as possible.

Moreover, we understand the sensitive nature of financial discussions. All aspects of tuition assistance applications are handled with confidentiality. Only our financial aid committee has access to your information, and all applications and decisions are kept private.

We are dedicated to growing and fostering our community. Applications for Tuition Assistance for the 2025-26 school year are now available through Clarity. If you have any questions concerning your eligibility for tuition assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact Mylesa, Saklan’s Director of Admissions, at admissions@saklan.org.

Saklan Space Station

Fifth-grade students recently wrapped up their hands-on space unit with Ms. O by engaging in a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) rocket-design challenge.  When students work in teams, they learn and practice desirable “soft skills” such as active listening, clear communication, cooperation, and flexibility, while also learning the “hard-skill” academics – both are valuable for life, hence rockets were designed and built in partner teams.  Each team had access to a soda bottle, lightweight card, tape in about a million colors, markers, and scissors.  They also had two constraints: time and weight. Students had to make decisions around these factors while building a launchable rocket in under 30 minutes.  

Check out the pictures below of the teams, rockets, and smiles, following successful launches here at the Saklan Space Station! 

#SaklanHandsOn

Meeting with the Police Chief

The 8th-grade class recently finished reading the novel All American Boys. The story is told by two narrators, Rashad and Quinn, whose lives are forever changed by an act of police brutality.

The 8th graders were split into two groups to create character posters of each of the narrators, including a drawing of the character, a list of adjectives/phrases that describe the character, descriptions of how the character changes in the story, and relevant quotes from the character. The students reviewed their own annotations and quotes they had selected and analyzed throughout their reading of the novel, then discussed and decided what to include on their character poster.

The 8th graders explored some of the issues addressed in the novel from the police perspective when they met with Moraga Police Chief Jon King. Saklan parent Gary Hill arranged this meeting for the class and participated in the discussion.

Before the meeting, the 8th-grade students answered some questions about the Moraga Police Department website. They then prepared their own questions to ask the police chief, including:

  • What is your favorite/best part of your job?
  • What is the hardest part of your job?
  • What do you want to achieve as a police officer?
  • What is an average day like?
  • As a citizen, how do you think I can support my local police department?
  • What measures or training are in place to help prevent bias from impacting the work of members of the Moraga police force?

Meanwhile, Gary and Chief King prepared for the meeting by reading All American Boys.

Police Chief King shared his view that the police should be accessible and helpful partners in the community instead of playing the role of an intimidating presence wearing a uniform and driving around in a police car with closed windows. He explained that he wore his polo shirt instead of his full uniform so that he could be more approachable and send a friendlier message to the Saklan students.

In addition to sharing some of his own stories about the Moraga police department’s policies for fighting crime and addressing citizen complaints about police misconduct, Chief King explained how the conduct of some police officers like Paul in the novel results from a mix of knowledge and emotions. He spoke strongly about the contrast between officers’ behavior, like the fictional Paul, and the training his officers receive in Moraga. Chief King also shared the shocked and saddened reactions among the entire Moraga police force when they watched the news about the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

Gary shared his own stories about his encounters with the police. He encouraged the students to stand up to racial injustice with courage and compassion.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to Chief King and Gary Hill for sharing their time, wisdom, and personal stories with our 8th-grade class!

#SaklanCompassion #SaklanCourage

Bagging Apples

The 7th-grade class started off the week volunteering at the Alameda County Food Bank in Oakland. Most of the class remembered helping out last year, but for a few, this was their first visit.

During this trip to the food bank, the students were tasked with bagging apples. After 90 minutes of filling and tying bags of apples, the group had prepared 4,800 pounds of food. This equated to 3,984 meals as a group or 234 meals per volunteer.

The staff and volunteers at the Food Bank extended their gratitude for this community support. Nice work, 7th grade!

#SaklanCompassion

Lower School Musical

All Saklan community members are invited to join us for The Saklan School’s 3rd – 5th grade production of Disney’s The Aristocats KIDS on Friday, December 20th at 10:30 a.m. The show will take place in the Holy Trinity Cultural Center (next door to Saklan). Doors will open at 10:15 a.m.

If you will attend and haven’t already done so, please RSVP here. There is no cost to attend, but we want to ensure we have enough seats for all!

#SaklanCreative #SaklanCourage