SIGMA: Science • Innovation • Game Development • Math • Activities
Explore, Create, and Innovate with SIGMA! Are you the parent of a 2nd-5th grader at The Saklan School who loves science, math, coding, and hands-on STEM challenges? If so, your kiddo can join SIGMA—The Saklan STEM Club!
Led by 5th-grade students Benji Spicer-Youakim and Leo Xie, SIGMA meets once a month after school for exciting activities like coding, robotics, engineering challenges, and more! Get ready to tinker, build, experiment, and crack mind-bending challenges—SIGMA is where your STEM adventure begins!
Open to all 2nd – 5th grade Saklan students Free for all participants To sign up or learn more email Hector at hdiaz@saklan.org.
Saklan students are very excited to share our All-School Concert with you tomorrow, Friday, March 21st, at 4:30 p.m. Students will be dismissed at noon from the Lesher Center and asked to return at 4:00p.m. in preparation for the performance.
Please note the following details for the day:
All Saklan students need to be at the Lesher Center at 8:45 a.m. tomorrow. Parents are asked to park and walk their child directly to their teacher at the backstage entrance on Locust Street.
Normal Saklan Bus & Van service will NOT be operating that day.
Students will be dismissed at noon from the Lesher Center.
Extended Day will be available until 3:00, but it is recommended that students go home at noon to have some downtime before the concert. Reserve your child’s spot in Extended here.
All students are asked to report back to the Lesher Center at 4:00 p.m. dressed in all-black clothing, with the assigned accessory color shown below.
Classes
Accent Color & Apparel Suggestions
Owlets, Hoot Owls, 3rd, and MS Instrumental Ensemble
You may already know our K-3rd Spanish teacher and Chile native, Ester Vines, but did you know she loves visiting Mexican ruins and cenotes? Or that she loves spending time in nature and camping? Ester brings her joyful creative energy to all her endeavors at Saklan. In addition to teaching Spanish to our Kinder-3rd grade students three times a week, Ester leads ECE yoga and Lower School creative dance and movement classes as part of our Saklan after school enrichment program. Her creative pursuits don’t end there, Ester is also a talented painter!
How long have you been teaching Spanish at Saklan?
I have been teaching Spanish for 11 years at Saklan.
We know you love nature, camping, and hiking! What hobbies or interests do you like weaving into your Spanish classes?
I like to pass onto my students the love for nature and how important it is to take care of our planet, our home, appreciating our ancestors and their knowledge and wisdom. I love to draw, paint, dance and sing so we do a lot of hands-on projects in my classes, we also sing and sometimes we dance.
What is one piece of advice you’d give to your students as they are learning a second language?
Learning a second language opens many doors to students as they go through life. They can connect to other kids or people and learn about their culture, their way of life, visit ancient ruins, being able to help communities by doing social work, and communicating to them in their language is priceless.
All Saklan community members are invited to join us for our Spring Service Social this Sunday, March 16th from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. in the Saklan Pavilion. Pizza lunch will be provided. Please bring your water bottles.
Together, we will be assembling kits of food for White Pony Express to distribute to local unhoused neighbors who do not have kitchen appliances.
We would love your donations of the food items shown above to help make this event a success. Thank you for your support!
Since February, the 8th graders have been diving into physics in science class, exploring the forces of gravity, air resistance, and friction. Through a series of engaging, hands-on labs, they’ve been putting their knowledge to the test—seeing firsthand how these forces interact and impact objects on our planet.
The students started exploring gravity and air resistance by creating different-sized parachutes and dropping them from the ceiling of the science lab. Students could see the pull of gravity on the parachutes and how air resistance could be used to slow that force down by measuring the time each took to descend. Next, students worked on designing, creating, and launching rockets to see how to defy air resistance and gravity.
Last week, the class worked with projectiles that used both vertical and horizontal motion. Different paper airplane designs created more air resistance than others. The students saw how these forces act on objects and how various features of an object can affect these forces.
This week, students took their physics learning to the next level with an exciting experience to iFly in Union City where they explored terminal velocity in a real wind tunnel! They discussed how mass, air resistance, and surface area affect falling objects, then put theory into practice by suiting up and experiencing it firsthand. Students got to “fly” in the wind tunnel, feeling the exact force needed to keep them floating or falling at terminal velocity—a thrilling, hands-on lesson in action!
Students then made guesses at which toys thrown in the wind tunnel would fall the fastest or slowest based on size, mass and surface area! A lot was learned and experienced.
What do we do with the items that don’t go into the blue recycling or green compost bins? Do they all have to go into the gray landfill bin? At Saklan, the new answer is, “Not anymore!”
Student Council voted to use money they earned from weekly Snack Shack sales to open a school account with the recently formed Ridwell recycling company. Every two weeks, the Ridwell van retrieves plastic chip bags, Ziploc bags, candy wrappers, and even styrofoam!
After the Student Council approved of setting up a full account for our school, Middle School Student Council representative Lucas looked online to find new bins to be placed inside each classroom and near the lunch areas for disposing of waste items collected by Ridwell. These bins are now visible all over campus because they are the same as our school color: Orange!
Every week, two Middle School Student Council members will collect all of the waste from the orange Ridwell bins and consolidate it for sorting into labeled cloth bags provided by Ridwell.
Ridwell delivered their metal collection bin to be placed outside the school’s front gate for biweekly pickups. The friendly driver came by to retrieve our first full bin on March 5th!
But using Ridwell effectively also involves educating everyone here at school about what specific items can go into the Ridwell recycling bins. Student Council Publicity Co-Chairs Haley and Mae designed this poster to inform every member of the Saklan community about which specific items can go into the Ridwell recycling bin.
On Thursday, members of Student Council also visited the K-5 classrooms to give presentations on what specific items can be recycled using Ridwell.
To learn more about Ridwell, check out this article. To learn more about what can be placed in the orange bins around campus, ask a K-8th grade student!
One of the most special elements of Saklan Project-Based Learning is the ways in which annual units take on different elements each year. For the last three years 2nd and 3rd grade students have designed the backdrop for our spring concert at the Lesher Center as part of a PBL unit on color and communication. This unit centers on the driving question: How can we understand the art world to design a backdrop that communicates “garden?”
This year there has been an intentional focus on one particular Studio Habit of Mind: Understanding the Art World. This studio habit, one of eight developed by the researchers at Project Zero, focuses on the study of art history and contemporary practices to learn how to act as an artist in collaboration with other artists in broader society.
The unit began with students sharing their own experiences of gardens. This process activated their prior knowledge and began to elicit ideas, feelings, and questions connected to the concert theme. Next, they completed a whole class brainstorm of ideas, colors, experiences, feelings, and connections to the driving question. This work helped guide the decisions about which artists students would focus their learning on as they worked toward the design and creation of the concert backdrop.
The unit then moved on to explore artists whose work focuses on gardens, nature, and tending to the environment. Made with charcoal scavenged from the scorched earth after a wildfire, Emily Gui’s drawings of wild grasses that emerged after the fire, connected to the 3rd graders’ research on native plants earlier this year. It was also a jumping off point to help expand the students’ definition of what a garden may mean to different peoples. They compared drought maps to the work of Saif Azzuz, which often focuses on the importance of tending the California landscape through the Indigenous wisdom of cultural burns and the varied medicinal uses of native plants, as seen in his recent installation at Stanford Research Park. Finally, students considered the impact of color, and what happens to our interpretation of artworks when color is removed using works by Kim Champion. It struck students that when the color was removed from her art, often much of the meaning was lost and the figures became harder to identify.
Visiting SFMOMA as part of this PBL unit was a highlight for our second graders. This opportunity to engage with large works in a museum space gave students a chance to observe a variety of ways artists convey the theme of garden. They explored many different types of works and interpretations of our theme.
After exploring different artists’ interpretations of garden, students reflected on the feelings and connections to the theme that they wanted to express through their backdrop art. Three distinct groups emerged. One group most associated gardens with the feelings of excitement and joy, another with a sense of awe for life, and a third associated gardens with calm. Each feeling group identified colors to communicate those feelings using their growing understanding of the art world.
Knowing how colors impact each other when side by side and gaining an understanding of the need for balance between colors were the next key elements to successful communication through color that students began to explore. Color mixing recipes were iterated on to figure out how to mix just the right tint, shade, or hue of the desired colors.
Additionally two small groups considered the ways line and shape can help us communicate our theme. One group felt a sense of curiosity when considering the theme of “garden” and worked to create a line language for our backdrop. Another considered the connection between the theme of “garden” and fruits and vegetables.
At the concert, look for the line and shape language they developed among the beautiful colors the students have so carefully selected and balanced. You may spot many ovals, circles, and textures that mimic overlapping yerba buena leaves, curved lines like the edges of a valley oak leaf and its branches, or the texture of corn on the cob.
The students are now preparing the backdrop canvases by applying a base coat and will begin painting their version of “garden” very soon. We are excited to unveil the finished product at the All-School Concert on Friday, March 21st. See you there!
The Saklan 4th graders recently embarked on an unforgettable journey to Coloma, where history came alive in the heart of Gold Rush country. Stepping into the past, they laced up their miner boots and experienced life as it was in 1849, guided by their enthusiastic program leader, Tim.
The adventure began with a visit to a bustling mining camp, where the aroma of freshly baked cornbread filled the air. The students purchased ingredients from a general store, just as miners once did, and patiently waited as the bread cooked over an open fire in a cast-iron Dutch oven. While the cornbread baked, they learned essential pioneer skills—sewing, washing clothes on a washboard, and working together to build a shelter. Living the life of a Coloma miner along the riverbanks provided a first-hand glimpse into the daily challenges and triumphs of those seeking fortune in the golden hills.
Of course, no trip to Coloma would be complete without the thrill of gold panning! Armed with pans and determination, the young prospectors eagerly sifted through pay dirt from the American River, their excitement growing with every swirl of water. Shouts of EUREKA! rang through the air as gold fever took hold, mirroring the elation of those who had once sought their fortunes in the very same spot.
The journey through time deepened when the group met with a local Miwok cultural leader, who shared stories and traditions from an indigenous perspective. Through this powerful experience, the students gained a richer understanding of the impact of the Gold Rush on the Native American communities of California.
On the second day of their adventure, the students hiked through Coloma’s rolling hills, exploring key historical sites, including Sutter’s Mill, where the first famous gold nugget was discovered. Standing on the very ground where history was made, they connected even more deeply with the past.
As they packed up their belongings and bid farewell to Coloma, the 4th graders carried with them more than just memories—they brought home a deeper understanding of the trials and triumphs of those who came before them.
We love celebrating the accomplishments of our Saklan alumni, and today, we’re thrilled to highlight Ben Griswold, a member of the Class of 2011!
Ben was recently promoted to lead the Special Events Department for the Tahoe District of California State Parks—a role that has him planning and managing everything from weddings and concerts to triathlons and film shoots! He loves the diversity of events he gets to be part of and takes pride in making each one a memorable experience.
Ben also works at a local veterinary clinic, spending his free time caring for dogs and cats. He finds this work incredibly rewarding, especially getting to witness the special bond between animals and their owners.
After graduating from Saklan, Ben attended The Athenian School before earning a BS in Parks and Recreation Management from Northern Arizona University. He feels lucky to live and work in one of the most breathtaking places in California, Tahoe, but frequently visits the Bay Area to see family.
Ben, we are so proud of all that you’re accomplishing! Next time you’re in town, be sure to stop by Saklan—we’d love to see you!
We enjoy seeing what our alumni are up to. If you or your alum have an update to share with us, we would love to hear it!
FRIDAY BLOG 
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