Author: The Saklan School Friday Blog

The Saklan School is a private Pre-K through 8 school located in Moraga, CA. Our mission is to think creatively, act compassionately, and live courageously.

Head’s Corner

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Dear Saklan Community,

What an amazing concert we had yesterday evening! Our annual concert at the Lesher Center is always a great event, but this year we had truly one of the best concerts ever.  A big audience of over 500 parents, relatives, friends, staff and students were awed by the music, rhythms, choreography and energy that were packed into this 90 minute concert.  I would like to highly commend our music teacher, Mrs. Grace Chaffey, for another outstanding performance. I would also like to commend Mr. Isaac Narell, whose work with the 4th and 5th graders was superlative.  A big thank you to the band, which featured Saklan’s own Mr. Sam Prestianni, Mr. Isaac Narell, Ms. Ashley Jennings, Mr. Javier Yacarini and alumnus James Rokas.  The theme of our concert was, “Bailando” and this show was the culmination of a year-long educational exploration of dance music from around the globe. Highlighted on stage was a beautiful backdrop (pictured above) to showcase the theme; thank you to Ms. Natalie Palms and the 5th, 6th, and 8th graders for creating a lovely canvas for us to admire during the show. I am certain that the theater full of parents, relatives and friends were as impressed as I was by the unique talent, energy and joy that our Saklan students can pack into one show!

Have a great weekend!

 Peter

Middle School Walkout

On Wednesday morning, our Middle School students participated in their own version of the National School Walkout. To start off the discussion, students watched the below video to set a tone of safety and community before diving in to deeper topics.

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The themes that kept arising all relate back to the importance of empathy and kindness and compassion. To be able to listen and show respect to each other, even with differences in values and opinions, is a lesson that many students do not learn in schools. Saklan’s social emotional learning program, coupled with smaller class sizes, give our children a huge advantage when they move out in to the world.

After a moment of silence, groups presented on topics such as gun safety, improving schools in the United States, taking care of each other, and improving our mental health care system.

We are so proud of these students for their honesty, courage, and compassion, and we can move forward with hope about this new generation!

 

Parent Conferences

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Please remember that next Thursday, March 22nd and Friday, March 23rd are Parent Conferences. Both days are NOON dismissals, but we do have extended day until 6PM. Please be sure to sign up for a conference time via Sign-up Genius. This is a great opportunity to check in with your child’s teacher about his/her progress.

Grandparents & Special Friends Day

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Grandparents and Special Friends Day is coming up!

Friday, March 30,   10a.m. –  noon

Please remind your grandparents and special friends about this event so they join us!  RSVP to office@saklan.org by Monday, March 26th.

Attention Volleyball Players!!!

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Spring time is coming and that means it is time for volleyball! We are scheduling six games this year: two in April and four in May. Once the dates are confirmed, we will post the season. Any fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth graders who would like to play are eligible. Just let Mr. Crabtree know.

Let’s Go Saklan!

Head’s Corner

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Dear Saklan Community,

In today’s Flag we recognized International Pi Day, which is March 13 (3.14).  This has Brianbecome an annual Saklan tradition started by our Math teacher, Saul Zippin, and involves 8th graders presenting inspiring poems about the Quadratic Formula and a competition to see who can memorize the largest number of digits for Pi. This year’s competition saw the establishment of a new school record. To the delight and awe of the entire school body, and many parents and friends in the audience, 8th grader Brian recited the value of Pi to 95 digits and thus established a new school record.  It has been Brian’s goal to win this competition and for the past year and he has been preparing with the use of an online game called Pi Runner.  As the reigning champ, Brian’s advice to future competitors is:  Keep on Counting!!

Last Friday marked the end of our second trimester and report cards are being put in the mail today.  You will also have received an email today inviting you to sign up for our Parent-Teacher Conferences which are held on March 22nd & 23rd.  This year we will be doing all of conference sign ups on line using Sign Up Genius.  This is a great time to get an update on your child’s academic progress as we move towards the end of the year.

This week we sent out invitations to our annual Grandparents and Special Friends Day which will be held on Friday, March 30th.   We look forward to honoring and celebrating our students’ grandparents or their special friends with a program of music, student presentations and fun activities in the classroom.  Please make sure you RSVP so that we can welcome you in the best possible way.

Have a great weekend!

Peter

 

 

Do You Hear What I Hear?

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The second graders are busy exploring the properties of sound and learning about the parts of the ear. They have done several experiments to see how sound waves travel. They discovered that without vibrations there is no sound. The students brought in “eggs-full-of-sounds” for us to guess, learned how to sign their names using the manual alphabet, and created original instruments. They enjoyed playing their instruments for some of the classes at Saklan. Who knew we had a brand new orchestra at Saklan!

Family Groups – Respect

Yesterday, our Family Groups met to work on the concept of Respect. Students worked together to brainstorm what respect looks like, then they worked together respectfully to build a marshmallow tower as high as possible.

Thank you to our 7th and 8th grade students for being great role models in leading the rest of our community!