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This week the 8th grade created hot air balloons that would help test the ideas of buoyancy and Archimedes Principle, along with Charles Law in Chemistry. Using paper, glue, tape and paperclips (to act as a ballast), they engineered balloons that they thought would create the largest lift when filled with heated air.
The second graders have been working on their Dinosaur and Fossil Unit this month. The students have read many stories about dinosaurs and how fossils are formed.
They have worked on comprehension worksheets and vocabulary, written creative essays about what would happen if the dinosaurs came back, and did a measuring activity comparing themselves to a T. rex. They also searched for fossils in chocolate chip cookies! Lastly they drew a dinosaur scene and painted it with watercolors for their unit folder cover.
The Saklan Middle School Choir performed the National Anthem at a commemorative service on the 16th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Organized by the Moraga Chamber of Commerce and Moraga Orinda Professional Fire Fighters Association.
Join us for the Walnut Creek Twilight Parade that is on Saturday, September 16th. We’ll be marching and performing our new Cheers! The parade starts at 6:00PM and the whole family is welcome to walk. If you don’t know the cheers, don’t worry. Cards with the words will be distributed at the start of the parade route.
We’ll meet up at 5:30PM to distribute t-shirts and line up. Next week, when Parade Coordinators notify us of our parade position, we’ll announce the meeting location.
Please RSVP with your number of family participants at bit.ly/saklanparade2017
Once again, we will have a booth at the Moraga Pear & Wine Festival. The event takes place in the Moraga Commons Park on Saturday, September 23 from 11:00 – 4:00.
This year, there’s something new and we’ll be a part of it! “Moraga Gets Chalked” is being sponsored by the Moraga Chamber of Commerce and the Town of Moraga’s Art in Public Spaces Committee. The goal is to draw a magical place including one of the sculptures from town. There is a writing component as well. Our fearless Art Teacher, Ms. Natalie Palms, will be coordinating our team. The Chalk Contest will be held on the basketball court. Artists begin at 11:00 and end at 2:00. Please stop by our booth and cheer on our artists!
If your middle schooler would like to earn community service hours assisting with our booth, please have them contact our Director of Marketing, Christine Kuckuk at marketing@saklan.org.
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Dear Saklan Community,
At today’s Flag, two of our Middle School Advisory groups shared the cheers that they had created while they were on the Advance. These were clearly full of the creative spirit and enthusiasm that is a trade mark of our Middle School program, and I commend Kim Parks, Saul Zippin, Vickie Obenchain and Grace Chaffey who are our Advisors this year.
The first theme for our school-wide social emotional learning program at Saklan will be Self-Regulation. A common definition of self-regulation and how it applies to education is, “self-regulation is not a mental ability or an academic performance skill; rather it is the self-directive process by which learners transform their mental abilities into academic skills.” In an article on self-regulation by Joan and Greg Cook, authors of Child Development Principles and Practice, they maintain that:
“One of the most important skills that we develop in childhood is the ability to control aspects of the self. Without this ability we would have great difficulty accomplishing anything, regardless of how good we might feel about ourselves! Self-regulation is the ability to monitor and control our own behavior, emotions, or thoughts, altering them in accordance with the demands of the situation. It includes the abilities to inhibit first responses, to resist interference from irrelevant stimulation, and to persist on relevant tasks even when we don’t enjoy them.”
You can download the entire article here.
Our teachers will be addressing this theme in the next month in a variety of different ways. For example, our 7th graders with Miss O will be discussing emotional self-regulation. They will identify various Zones of Regulation, (e.g. Yellow Zone includes frustration, worry, silliness, anxiety and excitement) and find tools to help with self-regulation. Please regularly ask you children what they have been doing around this topic and don’t hesitate to share with me or your teachers.
During this academic year, we will be introducing a number of topics and each will be the central focus of the Family Group sessions when they meet. Here is a schedule of the topics we will be working on this year:
Please remember that our Middle School Back to School Night is coming up next Thursday at 6:00PM. Also, don’t miss next week’s Flag, where student candidates will be giving speeches for the upcoming student council elections.
Have a great weekend!
Peter
FRIDAY BLOG 
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