The Saklan School Friday Blog

This has been a week of surprises. First of all, we had Nicholas Di Sessa (5th) winning the cross country meet at the Lafayette Reservoir, beating a field of about 40 students from four independent schools. Nick was one of the youngest contestants as this was mostly a middle school event. Standing at the finish line waiting for the runners to come around the 2.7 mile circuit, my jaw literally dropped when I saw Nick flying towards me with no other runner anywhere near him. Nick was hardly sweating!

Then there was the result of the presidential election. Another jaw-dropping moment. The months that have led up to the election and the final results have shaken many and have brought into question many core values. On Wednesday morning many faculty, staff and older students came to school distraught, confused and fearful for the future of the environment, a compassionate and inclusive society, and civil discourse to name a few. Discussions have been happening both in and out of the classrooms and this is appropriate in light of such a historic moment. We must allow our students to speak their minds and at the same time assuage fears as much as possible, and ultimately reflect on the fact that we saw democracy in action. It is also important to revisit our mission as a school and to underline the core values, in particular respect and kindness, which we have been talking about since the start of school. No matter what our political affiliation may be, we know that as educators we have an important role to play in helping to make sense of what has happened, and to uphold our values and each other.

In order to start our Thanksgiving Holiday on a positive and happy note, we will be putting on our Fall Follies next Friday starting at 10:00AM at the Willow Springs auditorium. This is one of those Saklan not-to-be missed events. Next Friday will also be the last day of the first trimester. I am always amazed by how fast the school year moves along and how much we are able to pack into such a short time frame. Report cards come out on the Friday after the holiday. Different from past years, all report cards will go out in the mail.

Have a great long weekend!

Peter

Eighth Grade Field Trip to LHS

Last week, the eighth grade went to the Lawrence Hall of Science to investigate the properties of Liquid Nitrogen. The students safely worked with the freezing liquid to manipulate matter and see what happens to different items at about -200 degrees Celsius.

They saw balloons completely contract inward, to only crinkle and fill to the original shape once back at room temperature. They also saw leaves crack and shatter once dropped on a table after being submerged in the liquid, and they saw it completely take the energy out of different elastic items.

It was a SUPER fun field trip!

Teddy Bears Visit Second Grade. Oh my!

The beginning of November was teddy bear time in second grade. Each student brought a teddy bear to class.

The children read many Berenstain Bear books, interviewed their bear and wrote stories about them, and did teddy bear math using scales and measuring them in centimeters.

Unfortunately, we did have some problems. The bears put teddy bear stamps all over their work, hid from them, and even messed up Mr. Metzger’s office! But, most of the time we loved having the bears spend time with us. We ended their two week visit with a pancake breakfast to celebrate our special bears.

News from the Sports Court

The Saklan School raced against three other schools around the Lafayette Reservoir on Tuesday. Thirty-six runners ranging from 4th thru 8th grades ran 5 kilometers during this cross country event.

Saklan had five runners. Congratulations to Abby (6th) and Ruben (7th) for running a good race; Finn (8th) and Leo (5th) for finishing within the top ten; and Nick (5th) for finishing first. Nick had the fastest time of 20:35 minutes.

This was a terrific event and more are planned in the future, so get out there and run.