The Saklan School Friday Blog

Saklan Spirit

Saklan students and teachers had fun showing their school spirit during some fun dress days this week. On Tuesday, students dressed in tropical-themed clothing to celebrate Tropical Tuesday!

Wednesday led to all kinds of interesting outfits, as we enjoyed Wacky Wednesday!

On Thursday it was hard to tell if we were on the Saklan play yard or a movie set as the students donned apparel to showcase their favorite character or superhero!

On Friday the community showed school spirit by wearing clothing with Saklan and other school logos and colors on it.

Thank you to everyone who joined in the spirit week fun!

#SaklanSpirit

Recently, Ms. Maggie and the Hoot Owls worked on creating some really unique houses! Using tape and craft sticks, the Hoot Owls constructed square, rectangular and even triangular-shaped houses. The features of the houses varied during this open-ended project, with some students choosing to add doors and windows and others adding bridges! Most of the Hoot Owls plan to use their houses as bird houses.

This fun activity allowed the Hoot Owls to work on their fine motor skills, shape recognition and of course creativity and design!

#SaklanCreative

Get Your Shindig Tickets!

Get your cowboy hats and boots ready because y’all are invited to this year’s Auction Shindig! The western-themed event is on Saturday, March 19 at 6:00 p.m. and will feature a BBQ dinner, open bar, live auction, fund-a-need, dancing and lots of fun!

Tickets are now available online; get your Shindig tickets today!

The Saklan School’s Annual Auction is the Parents Association’s largest fundraiser of the year. Proceeds from the auction are invested directly back into our children’s educational experiences, in and out of the classrooms.

Can’t make the auction?

There are several ways to participate in this year’s event even if you can’t attend: underwrite a teacher ticket, make a donation to the Summer Reflection Fund, or stay tuned for more information on purchasing wine raffle tickets or participating in our online silent auction.

Thank you for your support of the auction and Saklan.

#SaklanShindig

100 Days Smarter

Saklan celebrated the 100th day of the 2021-2022 school year on Thursday, February 10th. To mark the occasion, the Hoot Owls made “100” crowns, participated in several counting activities and had a celebratory lunch.

The Kindergartners celebrated the 100th day of school by rotating through a series of activities focusing on the number 100. Students had the opportunity to build with 100 cups, match numbers 1 – 100 on the bottom of kisses to a hundreds chart, hear the story 100th Day Worries by Margery Cuyler, draw themselves when they are 100 years old, and make a necklace with 100 loops on it.

To get the 100th day started, the first graders each created a poster that contained 100 of something of their choosing. The posters were very unique and creative!

During the school day, the first graders commemorated the day by answering writing prompts such as, “What would you do with 100 dollars?” and “What would you do if you were 100 years old?” They practiced counting to 100 by 10s, drew 100 decorations on cupcake drawings, made necklaces using 100 circular cereal pieces and yarn and read The 100th Day of School by Angela Shelf Medearis.

The students had a wonderful day celebrating the 100th day of school and noting that they are now 100 days smarter.

#SaklanAcademic #100daysSmarter

We’ve Got Spirit

Join the Saklan Student Council in showing your school spirit next week, February 22 – 25th. All students and teachers are invited to dress up for the following spirit days:

Tuesday, February 22: Tropical Tuesday – Dress in tropical-themed clothing.

Wednesday, February 23: Wacky Wednesday – Dress up in odd or unusual clothing like mismatched or inside-out shirts, socks, shoes, pants, etc.

Thursday, February 24: Favorite Character/Superhero Day – Dress like your favorite character or superhero, or make up your own superhero. We all are awesome in our own ways!

Friday, February 25: School Spirit Day – Dress in Saklan school colors or attire that promotes a favorite high school or college.

Students who choose not to participate in the spirit week themes need to wear their uniforms.

#SaklanSpirit

Fun with Magnets

Last week, the third graders had fun with magnets, exploring the surprising properties of magnets and experimenting with this invisible force that can act at a distance. They discovered the push and pull of magnets, how magnets attract certain types of metals, and how a magnet’s force can work through other materials like paper and even their hands!

The third graders thoroughly enjoyed this hands-on learning opportunity!

#SaklanHandsOn #SaklanAcademic

Wine Collection Continues

Huge thanks to all the families who’ve donated wine to our Auction Shindig Wine Raffle! Our wine collection is growing daily, but we still need help! Please consider donating a favorite bottle or two to this year’s collection.

Wine donations can be dropped off with Ms. Shay in the front office or at the Shindig table in front of the school ANY DAY.

All proceeds from this year’s Wine Raffle will support Saklan’s Summer Reflection Fund, which funds summer professional development opportunities for our beloved teachers and staff.

If you have any questions, please contact Sandy Lo, Wine Raffle Coordinator at sandralo@gmail.com.

#SaklanShindig

Social-Emotional Learning: The Saklan Way

All Saklan parents are invited to join the PA for coffee and pastries and meet Kim Parks, Saklan’s Middle School Dean and Director of Teaching and Learning. Kim will be speaking about how Responsive Classroom techniques are being utilized from Owlets through 8th grade, sharing their purpose and benefit to students.

Kim will also discuss the goals of Family Groups and Buddies and address the overarching themes that are an important part of the Saklan SEL program: the importance of relationship building; the benefits of small class sizes; clear, concise, positive teacher language; one-on-one teacher/student conferencing to deliver feedback; quick action/debriefing when an incident happens; teaching students ways to resolve conflicts and give them opportunities to try.

#SaklanSEL #SaklanPA

Picture Day on Tuesday

Roots & Shoots Photography will be taking individual and class portraits of Saklan students next Tuesday, February 15th. Pictures will be taken during the school day, outside on the play yard, and students need to wear their uniforms. These pictures will be used in the yearbook and will be available for purchase.

If your child misses picture day, Roots & Shoots will be back on campus on Friday, February 25th for makeup pictures. Makeup day will only be for absentee students due to yearbook time constraints.

Portrait Ordering Process

Roots & Shoots has implemented a new ordering process. Ordering will be fully online, and will take place approximately 2 weeks AFTER picture day. Complimentary proofs will be provided for every student, so you can decide whether you would like to order them. If you do order, all portrait packages will be shipped directly to families’ homes ($5.25 shipping fee will apply).

Questions? Please contact Roots & Shoot directly at grow@roots-shoots.com. They will be happy to help!

Penguins!

The first grade class read lots of information about penguins, learning about their physical characteristics, habitat, offspring, and what they eat. To make their reading come to life, the students participated in hands-on, fun activities including “Emperor for a Day.” To start the activity, the first graders created emperor penguin eggs out of clay. Then they took their shoes off, kept their socks on, curled up their feet, and we had fun walking like penguin parents, with their egg on their feet. The students discovered that it is harder than they thought it would be!

Did you know that penguins spend a lot of time applying wax to their outer feathers? The wax comes from a gland at the base of their tail, and they use their beaks to apply it to the rest of their body. To find out how waxy feathers help penguins, the first graders colored a penguin using crayons to emulate the wax on their outer feathers, while leaving a picture of a cat uncolored (without wax). The students then sprinkled water on both animals, and discovered how a penguin’s body let less water through the paper than the cat’s body. The students not only enjoyed this hands-on activity, but came to truly understood how wax helps the penguins.