Author: The Saklan School Friday Blog

Middle schoolers recently explored and participated in the Japanese art form of “Gyotaku,” or fish printing. Students first learned how this art form originated in 19th Century Japan, where fishermen would paint their fish and make a print onto paper in order to document their more impressive catches. Students then looked into how these same prints are being used today by scientists to document how fish populations have changed over the years.

Finally, students learned the fish printing process first hand by painting ink onto real fish, and pressing down paper on the fish to make a print.

When finished, students hand painted the eye directly onto the paper, and signed their artwork using a “chop” or personalized stamp dipped into red ink. It was a fun combination of art, science and history, and the prints turned out incredibly well!

These fish prints were also used to create the 6th grade collaborative poster that is available for purchase as part of the Shindig Silent Auction.

#SaklanHandsOn

This semester, the Middle School Choir has stepped up their level of difficulty and understanding in music, as they have turned their attention to two major projects. The first of these is the Annual School Concert, which this year centers around hope in times of trouble and will take place on Wednesday, April 20th.

For the first part of the semester, the choir student have done a deep dive into the technical aspects of their concert repertoire, including 3-4 part harmony, body percussion and ostinato patterns, and a capella singing. They have also begun to analyze the meaning of the music they are singing, writing their own lyrics in response to the song Seasons of Love from the musical Rent, and spending time with the legacy of Harriet Tubman and the importance of spirituals in songs as they learn Stand Up from the award winning movie, Harriet. 

Their second project was preparing and executing an audition for our Middle School’s upcoming musical, Legally Blonde Jr. on Thursday, May 19th. Each student learned and sang an excerpt on their own, in an open audition in front of their class. The courage that it takes to sing in front of others is remarkable, and we would like to commend every choir student for their amazing work on the first step towards the performance.

#SaklanCourage #SaklanCreativity

Since February, the 8th grade has been studying physics in science. They have been learning about the forces on our planet: gravity, air resistance, friction and centripetal force. They have also been working on putting Newton’s three Laws of Motion into real life scenarios.

The 8th graders were tasked with creating a rocket that could fight air resistance and gravity, and that could exhibit all of Newton’s three laws. After creating different straw rockets and learning how different designs create different amounts of drag, their goal was to design a water rocket that could not only defy gravity, but go the highest in the class.

They worked in pairs to design different wings and different types of cones for the top of their rockets. When the time came to shoot them off, they used an altimeter to measure their height as they blasted off. While each reached amazing heights, one rocket design made it an astonishing 40 meters in the sky (approximately 131 feet). Congrats, Anessa and Cassidy on the highest reaching rocket!

#SaklanHandsOnLearning #SaklanAcademic