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.

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.

#SaklanHandsOn #SaklanAcademic

Authors & Illustrators

This month, the Owlets have been talking about authors and illustrators. They learned that an author is the person who puts the words in a book, and an illustrator makes the pictures for the book. So far, they have studied two authors who are also illustrators. First, they read books by Eric Carle, including The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Grouchy Ladybug and A House for Hermit Crab. The Owlets then created art inspired by Eric Carle’s illustrations. 

The next author/illustrator the Owlets learned about was Mo Willems, who wrote The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog, We’re in a Book! and Should I Share My Ice Cream? The Owlets then began working on a multi-step painting project to create some of Mo Willems’ characters, Gerald and Piggie. The next authors they will learn about are Laura Numeroff (If You Give a Mouse a Cookie) and the duo of Margaret and H.A. Rey (Curious George). 

#SaklanCreative

2nd Grade Fairy Tales

Last week, the second graders finished their study of fairy tales with a celebratory publishing party!

They started the unit by each choosing a fairy tale to read and complete a castle book report on. The students definitely took their time and used their creativity to complete the reports.

Next, the class learned about the stages of the writing process by creating their own fractured fairy tales. The fairy tales the second graders created were creative, interesting, humorous and beautifully presented. Excellent work second graders!

#SaklanCreative

Don’t Look Up!

The 8th graders saved the day in class on Wednesday, February 2nd! Dangerous meteors were falling and they used the Linear Laser Cannon to break them up before they reached the earth.

The 8th graders were presented with the known coordinates of the meteors. They then used their knowledge of finding equations of lines using two points to make a rule to break up the meteor. Once they had a rule that would break up two meteors, they entered them in their computer and fired. Most shots were successful but a few had to be tweaked to pass through the desired meteor.

Here is an example of one Linear Laser Cannon shot that hit the meteors at (4,-7) and (-4,4).

In the end, the earth was saved. Thank you 8th graders!

#SaklanAcademic

Head’s Corner

The Power of Reflection

Over the past two years, it has become clear that making room in our lives for reflection is more important than ever. And yet, with everything that has been going on in our world, it seems harder and harder to make the time and space for this.  

Hence we have started a new initiative at Saklan to help teachers find ways to reflect on their life’s work and come back in the Fall refreshed and energized. Starting this year, teachers will be encouraged to apply for a grant through the Saklan Summer Reflection Fund. This fund will financially support teachers and staff to pursue professional development projects of personal interest off campus that also benefit their students and the school. In the past I have seen teachers take this in all sorts of directions: from Poetry Slam camps and meditation retreats to specialized conferences and historical explorations. One history teacher, for example, decided to follow the Lewis & Clark Trail, bringing the experience back to her classroom. Inspired teachers inspire students! 

You can support this initiative by contributing to the Auction Shindig Wine Raffle or by making a monetary donation to the fund on our auction website.  

The Saklan teachers and staff are excited about pursuing summer reflective opportunities. We look forward to sharing their experiences.