Category: Fourth Grade

Missions

The fourth graders have just finished an in-depth look at the California Mission system and its lasting impact. 

Through Indigenous perspectives in art, news articles, online resources, and historical fiction, the class explored a few essential questions: 

  • Whose land are we on when we come to school at Saklan? 
  • Where are the members of those communities now? 
  • What happened to Indigenous peoples when the Spaniards arrived in this part of the world? 
  • What are local Indigenous communities calling for now and what can we do? 

The fourth graders used Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) to explore pieces from Katie Dorame’s Alien Apostles series and video installations “City Indians” and “State of the Earth” by Kelly Caballero. The students made connections between imagery and themes in their work and their read aloud historical fiction novel, Lands of our Ancestors by Gary Robinson, about the beginning of the missions period. 

The fourth graders brought much of the conversation to present day through Indigenous voices, discussion on land back movements, and the Camino Real bell marker removal efforts in Santa Cruz. Additionally the students engaged in rich conversation connecting this unit with the themes of belonging and identity in the novels The Boy at the Back of the Classroom and We’re Not From Here. 

Come by the 4th grade classroom windows to see a few of the student’s answers to their essential questions if you are ever on campus for extended care pick up!

#SaklanAcademic 

Learning Buddies

Last Friday, our Kindergarten and 1st grade students were delighted to find out who their 3rd or 4th grade learning buddy is for the year. For their first buddies meeting, the students played a get-to-know-you game and then spent time reading together.

The big buddies marvelously modeled good reading behaviors by reading with expression and fluency for their little buddies, and then were honored to listen to their little buddies read too. The Kindergarten, first, third and fourth grade students thoroughly enjoyed getting to know their learning buddies, are already asking when they get to meet with their buddies again!

Learning buddies are a purposeful way to encourage cross-grade friendships, help the older buddies develop a sense of responsibility and practice mentorship, and make learning fun!

#SaklanCommunity

Visiting Moraga Gardens Farm

During September and the first week of October, the Hoot Owls, Owlets, first graders, second graders, third graders and fourth graders took their first field experience of the year to Moraga Gardens Farm! Ms. Meredith led each of the classes on the two-block walk to the farm, and then on a tour of the community garden. The garden was filled with eggplants, cucumbers, kale, apples, pears, tomatoes, and much more.

During the tours, students learned that fruits and vegetables grow from flowers after being pollinated. They saw the difference between seasonal trees, such as a peach tree (summer) and persimmon tree (fall). The children saw how vines grow by attaching their tendrils to other structures and plants, and how plants defend themselves from predators. They went inside the greenhouse, heard the bees buzzing in their hives, and got to sample some of the garden’s produce. Lastly, the students were invited to feed and pet the chickens.

The students all had a great time in the garden. Thank you, Ms. Meredith, for leading these interactive, engaging field experiences!

#SaklanFieldExperience

Meet Our Specialists

Drumming Teacher: Isaac Narell

Mr. Isaac has been with The Saklan School since 2014 and has added tremendous value to our Music program. Although he has many talents, including arranging and playing multiple instruments, this year Mr. Isaac is teaching drumming to the third through fifth graders and a Learning by Doing (LBD) class for middle school students.

Mr. Isaac teaches traditional West African drumming from the Anlo-Ewe speaking people of Ghana, Togo and Benin. The drums used by our students were handmade for The Saklan School from Ghana. We are so lucky and grateful to have Isaac here to share his knowledge and help fill our community with rhythm!

#SaklanWellRounded #SaklanCreative

Enrichment Classes

We are thrilled to announce that The Saklan School will be bringing back after school enrichment classes for the 21-22 school year. For the fall session the following classes will be available:

Classes begin the week of September 13th, and have limited space available. If you are interested in signing your child up for one of the above classes, please click on the class name for additional information about the class and sign up options.

Saklan will also have enrichment opportunities for our Preschool and Pre-K friends that will be announced in the coming weeks. Our youngest students take a little more time to settle into the routines of coming to school, so we want to give them additional time before we introduce new classes into their day.

#SaklanHandsOn

Saklan has CLAS

Students share appreciations during the first CLAS

Last year gave us time to think about some of the things we have done for years and how to do them better. One of those things is Friday Flag- a long tradition that we have held out in front of School every Friday morning. After conversations with parents, teachers and students, we will be moving to a new Friday morning assembly called CLAS (Community, Learning, Appreciation, and Sharing). 

The impetus to move to CLAS was to emphasize the aspects of Saklan we sincerely appreciate: our community, that love of learning is central to everything we do, that gratitude and appreciation is our lifeblood, and that sharing is how we all grow as individuals. 

CLAS will be held on the Saklan Sports Court every other week. This allows each division to meet on the off weeks and hold assemblies that bring them together as a smaller group; the Saklan Sports Court provides a more protected gathering space. 

Parents are invited to join us for CLAS by entering campus through the fire lane near the church right at 8:30 a.m.

Thank you to everyone who joined us this morning for our first CLAS! It was so wonderful to see our entire community in the same space and to hear the words of wisdom and appreciations that the students shared with us. Check out pictures from today’s gathering below.

#SaklanCLAS #SaklanCommunity

Ending the Year on a High Note…Literally

The return of school musicals to end the year has all of Saklan ready to break out in song! After so many months of uncertainty, Ms. Chaffey went above and beyond to make sure that musicals could happen in some form this year, and we’re so grateful for her creative thinking.

To start off, today the fourth and fifth grade classes performed Seussical KIDS, leaving all their hard work on the outdoor stage. Students, teachers, and the performers’ parents were treated to a spectacular display of singing and dancing, featuring favorite characters such as Horton, the Cat in the Hat, and the Sour Kangaroos.

Next week, the seventh and eighth grade students will have their chance to put their talents on display! Their film version of Into the Woods will be screened on campus for the rest of Saklan to enjoy. Stayed turned for more details on how the rest of the Saklan community can view this film as well.

Congratulations to all of our Saklan performers, and another huge round of applause for Ms. Chaffey for making this happen and to the entire Saklan faculty and staff for their support.

The show really must go on!

#SaklanMusicals

Piñata Fun

As the academic demands of a challenging year begin to wind down, there is an opportunity to invite additional fun into classroom learning. For some lucky Saklan students, that meant exploring piñatas in Spanish class with Maestra Padilla!

Middle School students spent time making piñatas as part of their hands-on learning about Spanish culture. They used colorful crepe paper to cover piñatas made to represent familiar shapes and characters.

The fourth and fifth graders also got hands-on piñata fun! To end the day on Thursday, each student took a turn hitting the piñata in an attempt to get it to break and spill its treasures–snacks, beaded necklaces, and more–onto the turf.

While each student gave it a valiant effort–even breaking off the top completely– in the end, Mr. Crabtree had to step in to really break the piñata open!

#SaklanHandsOn

Fourth Grade Writes for Their Future

This week, the fourth graders in Ms. Ashley’s class used their voices to stand up for something they believe in. For the past few weeks, the class has been discussing environmental issues, investigating the effects of emissions, and thinking about how we can all reduce our carbon footprint.

As part of this learning, the class watched Greta Thunberg’s TED Talk from November 2018, where the then 16-year-old climate activist made the case for humanity to take urgent action to combat climate change. The message resonated with Saklan fourth graders.

To continue their exploration of climate change, the students then watched the TedEd video “Lifecycle of a T-shirt,” which presents a stark picture of where most t-shirts come from and how they are made. The process explained in the video left the students in disbelief, and wondering where their Saklan uniform shirts came from.

Saklan uniform shirts are made by Land’s End, but a review of the company’s sustainability webpage left the fourth graders dissatisfied. There were plenty of promises for what the company would do in the future, but very little information on what they are doing now.

The fourth graders came up with the idea to write a letter to the Land’s End School Uniform Department, detailing what they had learned and explaining what changes they would like the company to make. Their final letter, which will be sent to the company, is not only well-written and respectful, but also full of passion and heart.

You can read the full text of the letter here. We are so proud of this class for taking a stand for their future!

#SaklanCuriosity