Category: General

Saklan’s 22-23 Annual Giving Fund (AGF) officially begins next Tuesday, October 25th with Orange Envelope Day! All Saklan families are invited to join us in celebrating Orange Envelope Day by dropping off the orange envelope and donor form that was mailed to you in the orange box in front of Saklan. 

Thank you to those who have already made a gift. Below are important things to know about Saklan’s AGF.

What is the AGF?

The Annual Giving Fund is Saklan’s yearly fundraising drive that raises money to support the amazing people and programs that make Saklan special.

Why do we have it? 

Saklan relies on the generous support of the community to create such a vibrant place for children to learn and develop. The funds raised through the AGF allow Saklan to provide the many extras that make Saklan the incredible school that it is—personal attention from dedicated teachers, an engaging curriculum, arts, music, Spanish, STEM, and physical education at all grade levels. 

Is there a Goal?

This year, our goal as a school is to have 100% of families participate and raise $170,000 by December 2. Join us by making a gift that is personally meaningful to you. For some families that may be $20, while for others that may be $10,000. 

How can I make a gift?

You can make an AGF gift via the following methods:

• Cash or a Check payable to The Saklan School
• Online using a Credit Card – The online platform gives you the option to set up recurring payments that allow you to pay for your donation over several months. 
• Invoiced through the Saklan Business Office.

Have questions about Saklan’s AGF? Feel free to reach out to Emily at ewilliamson@saklan.org.

Thank you for your support of Saklan.

#SaklanCommunity #SaklanAGF

Our 6th graders recently spent a week at Westminster Woods, an environmental education and character development program, nestled in 200 acres of redwood forest in Sonoma County. Students hiked through the redwood forest, scoured the Dutch Bill Creek, ventured through a high-ropes challenge course, and took part in many team building challenges.

On Monday morning, the sixth graders loaded into a Saklan van for the ride to Westminster.

On Tuesday, the sixth graders went for a blindfolded hike up a steep hill, waded down a man-made salmon ladder, found a blue scorpion under a log, and meditated on gratitude and the role models who changed their lives.

On Wednesday, the students used microscopes to explore organisms in the creek, discovered wildlife, including a very large giant pacific salamander they named Kleopatra, and wondered aloud about things they are curious about. The sixth graders also had a brave and glorious adventure in the dark, hiking solo, discovering glow worms and shooting stars, and practicing animal adaptations.

On Thursday, there was lots of Gaga ball, connecting with the Westminster staff members, the ropes course, fort building, and most of all sincere and deep sharing of truths between classmates and community.

On Friday, the students returned to Saklan very tired, but thankful to have gotten the opportunity to get to know their individual selves better, to challenge themselves, and develop deeper bonds as a class.

Thank you to Grace, John, Christina and the staff of Westminster Woods for supporting the sixth graders on this journey of personal development and class growth.

#SaklanCourageous #SaklanCommunity #SaklanFieldExperience

The 2023-2024 admissions season officially kicks off next week! Saklan has several Open Houses planned:

• Middle School Virtual Open House: Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2022, 9a.m. – RSVP
• Lower School Virtual Open House: Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022, 9a.m. – RSVP
• Preschool/Pre-K Virtual Open House: Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022, 9a.m – RSVP
• Middle School Open House: Friday, Nov. 4, 2022, 8:30a.m. – RSVP
• The Parent Perspective: Friday, Jan. 6, 2023, 12:00 p.m. – RSVP
• Lower School Open House: Friday, Jan. 13, 2023, 8:30a.m. – RSVP
• Kindergarten Virtual Open House: Friday, January 20, 2023, 11:00a.m. – RSVP

All prospective and current parents are invited to attend them. Feel free to invite friends or family members to join these events as well.

We encourage Pre-K families to join one of our K-5 Open Houses and for our 5th grade families to join one of our Middle School Open Houses, to see what’s ahead during your child’s experience at Saklan.

If you can’t join us for one of our Open Houses but are interested in learning more about Saklan, we will gladly give individual tours at a mutually convenient time. To schedule a tour or more about the admissions process, please reach out to the Saklan Admissions Office at admissions@saklan.org.

School and classroom jobs can help build a sense of excitement, community, and interdependence. These tasks, such as putting up the flag, cleaning the tables after lunch, or being the class helper give students the opportunity to exercise and practice decision making and reasoning. They also give students a chance to be responsible in a meaningful way: the children know that completing their job helps their school, classmates and/or teacher.

When children are given responsibilities like these, they feel valued, capable and respected, which in turn boosts confidence. Some of the jobs involve reading or counting, which can help develop literacy and math skills. The jobs may also give a nudge of encouragement to children who have not been volunteering for some of these tasks up until now. Our goal is that by having these jobs be one’s own special responsibility, our students will seize the opportunity to try out these tasks and to realize they are capable. 

The first few weeks of each school year are all about developing new routines, making connections with teachers and classmates, and building relationships that will enable the class to work collaboratively throughout the year ahead. During this time, each class works together to create a class agreement (sometimes called class rules). As part of the Responsive Classroom approach to teaching, the agreements are created collaboratively between students and teachers, focusing on what all members of the classroom community can do to help create a calm, orderly and safe environment that promotes academic autonomy.

The agreements will look different for each class, but all are phrased in the positive, offering clear expectations of behavior and how students can live up to those expectations. By including students in the process of creating the agreements, the students are engaged in their learning, feel a sense of belonging and safe in school, and view the rules in a positive light.

Check out some of this year’s class agreements below.

#SaklanSEL

Box Tops for Education is a quick and easy way to support Saklan!

Wondering how it works? All you have to do is buy participating products and use the Box Tops app to scan your store receipt. The app identifies eligible products and earnings are credited to your designated school. Even if you’re shopping online or doing grocery pickup, you can still submit your digital or email receipt with the Box Tops app.

Use this link to download the Box Tops app and Saklan will receive a referral bonus for your participation.

Don’t want to download an app? We will have a basket out at the front gate with the Box Tops logo on it. Drop your receipt in the basket, and a member of the Saklan admin team will use the app to scan it for you. After scanning with the app, all receipts will be shredded.

Thank you for your support of Saklan!

The fall session of enrichment classes will begin the week of September 12th and run through December 8th. Classes available this session include: Book Making, Ceramics, Homework Club, and ECE Art. The complete schedule of classes offered this fall is below.

Classes are filled on a first-come, first-served basis, and some classes already have a wait list. To enroll your child in a fall enrichment class, please click on the button below.

#SaklanEnrichment

Thank you to all of our families who stayed to participate in our first CLAS of 2022-23! What a beautiful way to start the year together, welcoming new families, celebrating birthdays, giving out appreciations, and singing “This Little Light of Mine.” As is Saklan tradition, the 8th grade class ran around the group of students during the last verse of the song, shining their light around the world.

As you hopefully know, CLAS stands for Community, Learning, Appreciations, and Sharing. We look forward to seeing you at future CLAS assemblies, which will showcase more student presentations to the community.

CLAS will be held at 8:30 a.m. on the following Fridays:

• September 9th
• September 23rd – Parent Coffee to Follow
• October 7th
• October 21st – Parent Coffee to Follow
• November 4th
• November 18th – Parent Coffee to Follow
• December 2nd – Parent Coffee to Follow
• January 13th
• January 27th
• February 10th – Parent Coffee to Follow
• February 24th
• March 10th – Parent Coffee to Follow
• March 24th
• April 21st
• May 12th – Parent Coffee to Follow
• May 26th
• June 2nd – Parent Coffee to Follow

We hope you can join us!

Thank you to everyone who joined us on Monday for Saklan’s Back to School BBQ Social. We were delighted to host this beloved event once again!

It was so nice to see all the smiling faces and feel the positive energy of the 300+ attendees. This was the best attended BBQ to date, and a wonderful way to kick off the new year!

Thank you to the PA for setting up the Uniform Exchange, helping attendees make name tags, and helping us build community through volunteer opportunities. Additionally, thank you to everyone who volunteered to help with community events this year.

#SaklanCommunity