Category: General

During April, Saklan students have been learning how to be resourceful as part of our ongoing social-emotional education. This lesson was especially relevant for the month that includes Earth Day, as there are always opportunities to be more resourceful when it comes to helping our planet.

Some key ways that students can be resourceful are:

• Think outside the box
• Take initiative – if you see something you can do, go do it
• Be creative with materials, problems, and tasks

After learning more about what it means to be resourceful, students had the opportunity to come up with ways they could be resourceful in their own lives, and display it on a “helping hand.”

#SaklanSocialEmotionalLearning

A few weeks ago, Saklan’s sixth graders set up an election with the goal of helping an endangered species in need. Plastic buckets were set up outside the main office–one bucket for each of the five animals chosen–and the Saklan community had a week to vote with their wallets for which animal they wanted the class to symbolically “adopt.”

When the votes came in, the monarch butterfly was the winner.

Saklan’s choice of the monarch butterfly is serendipitous, as the school has partnered with the Moraga Garden Center to plant milkweed and nectar flowering plants, which support monarch larvae and adult monarchs.

The school’s efforts were recently highlighted in Larmorinda Weekly, with the two sixth graders who chose the monarch butterfly for the “Vote with your Change” election featured in the post. Recognition well deserved!

#SaklanHandsOn

On Thursday, Saklan students celebrated Earth Day with the help of some animal friends! A petting zoo was set up right on campus, and each class took a turn getting to know the animals.

While the bunnies might have been the biggest hit amongst the students, there were also ducks, pigs, and goats for the students to pet and feed. We were so impressed with how gentle all of the students were with the animals, and how patient all of animals were with the students!

A huge thank you to Ms. O for organizing this special Earth Day treat!

Outside of the petting zoo, some classes incorporated Earth Day into their daily learning. In Kindergarten, students learned about different behaviors that can make our Earth “happy” or “sad.”

In Ms. Ashley’s fourth grade class, students celebrated Earth Day by reading poems they had written for the occasion.

We love to see all our students learning how to care for and protect our Earth and all the organisms who live here!

#SaklanCompassionate

Following the successful sixth and seventh grade trips, the eighth graders will take their turn at Challenge Sonoma on Tuesday, April 27. Ms. Cashen, Ms. Kim, and Mr. O’Connell will be joining the students for the day.

Finding opportunities to take students off campus this year has been difficult, and it has been so fun to finally be able to give the middle school students a field experience to enjoy. The day will be filled with opportunities for collaboration, team-building, and all-grade bonding.

Thank you to the eighth grade parents for your support, and to the middle school faculty for their commitment to making this happen for the students!

#SaklanFieldExperience

Planning has begun for the 2021-2022 school year, including a proposed calendar of schools breaks and days off. More detail about these dates and other important school events for next year will be coming, but we hope this outline will help Saklan families as they begin planning for the year ahead.

Aug19: Teachers’ First Day
Aug 25: First Day of School
Sept 6: Labor Day, No School
Oct 8-11: Fall Holiday, No School
Nov 11: Veterans’ Day, No School
Nov 22-26: Thanksgiving Break, No School
Dec 17: Half-Day
Dec 20-31: Winter Break
Jan 3: Professional Development Day, No School for Students
Jan 17: MLK Day, No School
Feb 18-21: President’s Day Weekend, No School
April 4-8: Spring Break
May 6: Teacher Appreciation Day, No School
May 30: Memorial Day, No School

Thank you for your support as we plan for another great year at Saklan!

#SaklanCommunity

As we prepare for a well-deserved Spring Break, we wanted to remind the Saklan community of a few guidelines and protocols regarding travel and our return to school.

With infection rates where they are, we will not have an all-school virtual learning period following spring break. That means that students who remain in California during spring break will return to campus for in-person learning on Monday, April 5.

For those of you who are planning out-of-state travel, please note that we are still following the guidance of the California Department of Public Health. Your child will have two options for quarantining upon their return to California:

1. Quarantine for 10 days after returning to California.
2. Take a COVID-19 test within 3-5 days of returning. With a negative test result, students can return to school after 7 days.

We know this is less than ideal, and are grateful for all that Saklan families have done to make in-person learning successful. With your support, we can continue our streak of all negative COVID-19 test results.

On behalf of the entire Saklan community, we hope your family has a safe, happy, and fun Spring Break.

#SaklanCommunity

During March, Saklan’s social-emotional learning focused on ways to be optimistic, which is especially relevant this year. While optimism is associated with being a “glass half-full” kind of person, there are lots of ways to be optimistic in everyday life:

• Look for the good in others
• Be a problem solver
• Believe in yourself
• Look for opportunities to learn something new
• Take time for yourself to do the things you are passionate about
• When things don’t go your way, don’t dwell on the negative. Instead, focus on what worked.

Focusing on the the things that make you feel lucky is also a great way to stay optimistic. In Ms. Rokas’s class, students completed a “craftivity” where they wrote four sentences that began with the phrase, “I am lucky…” They wrote their completed sentences on a four leaf clover – the ultimate symbol of optimism and good luck!

#SaklanSocialEmotionalLearning

This morning, Saklan held its annual Pi Recitation Contest, in celebration of Pi Day, which was March 14. Students who participate in the competition are challenged to recite as many digits of pi as they can from memory – no easy task!

For the first time ever this year, two Pre-K students joined in the competition. Congratulations to Anand and Elliott for joining in with the older students and stepping up to the microphone – we are so proud of you both!

Anand kicked off the competition on a high note by reciting an amazing 51 digits – a tough act to follow! The lower school was represented by Makena in first grade and Kaylah in third. From middle school, Ari in seventh grade and Isabel from eighth grade took their turn in the spotlight.

Each student did an incredible job, but we have to give a special congratulations to this year’s winner, Ari, who recited 101 digits from memory!

Thank you to all the students who participated and all the teachers who supported this year’s competition. We are so glad we were able to keep this annual tradition alive, and hope to be able to have a representative from each grade at a live assembly again next year!

#SaklanAcademic