Category: Hoot Owls

Adventure in Space

The Hoot Owls have taken on a new inquiry topic: Space! Space is something that the class was very curious about, and just like any new inquiry, they started by asking questions. Amongst their many wonders, the Hoot Owls shared:

  • “How come there is no gravity in space?”
  • “Why is there an eclipse?” 
  • “What are the little red rovers on different planets?” 

The class read Moon! Earth’s Best Friend by Stacy McAnulty, in which they discovered that the moon has different phases. Next, to address one of the student’s questions, “Why is there a moon in space?” the class watched a video about the formation of the moon. The Hoot Owls then created moon representations to showcase what they learned about the moon phases. 

Since the Hoot Owls were very curious about gravity, the class watched a video that taught them that gravity is a strong force that pulls things toward the center. They learned that gravity is what keeps people on Earth and why things fall to the ground. 

Next, the class read Sun! One in a Billion by Stacy McAnulty, which taught them that the sun is a dwarf star that gives us light. From Earth! My First 4.54 Billion Years by Stacy McAnulty, the class learned that Earth started as a big flaming ball of hot molten lava, and then it cooled with long periods of rain until it formed land. The Hoot Owls also learned about the four parts that make up the Earth: the crust, mantle, outer core, and inner core. They were amazed to learn that the sun’s gravitational pull keeps the Earth orbiting around the sun.

To reflect on what they learned, the class made Earth representations by looking at a globe and water-coloring what they saw. They are also working to create a representation of the solar system in our classroom.

Celebrating Lunar New Year

Saklan students celebrated Lunar New Year with some special activities on Wednesday. Lunar New Year, which celebrates the start of the lunisolar Chinese calendar, is celebrated in China, Vietnam, Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore, among other countries.

Preschool students welcomed two guest experts to share about Lunar New Year. Samantha, an Owlet parent, read a book to the class and shared red envelopes with them. Sharon, an Owlet grandparent, shared Lunar New Year traditions that take place in China, told the story of The Great Race, and shared tangerines with the students. The Owlets also enjoyed making snake paper lanterns, Lunar New Year yoga, and listening to traditional Chinese music.

Pre-K students celebrated by welcoming Heidi, a Hoot Owl mom, into their class. Heidi shared that Lunar New Year is based on the Moon instead of the sun and talked about the Chinese word for fortune, 福, and its importance. Heidi shared pictures of her children wearing special Lunar New Year outfits and then treated the class to some bao filled with custard.

Maggie also taught the Hoot Owls about her family’s Lunar New Year traditions, including cleaning their homes and putting up Chinese sayings with good wishes for the new year. The Pre-K students enjoyed watching a video of a lion dance, as well as talking about and receiving red envelopes.

To help with the campus celebrations, the 5th graders put together a dragon which Peta hung on the pergola to welcome students to campus on Wednesday. The fifth graders also made lanterns and dragon drawings.

In humanities class, Christina shared some of her family traditions with the 6th graders, including the tradition of eating tangerines, which are believed to bring good fortune, and of giving red envelopes with money in them as a symbol of good luck. She also shared the proper etiquette for giving and receiving the red envelopes to show respect. The 6th graders also talked about the importance of the Chinese word for fortune and then learned how to write it.

The 6th graders then took their newly acquired skills over to the Hoot Owl classroom, where they taught the Hoot Owls how to write the word for fortune with brushes and ink.

May the Year of the Snake be prosperous for all!

#SaklanCommunity

Classroom Jobs

Jobs at school can help students build a sense of excitement, community, and interdependence. 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 jobs helps their school, classmates, and/or teachers.

Upon returning to school in January, the Hoot Owl teachers noticed how much the students had matured since the beginning of the year and decided they were ready to take on more responsibility in the classroom. As part of a new project unit on cleaning, the class brainstormed ways to help keep their classroom clean. From that list came new classroom jobs that the students will take turns doing each week for the remainder of the year.

To kick off their jobs work, the class worked on a big cleaning task together – cleaning all the chairs in their classroom. Using buckets of soapy water and sponges, the students scrubbed down their chairs. They noticed that the water in the buckets didn’t look so clean when they were done, so we know the Hoot Owls did a great job of cleaning the chairs! After the chairs were scrubbed, they were rinsed off using the hose, and then students dried them. Some of the Hoot Owls took such pride in their work that they wanted to make sure the chair legs were shining!

Project Culminations at Saklan

A key element of Saklan Project Based Learning units is a public product. This looks different depending on the division and, hopefully, over the last month, you have had the opportunity to share in a culminating event on campus! 

In our Early Childhood Education program, our projects culminate with a public event where students share all the expertise they have gained over the course of the project. It’s a joyful time to celebrate their hard work with family, friends, and other students and staff. It is also a rich opportunity for them to be the experts in the room and develop their speaking and listening skills. Recently our Pre-K (Hoot Owl) class culminated their project unit on farmers’ markets. 

In our lower and middle school projects, products are created for an audience beyond the teacher and students in the classroom. One key aspect of a public product in these divisions is that it must raise the stakes of the work in a meaningful and authentic way. Students aren’t doing something just for the sake of doing it or solely regurgitating information learned from teacher-directed lessons.

Instead, the work students engage in mirrors what adults do in their various career pursuits. After student-led inquiry and teacher guidance to address the content standards, students make or do something that serves some purpose in the Saklan or broader community. Students are creating, educating, or advocating beyond the context of our classrooms. Some examples of recent products that answer the driving question and serve an authentic public purpose are below:

GradeDriving QuestionPublic Product
2ndCan animals survive in any habitat?Lunch table mini posters advocating for food swaps that help avoid palm oil. 
2ndHow can we use color to communicate feelings?Design and creation of the concert backdrop for our Spring Concert at the Lesher Center
3rdHow can we show respect to the people whose ancestral land our school is on?Research, design, and creation of the hopscotch and four square murals on the sports court to reflect the Saklan Bay Miwok culture.
6thWho do artifacts really belong to?Public art graffiti stencils to share options on repatriation of artifacts with the community. 

The final products differ but all include authentic sharing and action beyond our classrooms. At Saklan, students feel a sense of purpose that is hard to replicate in other styles of teaching and learning. This brings the work alive and prepares them for the critical thinking challenges, complex communication needs, and creative problem-solving they will encounter in high school, college, and beyond.

If you’d like to dive deeper into the various design elements of a Project Based Learning (PBL) unit, check out the recording of our October 22nd Saklan Projects! virtual event. And we hope you can join us at our culminating events next week.

Upcoming Project Culminations

  • Preschool (Owlets)- Nocturnal Animals Culmination Celebration at 8:35 a.m. on December 12th
  • Kindergarten- Names Unit Culmination at 8:45 a.m. on Thursday, December 12th

#SaklanProjects

Farmers’ Market Project

The Hoot Owls have begun a Project in which they are diving deep to learn about the Farmers’ Market! First, they worked on writing and illustrating stories about their real-life experiences at the farmers’ market. If the students hadn’t been to one, they imagined what it might be like. The Hoot Owls then took turns sharing their stories at circle time. This helps the children get more comfortable speaking in front of a large group and helps them feel proud of their work. Their fellow Hoot Owls asked questions about the stories, which allowed them to practice using the question sentence structure and to ask questions relevant to the topic. 

The Hoot Owls also practice questioning skills with their Wonder Wall. The Wonder Wall is how the class keeps track of what students are curious about. The teachers help the class review the questions they have posed as they progress through the Project. When they uncover the answer to one of the questions they add it to their Topic Web. This web helps the class track what they already know and what they learn. Both the Wonder Wall and Topic Web are growing mediums to display the students’ curiosities and knowledge.

The Hoot Owls have enjoyed talking about things found at the farmers market: fruits, vegetables, cheese, flowers, crepes, popcorn, and more. The class wondered where cheese comes from, so they invited a dairy cow expert, Erin, to help answer their question. They also came up with other questions about cows:

  • “Do cows drink?”
  • “How do cows eat carrots?”
  • “How do baby cows drink the milk?”

The students learned that only baby cows, or calves, drink milk. Adult cows only drink water and can drink as much as 6 bathtubs per day! They discovered that cows eat 100 pounds of food daily, mostly hay, but sometimes carrots, other vegetables, or grains. The Hoot Owls found out that cows only have teeth on their bottom jaw, the top is just a hard leathery piece. To help digest food, cows have four chambers in their stomach. Calves drink milk from the mother’s udders. The udders are also where farmers milk the cows. The milk is then used to make items like cheese and yogurt.

After learning new things, the students make representations. Not everyone makes the same things, as each student makes what they are interested in. Some molded a cow out of model magic and others built a cow using big Styrofoam pieces!

The Pre-K students are enjoying their journey to learn more about the Farmers’ Market. Stay tuned to see where this Project takes them!

#Prekindergarten #SaklanProjectWork

Thanking the Moon

Last Tuesday, September 17th, the Hoot Owls, 1st graders, and 2nd graders learned about the Mid-Autumn Festival, or Moon Festival, that is celebrated in East and Southeast Asia to mark the end of the autumn harvest. The Hoot Owls read the book Thanking the Moon by Grace Lin, and learned how Maggie, one of the Pre-K teachers, celebrates the festival with her family by sharing a dinner with her family under the moon. During the picnic, her family will eat fruits and mooncakes and thank the moon for a bountiful harvest.

The first and second graders welcomed Dana, a first-grade parent, who also read a book about the Mid-Autumn Festival, and then shared her experience and family traditions with the festival. The students were excited to try mooncakes, a pastry filled with lotus seed paste and an egg yolk in the middle, which Dana brought in for them to try. Some students really enjoyed the mooncakes, others not so much, but it was fun to try!

The Pre-K students also used mooncake presses to make their own mooncakes out of clay. This was a great opportunity to exercise their creativity and fine motor skills, as they each decorated their mooncakes, making very colorful creations!

#SaklanDiversity #SaklanCommunity

Please Join Us

The Hoot Owls are getting ready to come back to Earth following their space exploration! They have been reviewing their notes from the Topic Web they started way back in March, gathered questions on their Wonder Wall, talked to experts, including astronomer Sophia Wallstrom and Saklan’s Science Teacher, Ms. O, and conducted research in the field at Chabot Space and Science Center. It’s been an out of this world journey for the Hoot Owls, and they now invite you to view their results! Please join us for the Hoot Owl Space Culmination next Thursday, May 16th at 9:00 a.m.

The Hoot Owls aren’t the only class with a culminating event this month. We invite all Saklan families and friends to learn more about the learning our students have engaged in by joining us for the following events:

  • Hoot Owl Space Culmination – Thursday, May 16th at 8:30 a.m.
  • 3rd Grade Saklan/Bay Miwok Culmination – Friday, May 17th at 9:00 a.m.
  • 4th Grade Gold Fever Culmination – Friday, May 17th at 9:00 a.m.
  • Art Show – Thursday, May 23rd from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m.
  • 6th Grade Museum of the Future – Thursday, May 23rd from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m.
  • Owlet Rainforest Culmination – Friday, May 30th at 9:00 a.m.
  • Kindergarten Community Culmination – Friday, May 30th at 9:00 a.m.

Hoot Owl Space Exploration

The Hoot Owls have continued their space exploration! They been been discussing gravity and its effects in space, as well as talking about astronauts. They learned that there are astronauts living in the International Space Station. The astronauts grow plants, do experiments and send the information back to Earth. The class watched videos to see how astronauts go about their lives up in space. They saw a tour of their kitchen, their sleeping quarters and their bathroom. The Hoot Owls also learned that astronauts need to be very strong, and continuously exercise to keep their muscles and bones healthy.

The Hoot Owls recently went on a field experience to the Chabot Space and Science Center. The students brought journals with them to record things they saw and what they learned. The class watched a show in the planetarium about gravity waves and were excited to see parts of rocket ships. The students also enjoyed seeing the different space suits that have been used through time, and some of the Hoot Owls even designed their own!

The Hoot Owls will share their learning with the community on Thursday, May 9th during their Space Unit Culmination event. All Saklan community members are invited to join us to learn about their project!

Spring Holidays

For those who attended CLAS last Friday, you caught a glimpse of the learning our students have done around spring holidays. Here is a deeper glance into some of the learning that has taken place during the month of March.

Fourth grade students partnered up to explore and learn about various spring holidays including Holi, Easter, Ramadan, and St. Patrick’s Day. Their collaborative efforts culminated in the creation of informational posters which they formally presented to their classmates, and then put on display at CLAS. Through this activity, the fourth graders emphasized the importance of respecting and understanding different cultures while celebrating diversity.

Earlier this month, Hoot Owl parents, Rachel and Richa, taught the Hoot Owls about Holi. They shared that Holi is the Indian festival of colors which happens in Spring when new colors start showing up in nature. It is a time to celebrate our differences, and even though we are all different, we are all beautiful.  They read the book Festival of Colors by Surishtha Sehgal and Kabir Sehgal, and illustrated by Vashti Harrison. It shared the meaning of the holiday and how people celebrate it by wearing white and throwing powders of various colors (made from dried flowers) at each other in a fun and festive way. As a class the Hoot Owls represented this by creating marble art with lots of different colors. The marbles were rolled on top of paper in different skin colors, and when the paint dried they cut them out into people.

The Owlets learned about Ramadan when Nadia, an Owlet parent, visited their classroom. Nadia narrated the book Moon’s Ramadan and showed the Preschoolers images of her family celebrating Ramadan. The students discovered that Ramadan is observed throughout the new moon phase and concludes on the new moon. Adults fast during the day and eat at night, breaking their fast with an iftar, a meal which usually starts by eating dates. The Owlets also enjoyed painting some Ramadan decorations!

Sharing Knowledge

The Hoot Owls have emerged from their ocean unit and blasted off into space! To start their latest project-approach unit, the Hoot Owls made a topic web to showcase their prior knowledge of space. As they meet experts and read books, they will add to the web. They also created a space wonder wall, which they will continue to add questions to throughout the unit.

The first space guest experts to visit the Hoot Owls were the 1st graders! The 1st grade students shared what they learned during their Space PBL Unit in the fall. Prior to the visit, the Hoot Owls generated questions for the 1st graders, which they shared ahead of time. The 1st graders then researched answers to the Hoot Owl questions, and during their visit were able to answer all of the Hoot Owl questions. The Hoot Owls were very impressed!

Thank you, 1st Graders, for sharing your expertise with the Hoot Owls!

#SaklanProjectWork