Category: Middle School

Accept Yourself and Others As They Are

Yesterday, the 1st – 8th grade students met in their first family group lesson to discuss the importance of being accepting. 

Students introduced themselves, heard a story called The Crayon Box that Talked, and then discussed the story to understand that sometimes getting to know someone or learning how unique they are can help breakdown misconceptions. While everyone of us is unique here at Saklan, it is our similarities and our differences that make us such a special school. From soccer players to cat lovers, artists and passionate young scientists; the more we listen to others, respect our differences, are kind with our words and think of others, the more accepted everyone will feel.

Students then colored their own crayon with a picture of themselves, and listed something they feel makes them special! These self-drawn crayons are to be returned to Saklan, either by the next connect day or the next swap and drop so they can be inlcuded in the Family Group posters that will be put on display in the breezeway. 

***We deeply apologize for any technical issues you suffered that may have caused stress during the Family Group time. Ms. O was not able to get into meeting rooms either as she was trying to help people. Zoom locked her out! 😦 We can only assume others were just as frustrated. If that is the case, please know your student can still draw their crayon and return them to Saklan to be included on the Family Group poster. Their teacher can help them with any instructions they need.

#SaklanAccepting

8th Grade Chemistry

8th grade is in the middle of their chemistry unit. They have been learning about state changes of matter. By adding and taking away heat, matter can change from a solid, liquid, to a gas. But sometimes, we can actually heat up a solid so fast, it changes to a gas immediately, skipping the liquid state. It’s hard to imagine a liquid oxygen molecule or a solid gas since we are used to living at a comfortable climate, so to understand this, students investigated dry ice or frozen carbon dioxide. At a cool -109 degrees F (approximately) and the outdoor temperature of approximately 80 degrees F, this drastic temperature change creates a sublimation state change for the dry ice; it changes straight from a solid to a gaseous form.  

Students began to understand how the quick change creates a dense gas or fog coming off the dry ice. This dense air sank and created a bubble of air the students could use to float the block on top of the tables. They pushed pennies into the block to see how matter responds at that temperature and how solid gases react to warmer solids colliding into them. By adding water to the block, they saw the water bubble (boil) with white gas filled bubbles and then freeze the water they had once put over the dry ice.

They then related their understanding of what was happening in our solar system back in class on Zoom today. As frozen gases orbit through space, when they come close to stars, they melt, much like our dry ice was doing on the table, and produce a gaseous tail. We recognize these orbiting frozen gas balls as comets.

#SaklanAcademics

Communications Best Practices: Accountability & Self-Advocacy

Mr. P and Ms. Natalie combined both 8th grade Advisories for a couple weeks to give the students the opportunity to have some fun while flexing their communications skills and learning personal accountability and self-advocacy.

The central idea in middle school and in the activity booklet (linked below) is student empowerment. As you can see in the diagrams in the booklet, when the student is in the driver’s seat on the communications highway of students, parents, and teachers, well… that’s where the money is!

During this exercise, small student groups brainstormed then acted out scenarios for various common types of communications that happen in middle school. For example, taking responsibility in class or self-advocating in interactions with teachers at school or with parents at home. We then recorded the student roleplays, and we’re now watching and reflecting on them as an 8th grade community while celebrating the kids’ creativity, compassion, and courage in making these videos — first thing in the morning, no less.

Evy, Elena and Isabel

The video presented here is one of a number of very sweet snapshots illustrating respectful, responsible student-to-student communications in social situations. We’re super proud of our 8th graders and their enthusiastic embrace of these essential life skills.

Activity BookletDownload

#SaklanAdvisory

Saklan Happy

In an effort to do a little something fun with our Friday Flag, we asked families to create their own version of Happy by Pharrell Williams. This video certainly made everyone smile and happy this morning!

Special thanks to Noah M. (8th grade) for putting the video together!

#SaklanHappy

Cha-Cha Slide

According to the interweb, the “Cha-Cha Slide” was developed as a fitness routine in the Chicago area in 1996. David Wilson was looking for a new routine for his aerobics class. He went to his uncle Willie Perry Jr., better known as DJ Casper, or Mr. C The Slide Man. The rest is history.  

The “Cha-Cha Slide” is part of a collection of line dances known as slides, including “The Electric Slide” and “The Cupid Shuffle.” Last spring when the school went home for quarantine we were presented with a challenge. How do you participate in physical education at a distance? All the students were shown the moves and it became part of the online learning routine. Mr. Crabtree’s hope was for all of us to come together physically in the future and dance. He was delighted to see everyone dancing during the middle school campus visit!

Let’s go Saklan!

#SaklanWellRounded

Building Roller Coasters

The 8th graders culminating physics project was to design and create a roller coaster for a marble that utilized the forces we learned about in class, had enough momentum to fulfill a loop, and had a slow down stop. Each 8th grader used their creativity, math skills and the scientific method to design, redesign, start over, and eventually create their coasters. 

Students also got inspiration for their coasters by watching a few video clips, where they learned the need for gravitational pull to power the coasters, centripetal force and air resistance to provide thrills, and of course friction to stop safely!

We are extremely impressed with their efforts in this project – especially having to create these at home, and present and work virtually this year throughout this project. They are a great class, and we are glad to see they are ready for high school!

#SaklanAcademics

Re-Creating Art Masterpieces 

With art museums closed, institutions such as the Los Angeles Getty Museum made their collection accessible online. The museum challenged their viewers to choose their favorite artwork and re-create the painting. What does that look like?

Well, branching off of performance art, the 4th-8th grade took on the challenge. Using household items, costumes, pets, plants and beyond, they re-created the artwork of their liking. Each piece is nothing short of creative! The question is, who did it better?

#SaklanCreative

Thank You!

The Saklan Student Council, along with our partner Pledge to Humanity, would like to thank the Saklan Community for making our food drive a huge success.  We collected 1,415 pounds of food for the Monument Crisis Center. Together we made a difference for struggling families in our county.

#SaklanCompession

Adopt An Arthropod

The 7th grade has been learning about all the different kingdoms of life this spring. Currently, the 7th grade is in the middle of learning about animals, in particular invertebrates. Students were asked to look at the Arthropod (jointed foot) Phyla, find an organism they found interesting, and create a Bitmoji Adoption Ad for the arthropod of their choice.

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Students created themselves in Bitmoji form, so you could tell whose is whose, and shared why their invertebrate would be a great pet for your household! Maybe you have been looking for a bird-eating spider to get rid of that pesty morning wake up call, or a blue scorpion to be the glamorous fashion pet of your dreams. No? Maybe a man eating praying mantis for when your husband drives your crazy… Just kidding, they only eat their own husbands! But you might even find a huge crab you may want to use to scare your children! Find the arthropod of your dreams at the 7th Grade Arthropod Adoption event!

#SaklanAcademics