On November 2nd, Saklan students celebrated “Dia de los Muertos.” They built an altar to honor Frida Kahlo who was a famous Mexican artist. The students made orange and yellow paper flowers for the arch. These colors are used to attract the souls to the altar. They also learned that an altar must have three levels; a picture of the person being honored, their favorite food (pan de muerto), skulls (calaveritas), and a bowl of water to quench thirst. Finally, do not forget to light candles to shine the way to the altar.
The 1st grade is in the science lab this month learning about robots and coding. Students have taken part in a few challenges. First, with a push button mouse, students had to learn how robots think, and how that is different than we do. They moved their mouse through a track to reach food, water and finally shelter after avoiding danger, such as a cat and fire.
Recently, the 1st graders have moved on to Wonder Dashbots. These are app based robots where the students learn to code for different tracks, sounds, lights, etc. Next, they are going to be making them move through an obstacle course.
Kindergartners spent the day at the Oakland Zoo celebrating the Festival of Animals that they have been learning in Music.
With each piece of music, the children had to hunt to find the corresponding animal.
Lots of fun was had by all!
The last few weeks the 5th grade has been coming to science lab to learn some basics of astronomy. They have learned about the big bang theory, scaled down the solar system, learned about the formation of the moon, and discovered how our sun produces its energy. Lastly, we have been discussing space exploration, and so the 5th graders worked together to create their own rockets to shoot off!
The 2017 Hopscotch Tournament has concluded. Starting with forty-six competitors, the semi-finalists were: Colin T. (5th), Mr. Zippin, Mr. Javier, and Wesley G. (5th). The final match was played during Thursday’s lunch between Mr. Zippin and Wesley. This match was very close with both players on the eighth square. Wesley made the final pitch to the ninth square and was victorious.
Congratulations to Wesley, the 2017 hopscotch champion!
This week, the 8th grade went to Smitten in Lafayette to see chemistry in action. The students saw how a dream to make the best ice cream involved understanding of matter, thermal dynamics, and engineering. Smitten uses local ingredients, machines that make evenly cooled ice cream, and liquid nitrogen to ensure the smallest ice crystal formation and smoothest texture.
Students saw ice cream being made by the machines, nitrogen boiling, and enjoyed a scoop themselves. It was a very tasty and interesting field trip!
The sixth grade has been learning about earthquakes. In doing so, they were tasked with building a four story building that could withstand an earthquake.
The students were allowed to use different earthquake technologies which can reduce the shaking to a building. These included x-braces, cross braces, mass-dampers and extended building shapes.
Each student created their own design, and we tested them to see which building would allow for the least amount of shaking.
Today, the 8th graders toured the Moraga Community Garden in preparation for their Family Group lesson next Tuesday. They learned about composting irrigation, pollination and harvesting of crops.
This year’s Family Group activities will have a focus on food in our society. This is the first of our lessons, so we saw it fitting to start where food begins – in the garden.
This week the 8th grade created hot air balloons that would help test the ideas of buoyancy and Archimedes Principle, along with Charles Law in Chemistry. Using paper, glue, tape and paperclips (to act as a ballast), they engineered balloons that they thought would create the largest lift when filled with heated air.
FRIDAY BLOG 
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