MATHCOUNTS

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Last year we started the first ever Saklan MATHCOUNTS competition team and it was back by popular demand this year! The MATHCOUNTS Competition Series is a national program that provides students the opportunity to compete in live, in-person contests against and alongside their peers. Created in 1983, it is the longest-running MATHCOUNTS program and is open to all sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students.
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The team is open to any middle school student who wants to work on interesting and challenging problems with other math-letes. Saklan’s team met every Monday and just finished the MATHCOUNTS Regional Competition last weekend!

For more information on MATHCOUNTS, please click here.  We hope to continue to grow our team in the years to come!

 

Bake Sale Success

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Thank you to everyone for contributing to the success of the Second Grade Bake Sale. I also want to take this opportunity to give a special thank you to Lori Anders who organized this event and to all the special second grade parent bakers and helpers. The second graders raised $343.00 for Guide Dogs for the Blind!

4th Grade Scientists

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4th graders have been studying about electricity and currents in the Science Lab. In conclusion to that unit, the students got to work with our new STEM kits and collaborate to build their own inventions. They had a blast!

 

Way to go, Suns!

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The Saklan Suns shined bright on a cloudy day!  On Wednesday the Suns beat East Bay Waldorf School in two games of basketball.  Junior Varsity 40 to 27, and Varsity 54 to 31.

Here is the schedule for their upcoming games:

Saklan vs. The Berkeley School Tuesday, March 6th @ 4:15pm (Berkeley)

Saklan vs. East Bay Waldorf rescheduled Tuesday, March 27th  @ 4:15pm (El Sobrante)

Saklan vs. Pacific Boys Choir Thursday, March 29th @ 4:45pm (Home)

Come cheer them on – they are a dynamic team to watch!

News from Geometry

Curious about the height of the tallest redwoods on the turf? The meteor? Olivia used a clinometer to measure the angle from her eye to the top of each object. She also measured her distance from the object and the height of her eye.  Using these measurements and her knowledge of trigonometry ratios, she was able to find the heights. The redwood was 42 feet tall, and the meteor was 13  feet tall. There are so many ways to use math to solve problems in the real world!

Head’s Corner

Dear Saklan Community,

This past weekend our Science/STEM teacher attended the Global Classrooms Symposium in Washington. As I mentioned e    lassrooms Fellowship sponsored by the US Department of State, Bureau  petitive with 76 teachers being chosen from over 1200 applications from across the United States. She was accompanied to Washington by our Middle School Dean, Kim Parks as a representative of the school administration. The TGC program is funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), and all the costs of participation are covered by this organization. Vickie’s field experience will be in Senegal, where she will visit and teaching in classrooms from April 16 to May 2.  Other countries that are part of this program include Indonesia, Morocco, India, Peru and Columbia.

The Global Classrooms Program (TGC) is based on 4 key components or pillars.  These are:  1) investigate the world, 2) recognize multiple perspectives, 3) communicate ideas, and 4) take action.  Vickie has created a video which outlines these concepts, which you can view here. The ultimate objective of the program is twofold.   The short term goal is the implementation of Global Education in schools. The second, and long term goal, is to effect systematic change on a global plane for the betterment of all mankind.

Saklan already offers a rich program of global education. Our Spanish language program, which starts in PreK, naturally gives our students a different cultural perspective.  Our Summer Camp program is focused on a variety of different languages and cultures. Our Summer travel program takes students to a different county each year.  Our SEL program teaches empathy, tolerance, compassion and being open-minded, which are critical in global understanding.  Many global concepts are infused in our curriculum at every grade level. To give just a few of the many examples of this, first Grade does a unit on shelters from around the world, second grade does a unit on heritage, third grade studies Native Americans, fourth grade looks at migrations and seventh grade, in their annual field trip to Hawaii, studies the impact of plastic trash in the oceans and around the world.  Taking action is an important part of the learning experience, and Saklan students have engaged in a number of activities ranging from beach clean-ups to communicating with students in Japan.  Looking at our reading program through the lens of global education, will be part of the task of our curriculum review committee when they review and evaluate this part of the school curriculum.

After Vickie’s travels to Senegal, we will be scheduling a series of workshops for both parents and faculty where Vickie can share her experiences and discuss how these can help the school in enhancing our program.  This will take place in May with date announcement forthcoming.

Have a great weekend!

Peter

4th Grade California Missions

To demonstrate DoS/DoU (Depth of Study/Depth of Understanding) as well as embrace STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math), the students of the 4th Grade created, designed, and built three new California missions. The class worked in groups, and they used all of their knowledge of missions to make this happen.

The students were tasked to create their missions in a region other than the coast of this great state. They had to design everything from scratch, which included drawing the templates for the church façade and roofs, completing a composite map, building the model with sugar cubes (adobe bricks), and much more. In addition, the teams put together PowerPoints explaining the back story of their missions, showing the step-by-step process of building the models through a myriad of pictures, demonstrating fun math facts, and as an added bonus, they included animation.

And if that wasn’t enough, they also memorized and sang the California state song. Whew!! Their presentations were engaging, informative, and entertaining.

Hawaii

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The below essay, by 7th grader Kyle Yasumura, is a great summary of why we choose to spend a week in Oahu every year!

In 7th grade at the Saklan School, the entire class, lead by Mrs Kim and Miss O, fly to Honolulu Oahu and study the wildlife, the culture, and have a ton of fun. But why Hawaii of all places?

The Hawaiian islands are an excellent place to study evolution and adaptation because the ecosystem there is extremely unique, with plants that only grow in tropical areas, or some even in only Hawaii alone. The humid weather, general heat, and limited island space are large factors that really allow some pretty amazing adaptations to be made. For example, because the plants in Hawaii are all very close together, sunlight per plant is very limited, a tree called the Traveler’s Palm adapted to have massive leaves allowing it to absorb as much sun as possible. Or the Banyan tree, a plant that strangles other trees and basically takes its space and sun.

As I mentioned earlier, some species are only found in Hawaii because of some special adaptations that are very specific to the island. And because of that, it gives the class an amazing opportunity to see the full extent of adaptations to a very unique climate. For example, the humuhumunukuapua’a, or, the state fish of Hawaii. The fish has adapted to be able to lock itself into place between rocks as there is a great abundance of coral reefs in Hawaii.

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In conclusion, Hawaii is a great place for the seventh grade to be able to study/observe evolution and adaptation because of the unique climate, and species adaptations that occur due to the specific environmentanother group