As a culmination to our Food Group Unit, the Hoot Owls had a Thanksgiving Feast with turkey and all the trimmings. Happy Thanksgiving!
Hoot Owls Celebrate Thanksgiving
Reading at Sisi’s
Last week, the third graders went to Sisi’s Cafe to read their non-fiction books. It was so much fun drinking hot cocoa and reading our books. Activities like these help students develop a love for reading.
Right now, the third graders are “reading to learn” and are practicing high-level concepts like “identifying main ideas and supporting details,” “inferring within the text,” and “cross-text(s) synthesis.” In third grade, students need to do the following to practice cross-text(s) synthesis: “When I read two texts (or parts of a text) that teach about the same subtopic, I can find the information on a subtopic from both texts (or parts of one text) and put that information together” (Calkins & Tolan, 2015). It is good for students to have fun while they are practicing these difficult reading strategies.
News from the Sports Court
The lunch time intramural soccer round robin tournament is in effect. Five lower school teams 1st thru 4th grades are playing against each other during lunch and are currently in the third round. Four middle school teams 5th thru 8th grades started playing each other this week. These tournaments will finish the week we come back from break.
Also The Great Saklan Straw Race winter edition will take place in December! Stay tuned for the date.
Let’s go Saklan!
Sixth Grade Trip to Yosemite
In late October, the 6th grade took off to Yosemite for a week of hands on science, team building, connecting with nature, learning about themselves and becoming more independent. It was one of our best trips ever. Between hiking below Half Dome, climbing through giant sequoias, dancing in the rain and supporting each other when they needed it, I know they won’t forget their Yosemite trip. Here are some of the thoughts from the week away.
In the solo hike, I felt connected to nature when I saw the waterfall and just looked up at it. It was so peaceful because it was so quiet, and I heard no one scream or anything except for the sound of rain and the waterfall. – Devin
One of my favorite moments was probably when we saw that bobcat. It happened with the whole class on the second day or the first. I learned what they look like and that they were fast. I named him Ernie. – Abby
I felt connected to the group and nature in the spider caves. I really had to depend on my classmates, listen and focus to conquer my fears. I also had to be aware of my surroundings. I definitely will remember that moment of the trip. – Ysabel
I felt really connected to nature when my friends and I were hiking around Boystown in the morning. It was so fun hiking over the rocks and having those memories with my friends. – Harrison
One of the motives for going on these types of trips are to be away from our families. It helps us stay on the overnight trips better! – Hudson
I think the spider and bear caves were a HUGE bonding experience. We had to help each other through big challenges. I want us to be able to support each other like that for the rest of the year. – Isabel
California Regions
Fourth Grade is the year of all things California. One of the many things they study is the California’s regions – coast, mountains, central valley, and desert. They are each assigned a region, which they are then required to research and write a report about.
In addition to the reports, they were tasked as a group to take a song of their choice and rewrite the lyrics to tell a story about their region, which is not an easy feat. Each group chose very unique songs and made them informative and entertaining. They performed these songs in front of their biggest fans (their parents) to rave reviews. The Fourth Graders truly rocked the house.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Hope your Thanksgiving is filled with peace, love and great joy!
Head’s Corner
Dear Saklan Community,
This has been a week of surprises. First of all, we had Nicholas Di Sessa (5th) winning the cross country meet at the Lafayette Reservoir, beating a field of about 40 students from four independent schools. Nick was one of the youngest contestants as this was mostly a middle school event. Standing at the finish line waiting for the runners to come around the 2.7 mile circuit, my jaw literally dropped when I saw Nick flying towards me with no other runner anywhere near him. Nick was hardly sweating!
Then there was the result of the presidential election. Another jaw-dropping moment. The months that have led up to the election and the final results have shaken many and have brought into question many core values. On Wednesday morning many faculty, staff and older students came to school distraught, confused and fearful for the future of the environment, a compassionate and inclusive society, and civil discourse to name a few. Discussions have been happening both in and out of the classrooms and this is appropriate in light of such a historic moment. We must allow our students to speak their minds and at the same time assuage fears as much as possible, and ultimately reflect on the fact that we saw democracy in action. It is also important to revisit our mission as a school and to underline the core values, in particular respect and kindness, which we have been talking about since the start of school. No matter what our political affiliation may be, we know that as educators we have an important role to play in helping to make sense of what has happened, and to uphold our values and each other.
In order to start our Thanksgiving Holiday on a positive and happy note, we will be putting on our Fall Follies next Friday starting at 10:00AM at the Willow Springs auditorium. This is one of those Saklan not-to-be missed events. Next Friday will also be the last day of the first trimester. I am always amazed by how fast the school year moves along and how much we are able to pack into such a short time frame. Report cards come out on the Friday after the holiday. Different from past years, all report cards will go out in the mail.
Have a great long weekend!
Peter
Eighth Grade Field Trip to LHS
Last week, the eighth grade went to the Lawrence Hall of Science to investigate the properties of Liquid Nitrogen. The students safely worked with the freezing liquid to manipulate matter and see what happens to different items at about -200 degrees Celsius.
They saw balloons completely contract inward, to only crinkle and fill to the original shape once back at room temperature. They also saw leaves crack and shatter once dropped on a table after being submerged in the liquid, and they saw it completely take the energy out of different elastic items.
It was a SUPER fun field trip!
Teddy Bears Visit Second Grade. Oh my!
The beginning of November was teddy bear time in second grade. Each student brought a teddy bear to class.
The children read many Berenstain Bear books, interviewed their bear and wrote stories about them, and did teddy bear math using scales and measuring them in centimeters.
Unfortunately, we did have some problems. The bears put teddy bear stamps all over their work, hid from them, and even messed up Mr. Metzger’s office! But, most of the time we loved having the bears spend time with us. We ended their two week visit with a pancake breakfast to celebrate our special bears.
News from the Sports Court
The Saklan School raced against three other schools around the Lafayette Reservoir on Tuesday. Thirty-six runners ranging from 4th thru 8th grades ran 5 kilometers during this cross country event.
Saklan had five runners. Congratulations to Abby (6th) and Ruben (7th) for running a good race; Finn (8th) and Leo (5th) for finishing within the top ten; and Nick (5th) for finishing first. Nick had the fastest time of 20:35 minutes.
This was a terrific event and more are planned in the future, so get out there and run.
Let’s go Saklan!
FRIDAY BLOG 
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