Second Grade at the UC Museum of Paleontology
Flash: Conference Sign ups Next Week—Please be sure to follow the directions you have received home from your children’s teachers and/or division directors.
Flash: Our thoughts are with the people of Texas and Louisiana this weekend as they brace for Hurricane Rita-- we hope for everyone's safety and welfare in that stricken region.
Saklan Displays Compassion
Another big round of thanks and appreciation to all the families and children who contributed and worked to organize the special drive last week for Katrina’s survivors. The charity organizing the drive told us they were astounded and amazed by our school’s generosity and compassion. Miss Amy, Mrs. Hubbell, Mrs. Moebius and Ms. Kam all deserve our great appreciation as the organizers of this effort.
Many of our students demonstrated their leadership and compassion in other ways as well. One example is that of two of our third graders, Katie Firstenberg and Jenny Toohey, who organized last weekend a lemonade stand which collected more than $60 to go to relief efforts: Here is a picture of our two students receiving recognition for their contribution from the Moraga Rotary Club; the presenter is Moraga Rotary Club President Mary Elena Dochterman, who in a happy coincidence is also our school's former Head of School (1970-1989).
Rotary award to Saklan Students
Picture Galleries
Second Grade - UC Museum of Paleontology
Third Grade September - Making Kites & Reading Strategies
Sixth Grade Science - Chemical Composition
Seventh Grade Humanities - Roman Empire Unit
Welcome to New Saklan Staff members:
We happily announce and introduce to you our new Operations Manager Gabe Tanaka. Mr. Tanaka is a full time administrator taking responsibility for our facilities management, our emergency preparedness, our fleet of vans, and our new administrative software database systems. Formerly an operations coordinator and computer systems operator for American Presidents Line in Oakland, Mr. Tanaka has also strong experience working in support of his son’s school’s facilities; last year he was elected “Parent Volunteer of the Year” at an elementary school in Danville.
In our office every afternoon this school year will be Kendra Tietjen, a senior at Acalanes School in Lafayette. It is especially great welcoming Kendra because she is herself a proud product of Saklan Valley School, having attended our school for several years of her elementary education. Expect her to offer you whatever assistance you need when you call or come by our offices between 3:00 and 5:00.
Early Childhood Division September 2005
Dear Early Childhood Parents,
We welcome all of you to our Saklan community. It has been a pleasure getting to meet and talk with all of our new and returning families. As director of our Early Childhood Education division here at Saklan, I wanted you to know that we believe that communication is one of the key factors in maintaining high quality programs. All of our teachers are available to meet with you and welcome your ideas, dialogue, and feedback throughout the year.
I also invite you to come and talk with me anytime. I am here Mondays through Fridays from 7:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. approximately. My e-mail address is blederman@saklan.org, and I can be reached by phone at (925) 376-9576. Your feedback is important and always welcome.
I have attached a, “Help Me Get To Know Your Child Better” handout that we would like you to fill out and turn back in to your child’s’ teacher early next week. It should take only a few minutes, and your children can take an active part of helping you with this.
Though many of you are familiar with our curriculum, I would like to share with you more in-depth how our High-Scope, Child –Centered program is set up.
The High / Scope program is based on the theory that children need active involvement with people, materials, ideas, and events. It is a curriculum of "shared control" in which adults and children learn together.
Like Montessori, the core belief is that children learn best by pursuing their personal goals and interests. In High / Scope, however, children are encouraged to make their own choices about materials and activities — teachers are trained to support this independence and decision-making. The High / Scope approach is newer than the Montessori approach but has four decades of research proving its effectiveness in promoting children's development.
In the classroom
The High / Scope curriculum identifies 58 key experiences preschool children should have. The experiences are grouped into ten categories:
• Creative representation — Imitation, recognition, role playing
• Language and literacy — talking, describing, scribbling, dictating stories
• Initiative and social relations — making choices, problem-solving, relationship-building
• Movement — bending, running, dancing
• Music — singing, playing instruments
• Classification — describing shapes, sorting, matching
• Seriation — arranging things in order
• Numbers — Counting
• Space — Filling, emptying
• Time — Starting, stopping, sequencing
Learning centers are carefully arranged throughout the classroom that offer a wide series of opportunities in which children can feel empowered by making their own selection of choices. Computers are often a regular part of the High / Scope program; teachers select developmentally appropriate software for children to use when they want to.
The High / Scope program is a good fit for any child who needs individual attention. Today it is more widely used in a variety of preschool settings. I have had the chance to actively participate and view how our Early Childhood children transition into our Kindergarten and Elementary/Middle school during the past several years. It has been a joy to watch how smooth this move has been for them. Two years ago, as I attended Saklan’s 8th grade graduation ceremony, I was honored to see my past preschooler, who was now class president, graduate and get in Athenian, her first choice of high schools.
Sincerely,
Ben Lederman
Director of Early Childhood Education
Extended Day News
The Extended Day enrichment program has gotten off to a great start! The children are having a blast as their learning new skills and ideas. All classes have started, except Spanish. Spanish class begins on Monday, September 26, 2005. We will be accepting registration forms on Monday for your convenience. For a schedule of all the classes and dates, please stop by the Extended Day foyer to pick one up. We also have an enrichment class roster that includes the location of each class posted on one of the bulletin boards. Please remember to check your child out of Extended Day or an enrichment class via the time clock. I am happy to give anyone an orientation on how to use it.
Looking ahead, Saklan has two days in October that we will be offering extended care due to early dismissal or no school. October 27th is a noon dismissal for all students. We will offer care from 7:00-8:15 a.m. and from 12:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. On October 28th the school is closed to all students. We will offer care from 7:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. Please sign up on the sheet posted in the Extended Day Foyer or e-mail a response to kparks@saklan.org of your child’s needs for these days as soon as possible. Thank you!
New Saklan Store - Affiliate of amazon.com - From Last Week
Saklan is proud to present to our families and supporters a new and Ultraeasy way to support us while you shop online. Now loaded on our homepage is a button linking you to Amazon.com. This link brings you to an amazon site functioning exactly the same way; when you shop this way, Amazon returns to our school 5-10% of every purchase. These funds will go to support our school library. You can also find here book recommendations from our teachers. Already available are recommendations Early Childhood, Kindergarten, Second Grade and Middle School.
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