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Clairbourn Celebrates Love and Kindness

Morning Assembly is one of Clairbourn’s long traditions. School members come together to hear announcements and start the day with gratitude and an inspirational message. The Clairbourn Code of Ethics – honesty, respect, responsibility, spirituality and citizenship — provide the basis for our Morning Assembly and students from first through eighth grade have an opportunity to work on their public speaking skills learning to confidently deliver a message in front of a large audience. It is a key component of our educational program and reinforces our core values.

Even though we can not yet return to meeting in person, our Morning Assembly tradition continues and we find new ways to celebrate this special time. Dr. Patzlaff and students record an assembly video and the classes view it each morning. We continue to thrive and stay connected as a community. The inspiration for this week’s assembly is love, which is a word used often for so many emotions.

“I love that color on you.” To a friend.
“I just love pizza.” To yourself.
“I love, love, love you!” To grandchildren.

According to the University of Utah Health, there are Four Types of Love: Eros (“air-rose”) is a romantic love. It can cause great joy and sorrow, like the story of Romeo and Juliet. Philia (“Fill-lee-ah”) is love of friends and equals. It can be love between siblings and friends, and helps us be resilient when hard times come. Another type of love is storge (“store-gay”). This is the love of parents and guardians for children. It is described as the most natural of loves and the foundation for happiness and contentment. The fourth type of love is agape (“ah-gah-pay”). It is the love that is given whether or not it is returned. This kind of love is important in the process of forgiveness, which is important to our mental health. Expressing love for others is the best way to be happy and find joy in your daily living.

C.S. Lewis described a mother’s love for a child in The Chronicles of Narnia as “humble.” Parents’ love for their child is not about grand gestures but the steadfast, reliable, humble care, concern, and nurturing given freely that enables children to thrive and grow. C.S. Lewis also wrote about friendship. He believed that friendships begin by finding something in common, and then was freely given. Friendships can blossom anywhere we are doing common things together: on the playground, in the classroom, on the playing field.

Love comes in many forms: it could be food in our belly, a roof over our head or simply a reassuring hug after a tough day. Love is around us all the time and we can show love every day.

Clairbourn, as a community, is grateful each and every day for the simplest things we have in life and we celebrate all kinds of love!

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Growth Mindset: Creativity and Imagination

Growth mindset is a quality we value greatly at Clairbourn. We want our students to believe in themselves, be open-minded, be comfortable with uncertainty, show strong awareness and the ability to grow. We believe our well-rounded program will promote a growth mindset in our students. Besides a rigorous academic program, we offer robust art, music, and drama programs to support and develop all aspects of our students.

You can daily find our students busy expanding their creativity and imagination at all grade levels from JPK to eighth grade. Younger children work on dexterity and motor skill development through art. They begin by learning how to hold a brush, make marks and even mix paints with their bare hands. All of those experiences are essential for their school readiness. Older students have weekly art lessons to further their understanding in art, develop technical skills, and expand their curiosity. Students are challenged in various ways. They learn shading and sketching in different mediums to create realistic and abstract art. Students discuss different artists and their composition, values and tints. They are introduced to color theory and the concept of perspective and experiment with ceramics, photography, and much more. It is truly an amazing journey in the world of creativity!

Students sharing their art is also an important component of our program. Besides the art displays around the campus and the art show at the annual Book Fair, students also participate in the annual art exhibit in the spring. They love to discuss their art with their friends and family. We are proud of our students who come to school with an open-mind, eager to learn, and ready to be challenged and grow!

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Clairbourn Growing Tradition

In 1931, when Clairbourn first moved to its current location on Huntington Drive, the dominant feature hovering over the 8.5 acres was a large eucalyptus tree. Planted around 1870, this 120 foot tall blue gum eucalyptus stood as a campus landmark. The tree measured 46 feet in circumference and 12 feet in diameter at knee-level. The enormous tree was planted by Mr. D.J. Rose, an early resident who owned Sunnyslope Ranch, including the property on which Clairbourn School is now located. The eucalyptus tree was named the Clairbourn Tree and became the symbol of Clairbourn School. Students enjoyed playing around the tree at recess and enjoyed its distinct scent.

A windstorm took down the mighty 120 year old eucalyptus tree in 1988. It started to lean over throughout the night and by four in the morning, it had laid itself down between the buildings on campus without causing any damage. Portions of its branches were cut into rounds and turned into keepsakes for students and alumni to remember.

With the loss of the beloved eucalyptus came a new set of friends – the ginkgo trees! Along with a few trees in a small grove, a large ginkgo tree was planted right in the center of our quad in 1989. Our large ginkgo tree is now 33 years old and we have a total of six ginkgo trees around the campus.

Our JPK teacher Mrs. Rankin recalled she started taking students out to play in the ginkgo leaves around 1998. The Clairbourn tree legacy continued with a new tradition. Just like those students 80 years ago, Clairbourn students continue to enjoy playing around the trees. Children of all ages romping through piles of leaves and chasing after their friends has become one of the most cherished memories for our Cougars.

Next time you walk by the quad, make sure to look up at our big, friendly, giant ginkgo tree and remember the eucalyptus tree that stood before. Everyone is part of our growing Clairbourn tradition!

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DREAM. INVENT. CREATE.

What’s the fastest you have gone? Seventy miles per hour on the freeway? Five hundred miles per hour on a plane? For spacecraft heading to Mars, the speed can go up to 13,000 miles per hour. It can even go as fast as 24,000 miles per hour for a spacecraft heading to the moon! Soon, the United States is going to send astronauts to land on the moon for the first time in fifty years. The program is called Artemis. In Greek mythology, Artemis is the twin sister of Apollo, which was the name of our first crewed missions to the moon. The astronauts on the Artemis missions will have to slow way down in order to land safely on the surface to protect themselves and their spacecraft!

For this year’s Engineering Design Challenge, students from first through eighth grade were challenged to turn on their engineering minds to design and build a shock-absorbing system to protect two astronauts when they land. Of course, it would be tricky to build life-size spacecraft, so they used marshmallow astronauts. Just like the engineers who develop solutions to design different landing vehicles, our Cougars followed the same engineering design process to brainstorm, design, build, improve and test for this design challenge.

When building the landers, students were provided with a paper cup to use as the spacecraft and two marshmallow astronauts who had to stay in the cup when the lander was dropped. The rules were: you can’t strap the marshmallows down, nothing else was allowed inside the cup, and no covering of the cup. Our Cougars needed to think about gravity, stability, and shock-absorbing materials. How can you make sure the landers don’t tip over during landing? What kind of shock absorber can you make to soften the landing?

This Tuesday was day one when students designed and built their first attempt and tested during class. On Wednesday, we had a visit from engineer Juan Gutierrez, who spoke to the students about his inspiration to become an engineer and the projects he has worked on over the course of his career. Mr. Gutierrez encouraged the students to work on learning more than one language, including the language of math, programming and engineering, and to find opportunities to learn to lead and communicate with groups of people. As the students built their final marshmallow landers, Mr. Gutierrez visited the classrooms and gave advice about stabilizing the spacecraft, adding springs and other shock absorbers, and reducing mass to reduce force. Students then took the input and designed and built their final attempt. On Thursday, final builds were formally tested to identity the top three builds from each grade level. Friday is our last day, and students with top-scoring builds will participate in the final!

Special thank you to our Middle School science teacher Ms. Vinnedge for leading the Engineering Week! Our Clairbourn students were able to use their creativity and come up with many unique designs. They asked many questions, worked as a team and cheered for other teams. What a great week for our Cougars to demonstrate their SCHOLARSHIP and LEADERSHIP qualities with HEART!

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Two Hundred and Sixty-Eight Students, ONE CLAIRBOURN.

Students prepared for our Virtual Holiday Concert by rehearsing outdoors under the trees and practicing the choreography with great enthusiasm and joy! Music curriculum was incorporated into grade-specific lessons to teach musical concepts including melody, harmony, tempo, and dynamics. Older students in band and orchestra were able to learn various instrumental techniques on percussion, violins, mallet instruments, and recorders.

2021 Clairbourn Virtual Holiday Concert (28 mins)

Our dedicated teachers spent countless hours in video production, audio recording, special effects, filming and editing. They made 117 videos and edited 92 recordings. Thank you to Mrs. Kiertzner, Ms. Mize and everyone’s tireless efforts in making this concert possible!
 
We hope you enjoy our 2021 Virtual Holiday Concert as much as we do! From all of us at Clairbourn School to you and yours this holiday season, we wish you Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

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Clairbourn students wrapped up 2021 strong!

Clairbourn School is committed to providing the best educational environment for our children. We love every moment from inspiring young minds, teaching the fundamentals, and strengthening social skills, to preparing young adults as they step into their next chapter in high school. We have accomplished so much this quarter, and here are some highlights!

While the youngest group of students in junior pre-kindergarten enjoyed imaginary play in a medieval castle and learned how to count the advent calendar, our pre-kindergarten dragonflies were engaged with sensory development activities such as making snowmen out of flour and shaving cream. In both of our kindergarten classes, the students completed their first unit of Writer’s Workshop! They wrote and revised their best story while expanding their writing skills. As authors, they got to sit in the teacher’s chair to read their story aloud to the class! At Clairbourn, public speaking is a big part of learning and it starts at a young age. Well done, Cougars!

Everyday there were a lot of exciting learning opportunities in our Lower School. First graders progressed in their reading, math and writing skills. They even discovered geography and the world around them. In second grade, our engineers put their learning into action! After studying animal adaptations, students designed and built bird feeders to attract a bird of their choice. Students shared, collaborated and supported each other by giving feedback. There was a buzz of creative energy as they decided which materials to use to make their prototypes!

Third graders completed their science unit on Forces & Motion. They had a great time with slides (friction) and magnets, and they made paper clips “float” and opened a door using only a magnet. Our fourth and fifth graders led the Santa Paws all-school service learning project. Students collected items to support the local shelters and the animals in need.

In Middle School, fifteen math enthusiasts formed a Clairbourn Math Team. They have been coming to school early to learn problem-solving strategies and advanced math problems. Good luck on the upcoming AMC8 and Mathcount Competitions! In our Middle School science classroom, this quarter was full of hands-on labs from testing acids and bases to creating exothermic reactions that glowed in the dark! Seventh graders studied genetics and even took on the role of tRNA to string together amino acids beads to make a protein, and sixth graders studied atmosphere and climate change.

Last but not least, students enjoyed another robust quarter with many enriching extra-curricular classes. In art, students produced festive paper mache snowmen and 3D art. They worked on their shading techniques and the use of pastels, and created beautiful winter mandalas.

What a quarter it has been! Onward and upward, Cougars!

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Clairbourn Students Are Resilient And Thrive For A Successful Start To The New School Year!

It’s hard to believe quarter one of this new school year is complete. Our teachers were busy planning a rigorous curriculum, making sure the classrooms were ready and welcoming, while finding new ways to engage and motivate the students. Our Cougars can certainly feel the energetic vibes from our staff because, “I can’t wait for school, EVERYDAY!” quoted a second grader. Here are a few highlights from quarter one!

Preschoolers went on a Fall Scavenger Hunt with Ms. Strong and Mrs. Rankin exploring our Clairbourn campus in search of signs for Fall. They enjoyed locating all the classrooms and quickly realized there were so many beautiful areas that they didn’t know about. Mrs. Thorne’s and Mrs. Shoemake’s kindergarten classes finished their first unit in science learning about forces created by pushing and pulling. Students brainstormed different ways to move objects and discussed if objects can move on their own. They experimented, investigated, did multiple tests, and made various sketches. The conclusion is: You can accomplish surprisingly big things by playing with and thinking about forces!

First graders explored reading, writing and math centers with Ms. Dezutter and Ms. Aniszewski. They investigated light and sound during science and learned about what it means to be in a community. They explored citizenship and being a scholar and leader with heart. In second grade, students enjoyed their poetry. Mrs. Roberts and Mrs. Hung worked with their students on memorizing and reciting poems. It’s important for children at this age to learn about social interactions so that is another big part of their learning journey this fall! In lower school Spanish classes, the highlight of the first quarter was learning La Araña Pequeñita (The Itsy-bitsy spider) and practicing the language through class activities.

The Economy Unit culminating with Market Day was certainly the highlight in Mrs. Ward’s third grade class! Students learned what an economy is; about resources, supply and demand. Market Day was an opportunity for the third grader to put what they learned into practice. They developed a market plan for a product they manufactured, determined the price of their product, and created their advertising posters. Final products were sold to our second grade consumers at Market Day. The students were very creative and it was a lot of fun!

Ms. Edwards’ fourth graders completed a science unit studying fungi. They discovered the role fungi play in decomposing materials and in creating soil. In the activity called Mold Terrarium, students planned and conducted an investigation to discover the factors affecting decomposition. Students observed how different variables can affect mold growth. In Mrs. Gier’s fifth grade, students were busy applying their knowledge of perimeter and area, creating presentations for their history research projects, and discovering ground water and aquifers. Learning figurative language was the highlight this quarter! Fifth graders explored using hyperboles, metaphors, alliteration, similes, idioms, and personification in their writing.

You can find Middle Schoolers getting into the Halloween spirit with a creative pencil shading jack-o-lantern project in Mrs. Ball’s 7th grade art class. Students learned about value and shading techniques with graphite to create realistic looking artwork that pops off the paper. They produced many stunning pieces of art! Academically, Middle Schoolers are also being challenged in Mrs. Messler’s math classes. Six graders used virtual fruit manipulatives to play out algebraic scenarios where they needed to combine like terms and create fruit baskets. Some students engaged in the Transformations Logo Project in which they researched, studied and created graphic marks using geometric transformations. Students who were selected to join the math competition team began their bi-weekly meetings to prepare for the two upcoming national competitions that will take place in early 2022!

So much has been accomplished in two months and Clairbourn students and staff have a lot to look forward to in the next quarter! Keep up the good work! Onward and upward, Cougars!

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Clairbourn graduates are LEADERS who are not afraid to speak up, listen, question and make a difference in the world.

Justin will be attending Boston College.

Justin graduated from Clairbourn in 2017 and attended Flintridge Preparatory School. He will be going to Boston College to study Business Entrepreneurship after taking a gap year.
 
He is very interested in a mission-driven approach to business, where business models are built around social responsibility, improving the lives of their constituents, and positively impacting human welfare. 
 
One of Justin’s well-known characteristics at Clairbourn was his eagerness to try new things. This eagerness certainly continued throughout his high school years as well. He was able to try his hand at several different jobs over the summers such as fruit packing in the fruit district of downtown LA at 5 in the morning, running a high-traffic lego booth at the largest LEGO convention in Pasadena twice a year, researching design materials and building scale models while interning with an architect, and perfecting his excel skills as a business analyst for an online advertising firm. The Covid school year made classwork tough for a lot of seniors, but Justin also experienced it from the teacher’s point of view when he developed and taught a couple of 8-hour courses to middle schoolers, via Zoom, on the History of War.

Justin also explored a variety of study programs over the summers. The NC State Design Camp exposed him to five different facets of design (architecture, graphic design, art & design, landscape, and industrial design). The University of Chicago introduced him to innovation through the interdisciplinary study of economics, entrepreneurship, and the sciences. He was able to further his interest in global citizenship when he studied present-day issues through the lenses of economic, legal, and political theory as a Young Yale Global Scholar.
 
It’s no surprise that Justin continued to play goalie for Prep during his 4 years there. But he also picked up some other interests that have stuck with him, such as heading to the nearest climbing gym to practice his bouldering and sewing his own clothes. 

Left: Participating in Design Challenge / Right: Buddy reading with a lower school student

Justin already knew 4 years ago that he would take a gap year. There were just so many more things he wanted to do. In the fall of his gap year, he will road-trip across the US exploring Americana and visiting his friends in college. For the ski season, he will become a snowboarding bum and work for SkiCo. He’s not sure yet what job they will give him – ski lift operator, ticket sales, restaurant work, etc – but he’s hoping for retail sales. In the spring he will get his Wilderness First Responder certification, and then head to Peru for 2 months to build houses. And when summer comes back around, he’s looking forward to catching up with all his friends home from college once again.

When we asked Justin about some of his favorite memories, he responded, “I loved the Design Challenges in middle school. Those were great. PE was always super fun. And I’ll always remember Mrs. Wreede’s ticket reward system and bidding on the gumball machines.”

Left: Justin was no. 11 on the school basketball team. / Right: Participating at a sports meet
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Clairbourn graduates have HEART, full of compassion, resilience, and gratitude. They are lifelong learners with a growth mindset. 

Bennett was part of the Clairbourn class of 2017. He knew music was his passion and followed it at a young age. Over the years, Bennett has performed as an artist at the Whiskey A GoGo, the Troubadour, the Federal, and Universal Studios, as well as in Europe. He has also worked with many well known artists and producers.
 

Left: Bennett with The California Jet Club / Right: Bennett with El DeBarge

His most recent project was co-producing an album called “Union” with Tyler Brown for an up-and-coming teenage artist from New York named Matilda Marigolds. The album debuted this month and Bennett produced, edited, recorded, wrote, mixed and even played the main guitar part. He collaborated with artists Mike Garson (David Bowie’s pianist), Guy Erez (from Alan Parsons), and violinist Meena (from Smashing Pumpkins). Union was mastered by Howie Weinberg who also worked on albums for Madonna, Prince, Aerosmith, and Nirvana. It was an exciting experience! Here is a music video of one of the songs in the album called “Leroy.” (Bennett is one of the guitarists.)

Last month, Bennett worked with the legendary El DeBarge and prepared his entire set for his show in Atlanta. It was hard work but a huge success! He was also part of a team to work on a Dio cancer fundraiser which will live stream in July via Rolling Live Studios.

Bennett with Joey Belladonna from Anthrax

Bennett was hired by Rolling Live Studios as a head audio engineer. RLS is an art and entertainment production company run by the industry giants — Kerry Brown (music) and Stacey Sher (film). One of Bennett’s first jobs was to work on this year’s Oscars. He had the pleasure to work with amazing artists and producers such as Sheila E., Macy Gray, Guy Erez, Mike Garson, Howie Weinberg and others.

Currently, he’s working on a short film called “You’re Something Else” as the head sound and audio engineer. He will also assist on the the soundtrack production. Bennett looks forward to the exciting projects lined up for him for the rest of the year.
 
Bennett is grateful for the time at Clairbourn that provided many opportunities for chapel reading. It gave him a foundation for public speaking and the confidence needed to be on stage. He has fond memories of Mrs. Stahmer and Dr. Nafie, as well as Mrs. Wreede, Mrs. Corwin, Mr. Guyer, Mrs. Barker, and Coach Paciorek.

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Clairbourn graduates are SCHOLARS who are grounded in the values of honesty, respect, responsibility, spirituality, and citizenship.

Nicole Lam was a part of the Clairbourn Class of 2017. She recently graduated from the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA) as valedictorian. This fall, she will be attending Yale University, majoring in applied mathematics while continuing her piano studies. 

In her senior year at LACHSA, Nicole was named a California Scholarship Federation South Central Seymour Award recipient, Equitable Excellence Scholar, National Merit Scholar, USC Trustee Scholar with a full-tuition scholarship, and UC Berkeley’s Regent and Chancellor’s Scholar, totaling over $350,000 in merit-based scholarships. 

Nicole is a concert pianist and a mezzo-soprano opera singer. She has performed at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Zipper Concert Hall, Luckman Fine Arts Complex, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Carnegie Hall, La Mirada Theatre, and concert halls in Vienna and Romania. She also won first prize at the Houston International Music Competition, Steinway Junior Piano Competition Regionals, Southwestern Youth Music Festival, MTAC VOCE Competition Senior Ensemble, Lansum International Music Competition, Dan Stover Music Competition, and was recently named a finalist in the Spotlight International Piano Competition.

During high school, Nicole took on several jobs: she was the apprentice and intermediate choir director for the San Gabriel Valley Children’s Chorus, the president of LACHSA’s California Scholarship Federation, a teacher at the Saturday Conservatory of Music, and also worked as a bilingual translator, interviewer, and host for US National TV. At the TV station, she has interviewed renowned figures on live television and has hosted several live shows broadcasted internationally to over 20,000 audience viewers. 

Additionally, Nicole is the founder of her own 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, Love Through Music, which shares music with underserved communities. With six organization branches in the US, her nonprofit organization has hosted over 50 concerts with 500+ student performers at local retirement homes, veterans hospitals, and orphanages. The nonprofit has also donated musical instruments to several Title I schools to supplement their music programs. Remotely through Zoom, she has taught music fundamentals to over 100 Nepalese orphans, and has also traveled in person to Kathmandu, Nepal annually to donate school supplies and rebuild school buildings after the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake.

At Clairbourn, some of Nicole’s favorite memories were the 8th grade Shakespeare play Midsummer Night’s Dream, playing piano during chapel, and singing in the annual Christmas shows! She would like to thank all her teachers at Clairbourn for making her childhood experience so memorable and incredibly special.

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