leadership – Clairbourn School News

October 24, 2023October 26, 2023

Clairbourn Student Council Leads with Heart!

Red Ribbon Week is an annual event that takes place from October 23 to 31, emphasizing the importance of living a drug-free life. It offers an opportunity for schools, families and communities to engage in discussions about drug awareness and the importance of making good choices.

The Student Council planned a variety of activities to help students think about the significance of making positive choices in their lives. The theme for Red Ribbon Week in 2023 is “Be Kind to Your Mind. Live Drug Free.” Throughout the week, students are encouraged to reflect on making choices that promote happiness and health — this is the essence of being kind to our minds.

As we reflect on Clairbourn’s code of ethics, we think about how to demonstrate kindness to all, including ourselves! Being kind to one’s own mind involves not only speaking kindly to oneself but also practicing self-care, including maintaining a healthy diet, engaging in regular exercise, adhering to good hygiene practices, and exercising caution around drugs. Students learn how to pay attention to prescription drugs and to confidently say “no” under peer pressure, never allowing anyone to force or persuade them into dangerous actions.

Students from all grade levels connected with each other through a buddy activity in which they created origami hearts and wrote kind notes to themselves and each other. It serves as a reminder about the importance of making positive choices and practicing self-care.

It warms our hearts to see some of the students’ notes: “Believe in yourself,” “I am enough,” “I will succeed today,” “Always respect yourself,” “I am me,” “Think positive!,” “You are loved,” “Be yourself,” “You are unique,” “Trust yourself,” “I am loved,” “I am worthy,” “I am blessed,” “Always be grateful,” “I love myself,” “I am perfect the way I am,” and many more.

Thank you, everyone, for making a pledge and signing the school poster together as a community to demonstrate your commitment to being kind to your minds, striving to be your best, resisting drugs, showing empathy, standing up against wrong behaviors, seeking guidance from trusted adults about unsafe situations or dealing with potentially harmful people, and consistently making positive choices!

January 25, 2022January 26, 2022

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!

January 19, 2022January 20, 2022

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!