From Head of School
The Season Of Giving!
Dear Clairbourn Families,
As Thanksgiving approaches, I want to remind everyone to follow the CDC guidelines for travel. We thank everyone for following these guidelines for the health and safety of our community. The details are spelled out in the next section. Also great news! We have a new uniform supplier. Please see details to the right.
The season of gratitude and thanksgiving is upon us; I am particularly grateful this year for having the students back on campus. My thanks also goes to the many families who gave of their time, talent and treasure to make the Book Fair an out of this world success. The Book Fair kicked off our ‘giving to Clairbourn’ this fall, and I hope that same energy will inspire your continued giving in the ways we have listed below.
The Annual Fund
 The Annual Fund is our most important fundraiser for the year and we invite each family to give as generously as their resources allow. Make your gift here today: Annual Fund Donate page. If you have questions, please contact Marianne Ryan who would love to speak with you about your donation! Our goal this year is 100% participation and $400,000. Our Board of Trustees and the faculty and staff both have 100% participation. Their commitment to serving the school and our families is inspiring – they give in so many ways for the benefit of our school. Faculty and Staff Gift Giving
 Clairbourn faculty and staff pre-select scrip gift cards they would like to receive and families contribute toward the purchase of these cards. This tradition makes it easy for families to show their appreciation and helps us all adhere to our gift giving policy. Gift cards will be distributed to the faculty and staff before the winter break, with a list of the families who contributed to their group gift. Deadline to participate in the Group Gift is December 3. Scrip also makes a great way to do all of your holiday shopping!
Children Helping Children in Need
 Hillsides is an on-campus residential/foster care center for vulnerable youth. It offers adoption services and a family resource center, as well as assisting those who age out of foster care. Today, Hillsides serves more than 15,000 children and young adults in Southern California. Your gifts will go to the children in the residential program who will not be with their families at Christmas.
Links to the Hillsides donation drive until 12/13:
Thank you in advance for your generosity. Together We Are Clairbourn!
Amy Patzlaff, Ed.D.
Head of School
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Due to the unvaccinated percentage of young children, we encourage our Cougar families to stay in town for the Thanksgiving break and follow the travel guideline from CDC.
Please follow the Post Travel Planning grid below if you will be out of town during the Thanksgiving and Winter Breaks.
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Many thanks to the families who have made their Annual Fund gifts!
We have reached 100% participation from both the Clairbourn faculty and staff and the Board of Trustees. The parent community is at 43% participation. Let's join the Clairbourn faculty, staff and the Board and match their 100% participation today! GIVE TODAY! |
Middle School Drop and Build
For this month's Design Challenge, the Middle School students found a new use for a pumpkin before it gets turned into pie for Thanksgiving — for a Drop Everything & Build Engineering Challenge! The students were challenged to build the tallest tower that could support the pumpkin for 15 seconds using only paper, straws, paper clips, and tape. The students learned a lot (sometimes the hard way – there were a lot of dramatic collapses!) about the strongest vertical shapes to use in building.
The overall winners in the Middle School were 7th graders Louis L. and Presley W. The 7th grade runners-up were Nathan G. and Qier W. The 6th grade winners were Matteo Y. and Eudora Y. and the runners-up were Vicky S. and Arthur B. In the 8th grade, the winners were Marcel Z. and Kaelly H., and the runners-up were Alex C. and Justin F. |
Check Out Our Cougars' Creativity!
Lots of new artwork was displayed around the campus! Our fourth graders' Tim Burton self portraits were recently displayed. Students learned about Tim Burton's techniques and produced stunning artwork! Fifth graders created dragon eyes using their shading and blending and imagined magical properties their dragon would have! Second graders painted “pumpkins at night” by mixing their own paints and making their pumpkins realistic! We love seeing everyone's creativity and imagination!
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A New Season For Our Sports Teams!
Clairbourn girls and boys began their new sports season with basketball and soccer. The girls basketball A and B teams have come a long way since the start of the basketball season working on the fundamentals while competing in league games. Every player made tremendous progress and improved quickly! It was evident in our last game against Flintridge Prep. Lady Cougars fought and made a great comeback to tie the game in regulation. It was an exciting game! In our last few games the Cougars have been scoring more points, finding the open team member with strong passes, getting better position, and playing aggressive defense. Yuqi, Ruby, Vittoria, Hannah, Naomi, and Syrah have scored for the Cougars. Sophie, Quinne, Megan, Celina, Jane, Zoe, and Annika have been hustling and playing tough defense! We are very proud of the Cougars' strong effort, teamwork, and improvement!
Our boys soccer A and B teams started the season with games against High Point. Mauricio, the team's leading scorer, didn't take long to score a goal. Our players never gave up and worked hard throughout the game. Great passing from Marcel, Presley, and Mauricio. Marcus gave Arthur an opportunity to score the equalizing goal. The defense played tough to stop the opposing team from scoring. Arthur finished the game with four goals scoring one late in the game to end the game in a tie 5-5. The team is improving with each game and practice. The last game against Flintridge Prep. had many highlights including Arthur and Joshua scoring goals, and Bruno stopping many shots on goal. Clairbourn's defense limited the Prep attack, only allowing a few goals. Even though Clairbourn didn't win the game they played with toughness, energy, and had fun doing so. We look forward for a strong game to end the season after the Thanksgiving break!
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| | Clairbourn New Uniform Vendor
We are happy to inform you we have a new uniform vendor to help on the uniform shortage situation among the families. You can go on Academic Uniforms and select Clairbourn School under the schools tab. Polo shirts in various colors as well as PE clothes, fleece jackets, and embroidery are all available for you. If you currently have polo shirts that need embroidery, you can even just use their embroidery service.
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School Calendar
11/19 Clairbourn Shirt Day
11/22 - 11/26 Thanksgiving Break - No School
11/25 HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
12/2 Panda Special Lunch
12/3 Clairbourn Shirt Day
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Clairbourn Gratitude
Let's see how grateful
our students are for PARENT VOLUNTEERS!
(Click on the photo to read our students' gratitude notes)
Gratitude is fostered as an essential part of our core values. Clairbourn students look for the good around them and that is one of the qualities that makes our Cougars special! |
Sugar Plum
December 10, 2021
9:30am - 12:30pm
Clairbourn Manor House
(outdoor breakfast
dining & shopping)
Please RSVP via Evite.
Sugar Plum has been a Clairbourn tradition for over five decades. Every year, the community gets together to enjoy breakfast and wrapping Clairbourn holiday ornaments for each student and members of our faculty and staff. There will also be a boutique where you can shop and socialize.
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Personal-Use Scrip: 11/15-12/3
Please help support the CFA and our school by participating in the Scrip Program. The Scrip Program allows you to purchase physical gift cards from some of your favorite retailers and the school will get a percentage of all scrip purchases in return.
Order forms are due Thursday, December 3.
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Student Council
The last two indigenous stories were shared this week from the Student Council:
Pocahontas
Pocahontas was a Powhatan Indian woman who fostered peace between English colonists and Native Americans by befriending the settlers at the Jamestown Colony in Virginia and eventually marrying one of them.
Jim Thorpe
Thorpe was the first Native American to win a gold medal for the United States in the Olympics. Considered one of the most versatile athletes of modern sports, he won two Olympic gold medals in the 1912 Summer Olympics (classic pentathlon and decathlon). He also played American football, professional baseball, and basketball.
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Life at Clairbourn
What's new this week? Sports, Design Challenge, first grade classroom visit, 4/5 grade PE, 5th grade violin, kindergarten Holiday Concert rehearsal, preschool pumpkin project
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Clairbourn was voted Best Private School in the San Gabriel Valley for three years in a row! Thank you to our wonderful community! Please continue your support and write us a review!
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