Thanks to the generosity of our amazing families, the Gillispie Toy Drive was a tremendous success! We filled 11 large boxes and two large bags with the donations you so lovingly brought in, and the handmade cards and gift tags were so meaningful. All of these items are being transported to an orphanage in Tijuana which serves infants, children, and teens up to age 18. Your giving spirit is changing lives! Thank you to the Community Relations...
The Grade 3 Blood Drive and Bake sale was a huge success! Overall, we raised $4,092.07 for the San Diego Blood Bank on behalf of Gillispie School and collected 44 pints of blood. That makes 423 pints collected and more than $27,000 raised since 2010! We'd like to thank everyone who donated blood and baked goods and bought items from the bake sale. We'd also like to thank the following bakeries for donating treats for the event: Brick & Bell...
It has been over a decade since Gillispie first rolled up its sleeves and hosted the first blood drive, and the tradition continues with our annual Grade 3 Blood Drive and Bake Sale February 11, 2020. An event that was organized to support a former Gillispie family affected by childhood leukemia has now turned into our blood drive--a life-saving, annual event that our local community depends on. Over the past ten years, our Gillispie blood donors have saved...
Big announcement! Gillispie was voted "Best Preschool" in the La Jolla Light Newspaper's reader's choice poll and placed second in the Best Private School category! Thank you so much for your support! We are very proud of our learning village and of everyone who is a part of it....
Last week, Cypress Room held its annual Thanksgiving feast in the gym. Students made hand-printed placemats and table decorations for the event. The meal was potluck style, with each family bringing in a dish specially requested by their child to share. During the event, families wrote down things they are thankful for on cut-out feathers that were attached to a shared turkey display. Everyone had a wonderful time eating together, laughing, sharing stories, and enjoying each other's company...
At last week’s assembly, representatives from Friends and Families Community Connection educated the elementary students about the organization and what to expect at the upcoming Fight for Hunger event. The goal? If successful, 50,000 meals would materialize. How? Bags would be filled to contain 6 meals each, and with 36 bags placed in each box, volunteers would need to pack 232 boxes. “Whoa!” noted the students.“That’s a lot of math.” And in just over two hours, 51,840 meals were...
Last weekend, I took my daughters to the LA Times Festival of Books, which is held every April on the campus of the University of Southern California. During the Q&A portion of a talk by award-winning author Kate DiCamillo, my elder daughter asked, “What did you like to read as a kid?” DiCamillo answered, “If it was a book, I liked it.” I asked DiCamillo what advice she had for kids who want to grow up...
On Wednesday, January 24, the sixth graders of Gillispie School visited the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, California with the intent to further our knowledge on the Holocaust and other issues of injustice. Our class has been avidly studying the Holocaust as well as civil rights, reading books such as Miracle’s Boys, The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963, and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. This field trip offered us the opportunity to see directly how...
Recently, we had our first elementary assemblies and the focus was on Gillispie Values. During both large-group, then small-group discussions, students provided excellent definitions and examples of how integrity, compassion, attitude, respect, and effort can look on the playground, at the lunch table, in the classroom, and even off campus. Particularly impressive was the newly-minted kindergarteners’ understanding of the Gillispie Values. Some thoughts shared (in the words of the children): Integrity • When you don’t complete an assignment, don’t...
