Principal's Corner
Principal Nancy Doyle
Dear Grand View Parents,
It is with pride and warmth that I welcome you to Grand View Elementary. With the support of amazing parent volunteers, our stellar teachers provide an enriching and stimulating academic place for all children to thrive. The school’s nurturing environment helps students shine with success, while building self-confidence and compassion for others.
With the instructional innovation of exemplary teachers, student-centered inspired leadership, and years of high academic achievement, Grand View Elementary is especially proud to have been recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School, National Green Ribbon School and a California Distinguished School.
Please continue to visit our website for useful and ongoing information via our weekly communications, The Gator Gazette (Sunday) and The News Flash (Wednesday). We encourage 100% membership in the Manhattan Beach Education Foundation (MBEF) and the Grand View Parent Teacher Association (PTA). MBEF provides enriching programs and talented instructors to fill the shortfall of state funding. PTA provides needed supplies and site resources to our students and school. Together we provide an EXCELLENT education for ALL children in Manhattan Beach. Grand View truly believes in the notion of the whole child, and with your participation we can ensure that each student is engaged, inspired, supported and challenged.
I hope that you and your family will enjoy your experiences here, become involved, and capture the spirit of our community.
Warmest regards,
Nancy Doyle
Principal Blog
Character at Grandview
Here at Grand View Elementary, we focus on developing the whole child. Each year we hold several school-wide assemblies, each focused on developing a certain critical character trait for our community. These character traits are first explored in each classroom, and children who embrace these traits are acknowledged at our character assemblies for their exemplary modeling of desired behaviors related to the particular character trait. Read more below on our focus for this year. I will continue to update this section with more messaging through out the year so be sure to visit often.
February - Kindness
"Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?" Henry David Thoreau
#ChooseKIND Kindness and empathy start with human connection. Michele Borba's book "UnSelfie" explores why empathetic kids succeed in our all-about-me world. I encourage parents to take a look at the nine essential habits that provide children with the "empathy advantage" which Borba describes in her book. Additionally, Common Sense Media offers a list of books that teach empathy and a list of movies that inspire empathy. By helping children develop crucial fundamental skills of empathy such as emotional literacy, moral identity, perspective taking, self regulation, and, most importantly, practicing kindness, we give children the moral courage and the leadership to change the world for the better.November - Gratitude
If you do nothing else but cultivate a grateful response, then you will have spent this day well. In November we have several exciting activities and opportunities for students to experience and share the character value of GRATITUDE. Our mantra for the next few weeks and beyond will be Gators have an ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE.
GRATITUDE = HAPPINESS Did you know that gratitude has powerful physiological effects on the brain and body? The feelings that come with gratitude trigger the calming branch of the autonomic nervous system, the parasympathetic system. Using MindUP curriculum, students will investigate and learn about the science of happiness. Here are some tools and tips for parents to help children cement the character value of GRATITUDE.
GRATITUDE = HAPPINESS Did you know that gratitude has powerful physiological effects on the brain and body? The feelings that come with gratitude trigger the calming branch of the autonomic nervous system, the parasympathetic system. Using MindUP curriculum, students will investigate and learn about the science of happiness. Here are some tools and tips for parents to help children cement the character value of GRATITUDE.
Videos for Parents
- Gratitude | Louis Schwartzberg TEDx San Francisco
- Science of Happiness (contains moments of brief language for a mature audience)
- Street Compliments (child friendly)
Dinner Table Talking Points
- What are five things that make you happy?
- What actions make others happy?
- How does it feel when you pay someone a compliment?
- What are the things you are grateful for every day?
September - Hope Assembly
One of the many highlights of our assembly on September 11th was hearing America the Beautiful sung in English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese. The rendition sweetly reflected our beautiful school community that is made all the brighter by the unique lights that each individual shines to create our home here at Grand View. Photographer Steve Gaffney was on hand to capture some incredible images. View them on SmugMug with Password 455.