Lunar New Year is coming up on February 17th and we will celebrate this spring festival with traditional lucky foods next week. While the Lunar New Year is celebrated around the world, we focused our learning on ancient China. This brought our attention to social hierarchies. As might be expected in ancient China, the emperor and royal family were the top of the heap, with wealth and power. However, just below these dynasties were the civil servants, respected because the

January did not go exactly as planned (and somehow, it may have been even better because of that). Between snow days, MLK day, and conferences, we missed nearly two full weeks of school… and yet the children accomplished a stunning amount of work. Their resilience, focus, and exuberance reminded me that learning doesn’t stop when the calendar shifts, it just adapts. One of the highlights of the month was the birth of our own spontaneously-created Lower Elementary Writers’ Wor

If you ever want to understand the true spirit of childhood, spend the last day before winter break in Lower Elementary. The children arrived excitedly reminding me of the rules of the day: pajamas, stuffed animals, and, most importantly, no assigned work whatsoever . Challenge accepted. What unfolded was a masterclass in child-led creativity, engineering, and play: Students built a zoo from recycled materials Watched a space documentary and constructed constellations with ma

What an incredible whirlwind the past couple of months have been in lower elementary. As promised, here’s some photos and behind the scenes notes on what we have been up to! As I joined the class during Intercession, the children welcomed me with openness, confidence, and generosity. They didn’t just show me their work - they taught me how the classroom, and DGS in general, functions. Their collaboration, compassion, and curiosity confirmed what every Montessori teacher dream

The theme for our annual Problem-Solved Expo in UE is Rube Goldberg Machines. According to Zach's Contraptions, a Rube Goldberg Machine "takes a simple task and uses as many steps as possible to complicate things using everyday objects in a humorous way". Prior to this week, the kids have explored the concepts of energy and simple machines. They have practiced identifying where energy transfers occur and created blueprints for their very own Rube Goldberg Machines. This i

Dear Readers, With the start of the new year, it was also time to start a new history unit, and as preparation, we had a discussion on single stories. Single stories are the stories our culture supports - our stereotypes, media exposure, and surface assumptions we all tend to make without even realizing we've done such a thing. While single stories are often infused with a thread of truth, they do not tell a complete story, and unfortunately they often leave out the humanity

We’ve been up to something extra fun down in the woods lately... FORT BUILDING! A few weeks ago, students began designing and building their own woodland forts. Winter is actually the perfect season for this kind of project. There are plenty of fallen branches to use, fewer leaves on the trees, and less wildlife to disturb. It also means no surprise snakes hiding under logs. Students have absolutely loved this project. Fort building naturally invites collaboration, and the ki

What a wonderful ending to our holiday unit! They did such a lovely job, and wanted to share. Quaid-e-Azam Day, Pakistan Ramadan, Senegal Coming of Age Day, Japan Christmas, Estonia Waitangi Day, New Zealand New Years Day, Argentina

The Longest Night Is Coming… But there is no need to fear—the light is returning. For thousands of years, people across the world have marked this moment in time. The Winter Solstice. The moment that light wins over darkness. In the Northern Hemisphere, this occurs around December 21. As Earth orbits the sun, its tilt causes us to experience changing seasons and varying amounts of daylight. The solstice marks the turning point. It is when we stop moving deeper into darkness

Dear Readers, It's that time of year where chaos threatens our sanity and the frenzy of a multitude of holidays makes learning even more challenging. Luckily, we are at DGS where our days adjust to the needs of students, and in middle school that equates to pausing history topics for a unit study of global holidays. Blending our small group discussions and flowing through our mornings. Balancing play practice with academics. Essentially making sure we breathe. As we wound up

Hi Everyone, Ms. Katie put together some brief highlights from this week and of course, lots of pictures! Enjoy it all below! Mr. D * * * This week in a nutshell: Getting to know each other :-) Intercession has begun, so lots of play practice and running our lines! Journal writing about our favorite parts of Thanksgiving break Lessons have been presented to individual children on multiplication bead board, subtraction strip board, stamp game, golden beads The kids continued

Our 5 sweet little chicks have officially made their way around the school—and have now graduated to the great outdoors! Each classroom had the opportunity to care for our chicks and watch them grow, with their tour mirroring the age of the students they visited. The chicks began their journey in Primary, where our youngest students reside. It only made sense for our baby chicks to be nurtured by some of our youngest friends! Their days started with songs and ended with story

Hey everyone, We wanted to share some pictures from this week! Some of the things you'll see/that have happend this week... 3rd graders having Racks and Tubes lessons with Ms. Shannon. 2nd graders getting fraction lessons and checkerboard and stamp game division lessons. 1st graders having a lesson on time, building numbers and static and dynamic golden bead addition lessons. They've all had grammar lessons and individualized spelling lessons as well. Plus!! They all got the

We are thankful for so many things. We are lucky to be here together at DGS. During November, we study leaves, the United States of America, mammals, Native Americans, and the history of Thanksgiving. We identify leaves: Maple, Tulip Poplar, Ginkgo, Sassafras, and Oak. We learned how to say Good Morning in Cherokee: Osda Sanalei ( O sda sa na le e). We also drew Native American symbols. While studying the United States of America, we recited the Pledge of Allegiance and

Dear Readers, Students recently finished our origin themed novels, and their final projects showed such creativity and intention. While a few students chose to write short stories, many chose to create a piece of artwork. I am sharing the artwork here, but I encourage families to ask their student to read them their story if they wrote one. It was engaging to see how they interpreted the writing prompts. The three options within the reading groups included: Graffiti Art - Res

This month, the Primary parents shared our first evening of Montessori and Friendship. We shared a potluck dinner and had an opportunity to get to know each other. It was a beautiful night for building community. We used a slideshow to discuss Montessori in the Home and learn just a little bit about the Montessori philosophy. It was a lovely evening, and we hope to repeat this event in the spring. Not pictured: Giang Tang, Guigui Zu, Ms. Jennifer, and Trish O'Grady, our

October has been an exciting month. We have opened the porch for individual snack time and planted for winter. Our garden is prepped for Spring. We planted Crocuses, Tulips, and Daffodil bulbs, as well as colorful pansies. We are excited to see which flowers appear first, giving us the first signs of Spring. We are also waiting for moths and butterflies to hatch when the weather warms. Here are a few sets of pictures of us on the porch and in the woods. Front Porch is o

We welcomed chicks to DGS! During the month of October, we opened the map of North America, studied pumpkins, and mammals. We explored the countries of Mexico, Canada, and the United States of America through our suitcase of items, animal matching, and book reading. We kicked off our study of flags with the countries of North America. Matching, naming, and marching with the flags has been a treat. We learned the characteristics of mammals. They have hair, are warm-bloode