Our community is made up of the students at our school and their families, the local area, and the state of Delaware. Currently there are 60 children at the school.  We range in age from 3 to 12 years old. It is a parent cooperative school so parents play an active roll in the school, helping with the cleaning chores and maintenance, marketing, hospitality, as well as assisting in the classrooms.   Students come from up to 30 miles away to attend. Two of our teachers drive from Pennsylvania to be here. It is a great place to learn and grow.  We walk to the local YMCA for gym class or swimming.  Classes also walk to the Grand Opera House for theater, dance or movement classes.   On Read Across America Day we’ve welcomed the Mayor of Wilmington and the Lt. Governor of Delaware into the classroom to read to us. Once a student wrote to the Governor about a recycling project we were doing and she came to our school to hear about the children’s work.  As a Montessori School we take many field trips – some walking, some driving.  Another community-building aspect of our Montessori School is the fact that our classrooms are multi-age.  Students are in the same classroom for three years.  They learn to work together and help each other.  Older students are delighted to be able to help their younger classmates.   The After Care Program Director tells her favorite story about a five year old that learned to tie his shoe. After several years of needing help from older students, he succeeded and announced proudly that now he can help a younger friend.

The classes that worked on this project included sixteen 9-12 year olds and fourteen 6-9 year olds. Students in the 9-12 year old class could choose to work with a partner or on their own.  We worked as a group in the 6-9 year old class.  

The youngest members of our school worked on Delaware Facts too.  They used Kid Pix for their pictures and we recorded their voices with Garage Band and made a small movie to share.

Delaware Facts by EC 1 & 2