DMA Community Connection
Giraff-E-News Week 24 February 5, 2023
Downtown Montessori Academy
Website: www.dallasisd.org/downtownmontessori
Location: 1901 Main Street, Dallas, TX, USA
Phone: 9727492500
School website: https://www.dallasisd.org/downtownmontessori
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DowntownIda
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DowntownIda
Mission: Our mission is to foster the emotional, intellectual, physical, and social development of the whole child by addressing the uniqueness of each in an authentic Montessori environment within a public school diverse educational community.
Vision: Our school will provide an authentic Montessori environment in an accredited Public Montessori School to meet the needs of the child through a commitment to the principles of Montessori education and full accountability to the public education standards.
Core Values: Love You, Love Others, Love Our World
DMA Giraffes are "Making A Tall Difference Every Day with Every Child!"
Love You means; taking care of yourself so you can take care of others.
Love Others means; We are the example of what we want. We define our Excellence!
Love Our World means; Build other leaders in the spirit of Excellence, and you are cultivating a lasting legacy of LOVE to nurture our world and be kind to our world.
May the seeds of kindness continue to bloom all year round!
We feel the LOVE and are thrilled to report that over 19 million students in 115 countries were part of the 2023 Great Kindness Challenge!!! What an AMAZING celebration of kindness it was!
Because of your school's participation in The Great Kindness Challenge, we are honored to acknowledge you as a Kindness Certified School.
Way to Make A Tall Difference DMA!
#GiraffeProud
Principal's Message
Dear DMA Giraffe Nation,
I hope this message finds you well and that you were able to stay safe and warm during the inclement weather days. We look forward to welcoming your children back to school on Monday, as we know you are excited about sending them!
Please carefully read this memo, and check for your child's weekly Wednesday Folder for flyers and handouts for upcoming events, as many things are taking place in February!
I look forward to an excellent week of love, laughing, and learning while Making A Tall Difference Every Day with Every Child!
DMA Has A New Giraffe
Please welcome Ms. Adiam Gebremariam as our newly hired German Teacher and to the DMA Family.
Put this on your Calendar
Upcoming Events
02.06-10. 23 – National School Counselors' Week
02.07.23 – SBDM @ 6:00 pm
02.06-17. 23 – G.T/TAG Testing Starts
02.08.23 – First round of progress reports goes home for Cycle 3
02.13-17.23 – Black History Spirit Dress Out Week & Random Acts of Kindness Week
02.14.23 – Campus Needs & Building Projections Committee Meeting
02.17.23 – 4th Grade Field Trip
02.20.23 – No School – Presidents' Day
02.21.23 – School Wide Story Quilt Project Due
02.21.23 - Tea Talk with Tabitha @ 9:00 am & PTO @ 5:30 pm
02.21.23 – TELPAS testing starts
02.22.23 – Campus Spring Cultural Parade @ 8:30 am
02.23.23 – Campus Literacy & Math Night – In Person Event
Campus wide project
We Love our Counselor, Mrs. Cree Perryman
With Valentine's Day fast approaching, we take time to consider once again how we celebrate holidays as a learning community.
Valentine's Day is about friendship, family, and creating fun moments. It is about the love we share with those around us, teaching our children to care about those around them and a great way to see the children's creativity. Part of our job as Montessori teachers is to hold fast and true to what is precious to children and guide how they give to the world around them.
We realize holiday celebrations add to our lives. During the week of Valentine's, we have random acts of kindness week. Use the information to help our children build their compassion bank and explore ways to spread kindness as an everyday lifestyle.
While Valentine's Day will not be a "party" day for DMA, our teachers will communicate how we will celebrate Acts of Kindness.
Message from Nurse Assistant Cindy
DMA Monthly Calendar. Click on the calendar below for English & Spanish
Show UP Attendance Matters!
Every school day counts in a child's academic life... A missed school day is a lost opportunity for students to learn. Together we are all aiming for our goal - 98% Attendance!
Here are our Grade Level Attendance Averages:
PK 90%
Kinder 93%
First Grade 92%
Second Grade 96%
Third Grade 94%
Fourth Grade 93%
Read more about attendance and the ways families can support student success here.
HELP US HELP YOU!
Please label ALL of your student's items! We want to keep hats, mittens, coats, sweaters, water bottles, etc. out of the lost and found. It is much easier to return misplaced items when they are labeled.
Dallas ISD has partnered with T-Mobile to provide hotspots to support our students’ internet access at home. The hotspots will be activated under T-Mobile’s Education plan, which includes free mobile internet with content filtering. All content accessible via this hotspot will pass through a content filter that blocks access to any form of inappropriate content and is compliant with the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA).
Please email magonzalez@dallasisd.org with your Child’s name and grade level if you are interested by February 9, 2023.
Important School Information
Our Instructional start time has changed to 8:00 am. Our dismissal time will start at 3:00 pm
- Arrival/Drop off will begin @ 7:15 am
- Students will be picked up from their waiting area @ 7:50 am
- Instructional learning begins at 8:00 am
- Dismissal/Pick up will begin @ 3:00 pm
- After school care begins @ 3:00 pm
Important Resources and Information
- Always bring an ID to the office for all student pick-ups.
- Cut off time for early student pick-up is 2:30 PM.
- Parents must complete VOLY every school year in order to volunteer at our campus.
- No cupcakes or snacks high in sugar are permitted for Celebration of Life. Please bring healthy snacks the whole class can enjoy.
- No fast-food deliveries for students.
- Doors for students to enter the building every morning open at 7:15 AM.
- School starts at 8:00 AM, and tardies are distributed after this time.
- If a student arrives after 8;45 AM, this counts as a partial absence (T99).
- Always submit an excuse note anytime your student is absent.
- Please have your student adhere to the uniform policy.
Stay tuned to the City of Dallas news and upcoming events at https://www.dallascitynews.net/
Attendance Resources: Click here for Excuse Letter Parent services Attendance Matter
Click here for the Food & Child Nutrition Services Forms
Link for Voly: https://dallasisd.voly.org/
Thank you for making Every Day a Great Day at DMA!
Our First Montessori Summit. Look at our Giraffes Making A TALL Difference!
It was an honor and pleasure to see our own Giraffes present at our Inaugural Montessori Summit! I hope each of us gained insight and supportive knowledge to help improve and strengthen our instructional journey for this Spring semester.
Lead Teacher Ms. Howard modeling how students can show their thinking with text
Ms. Miner makes Math come Alive for Lower Elementary
Upper Elementary getting into Annotation Foldables
Writing in German Class - Thank you Ms. Davis
DMA@Vex Iq Robotics 01/14/23
A Word From Our DMA Safety Sideline Team
Counselor Corner
Checkout the news from Counselor Perryman! Click on her button below for the website and resources you need to have a successful school year.
DMA Montessori Stewardship Moment by Ms. Miner
The Great Lessons begin at DMA!
Check out the included video of the Importance of the Prepared environment for the classroom and how it can extend to your home environment. There are other videos, 2 articles, and then a book that you can purchase to help support your own family growth with our Downtown Montessori School.
Learning made fun with our Librarian, Mr. Marvin
Mr. Marvin invites you to visit his website. Click on the button below to begin a journey that has high heights!
Boys & Girls Club After School Program Information
Participating parents and stakeholders, please provide feedback to our afterschool program BGC.
School Club Survey links.
BGCD Parent & Caregiver Survey- School Campus
https://forms.office.com/r/RN6Vg3fRXg
School Administrative Partners Feedback Survey
For further information, please contact Mr. Dickerson @ rdickerson@bgcdallas.org
ALL PRO DAD'S CLUB INFORMATION
APD will meet twice this month on February 7th and February 28th. We hope to see you there.
Support our DMA PTO
· Downtown Montessori’s Amazon Smile Link:
https://smile.amazon.com/ch/85-2550090
· How to Change Your AmazonSmile Charitable Organization
To change your charitable organization:
1. Sign in to smile.amazon.com on your desktop or mobile phone browser.
2. From your desktop, go to Your Account, Amazon Smile, and then select the option to Change your Charity. Or, from your mobile browser, select Change your Charity from the options at the bottom of the page.
3. Select a new charitable organization to support.
Search: Ida B Wells Dallas PTO
Click on SBDM icon to review December's Meeting Video
SBDM