Our Stories

Sixth Graders Apply Design Thinking to Help the National Building Museum

October 14, 2015 by Dalia H (’16) (Students)

The sixth grade class of JPDS-NC had a wonderful experience visiting the National Building Museum. The purpose of our visit was to come up with ideas and designs for using the west lawn. When we observed the space, we noticed a large patch of grass and a pathway in a semi-circle. Then we met in […]


Thinking Critically About American History

May 22, 2015 by Candace Manor (Faculty and Staff)

“History gives us ideas. Let’s say something good happened. We can use it in the future to help people.” “In American History, there’s been a lot of wars, like the War of 1812 and the American Revolution. We can learn about what happened and say, ‘This was wrong’ and ‘I’ll turn it all around and […]


An Exploration of Outer Space

May 21, 2015 by Lisa Davis (Faculty and Staff)

This year, my kindergarten class, Gan Anavim, undertook an in-depth and exciting exploration of outer space and the Solar System in ways that reflected the Reggio Emilia philosophy that inspires our school. The investigation provided opportunities for collaboration between the students and teachers as we co-constructed our knowledge about different aspects of space in a […]


Third Graders Discuss Their Comprehensive Study of U.S. States

May 20, 2015 by Adam S (’20) (Students) Alex A (’20) (Students) JuJu J (’20) (Students) Miriam G (’20) (Students) Rachel R (’20) (Students) Simon R (’20) (Students)

Every third grader at JPDS-NC gets to study their own state for the whole year. We did a lot of research and worked on different projects. We studied the land forms and animals, and then made dioramas and designed logos about our states. “We learned about Native Americans in our state, and went on research […]


Fourth Grade Unit on World Religions Includes Site Visits and Making Educational Board Games

May 13, 2015 by Jacob Z (’17) (Students) Judah B (’17) (Students) Miriam Y (’17) (Students) Samuel H (’17) (Students)

Fourth grade is studying World Geography this year, and at the moment, we are learning about different religions. First, we learned about different religions as a class, and then we split up into research and project groups to find out even more. The study groups focused on Islam, Hinduism, Christianity and Buddhism. In the groups, […]


The Sadnah: Creativity and Exploration on the South Campus

May 7, 2015 by Yael Uhr (Faculty and Staff)

Children need the freedom to appreciate the infinite resources of their hands, their eyes and their ears, the resources of forms, materials, sounds and colours. – Loris Malaguzzi On the South Campus, we are privileged to have a dedicated studio space, the Sadnah, which is a place for creative collaboration and inspiration for all the […]


STEM Learning in Action

April 27, 2015 by Ronit Greenstein (Faculty and Staff)

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) education is growing and thriving at JPDS-NC. On the evening of April 2, four JPDS-NC sixth graders attended the Grand Award Ceremony of DC STEM Fair 2015 at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Esther Feron, Sami Himmelfarb, Noa Schleifer and Beri Gershwind swept the Junior Division with 1st, […]


Students Build an Arcade in our Cardboard Box Challenge

April 23, 2015 by Alexandra Taylor (Faculty and Staff) Ronit Greenstein (Faculty and Staff)

Over the course of four months, students at JPDS-NC worked with passion and resourcefulness to design and build arcade games out of recycled materials as part of the Cardboard Box Challenge. The program seeks to foster creativity, entrepreneurship, and design thinking in children, as they work together with their parents and with one another to […]


Fifth Graders Design Math Games and Host a Math Carnival

April 22, 2015 by Naomi M (’16) (Students)

My fifth grade math class held a Math Carnival. Our class decided at the beginning of the year to find a fun way of expressing what we learned. We split into groups and began to think of creative ways to make math-related games. Each group was assigned a different math unit, and we had to […]


The Great and Challenging Math Carnival of JPDS-NC

April 16, 2015 by Lisa Schopf (Faculty and Staff)

This spring, the fifth grade students in my math class worked to create a math carnival to offer fun challenges in math to their fellow fifth graders. After three months spent planning the project and designing games, the math carnival opened on March 30. It all began when the students suggested preparing a math carnival […]