Summer Camp 2020 -
Registration Opens March 2nd for members - March 5th for all
Love Children. Love Nature.
Welcome to Great Beginnings day camp - Our campers will spend the summer exploring everything from the playground on our local campus to local mountain ranges to the edges of local lakes. Based on their ages, they will have a blast getting dirty in the soil, playing along local riverbanks, and learning about the unique ecosystems that make Montana a wonderful place to live and play.
Our younger campers stay on campus. Our campers 6 and older go off campus every day to explore!
Great Beginnings Summer Day Camp 2020:
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Bumblebee Camp (ages 2-3)
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Huckleberry Camp (ages 3-6)
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Yurt Camp (ages 6-11) Rising 1st - 5th grades
The Great Beginnings Montessori School has been a local non-profit for 34 years and has offered Summer Nature Camps since 2007! Our Summer Camp provides quality, nature-based fun in an outdoor, hands-on setting. Campers spend most of their time outside, having a great time observing nature up-close using tools like binoculars, magnifying lenses and microscopes. Ecology concepts are introduced in a fun environment, with crafts, games and hands-on activities, and activities are specific to age groupings.
What do you LOVE about the
local outdoors?
Fish, rivers, lakes, streams, insects, rocks, minerals, mammals and more.
We have 10-weeks of connected programming.
Come for one week, or stay for the summer!
Week 1: June 15 - 18, 2020
Weird Science:
For the first week of summer, join us for a week of amazing discovery as we create scientific experiments from everyday objects. Pop dry ice smoke bubbles, experiment with solar bags, whip up a batch of elephant toothpaste, and be dazzled by solar power!
Air is one of the most popular themes for science fair projects. When you explore the properties of air, you discover that air occupies space, has weight and exerts pressure.
Yurt Camp: More science workshops, including building and launching rockets, fire bubbles and exploding toothpaste.
Local Connection: Museum of the Rockies
Green Theme: Solar energy and other renewable sources of energy
Week 2: June 22 - 25, 2020
Animal Olympics:
Run as fast as a cheetah! Jump higher than a bullfrog! How do different animals move with four legs, two legs, or no legs at all? Learn about our animal and insect neighbors this week, and try your best impersonation for the Animal Olympics! Meet Montana’s amazing animals and learn about their gold medal adaptations.
Yurt Camp: Open and closing ceremony, the lighting of the torch, the parade of nations, and more! Spend the week cheering each other on in events ranging from the pentathlon to juggling. Includes games that are non-competitive and fun!
Local connection: Madison Buffalo Jump State Park
Green theme: Understanding force and motion
Week 3: June 29 - July 2, 2020
Barnyard Palooza:
Pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, rabbits, cows, donkeys, and the pets in your home! This week because we are going to focus on the animals..all of them. In addition to animals, use your garden trowel in our salsa and pizza gardens, and learn about local herbs and flowers. Discover why gardens are a good thing for our environment, and learn about composting.
Yurt Camp: Walk in the footsteps of a farmer and experience what it takes to be a good farmer and naturalist. Through farm visits, campers will learn about animal care and the products animals provide to us.
Local connection: Gallatin Valley Farm to School
Green theme: Compost - Nature Recycles Everything
Week 4: July 6 - 9, 2020
Round the World (in 4 days):
This week campers will explore various cultures from around the world! Music, food, crafts, and games will delight our senses as we discover the colors and rhythms of Mexico, India, Israel, and more! From Cricket to Rugby, Lapta to Catching Seven Pieces, every nation has its own list of sports and games.
Yurt Camp: The Celebration of Nations starts this week with researching cultural events that this team will plan duplicate, like a Chinese Lantern Festival, Holi – a Hindu event, or the Italian Carnevale. On Thursday 7/9, the Yurt Campers will teach the cultural event and have a festival for the Huckleberry Camp!
Local connection: Emerson Center for the Arts & Culture
Green theme: Cultural Vitality in Communities
Week 5: July 13 - 16, 2020
Artful Adventures:
In this visual art day camp and nature-based studio, young artists will explore the line between reality and fantasy this summer with imagination as muse! Join our professional art instructors for a summer of art FUN-damentals.
Yurt Camp: Our campers will visit local artists in local studios. One of our Art in the Park camp projects will be plywood pictures, using an overhead projector to transfer pictures to the plywood, and then creating a color key and numbers to the picture. Campers will collaboratively paint for the art show on Thursday!
Local Connection/ Artists-in-Residence:
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Allison McGree, painting
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Elena Capousis, ceramics
Green theme: Arts as the catalyst for sustainability
Week 6: July 20 - 23, 2020
Go with the Flow
Dive into this camp and investigate the water all around us. Explore water from every angle as you dip, measure, and splash. Delve into the elements as we explore flowing water and air. We’ll spend our days outdoors making small waterways, dams, boats, pinwheels, streamers, kites, small hot air balloons, and more. Bring your curiosity, ingenuity, and a change of clothes because we may get wet!
Yurt Camp: This summer our campers will follow the water as it flows through streams, ponds, organisms, the atmosphere, and the ground. Along the way we will learn about the living things that depend on freshwater, and the non-living things (including pollution) that affect our freshwater ecosystems and resources.
Take note: "stream time" and "sprinkler time" will be a guarantee!
Local connection:
Green theme: Water conservation
Week 7: July 27 - 30, 2020
Fairy Gardens & Gnome Homes
Bring your imagination and curiosity for this creative camp! What fun the fairies and gnomes will have with the homes, playgrounds, and gardens we make for them. Who knows, they may come out of hiding and join in our circle games and songs. Explore the fairy realm and create fun arts and crafts.
We will also be looking at storytelling and fairy-tales.
Yurt Camp: will explore local creeks and learn how they fit into the watershed. There's so much fun to be had with water in the summer heat!
Local connection:
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Hyalite Reservoir day trip and Crescent Lake hike.
Green theme: Environmental Ancestry Storytelling
Week 8: August 3 - 6, 2020
Shelters & Forts
Ever build a fort? Well, here's your chance to explore and experiment with structures made of natural materials that we will find and gather. We'll learn how to choose a good campsite (since a good shelter in a bad location is a bad shelter). We'll also learn the principles necessary for any effective survival shelter. You will have a chance to work on individual forts and possibly a large group structure.
Yurt Camp: We will also play games and take walks in the woods, fields, and wetlands to see what we can learn from other creatures’ nests, dens, and hideouts. Bring ideas and enthusiasm! We’ll design and build forts and shelters using the raw materials that nature provides and our historical knowledge. Learn about the cultures that were here before us and explore with wonder and curiosity.
Local connection:
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Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park is Montana's first and best-known state park featuring one of the most decorated limestone caverns in the Northwest. Naturally air conditioned, these spectacular caves lined with stalactites, stalagmites, columns, and helictites are electrically lighted and safe to visit. Above ground, a self-guided nature trail provides opportunities to understand the natural surroundings.
Green theme: Native plants
Week 9: August 10 - 13, 2020
Ready, Set, Rescue!
Be prepared when nature strikes! Investigate everything from wild animals to our pets, and learn about kindness and compassion for animals. Learn about preventing wildfires, campfire safety, and the search & rescue responders who keep our community safe! Learn drones, engineer rescue devices, create recovery plans for rescue dogs, and explore the environmental impact of wildfires.
Yurt Camp: Day trip to Yellowstone in addition to regular camp activities. This will be a long day! Scientists in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem are using paleoecology–the study of historical human-caused and natural events –to reconstruct a record of wildfires across the region. With this historical record of fire’s impacts on forests and grasslands, scientists can make predictions about how fire will impact the West in times of changing climate.
Local connection:
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Western Montana Search Dogs
Green theme: Understanding Fire
Week 10: August 17 - 20, 2020
Love Where You Live:
Our most popular camp of the summer!
We will work together to make Bozeman a more beautiful, happier, and cleaner place to live with a variety of projects to help local charities.
Learn about all the ways that we can help make the world a better place and little things we can all do to help those in need, enjoying the satisfaction that comes from a job well done.
Local Connection:
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- a Grizzly Bear Rescue & Education Sanctuary
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Green theme: How can you make a difference?
Summer Celebration
The last day of the week is our Summer Celebration party, with a bounce-house, games and delicious treats!
Party is open for all summer campers and incoming students are welcome on Thursday, August 20th. 3 - 5pm. All invited!
