Nature Summer Camps

Camps are currently available for purchase by invite only and are being offered in a tiered system. Former GUG families should be on the lookout for an email by 2/25 about their family’s specific camp enrollment options. Any remaining camps spots will be open to the public for purchase on 2/27.

Our 5-acre Nature School campus offers endless opportunities for open-ended play and exploration. Campers will have the opportunity to enjoy the child-led experiences they naturally create as well as lessons surrounding Montana history, animals, plants, and traditions. Roasting food on the campfire, playing in mud kitchens, learning about our environment, meeting the school goats and kunekune pigs, working with tools, assisting in the garden, art experiences, and music/movement are just a few of the activities we have planned for camp weeks. We will also take walking field trips to our private side channel of the Bitterroot River and participate in cooperative games/ teamwork activities.

To register for camp, please click here to fill out our registration form and purchase your camp spot through our online store (links above.)

GUG Nature Camp:

•Provides a supportive, safe learning environment to encourage discovery and experimentation  

•Offers sensory opportunities with live animals, natural objects, artifacts, trail games, outdoor exploration and creative art activities  

•Stimulates cognitive growth and problem-solving skills through hands-on activities, games and discovery-learning in nature  

•Encourages physical motor skills through active learning and play  

•Cultivates social skills and positive self-image through group play and cooperative learning  

•Nurtures self-expression, creativity and reflection  

•Instills respect and appreciation for the natural world

Our curriculum is designed around the following concepts:

1. Place-Based Education to immerse children in local landscape, heritage, and culture. We facilitate a deeper understanding of local ecology and community-learning through place-based education, inviting children to establish an ongoing relationship with the world we share, and those we share it with.
2. Unstructured purposeful and productive nature play to provide children space to create their own experience. This involves using loose parts to support imaginative play with items that can be combined, moved, pulled apart and creatively put back together. Sit spots and swings are encouraged to quietly observe the natural world and take a break from movement activities.
3. Natural learning centers are available throughout the property to encourage imaginative/dramatic play experiences and enforce math, literacy, science, language arts, social studies, art, and social/emotional learning.