Are you looking for an outdoor opportunity for your child where they get to explore, create, climb, jump, run, hang, and balance? All while learning about the natural world around them and practicing their social/emotional skills with peers? If so, Growing Up Green Nature School is the place for you!
We learn and grow along with the Montana seasons and spend over half of our days outdoors on our beautiful 5 acre campus. Our main emphasis is supporting social emotional learning while providing sensory experiences for children to better understand their bodies and their physical capabilities. Mix in some phonics, handwriting, drawing, painting, mud kitchen play, insect exploration, etc. The list goes on and on and the learning opportunities are limitless.
Located on Missoula’s southside off Miller Creek Rd.
Nature School Sessions:(M, T, W from 10am-2pm.)
Students can enroll for 1, 2, or 3 days per week.
Class size: 8 students ages 4.5 - 8. Homeschool students welcome.
- 9 week fall 2025 session: September 8-November 6.
- 3 week early winter 2025 session: December 1-17
- 9 week winter 2026 session: February 2- April 1
- 6 week 2026 spring session: April 13-May 20
Tuition is based off our daily rate of $30 per day. Families will enroll in a session and then choose if they will attend 1, 2, or 3 days per week. Each enrolled family will then be provided with a monthly invoice to pay at the beginning of the month for the days their child is enrolled.
Enrollment Process:
All interested families will complete our application form and return it ASAP along with a $25 non-refundable application fee. Application fees can be paid in cash, check, or Venmo (@GrowingUpGreen406).
Enrollment criteria: Due to the unique characteristics and limited class size of our program, it is imperative that we enroll students who will thrive in our open campus and easily adjust to the daily schedule required. Our enrollment criteria include:
- The child’s age (Students must be at least 4.5 by the first day of the session to apply unless previously discussed.)
- The child’s independence levels (bathroom, dressing/undressing, etc.)
- The child’s ability to follow guidance and make safe choices in potentially dangerous activities or environments.
- The date their family expressed interest in our program.
- Siblings currently or formerly enrolled in our program.
Interested families: Please send us an email to [email protected]. In order to provide a detailed overview of the program, we will reply to your email with a Parent Handbook and Application Form. This will help you decide if the program is the right fit for your family before applying or scheduling a tour. Tours are not mandatory, but can be scheduled for those interested.
After-school Nature School Sessions:GUG After-school Sessions are offered on the first Thursday of the month between the hours of 2-6pm. Our daily schedule will vary based on weather and the interests/ages of the students in attendance. Children from our daytime Nature School program are also welcome to be part of the after school sessions.
After-school sessions will be offered the following days:
- 9/4, 10/2, 11/6, 12/4, 1/8, 2/5, 3/5, 4/2, 5/7, 6/4
Growing Up Green’s private 5-acre property off Miller Creek Road is a nature-based learning campus providing a unique outdoor experience for Missoula-area children ages 4.5 and up. We’ve embraced the ideas of Forest Kindergartens, Nature-based learning, the Reggio Emilia approach, and Waldkindergartens as a guide in the creation of our environment. Our holistic, child-centered curriculum nurtures the student across all domains of development. 8:1 child/teacher ratio.
In addition to the time we spend in nature and exploring the community, we also offer many traditional learning opportunities in our outdoor classroom and our school bus. Our retro-fitted bus provides a warm indoor space for snack/ lunch, art projects, board games, learning manipulatives, etc.
The environment includes natural settings, multiple outdoor learning areas, and warm indoor learning spaces. We emphasize purposeful and productive developmentally appropriate play-based experiences to help children grow in a holistic way — physically, emotionally, socially and intellectually.
Our open-ended and interactive nature-based play curriculum helps to strengthen and cultivate:
- divergent thinking
- social and emotional skills
- cognitive functions
- empathy for the natural world
- communication skills
- physical competency and confidence
- emotional intelligence
- a long lasting personal connection to nature and animals
We believe developmentally appropriate experiences allow children to develop initiative, persistence, creativity, and a capacity for problem solving, which are all essential to future academic success. We offer programming for both homeschool children and those in the year before public/private school. Due to the extreme transformation of public Kindergarten in recent years, many families see the value in waiting until age 6 to start public Kindergarten. Our program caters to the needs of students in this transition period (and those who miss the Kindergarten cut-off date but are ready for a class made up of older children) by providing experiences to enrich the whole-child and allowing opportunities for open-ended learning and exploration with peers.
Our unique Montana Nature Curriculum focuses specifically on Missoula and Montana plants, animals, and history.
Interested in joining our waitlist or learning more? Contact us now at [email protected]