City: Rapid City, SD

Category: Education

Telephone: (605) 341-0824

Address: 3520 West Main St.

Description: Bringing the outdoors in is one area of focus at this school for children from age three through grade five. Raising butterflies, tending a butterfly garden, growing pumpkins, and building a compost heap on the one-and-a-half-acre wooded campus are just a few of the activities that are integrated into the classroom. Studies include individual and group learning in a variety of subjects. Children also participate in a cultural exchange by visiting and writing to their peers in the Montessori school at Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. A multigenerational exchange takes place when parents and grandparents volunteer their time for reading, gardening assistance, and other activities. Preschool and kindergarten are offered on a part-time basis, with limited extended care before school and at lunchtime. Teachers are required to obtain Montessori certification. But after a snowfall, even they can turn into kids again when everybody goes sledding. Children’s House is closed during the summer.