Lower School Academics

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LOWER SCHOOL (K-4th)

At Big Sky Community School, our Lower School serves students in kindergarten through fourth grade, the years when readers, mathematicians, and thinkers are formed, and when children first come to know themselves as learners.

Our Lower School is small by design. Every child is known deeply, every family has direct access to teachers, and instruction can be tuned to each child's specific needs. We group by mastery level rather than age, so students learn at the edge of their capability, never lost in the middle of a class or held back by their birthday.

Our academic program pairs nationally-recognized, evidence-based curricula in literacy, math, and language with a distinctly Montana place-based approach in inquiry, novel study, art, and outdoor learning. The result is a rich, focused, and joyful academic experience rooted in Big Sky, informed by the best of what education research has taught us, and personalized to each child.

A DAY IN THE LOWER SCHOOL

Our days follow a consistent rhythm that gives young learners both structure and space:

• The day opens with Morning Meeting, the whole lower school together.

• Mornings are dedicated to literacy. Students rotate through small mastery groups tuned to their instructional level, moving between foundational skills lessons, content-rich knowledge lessons, and our place-based novel study.

• Midday is protected for lunch, movement, and outdoor time, making use of Big Sky's facilities and trails. A real break for eating, playing, and moving before the afternoon.

• Afternoons begin with mathematics in small mastery groups, including daily practice in math fact fluency.

• Specials follow: Spanish, art, and our weekly place-based Inquiry block.

• The last block of every day is our What I Need Block, where every student receives targeted support or enrichment based on data, including small-group intervention in reading and math.

• Closing Circle ends every day, a moment for reflection, community, and gratitude.

LOWER SCHOOL CURRICULUM

Our curriculum blends core academic subjects with weekly specials in Spanish, art, and inquiry. Each subject uses a program we believe in, chosen for its research base, pedagogical clarity, and fit with the way children actually learn, and each is extended by Big Sky place-based work that gives it local meaning.

LITERACY

Our literacy program builds strong readers, writers, and thinkers through daily, structured instruction paired with rich content and compelling stories. It is grounded in Amplify’s Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA), a nationally recognized curriculum aligned with the Science of Reading. Through explicit daily lessons, students develop foundational skills in phonemic awareness, decoding, spelling, grammar, and fluency while building deep background knowledge through literature, read-alouds, and discussions spanning history, geography, science, mythology, and world cultures.

Our Place-Based Novel Study complements this foundation by bringing the literature of Montana and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem into every classroom at an age-appropriate level. From picture books about Yellowstone wildlife for our youngest readers—including Jean Craighead George’s The Wolves Are Back—to her novel Charlie’s Raven for older students, students learn to see their home through the eyes of writers who know and love it.

We monitor each student’s progress throughout the year using research-backed literacy assessments, allowing us to identify individual needs early and respond with targeted instruction.

MATHEMATICS

Our mathematics program uses Singapore Primary Mathematics, an internationally recognized approach that emphasizes deep understanding. Students learn through hands-on materials, visual models, and problem-solving, progressing from concrete objects to visual representations and, ultimately, abstract symbols. Daily mental-math practice builds fluency, while sustained work with complex, multistep problems develops flexible thinking and strong mathematical reasoning.

Students receive targeted support and additional challenge based on their readiness. Adaptive digital tools reinforce classroom instruction and provide teachers with data to further differentiate practice for individual learners.

INQUIRY: SCIENCE & HISTORY

Every Wednesday afternoon, our students engage in Inquiry, an integrated block combining science, history, and Montana's Indian Education for All (IEFA) framework through hands-on, place-based projects. Our Inquiry block invites students to know their home deeply, its geology, wildlife, watersheds, weather, and seasonal cycles, through direct study of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem right outside our door. Inquiry also grounds students in the Indigenous history and contemporary presence of this place, with focused study of the Crow (Apsáalooke), Salish, Kutenai, and Blackfeet nations whose ancestral lands include the Gallatin Valley.

SPANISH

Our Spanish program meets Tuesday and Thursday afternoons using Risas y Sonrisas, a music-based, immersive Spanish curriculum designed to make language acquisition natural and joyful for young learners. Students learn through original songs, rhymes, gestures, and Total Physical Response (TPR) activities that combine language with rhythm and movement. Each unit builds vocabulary around a theme, colors, family, numbers, animals, food, weather, and more, grounded in the pedagogy that young children acquire language most naturally through listening and speaking first.

Cultural connections weave through the year, introducing students to traditions and countries across the Spanish-speaking world.

ART

Our Art program meets Monday and Friday afternoons, built around the study of individual artists, their lives, techniques, and vision, paired with hands-on studio time where students create their own work in response. Art units are intentionally crosscurricular, weaving math, literacy, writing, and music into the making.

Over the year, students work with natural materials alongside Andy Goldsworthy, sculpt with clay after Edwin Shelton, create cardboard self-portraits inspired by Frida Kahlo (extended into identity work with Jean-Michel Basquiat), weave fibers to music with Sheila Hicks, and explore line and pattern with Keith Haring. In spring, they design public art in the spirit of Banksy, build community wishes murals with Candy Chang, and create grid-based portraits after Chuck Close.

By year's end, students have built a working vocabulary for looking at art and a portfolio of their own creative work across multiple media.