Curriculum Enhancement
Curriculum Enhancement
Bozeman Summit School offers a variety of curriculum enhancement programs to complement our Montessori curriculum.
Music
Alison Tierney (Upper Elementary), Rebekah Bunting (Lower Elementary) and Trina Rainey (Early Childhood) meet weekly with our students to explore the fundamentals of music. Using a variety of instruments, our musical instruction team not only educate the children, but also prepare an amazing demonstration of their learned skills for our Holiday Performance and Festival of the Arts each year.
Alison Tierney – Upper Elementary Music
Alison has always found bliss in singing and dancing. She received a vocal performance scholarship to the University of Puget Sound, where she minored in music. Alison received her Orff Schulwerk Level I Certification through Treasure State Orff in Missoula and she appreciates the holistic, collaborative, and active approach of this method. Alison also completed an internship in children’s dance education at the University of Montana and spent several years dancing with the Northwest Ballet Company. Alison’s music classes focus on emotionally engaging students through finding songs they love, increasing musical awareness, bolstering confidence, and holding space for children to express their emotions creatively and safely. She is especially fond of Bach and Led Zeppelin, and she loves sharing her favorite music with her students.
Rebekah Bunting – Lower Elementary Music
Rebekah Bunting has been teaching elementary music education at Bozeman Summit School since 2015. She is certified at Level II in the Orff Schulwerk approach. Orff Schulwerk is a “child-centered” approach to learning music that integrates music, dance, speech, and drama. The children learn by doing and are regularly improvising and creating their own music and movement. By doing this, they are learning important problem solving skills that can translate to all aspects of life. Most music classes involve learning and playing instruments such as xylophones, metallophones, glockenspiels, recorders, hand drums, wood blocks and many other fun instruments. Rebekah is constantly inspired by the children’s creativity and musical abilities and enjoys highlighting their talents in the December Holiday Performance and spring talent show.
Trina Rainey – Early Childhood Music
Trina Rainey MT-BC (was Trina Arledge) is the founder of Healing Harmony Music Therapy. She is a Board Certified Music Therapist and holds a bachelor’s degree in Music Therapy and Music Performance. She is enthusiastic about providing this community with the wonders of Music Therapy and is passionate about helping others to explore themselves through the power of music! She is one of the few Certified Music Therapists practicing in the state of Montana.
Health Enhancement
At Bozeman Summit School, we not only care about developing the whole child in their social, emotional, and educational journey, but also giving them the tools and education to be physically healthy through diet and exercise. For our Health Enhancement program, we have contracted with Steffany Kay – owner of Play+.
Steffany Kay is a graduate of Montana State University – College of Business and has been an active part of the community since arriving in Bozeman in 1995. She has been involved with the Big Brother/Big Sister program, a Thrive CAP mentor and is currently on the board of directors for Gallatin Valley Farm to School.
She is a NASM Certified Personal Trainer, Youth Exercise Specialist (YES), Precision Nutrition and Primal Play certified. Her company Play+ brings her love of movement to the youth of Gallatin Valley. In her free time she can be found competing in obstacle races, trail running, being in the outdoors with family or on an international adventure with her husband and young son.