Montlake Elementary School

The mission of the Montlake Elementary School Greenhouse Education Program is to provide our 267 K-5 students with a garden-based education that ignites a life-long interest in the natural world, and to serve as an alternative learning environment for students who struggle with the instructional and social demands of mainstream schooling.

The Program’s core values include collaboration, inclusion and community building. Our Garden Educator works closely with school staff to incorporate art, music, science, language arts and math curricula into our Greenhouse Education Program. In this way we are able to provide struggling learners with a real-life context in which to exercise skills that may not be available to them in a traditional classroom setting.

We cultivate strong school-family engagement through work parties and garden adoption initiatives involving parent, student and community volunteers. Our Program also works with community partners such as the Washington Park Arboretum, Friends of Interlaken Park, Seattle Tilth, the University of Washington and local eatery Café Lago. Each of these partnerships provides mutual benefits and strengthens community ties.