Yesterday was an exciting day for Gatewood as we celebrated the groundbreaking for work on the playground. Students, teachers and staff, families, school district staff, and neighbors gathered to cheer the imminent creation of some awesome new play spaces for our kids and community. We’re just waiting on permits, and the work begins! The West Seattle … More Groundbreaking for the playground!
Gatewood students aren’t letting the cold weather keep them from learning in (and from) the garden. Here is some recent news, from our teacher and garden coordinator Jeannie Revello: Students are observing winter vegetable crops including several types of kale, swiss chard and spinach withstand the frost. They love to taste parsley and arugula, and … More Shedding some light on a winter garden
The Gatewood team continues to make steady progress toward playground improvements. Here’s a December update from Linnea Westerlind: We are excited to announce that we have raised $47,495 to date in addition to our $100,000 matching grant from the City of Seattle’s Department of Neighborhoods. We received 5 bids from contractors for playfield construction. The … More Go, team!
Here is some fall news from garden coordinator Jeannie Revello and other teachers: Cottage and Gatewood students have been enjoying the learning garden daily this fall. Students look forward to “outside science” days, where they have a diverse environment for observing, taking notes, taking care of plants and working together. Students have observed the plants’ … More Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
For your viewing pleasure, here’s the latest rendering of the design for playfield improvements! (I think those are cats playing soccer.) It’s pretty exciting to see the varied spaces students will be able to enjoy, with options for active, nature-based, and imaginative play in all weather. With a solid base of funding from the City … More Playfield design and fundraising campaign
The good news has been posted elsewhere in the past couple of months, but to celebrate here as well: in August we were awarded a $100,000 Neighborhood Matching Fund grant to implement playfield improvements! All of our hard work in the past year–to design improved and more diverse play spaces in our current playfield and … More Ready for playfield improvements
It’s been awhile since we’ve posted about our school garden, so let’s catch up a bit. The seeds and starts planted by students in the spring survived and thrived through the summer months. Many thanks to Cottage School staff and students who watered on weekdays and families who signed up to water over the weekends! … More Autumn in the garden
Mr. Gaynor’s and Ms. Klein’s fourth graders had a good time on their field trip to the Beacon Food Forest last Friday, and it was a great way to tie together curricula relating to ecosystems, Native American tribes and plants of the Pacific Northwest, and food chemistry. Students heard the history of the Beacon Food … More What plant smells like pizza?
It’s been gratifying to see students in the garden over the past month planting seeds and starts. The after-school gardening club is in full swing, teachers are planting with their students, and the space is being used broadly as an outdoor classroom. School Learning Garden Network meeting Gatewood hosted the spring School Learning Garden … More Hands in the dirt, flowers in the salad, and a garden grant
We’re making good progress on the design for the southwest corner of our playground (the current playfield / mud puddle). Over 300 people–Gatewood and Cottage School students, families, teachers, and neighbors–provided feedback on the three design options presented in various venues in March. From that feedback, we’ve merged the favorite elements from each into one design, … More Latest on playground improvements
A green schoolyard for Gatewood Elementary 