What is the Environmental Enrichment Program (EEP)?
The EEP was created by Monarca parents who wanted to expand outdoor education and enrichment beyond the classroom — connecting students to nature, to each other, and to the living systems that sustain us. What began as a garden program has grown into a community-rooted effort to make environmental learning a meaningful part of every student's experience at Monarca.
The Program Today
EEP currently works across three interconnected areas:
Lobos Activos — Our weekly enrichment rotation for grades 1–6. Students rotate every three weeks through hands-on garden education, physical movement, and social-emotional learning (SEL), building observation skills and a relationship with the natural world through every season.
School Gardens & Grounds — Students and families tend Monarca's food gardens, native plantings, and green spaces together through monthly work parties, seasonal harvests, and ongoing stewardship. These shared spaces serve as living classrooms — and as places where community happens naturally.
Green Schoolyard —A long-range effort to thoughtfully design our campus for ecological health, beauty, and learning. Phase 1 brought a native plant corridor and young oak trees to our grounds through partnership with Tree Davis and local native plant experts. Phase 2 continues a whole-campus view — strategically planning for ecological resilience, beautiful shared spaces, and the kind of rich, accessible outdoor environment which serves the whole community and where students, teachers, and families can do their best learning together.
Our Vision
The EEP exists to build the foundations for an environmentally literate student body — one that is better prepared to engage the environmental, social, and economic challenges of the future. In its simplest form, we aim to give every student regular, meaningful contact with nature through experiential, hands-on learning.
