Five Acre School’s 2024-25 field trips offered learning opportunities

By Emily Matthiessen • June 4, 2025 4:30 am
Photo courtesy of Five Acre School/ Students, family members and teachers from Five Acre School throw their hats in the air after hiking approximately 5.5 miles from the trailhead at Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge to the New Dungeness Lighthouse. The children prepare for this end-of-the-year field trip by hiking every Wednesday with their classes.
Photo courtesy of Five Acre School/ Students, family members and teachers from Five Acre School throw their hats in the air after hiking approximately 5.5 miles from the trailhead at Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge to the New Dungeness Lighthouse. The children prepare for this end-of-the-year field trip by hiking every Wednesday with their classes.

The 2024-25 school year presented students of Sequim’s nonprofit Five Acre School with the opportunity to participate in a number of fun and educational field trips.

Recently, second and third grade students visited an abandoned site in Sequim where a local cougar had killed, hid and consumed prey over the course of several days.

The students gathered data and learned about the ecology and natural history of cougars under the guidance of Mark Elbroch, director of Panthera’s puma program, and his team, who had been monitoring the site. Panthera is a non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of the world’s large cats.

“This was an incredible opportunity to see something that few ever get to see — the place where a cougar slept, ate and spent time in the wilds, and is a part of what makes our home area so special,” said Sarah Bones, school director, who attended the field trip.

She noted, “The cougar was not present in the area because it had finished its meal and moved on.”

On the same day, students in grades 4-6 took a trip to Port Townsend to visit the Discovery Bay Wild Bird Rescue and a rare forest.

At the bird rescue, the children assembled in a blue-roofed pavilion and listened to founder Cynthia Daily and Joseph Molotsk, education director, as they shared raptor information with the help of ambassador birds, including a gyrfalcon named Zeuffi, Gandalf the white great horned owl, a Swainson’s hawk named Rider who was confiscated from a golf course in Eastern Washington, and E-Jay, the tiny saw-whet owl, who lost his ability to fly after being hit by a car in Olympia.

The children were given a tour of the facility and were treated to cookies and lemonade.

Daily said she was happy with how well the students behaved at the center, where it is important to be mindful of noise and activity levels because most of the birds at the center are sensitive and wild, brought there to heal. She said that after this field trip she feels like the center can invite more children for educational field trips.

After leaving the Discovery Bay Wild Bird Rescue, the children visited Fort Townsend State Park. Guided by teachers Heidi Pedersen and Nellie Bridge, as well as parents, they followed the Botany Walk through an old-growth forest of western red cedar and Douglas fir.

Pederson said that “the older canopy provides shade which encourages an abundance and diversity of parasitic plants, including the fairy slipper orchids…. The plants of Fort Townsend State Park are so special and so unusual that the Park has been proposed for designation as a rare ‘Natural Forest Area” by the Washington State Natural Heritage program.’”

A week later on a “cool, windy and overcast day,” according to parent Theresa Churchill, the 2nd-6th graders, teachers and parents hiked approximately 11 miles roundtrip along the Dungeness Spit to the New Dungeness Lighthouse, where they were welcomed on a tour by volunteers.

Students at Five Acre School hike every Wednesday, with the Lighthouse hike one of the culminating events of the year.

Churchill said that for her the “kids’ kindness, encouragement and fortitude” and the “fun and community feel” stick with her after the field trip. “This longer hike gave kids the opportunity to push through difficulty…. Many times I overheard kids sharing kind words of encouragement.”

To learn more about:

• Panthera and the Olympic Cougar Project: panthera.org/

• Discovery Bay Wild Bird Rescue: discoverybaywildbirdrescue.com/

• Fort Townsend State Park: friendsftsp.com/

• New Dungeness Lighthouse: newdungenesslighthouse.com/

Photo courtesy of Five Acre School/ Joseph Molotsky, education direction at Discovery Bay Wild Bird Rescue in Port Townsend, takes questions from Five Acre students while holding Gandalf, a white great horned owl from Estancia Valley, New Mexico, who came to the center after he was rescued from a water tower in which he permanently damaged his wing.

Photo courtesy of Five Acre School/ Joseph Molotsky, education direction at Discovery Bay Wild Bird Rescue in Port Townsend, takes questions from Five Acre students while holding Gandalf, a white great horned owl from Estancia Valley, New Mexico, who came to the center after he was rescued from a water tower in which he permanently damaged his wing.

Photo courtesy of Five Acre School/ At a cougar kill site on the outskirts of Sequim, Andy Stratton, project coordinator for the Olympic Cougar Project, shows Five Acre second-third grade students the skull of the cougar’s prey, a young deer.

Photo courtesy of Five Acre School/ At a cougar kill site on the outskirts of Sequim, Andy Stratton, project coordinator for the Olympic Cougar Project, shows Five Acre second-third grade students the skull of the cougar’s prey, a young deer.

Photo courtesy of Five Acre School/ Heidi Pedersen, assistant teacher for fourth-sixth grade at Sequim’s Five Acre School, discusses how to identify a cedar cone with students as they explore the Botany Walk through old growth forest at Fort Townsend State Park.

Photo courtesy of Five Acre School/ Heidi Pedersen, assistant teacher for fourth-sixth grade at Sequim’s Five Acre School, discusses how to identify a cedar cone with students as they explore the Botany Walk through old growth forest at Fort Townsend State Park.