SUQUAMISH — At a time when environmental concern is at an all-time high, Suquamish Elementary’s Pond Kids are learning land values and how to coexist with the planet on which they live.

At the beginning of April, the group went on its annual adventure to IslandWood on Bainbridge Island and came away with the idea of enhancing its school’s pond and marsh called gelk’ali — which in Suquamish Lushootseed means “the place of weaving.”

“It’s been a really good partnership that way,” said Suquamish Pond Kids organizer Jan Jackson, noting that the idea of enhancing gelk’ali with a concrete pathway came out of the IslandWood experience. “(IslandWood staff members) are coming in a few weeks to help us do the recycled concrete pathway.”

As part of the IslandWood educational visit, the Pond Kids follow up with a project at their school displaying things they learned during the four-day trip. This year’s adventure to the IslandWood ecosystem focused, among other ideas, on coexistence with nature — a skill that the Pond Kids are already quite adept in.

“The tranquility of it, just sitting around and watching it all happen,” fifth-grader Will McDonald said of his favorite part of nature. “I get to do that on the weekends because I have woods out in the back of my house and tons of raccoons and mice and stuff.”

At IslandWood, McDonald, along with 90 of his classmates, not only got to observe their natural surroundings, they also had the opportunity to study and experiment with them. The group was divided into smaller pods of eight to 10 students and journeyed through hands-on lessons on watersheds, native plants, history and ecosystems led by IslandWood instructors.

“It’s a great ratio,” Jackson said of the adult to student interaction. “(Students) don’t just read it out of a book, they get to see it and experience it and do it out in the field.”

For four days and three nights, the Suquamish students were engaged in the environment. The experience included everything from investigating micro-organisms under electronic microscopes to a 5-mile hike to Blakely Harbor.

Over the course of the adventure, students also crossed a 60-foot suspension bridge, observed forest animals, identified native plants and even had the chance to taste licorice fern and stinging nettle.

“It doesn’t taste like licorice but it’s still good,” Pond Kid Annie Sorensen said, adding that the actual food at the IslandWood lodge was exquisite.

When the days were done, the students returned to the earthy posh cabins and lodge of the IslandWood headquarters.

“I really liked how we got to stay in the log cabins. I used to go to camp and the cabins were nothing like that, they were ugly,” Sorenson noted. “But these ones were nice, you have a fireplace and your own bed.”

A perfect place to reflect after a full day of exploration.

When the four-day excursion finished, though students were sad to leave they were able to keep with them the mentality that had taken root at IslandWood. After returning to Suquamish, the Pond Kids are now continuing to revel in the ideal. The school celebrated Earth Day April 20 with a gathering at gelk’ali, sharing environmentalist poetry and singing frog songs, Jackson said. And the county commissioners stopped by to present the Pond Kids with the Kitsap County Earth Day award which they were presented for last year’s IslandWood follow-up project.

IslandWood representatives will be visiting May 10 to help the Pond Kids with this year’s follow-up project, pouring recycled concrete — courtesy of Fred Hill Materials — to cement the path around the school’s basket marsh.

“A lot of it is just awareness, getting them to be observers of nature and being aware of what’s around them,” Jackson said of the IslandWood trip’s purpose. “And a lot of it is engagement. The (students) can understand the idea of how things are all interconnected and how what we do effects everything around us.”