Jackson's Field Trip

Jackson and I recently went on a field trip to learn about Native Americans. The farm that we visited had very interesting information about how Native Americans and the early settlers lived and worked together. The kids learned about trading (did you know the term "a buck" that we use for money really came from a buck -- a male deer skin? When trading, items were worth "bucks" to determine how much would be traded), hunting, growing vegetables, weapons and games the Native Americans played. The children were able to feel real animal skins (cleaned, of course!) and learn about how the Native Americans made their clothing.

















We also learned about some of the things that Native Americans used for music. And, Native Americans used ALL parts of the animal so that nothing was wasted. They even used their feet. These are deer toes that were used to make leggings. When shaken, they made a nice rhythm for dancing. The Native Amerian children would begin with a few "toes" on their leggings and work up to about 500 on each legging as an adult. Those things were heavy and required a lot of length strength to be able to dance with them on.
The kids also learned about games that Native American children would play. There was a tall pole with a cow skull on it (not sure what purpose that had) and they used baskets to try to throw a ball up and over the pole. Here's Jackson with his basket, awaiting his turn. Okay, blogger won't let me upload any more pics. I'll start another post and let you see my last couple of pictures.