The Chumash and Acorns

Today's morning adventure was going on a field trip at the park up the street from our house.  We were all thankful for a beautiful day (it has been a bit rainy as of late), and a fun time with friends!  The field trip was put on by the city of Ventura, and it taught the kids about the Chumash Indians who used to live in the area and acorns! 

Here the kids listened to stories about how the Chumash lived - how they gathered food, used the resources they had, and how they worked together. 

Faith and two other girls were selected to help tell an acorn legend story!  They were quite happy to help!!

I think at this point in the story they are falling off the tree!

Next we had the chance to see just how difficult it was to make meal from an acorn and the long process of how to do it!  Shane already cracked open the acorn by using rocks, and now he is attempting to crush the nut portion.  And as a side note, I learned that acorns have a toxin in them, and in order to by used in food, water was needed to wash out the toxin!  The things you learn when on a field trip designed for kids ages 4-7!!

Faith and Shane also learned that kids who lived a long time ago could not go to a store to buy toys - they had to make them!!  This is one of the toys - a stick, rope, and stick made into a circle, with the goal being to get the circle portion onto the stick! 

The final portion of the field trip was painting!  In order to paint, the kids had to crush some rocks into a powder and then add some water to make a paint like substance.  Back 200 years ago we learned that squirrel fat was added to such a substance to make it more sticky!  Thankfully, we did not do that today!!  The kids learned quite a bit today and had lots of fun doing so!