Moundville Field Trip

Back on Friday the 6th, both 4th grade classes travelled to Moundville, AL for the annual Native American Festival. This was something I had never attended, so I was happy to tag along!

First up, we climbed 75+ stairs to one of the huts!

The view was well worth the climb!

My favorite boy :)

 After we all climbed one of the mounds, the teachers informed us that we were on our own until lunchtime at 12! This was a new one for me.....I have never been on a parent-led field trip! I must say, it was not my favorite. I like the idea of being a chaperone and tagging along on a field trip. I felt very ill-prepared to be a tour guide instead. My car/group - one other adult and 4 kids - decided to follow around 2 other groups (where the parents looked like they had been there before!)

First up, we/they found some nature trails...

 Then we happened upon a few Native American demonstrations. Of course the boys were super interested in all the talk about weapons...

Of course, we found a few vendors on site that were selling homemade weapons. Imagine that! Nate brought money from home, and used some of it to purchase this bow and arrow set. It was a popular item among his (male) classmates that day.

There were a *ton* of food vendors at this festival as well, so we took a quick break for waters and sno-cones. Then, the boys asked for some "action," so they joined in a game of Stickball.

Nate got a breakaway one time!

Grinding corn, the old-fashioned way

We met up with everyone back at the cars and had a picnic lunch. Then, we had 1.5 more hours to explore the festival before it was time to go. We visited the Native American museum (no pictures allowed), did a little more shopping, and then the highlight of Nate's day - learning to shoot a *real* bow and arrow from a *real* Native American!

He was bummed that the kids were only allowed to take one shot. But, still pretty cool!

 Again, the boys wanted to hit up the shops....I'm telling you, these Native American vendor tents made a killing from our kids that day! Nate used the last of his money to buy a dagger and case.

Super tough with their daggers - Nate & Mason

It was time to head out and I think eveyone was glad. It was a *super* hot day, but we all had fun and learned a lot.