Parkway students learn about Native Americans

What can you learn by making toy fishing nets or a canoe? The answer is life skills. Before the arrival of the Europeans, Native American children did not go to school to learn as they do today. Instead, they listened to stories told by their elders, made their own toys and played games to learn what they needed to know in order to grow up and become honest, productive people.

In conjunction with a curricular unit on Native Americans, Parkway Elementary School staff held an in-house field trip for the fourth-grade students, presented by instructors Maddi Cheers and Uaian Bruno from “Journeys into American Indian Territory.” The all-day curriculum-based moving museum was geared specifically to fourth-grade students.

The program began with an introductory film about what life was like for the Native Americans after the European settlers arrived and continued with workshops on traditional clothing, games and sports, music and dance, types of housing, tools and technology and government and laws.

In addition to the knowledge Parkway students learned about Native American culture, they were also educated on the important role Natives play in American history.