The First People Skills activities include an introduction to tracking, fire-making with a wooden hand drill, and cordage: making rope from plant fibers. Students learn how to read dirt for clues, build a fire and make a camp-bread introduced by Scottish trappers in the 1600s, and turn a leaf of a Yucca plant into a rope bracelet.

The post-activity classroom discussion (comparing life today to that of native Californians 300 years ago) helps students understand that everything we use and consume in our daily lives begins as a natural resource. They learn about the surprising amount of resources it takes to create simple, everyday items. Grades 4 – 6.