Monterey Bay Aquarium

Fish, Fish, Everywhere! I couldn't believe all the different fish we saw at the Monterey Bay Aquarium!

Apple Picking

We went to Tehachapi to pick apples at Pulford's Apple Farm!

Rose Field Trip

Our Science co-op went to visit Week's Roses near Wasco.

Fair Time

We entered things into the Kern County Fair!

California Area Living Museum

After studying a lot of animals in science, we went to CALM. We saw a pelican. We saw a lot of snakes. We saw two bears eating dead fish. It was so gross. We saw some turtles. They were fun. We saw a lot of birds. We got to feed the goats. We saw a fox sleeping. It was so cute. We played on the playset at the end.

Columbia State Park

When we went to Columbia, we dressed like people in the 1850s.

Columbia State Park is an old gold town like in the 1850s. We each got a little book about Columbia and had to go through the town and find the answers to the questions in each little place. We learned a lot about what a town was like back in the gold mining days.

We got to go to school like it would be in the 1860s. We learned how boys and girls sat on opposite sides of the school house, how the students had to do chores, and how they had to stand when they answered the teacher's questions. They did a lot of reading outloud.




We also learned about the early fire department and saw a big cistern under the street. We saw an old, old fire engine that the people actually had to pump by hand to get the water up from the cistern and into the hose. We also had to work together on a bucket brigade to haul water. It was fun but hard work. Some people got really wet!


We had lunch there and then got to play around by the chickens and on some of the old wagons.

The part we really liked was mining for gold. This old guy showed us how to use a gold pan to find gold in the bottom of the dirt.

I found a lot of pretty rocks but not much gold.

This was one of my favorite field trips.

Dewars Ice Cream Field Trip

We got a field trip to Dewars Ice Cream in downtown Bakersfield.

First we put hair nets on. Then we went to see were they made Dewars chews. They were making almond chews the day we were there.

They used 50 pounds of marshmallow, 25 pounds of almonds and a lot of sugar and corn syrup. Then they rolled it up and put it in a machine and that machine rolled it out and cut it and wrapped it. They poured out into a box at the end of the belt.

As we left the candy place he gave us an almond chew.














Then we went to their freezer where they put the ice cream after they make it. It was 10 degrees below zero. We got to put our hand in it. It was soooo cold. They keep the ice cream in this big freezer for a few days to get it really frozen.













Next we went to where they made ice cream. On the day we were there, they were making peppermint and strawberry ice cream. They crunched up peppermint candies and put it in the ice cream. It looked really good.













Lastly, we got to get a scoop of ice cream. I chose chose chocolate ice cream and my friend Jordyn chose strawberry. It was a fun ending to the field trip!

History Camp

History Camp is one of my favorite things at Valley Oaks. We get to spend a whole week at Pioneer Village learning about pioneer days.

We got to learn about branding, candle making, wool carding, jewelry making, tin punching, corn husk dolls, children's games, and school days.


I really liked candle making so that is what I picked to do on the last day. I made candles with my friends and showed kids how to do it. We cut the strings and tied them to our pole. Then we dipped and dipped and dipped them into the hot wax melting over the fire.

I like dressing up like a pioneer girl. I like learning about pioneer days.

I also like animals so my mom took me and my friends to see the little kid goats. They were so cute and we played with them.

LaPurisma Mission

We drove a long ways to see La Purisma Mission. It was built many years ago when Indians lived here.

It was a very big mission. Hundreds of Indians lived with the Spanish. They grew their own food. They made all their buildings. They made their own clothes and tools. They made most everything they needed.

They had thousands of animals living on the mission too. Cows, horses, mules, pigs, sheep and lots of them.

We toured the mission and saw people making soap from lye, people making tortillas, people making bread. We saw a guy making really neat candles that used to be made from real bee's wax.

We saw the church where they worshiped. We saw the jail. We saw the animals. We saw the blacksmith. We saw the kitchen were they made all the food. We even saw their bathtub outside. We even saw a lady making the pottery for cups and roof tiles.

My friend and I built this mission and learned about it before we went.

Tule Elk Reserve

We took a drive just outside of Bakersfield to the Tule Elk Reserve to see the native elk. We had to look and look and look before seeing the elk, but it was really exciting when we finally saw them. We've been studying "Ungulates". If you don't know what ungulates are, I'll tell you. Ungulates are hoofed creatures. That would include horses, giraffes, deer, cows, goats, sheep, pigs, camels, llamas, rhinos, and many more. We read about elephants, donkeys, zebras, tapirs and a number of African animals. It was fun to learn about how cows had four chamber stomachs and chew a cud--so do elk! We have learned about so many different animals I have never heard of, like an okapis, zibu, blue wildebeest, and tapirs. The male elk grow new horns every year. They shed their old ones in late winter. We saw some horns on the ground. The older they are, the bigger their antlers get. Some were pretty old as they had nice big antlers. Look at these--what a fight!

Dissecting Owl Pellelts

Sarah and her friends enjoyed an afternoon learning about rodents and the food chain. Rodent means "gnawing tooth" because rodents have these teeth that never stop growing so they must continually be gnawing on something. God created an enormous amount of rodents that live all over the world. Why the large number of rodents? Because they are food for many other animals. Owls love rodents so we decided to look at some owl pellets and see what was inside. We found bones, bones, and more bones--likely from a rodent. Our goal was to find as many bones as we could and see if we could put them together to form a rodent or a mole. It was quite the challenge as you can see below!