Field Trips at the Prairie Acadian Cultural Center

At the Prairie Acadian Cultural Center in Eunice, curriculum-based programs are available for students pre-kindergarten through 8th grade. Just for fun, students can also enjoy scavenger hunts in the visitor center and videos on subjects from the Acadian deportation to music to Mardi Gras to the Houma Indians. Call 337-457-8499 for more information and reservations.

• At the Fais-Do-Do (pre-K through kindergarten), students "attend" a fais-do-do, pretending they're the grownups dancing to the music and putting the dolls to bed with a whispered, "Fais do-do." Cajun, Creole, and zydeco music is featured until it's "midnight" and time to go home.
• Bal de Maison (1st - 3rd grades) introduces students to Cajun music with the help of the center's volunteer musicians. Rangers and volunteers share the history of Cajun music, demonstrate instruments, explain what makes Cajun music Cajun, teach students to play simple instruments like spoons and triangles, and offer Cajun dancing lessons.
• Olden Days and Cajun Ways (4th - 6th grades) relates the lives of modern students to the good old days through toys, tools, and common household objects. Ordinary artifacts like soap, coffee grinders, and children's toys tell a story of who made them and who used them.
• Cajun Cooking (7th - 8th grades) uses gumbo as the basis for lessons in history and culture. Students hear the history of the Acadian ancestors in Nova Scotia and can compare food and resources available there with what the deported Acadians found in south Louisiana. Varieties of gumbos reveal the influence of geography, traditional ethnic groups, and new influences.