Have a "Pioneer Day"

One way to really make this day special for your students is to choose several different activity ideas, and combine them to make a "Pioneer Day". This could correspond with the day we visit your school, or be a lead-in or follow-up activity. Many schools have tried this with wonderful results!

Some possible activities include:

1. Invite a fiddle player or local quilting, rug hooking or spinners group from your community to demonstrate their craft.
2. Have a friendly rivalry between classes on your program date to see which class has the most students dressed up like pioneers.
3. Learn some folk songs from the 1800s and perform them in a concert for the parents and families.
4. Invite grandparents to come to your program with their grandchildren. This is a wonderful way to celebrate Grandparent’s Day in the fall or to just include family members that don’t always get invited to school events.
5. Have students bring a pioneer-style lunch to school that day or find out if your food service can specially order a pioneer-style meal such as baked beans and cornbread with apple slices.
6. Make soap. Pioneers had to make theirs from fireplace ashes and grease, but you can use the recipe below.
7. Watch a video such as West to Oregon, Along the Oregon Trail (EMA Video Productions, 503-241-8663). This award winning video is one of the best we’ve ever seen and would be appropriate for students grade 2-8. The video can be ordered with a teacher guide or without (both can be used school wide), and features costumed reenactments, authentic covered wagons and detailed maps. Filmed in six states from Missouri to Oregon, it is beautifully done and exciting to watch.
8. Have each grade or class work on a pioneer craft, using help from parent volunteers when needed and have all the items auctioned off at a school-wide auction night to raise money for future activities. Crafts done in the past include small baskets, woodworking items, braided rag rugs, quilts, hand-dipped candles, etc. (This idea raised several thousand dollars at one school that tried it!)
9. Turn off the classroom lights for the day and recreate a pioneer classroom. See school rules below. Students can be asked to "toe the line" while reciting answers to problems (a piece of tape on the floor towards the front of the room works well), when filing into class, have boys and girls line up separately, remind students to "make their manners" (this means girls curtsy and boys bow), and have all students address the teacher as "Mistress Carter", or "Master Johnson".
10. Have existing lessons altered to fit within the pioneer theme. For example: Journal writing can be done in character from a pioneer’s perspective, spelling words can reflect the time period, or reading can be done from a Little House book (they have books appropriate for preschool on up).