Pioneer Month

Each Sunday this month I decided to bring the spirit of our pioneer heritage to Primary since Pioneer Day is celebrated during the month of July. We learned a few pioneer songs and had fun making up actions to them as we sang.

The first week I brought in some of the few items that pioneers could carry with them in their little handcarts and told them that if they were pioneer children they'd have to leave behind most of their toys and clothes. I asked them if they could only bring one thing with them what they would like to take. It was interesting to hear their responses. A blanket, a doll, a gun, a gameboy, food, etc.
In nursery (2- and 3-year-olds) we had fun playing follow-the-leader walking around the room while we sang Pioneer Children Sang as they Walked.

The second week we learned about how to be pioneers from the words of the song To Be a Pioneer.
They loved learning the discant part to the song and so when it was each group's turn to sing the discant I had them stand up and march along with the song. After that week I had to assign parts because everyone wanted to volunteer to be a marcher. We also learned that an ox is like a big cow with large horns and moves along slowly pulling heavy wagons. They loved to exaggerate The Oxcart song with low, slow voices.

The next week I told them an abbreviated history of my great-great-great grandfather Francis Webster who had been a pioneer. After Primary that day I was approached by an elderly lady who teaches one of the Primary classes and she told me that we was a Webster too.

I promised the children that at the end of the month we would have a big pioneer finale. So I fashioned a pioneer costume and we all pretended to be on a pioneer trek. We sang as we walked and then I turned out the lights and we pretended that we were in a pioneer camp, singing songs by the fire and telling stories. I told them a true story about two pioneer girls that prayed when they were surrounded by snakes and they were able to make it out of the snakes alive. And then I had the kids reenact the story using pieces of brown yarn to slither like snakes and had girls jump over them.

The kids had a blast learning the new songs and listening to stories about real pioneer people.
Feel free to use any of these ideas.