Pioneer Day Singing Time Activity

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Celebrate Pioneer Day in singing time with this fun lesson plan!  It will help primary children better understand the pioneers all while singing pioneer day songs!
 
This year, I’ve teamed up with a presidency counselor and we are doing a singing time all based around pioneers. It should be very memorable for our primary kids and hopefully help instill in them a better appreciation and love for our pioneer ancestors in the gospel.  Here’s our simple outline…
 
Before primary, set up the primary room so the chairs make one large circle and wear pioneer clothing (optional).  You can also set up a pretend fire in the middle.  Create one at home or you can purchase on on Amazon like this one:

 

There are several Pioneer pictures in the GAB that we will hang on the chalkboard that you can find HERE.

We’ll start with a story about pioneers and temples to coincide with the 2016, July, week 3 outline found HERE.  There is information from lds.org HERE that we will be using.  We will use a picture of a pioneer temple from the Gospel Art Book.

After the story, we’ll move on to life as a pioneer.  They had to make almost everything themselves  – bricks to build their homes and buckets for drawing water.  They also had to grow and make all their own food, including butter…

 
To make homemade butter pass out pre-filled bottles with tightly fitted lids that are each filled with the following:
  • 1 Tbsp. heavy whipping cream
  • 1 pinch salt

1 clean marble (to help stir the butter)I purchased child-proof prescription bottles from Amazon as I couldn’t get any donated (or even pay for any) at my local pharmacies:

 
 
Tell the kids that if they are persistent like the pioneers and shake their bottles, the liquid will turn into delicious butter that we’ll get to eat at the end of primary!  Encourage shaking during the next activity…
 

The pioneer children walked for thousands of miles to reach Salt Lake City.  They also did lots of singing to help pass the time.  Let’s see how much walking and singing we can do as we sing (I’d recommend posting the words like I do HERE and/or use the song on CD) Little Pioneer Children (and shake!)…

 
 

Pioneer (Cake) Walk: You can find details and the footsteps for this activity HERE but I am going to simplify it quite a bit.  As the kids step on the footsteps, sing and shake, I’ll be watching for good singers.  Good singers get a “pioneer” treat (Salt Water Taffy!).  Once everyone has received a treat and we’ve sung our song a few times, we’ll move on to the next activity…

Our presidency counselor will be telling a story about the boys at Sweetwater River (the kids can still be shaking their butter).  I found a little more information HERE.  After the story, we will have a big bucket of ice water so any kids who want to can put their feet in the cold, icy water to imagine what it felt like to cross the freezing cold river…
 
Sing To Be a Pioneer: While we sing, the teachers and presidency members will butter crackers with the butter the kids.
 
To close we’ll briefly discuss how we are all pioneers, even today, and how it’s important not to forget our pioneer heritage and all they sacrificed for the gospel. Just like the pioneers, we make sacrifices for the gospel too.
 

Here’s a quick list of items you’ll need to bring/buy:

  • Pioneer clothing (optional)
  • Pioneer GAB pictures (optional)
  • Knives (plastic for me!)
  • Cream
  • Salt
  • Canisters/medicine bottles
  • Crackers
  • Salt Water Taffy
  • Tin
  • Ice
  • Towel
You can also scroll through all of my Pioneer Day activities HERE if you like.
 
Camille's Primary Ideas: Pioneer Trek Singo Singing Time Lesson Plan Idea featuring Susan Fitch's Artwork
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