Pioneer Review

The 24th of July is a day of celebration for all members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  We celebrate the ability to worship without persecution.  Today, there are "pioneers" around the world who have been instrumental in spreading the gospel.

Celebrate with the children by singing some of the pioneer songs as well as reviewing the songs we have learned this year up to this point.

Here are some ideas for this activity:

• Cut out several covered wagons or handcarts.  Print a song title on the back. Ask a child to put a wagon up and then sing the song.  Continue until you have sung all the songs and you have a line of wagons on the board representing the trek across the plains.
• Find several baseball sized rocks.  Print a song title on a paper and tape it to the rock.  Lay them hap-hazard on the ground or table. Tell the children that there were many rocks along the way.  Often times the children would move rocks to the side of the trail in a line to mark the path for pioneers who came after them.  Ask a child to move the a rock so it is in a line forming a path. Sing the song.  Continue until all the rocks create a path to follow and all the song have been sung.
• Have a list of songs that you want to sing/review.  After each song, ask 1 or 2 children to tell something about the early pioneers, such as: sacrifices, things they might have brought with them, what they might have done along the way (sing, played tag, helped push the handcarts, etc.)