Thursday, May 17, 2012

Pioneer Day

Each year the fourth graders at my school learn about the Oregon Trail.
Once the unit is finished, they actually TRAVEL the trail.
Seriously, it is one of the coolest things our school does.
Teachers volunteer to be guides and to man stations.
8th graders volunteer to play Native Americans, wild animals and such.
We have a 25 acre campus on which the trip takes place, including
a pond which the kids have to cross - with guides of course.
There are numerous stations to visit such as:
-the Native Americans who don't speak English, and they have to learn how to communicate
-Digging for gold
-Trapping wild animals
-Collecting cow pies
-A saloon, where they take a root beer break.
Sometimes they may loose their water (tricky 8th grader dumps it)
or someone gets cholera and the group must decide how to proceed.
Well, my son didn't come to school until 5th grade
so he never got to do the Oregon Trail.....until now.
He's 16 and volunteered to be a guide.
He had a great time!
Here he is in his Oregon Trail/Abercrombie shirt and porn star sunglasses.

I think this is very cool.

2 comments:

I'm free of the abuse said...

What an awesome thing for the 4th graders. We have a conservation site for our 3rd graders that they go and learn how the pioneers lived. They pan for gold, make biscuits from scratch, churn butter, make ice cream, dip candles, and other cool stuff. Glad your sun got to finally go! ;)

PS: Did you buy the bike?? I'm playing catch up from the last few weeks! :D

Susan
http://75percenthippie.blogspot.com
http://happyhippieheart.blogspot.com

Alison Douglass said...

That is so cool- both that they do the trip & that your son (porn star glasses HA!) gets to help!