Pioneer Day

Pioneer Day Treats:
-Make Rootbear Floats in Mason Jars (homemade root bear & homemade ice cream)
-Covered Wagon Treats

- Flapjacks

- Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler

- Tin Foil Dinners

- Lemonade

- Homemade Bread

- Popcorn

Pioneer Day Activities:

- Children Pioneer Stories

- Gunny Sack Race

- 3 legged race

- Whittling by the campire... (the older guy got real pocket knife but little guys can use plastic butter knives and a bar of soap.)

- Have a Corn on the Cob Eating Contest: Anyone who dared, could enter this contest, at last years Pioneer Day Party! The rules were the contestant had to eat all of the corn from the cob, swallow and show an empty mouth, then run to the back fence and toss the cob over and run back to the finish line. It was pretty fun...and funny to watch!

- Dress up & decorate a wagon We dug out our old bonnets, hats, and anything else we could use as Pioneer clothing. Then we made our stroller into a covered wagon. Just cover the open canopy using a white sheet and safety pins. Then attach brown strip of cardboard to the bottom with some brown or clear packing tape...it looked pretty good! (I wish I had a better photo but this is the best I had! The oldest cousins got elected to be the oxen...)

- Square Dancing

- Butter Making

- Panning for Gold: Screening sand w/ a penny in it

- Milk the Cow: Wooden Cow w/ Glove Udders

- collecting eggs- stuffed animal chickens on nest boxes with plastic eggs.

- digging potatoes- large box of cedar chips with potatoes and shovels

- hanging laundry- wet clothes on clotheslines strung between trees

- horseshoes

- hand cart rides

- petting zoo

- jump rope

- Pie Eating Contest - This could be for the adults and/or children. Contestants cannot use their hands.

- Wild Game Hunt - Using a sling shot to hit little Xeroxed critters taped on two liter bottles.
- Cricket Clothespins Toss - black clothes pins tossed into a barrel or bucket for points
- Bobbing for Apples

- Marble Mania - You will need a couple child sized wading pools filled about halfway with water, dump a bag of marbles into each pool. Have two at a time in a pool trying to pick up the marbles with their toes. Have them put the marbles in a Frisbee off to the side of the pool. The person with the most marbles wins.

- Watermelon Seed Spitting Contest
- Have the children make log cabin houses/covered wagons out of popsicle sticks and milk cartons.
- Stick Pull - Like in Joseph Smith's time
- Tug-o-War
- It's Gold!! - Pan for "gold" by spray painting pebbles gold and mix with mud and other rocks. Use disposable pie pans with punched-out holes. Then use the gold pebbles as tokens for other games.

Possible prizes for the different events - licorice, peppermint sticks, salt water taffy, big Dill Pickles, Slim Jims, Beef Jerky, bamboo pea shooters & little sack of beans, very simple Pioneer rag dolls, both boy and girl dolls, " bear " skins (pieces of fake fur fabric).

- Pioneer Treasure Hunt

Instructions: Cut out or copy all the Pioneer Fact cards (see below). Hide #2 by the kitchen sink; #3 in a toy box or closet; #4 on the stairs or front steps; #5 in the oven; #6 in the freezer; #7 on the kitchen or dining-room table; #8 in the bathtub or shower stall; #9 by the piano, record player, or radio; and the treasure itself (a small prize or treat) in a pantry or cupboard. If a clue doesn’t fit your home, change it or leave it out. Give fact card # 1 to treasure hunters to begin search.

Pioneer Fact #1 Pioneers used to drink from streams. They didn’t have running water like we do. Where do we getour drinks?

Pioneer Fact #2 Pioneers made up games to play as they traveled. Because they left most of their toys behind, they had to make their own toys from things that they found. Where do we keep our toys?

Pioneer Fact #3 As the pioneers traveled, they came to many mountains and hills. Climbing them was hard work! What do we have to climb every day?

Pioneer Fact #4 The pioneers traveled in all kinds of weather. Sometimes it was very hot! Where in our house canwe turn on something to make it very, very hot?

Pioneer Fact #5 Pioneers also encountered cold so bitter that it cost many of them their lives. Where is it freezing cold in our house?

Pioneer Fact #6 Pioneers didn’t have homes to eat in. They cooked over open fires and ate their meals outside. Where do we eat ourmeals?

Pioneer Fact #7 Pioneers didn’t have bathtubs. They took their baths in rivers and streams. Where dowe take baths?

Pioneer Fact #8 After a long day’s travel, the pioneers pulled their wagons into a circle, then built campfires. Often they sang and danced around these fires. Where do wesing and dance?

Pioneer Fact #9 The pioneers seldom had enough to eat. They were often hungry and had to ration food. We are lucky to have so much to eat. The treasure will be found where ourfood is stored.

Family relay games -

◦ Eat a cracker and whistle a hymn, pull a handcart to "Promised Land," dress in pioneer clothes and pull handcart back to next team member ◦ clothes line relay ◦ hard boiled eggs on a spoon ◦ water in bucket to fill another bucket and then again with grain ◦ three legged race ◦ sack races

- Potato relay (large potatoes---on a spoon, or between knees?)

- Wagon rim and stick relay (teams---dollar store hula hoops

as rims, paint sticks to spin them.)

Family Home Evening Lesson:

Attention Activity - Ask one of your children to leave the room (or close his or her eyes) while you hide a rock or other small object somewhere in the room. Then have the child return (or open his or her eyes) and look for the object. Have the family help by saying “hot” when the child is near the object or moving toward it and “cold” when the child is far from the object or moving away from it. When the child has found the object, tell the children that this lesson is about the faith of the pioneers.

• What does it mean to have faith?

Explain that to have faith is to believe and trust that something is real and true even though we have not seen it with our own eyes. Point out that the child who was looking for the hidden object had faith that it was in the room, even though he or she could not see it.

• In whom must we have faith?

Help the children review the fourth Article of Faith. Point out that this Article of Faith says that faith in Jesus Christ is the first principle of the gospel.

• Why is it important to have faith in Jesus Christ?

(Pictures of Mary Fielding Smith to print and show during the following story.)

Story - After Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were martyred, Hyrum’s wife, Mary Fielding Smith, left Nauvoo and traveled to Winter Quarters. On the way back, Mary and her family camped near the Missouri River. Camping nearby were some men who were driving a herd of cattle to market. Mary’s son, Joseph F., and his uncle usually unyoked their oxen at night so the oxen could eat and rest more easily, but because they were so close to the other herd of cattle they left the yokes on the oxen. That way the oxen would be easy to find if they got mixed in with the other animals.

The next morning some of the oxen were missing. Joseph F. and his uncle spent all morning looking for them, but they could not find them. As Joseph F. returned to the camp, tired and discouraged, he saw his mother kneeling in prayer. He heard her asking the Lord to help them find the lost oxen so they could continue their journey in safety.

When Mary finished her prayer, she had a smile on her face. Although her brother said the cattle were surely gone for good, Mary said she would go out and look for a while. Her brother tried to convince her that he and Joseph F. had searched everywhere and it was useless for her to search also, but she went anyway. As Mary walked away from her camp, one of the men taking the cattle to market called out, “Madam, I saw your oxen over in that direction this morning about daybreak.” Although the man was pointing in the opposite direction, Mary continued walking toward the river. Joseph F. was watching her, and he came running when she beckoned to him. When he came near her, he saw their oxen tied to a clump of willows. Someone had hidden them, probably with the intention of stealing them. With their oxen found, Mary Fielding Smith and her family were able to continue their journey. (See Don Cecil Corbett, Mary Fielding Smith: Daughter of Britain, pp. 209–13.)

How was Mary Fielding Smith’s faith in the power of the priesthood a blessing to her and her family? Remind your family that the priesthood is the power and authority to act in the name of God. When we exercise faith in the power of the priesthood, we are showing faith in Jesus Christ. Just like the pioneers, how can our faith in Jesus Christ help us when we are sad or have problems?

Song - Pioneer Children

Activity - Pioneer Treasure Hunt

Now that we've learned more about the pioneers and their faith, let me ask you some questions:

What would have been difficult for you if you had been a pioneer?
How do you think you would have handled these situations?
What difficulties do you have in life that the pioneers did not have?
How can your faith in Jesus Christ help you handle such situations?

Summary - Share your testimony of the pioneers, faith and the importance of staying close to Heavenly Father through trying times.

Treat - Make Marshmallow Covered Wagons (from the July 2007 Friend Magazine (pg. 36-37)

VIDEO CLIPS: Check your church library to see if they have any of these videos...

Legacy - This movie portrays the joys, sacrifices, hopes and trials of early Latter-day Saints and describes the legacy of faith left by early Church members.
"Tried in All Things" - President Gordon B. Hinckley tells of three young men who made great sacrifices to assist the suffering pioneers in the Martin handcart company. (Video Clip 11) 4:25 min.
Zion's Camp - Several events from the march of Zion's Camp show how it fulfilled the purposes of God. (Video Clip 7) 18:35 min.

Happy Pioneer Day!