Students at Lincoln Elementary School put on Pioneer Day Friday during school hours.
Friday’s Pioneer Day was the fifth time Jane Zellers, third-/fourth-grade teacher, has held the event in the 10 years she’s been at the school for her combined third- and fourth-grade class. Her class is a high ability class and she has the same students for both third and fourth grades. She alternates years between a Native American unit and a unit on pioneers.
During the morning, the class performed plays based on a certain topic they learned about during their pioneer unit. Those topics were the Lewis and Clark expedition and the Louisiana Purchase; the Oregon Trail, Sante Fe Trail, Trail of Tears and overall westward expansion; communication during pioneer days, which included the Pony Express; and the California Gold Rush.
After each play, there was a short question and answer session where those watching could comment on the play that was performed, as well as ask questions about it.
Zellers said the idea for Pioneer Day came about because her students came together and did plays on what they learned during their Native American unit and it was decided to do the same thing for the pioneer unit.
Before Pioneer Day, the students were put into groups of four or five students. The groups did research on their topic and write a play based on what they were able to research.
“This is their way of presenting (the research) any way they wanted,” said Zellers.
For the plays, the students had rubrics they had to adhere to and had requirements such as the plays had to be factual, they had to have costume and they had to have props, said Zellers.
During the event, students also had eight pioneer stations they visited, which allowed them to make quilts, make cornmeal, churn butter, do laundry, do sash making, make corn husk dolls and play pioneer games.
