----Pioneer Songs---- Music Teaching Helps and Ideas

( Picture From the Friend July 1984)

(Picture From the Friend July 1982)

These ideas could be used for either sharing time or a fun family home evening.

Pioneer Children Sang as They Walked p. 214 Children's Songbook (CS)

Make finger puppets where 2 holes can be cut out and fingers are used as the pioneer children's legs. As the children sing, they walk their pioneers! You can decide whether you only want them to walk on certain words or let them have fun the whole song.

Pioneer Children Were Quick to Obey p.215 CS

Find as many pictures as possible of pioneers. Plaster the wall with all the pictures. Sing a line, then see if a child can find a picture having to do with that phrase. Sing the next line, find a picture. In my head I see this as a "where's waldo" type activity. Make the pictures so it's like a collage. A pioneer search and find!!

Divide a piece of paper into a bingo type sheet. With about 12 squares have a picture in each square. The pictures (clip art) you will need are: pioneer children, wagon, fire, kneeling in prayer, pot of water (some sort of water carrier), pile of wood, no picture-the word BEST, modern day children, smiley face, path, picture of Jesus. (This is going above and beyond... but make a popsicle stick pioneer person with a picture of the child's face glued on. It's quite easy, find a clip art pattern you like. Color. Cut it out, put on popsicle stick. Use as a marker.) Use some sort of marker or they could just use their fingers to point to the picture that they sing about in the song.

Little Pioneer Children p.216-217 CS

Have the senior primary prepare this song to present to the younger primary. Use costumes and actions and props! As they learn the song invite a few of the younger primary members to be included in the act!

Westward Ho! p. 217 CS

Make a large map and at the top put Westward Ho! Add a winding trail, a large rattlesnake (for dangers are many), a wagon, different cutouts of pioneer people that are sad, mountains, grass for the prairies, big heart. And of course, I'd recommend lots of marching in place and sally ho! motions!

Also, you could use the first picture in this post and make a circle to go underneath with corresponding pictures as mentioned in the above suggestion for Westward Ho! (Like the rattlesnake, etc.) As they turn the wheel, they see the pictures in the hole. Make sure to add a brack in the middle (where the black dot is) so it turns easy.

The Oxcart p.219

Bring in a measuring tape to show how big an Ox is. See if all the kids together weighed as much as an ox. For Ox statistics see here. (scroll down a bit)


Covered Wagons p.221 (CS)

This will be noisy. Prepare yourself and the kids. (As in forewarn the kids if anyone is whacking each other with sticks or putting the plastic where they could get hurt like over the face, it's bye bye to the wagon cover) Take a plastic bag and attach a couple sticks so it's like the cover of a wagon that they can put over their heads. Not by their faces! You could arrange the chairs so there is a make shift wagon in front. Children can each get a turn in the wagon as they sing!

Whenever I Think about Pioneers p.222 (CS)

I think this would be a fun song to make a slide show presentation out of. If you could gather a bunch of pictures from any pioneer activities of the kids dressed up or doing the activities, or pictures of their parents dressed up... etc...and then use Microsoft Power Point to put it all together. Of course, you'd need a lap top to bring to church to show the kids.


Come, Come Ye Saints Here is a link from the friend magazine! Wonderful ideas!