We just had our Harvest Festival and it went so well! I can hardly believe that it's over and was as successful as it seems to be!! All our volunteers showed up and were wonderful, the highschool kids were a godsend. It's been about 3 weeks and the children, parents, and teachers are still coming up to me and saying how wonderfully it went. This was my first attempt at organizing such an event and there were some learning points, but overall I am very pleased! We had two fundraisers, a raffle, and The Dodge Drive for Kids, both were pretty successful. In just 2 hours we raised almost $400 from the Dodge Drive alone, the best part was that the parents did not have to buy anything, nor were our kids out trying to sell something! The parents had fun with it. The salsman and field rep. were both very nice people! Thank you Dodge/Chrysler!!

I almost forgot, there is also going to be a craft activity (from the Mama & Williams Crafts) the kids will make a ball and cup toy using egg carton cups, craft sticks, buttons and thread. You can do tin punching by using aluminum pie pans, small hammer and large nail, and a brave volunteer! If you have time, visit a living history museum/farm. Alot of wonderful people volunteer there and they are more than happy to talk with you about some ideas. We are also having some high school students from the Drama Department, bring to life some of our towns notable founders, they are having alot of fun with it, and their teacher is giving them extra credit!

We are having a "Pioneer Celebration" at our elementary school. We are going to be dipping candles, churning butter (using baby food jars, marbles and whipping cream we are going to recreate a "one-room" schoolhouse and let the kids read from a McGuffey Reader, use feather ink quills (we got them free from a museum!)writing with homemade ink(boil walnut shells, vinegar, salt, and add lampblack-which is just black soot you collect by holding a plate over a candle) We found some old spice prints and will let the children color their own black&white copy, we are going to have real pioneer toys, (stilts, game of graces, hoop & stick, whimmy-diddles, nine pins) the children will be allowed to play with them
and at the end of the festival we are going to raffle them off, in a kids only free raffle. We are also going to have a horse-drawn wagon ride. we got some local garden centers to come and decorate for free. Contact your local historical society, they are a great resource. I found alot of info. on the internet, by using key words such as "pioneer children", "pioneer toys", there is a web sight called Mama & Williams Crafts, that have a colonial toys craft page. The pioneer toys were almost all made by some of our crafty dads. We got donations from parents, teachers, and local businesses. Good luck!

Our 5th grade class participates in a "Pioneer Day" every year. With our small class sizes we do it in a home, but you could easily do these activities on a large scale. We make butter & cornbread and serve it with fresh squeezed orange juice for breakfast. We do soap carving, rag rugs, metal punch, candle making, corn husk dolls, quilting (using paper shapes), make foil packs for lunch, leather tooling, and so on. We've even had volunteers in the past dressed in character to tell stories. The kids have a great time and learn so much! :cool:

We have used a program called Pinoeer Living. They are out of Oregon(I think) but tour the country regularly. They set up in the gym or a similar large area with stations. The kids can card wool, pan for gold (very small pieces of pyrite, which they can keep), bead necklaces, play with old-style toys. It's fairly inexpensive and the kids enjoy it.

Try your state parker intepreters. We have one who dresses up as a French explorer and talks about what it was like mapping the Arkansas River. He brings a musket and other tools used.

Another helped us make cave paint and talked about the Indians in the area.

They are a great resource and usually FREE.