Morning Session Activities

This was designed as an activity rotation with 45 minutes designated for each station.

Station #1: Prairie Dolls
Since store bought dolls were quite a luxury, dolls were made of many common materials such as corn husks as well as fabric. These fabric Prairie Dolls were ordinarily made without faces.

Brownie Program Link: Puppets, Dolls, & Plays, Yarn Doll (substitute)

Junior Program Link: Toymaker #4 or Folk Arts #5

Station #2: Quilting
Quilts were an important part of our American heritage. Because of the size of quilting projects, it was often easier to gather together to perform the quilting and finishing when the individuals had finished the "piecing" (sewing together of "blocks" to form a finished size quilt). Quilting Bees, gatherings where community quilting would occur, were originally developed so that Colonial women could gather in groups since they were not ordinarily encouraged to do so. These "bees" grew into quite a social event by the 1800's, often ending with a large feast and perhaps even a square dance. Usually 7 or 8 quilts were completed at a typical Quilting Bee.

Young girls learned to quilt early in life, around age 3 or 4. Most girls had sewn their first quilt by age 5 and by the time they were ready to be married, most girls had completed 12 quilts plus a special marriage quilt.

Since modern day young ladies no longer are taught this skill early in life, I chose the following activity taken from the 1991 Leisure Arts Magazine. It is called "pencil quilting" and Brownie and Junior age girls should be able to complete this easily.

Pencil Quilted Mini Pillow

Supplies needed: Directions:
  1. Center one piece of muslin over quilt pattern of your choice aligning straight outer edges of pattern with straight grain of fabric. Using ruler and fine point marker, trace quilt pattern onto muslin.(I plan to do this in advance of the event.)
  2. Using colored pencils, color design as desired. (Note: girls may want to practice on a piece of scrap fabric first, experimenting to find the right amount of pressure for the desired results)
  3. Place quilt top face up on other muslin piece, matching raw edges
    4. .(You may want to pin fabric in place to avoid fabric shifting).
  4. Using 1 strand of embroidery floss in needle (you may want to pre-thread needles for the girls in advance), sew the two muslin pieces together on three sides using a running stitch about 1/4" from the quilt block.
  5. Stuff with polyester fiberfill.
  6. Sew opening closed using a running stitch.
  7. Fringe raw edges of mini pillow 3/8" by pulling loose threads of muslin until the desired fringe length of fringe is achieved.

Junior Program Link: Art in the Home #5

Station #3: Pioneer Games
Children did many chores to help while on the trek West. The following game gives them an idea of one of the chores they might have been expected to do.

Fill the Water Barrell

Supplies needed:

How to Play:
Divide into equal teams. Have a source of water handy (a creek or stream is ideal but a water faucet will do as well). At the signal, the first girl on each team must fill her bucket and run to dump it in the barrel. The next girl does the same thing and so on until the water barrells are filled to a level marked on the barrels. The first team to do this is the winner. This may be adapted to younger girls by having them run the relay in teams of two girls at a time. In order to not waste water, save this water for dishwashing needs later.

Other games to play may be Jacks, Cats Cradle or Marbles all of which were popular games of the day.

Brownie Program Links: :Listening to the Past, Games of Yesteryear

Junior Program Link: My Heritage #5 (game)

Afternoon Session Activities

This was designed as an activity rotation with one hour designated for each station.

Station #1: "Good Luck" Geckos
Beadwork was a common skill in many Native American tribes. Although using the pony beeds and lacing is not historically correct, I thought the girls would enjoy this latest craze. We used a beady critter gecko pattern.

Junior Program Link: Arts & Media #6

Station #2: Dutch Oven Cornbread
Since the pioneers could not transport their stoves to cook on, the Dutch oven became an important piece of pioneer equipment. These versatile "ovens" were used for cooking almost everything. Pioneer trains gearing up near Independence, Missouri were given a list of essentials with the Dutch oven at the top of the list.

Cornbread Recipe

Ingredients:

Mix the previous and add:

Preheat cast iron well greased Dutch oven. Add batter and bake with 18 coals on top and 9 coals below for 15-20 minutes or until done.

While the Cornbread is cooking, girls can break into groups and design a raft using only natural materials. Then, you can test them to see how long they float or, if a stream is nearby, have a race to see which raft is the fastest.

Brownie Program Link: Food Fun , Sloppy Joes (substitution)

Junior Program Link: Outdoor Cook #10 (alternate cooking method) or My Heritage #5 (cook)

Station #3: Navigation
Juniors: "The Oregon Trail" Compass and Pacing Game - this is a historically based game on the trek West using the Oregon Trail. It isdesigned to reinforce compass skills as well as teach how to pace to measure distances. This game is available for purchase from A & E Orienteering.

Brownies: String Orienteering course - See the String-O section of James Baker's Orienteering Booklet for a description of a String-O course. We will use bags with puzzle pieces at each "control" point. At the end, the girls will put together a simple puzzle relating to the Oregon Trail.

Junior Program Link: Finding Your Way, #5c

to Sample Events Page