Prairie: a treeless, grassy plain
Third grade was Pioneer Day. Let me clarify: every day of third grade was Pioneer Day. There was big magnificent Pioneer Day, where we got out of class with our "family" (five names drawn out of hat) and spent a day in the Pioneer Room living life on the prairie. All the other days were spent on learning about who was president during the pioneer times and learning about the grasslands and learning about churning.
(Side note: An old-fashioned butter churn
The kind we used on Pioneer Day
So not the same. And there was an old-timey one in the room! We weren't allowed to touch it!)
We read Little House on the Prairie during Pioneer Lifetime.
And the only thing I remember from the whole Ingalls Wilder experience is my teacher saying, "The next book we're going to read, class, is Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder. But I'm not going to read the book out loud to you and you're not going to read the book out loud."
We all looked around the classroom perplexed. Who was going to read the book? How we were going to obtain this new information without reading?
"We are going to listen to it on tape!"
Our eyes widened with this announcement and the next day we began. And at the end of every page the tape would DING so we knew when to turn it.
I totally wish life had that DING.
Comments
This soooooo gets me confused....
Dong?
Posted by: sally | November 15, 2006 7:28 PM
So, I was just sitting here innocently reading this post when a whole flood of memories I'd completely forgotten about came flooding back; what with the baby butter churn and the Little House and the crazy pioneer clothes that we got to wear at school. So thanks for that.
Posted by: Jennie | November 16, 2006 6:59 AM
Remember also those DING flimstrips? Are you too young to remember filmstrips?
Posted by: heather anne | November 16, 2006 7:38 AM
could be too young. In fact, I'm pretty impressed that at your young age they still had those archaic machines in your schools. Which leads me to wonder where you went to school. Obviously you neither went to Catholic schools, nor were home-schooled.
Posted by: sally | November 16, 2006 5:38 PM
Oh, Sally, don't be mislead by my immaturity. I am old. I went to public school in north Georgia, Deliverance Country.
Posted by: heather anne | November 16, 2006 7:48 PM
I read this post, then went back to your "about" page just to double check, but I remembered correctly: You grew up in Illinois. That makes us prairie sisters. But also as I suspected, you grew up near Chicago. Because we downstaters never got to churn butter. You city folk were so progressive, what with your butter churning.
Posted by: Teej | November 16, 2006 8:03 PM
Teej, bet you didn't know just how "progressive" this girl was/is! Check out her school - where there there is an actual Prairie Room and barnyard on the lover level. http://rogershepherd.com/WIW/solution5/crow2.html
Yes, this predates her Catholic girls' school days.
Posted by: Sally | November 16, 2006 10:08 PM
Jennie! So you had Pioneer Lifetime too?!
Heather Anne, you'd be pleased to know that we watched one of those in HIGH SCHOOL. Yes, learned how to crop pictures from a DING slideshow.
Oh Teej, we are totally prairie sisters. You can actually make a butter churn from a mason jar. Or a sturdy plastic bag with marbles. You pour in some un-pasteurized heavy whipping cream and shake for like 20 minutes. Pathetic that I know this? Very yes. Pertinent that you have the butter churning experience? Very yes.
Okay, Sally, you totally motivated me to look up the Pioneer Room. ...
Everybody, I found this fantastic link which is pretty much my blog post but better written all about the pioneer room. I remember now: we also made candles and hornbooks and a million other crafts. Hornbooks? My life is such a joke.
Posted by: Abigail | November 16, 2006 10:28 PM
God I loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder books when I was a kid. Why? I have no idea.
Posted by: doahleigh | November 17, 2006 11:03 AM