Hop into the Nysmith time machine because we’re traveling back to the 1800’s to speak to a few Pioneer men and women traveling along the Oregon Trail! The Second Grade students are geared up and ready to act out how life was like for the men, women, children, and animals that traveled across the United States from Missouri to Oregon City. Life on the Oregon Trail was no easy feat for the migrants. From trekking across a 2,200 mile long journey, to enduring the harsh climate and being on the move for four to six months. The Pioneers would pack everything they owned onto their wagons and head out West seeking a promised land of milk and honey.
The pioneers typically traveled as a family unit so the students were broken up into two families where they were given a role to play such as the mom, dad, a child, a cattle or even a horse. Because the journey across the trail was long and difficult, everyone in the family had different but equally as important jobs and responsibilities. When asked what type of responsibilities the father of the family had, a student said “the men would be in charge of the livestock, keeping guard, and hunting!” When the mothers of the pioneer families were asked what their responsibilities were they responded by saying “our responsibilities were to get water, make a fire, milk the cows, make bread, cook dinner, clean the clothes and take care of the children.” The journey across The Oregon Trail sometimes forced the men and women to switch gender roles where women had to perform tasks that had typically been reserved for men, and vice versa. The class got into character and pioneered around the campus pretending that certain parts of the school were areas of land that the pioneers actually traveled across.
To get more of a realistic experience of The Oregon Trail, the students were provided with an assortment of different foods that were similar to what the emigrants ate during their journey. They were given beef jerky because all of the meat they traveled with had to be dehydrated to prevent it from going bad. They were also given bread, berries, beans and butter which were other foods that traveled well and kept the pioneers strong and full! The students had tons of fun getting into their characters and acting out the experiences that the pioneers of the 19th century faced in their journey for a better life. They even got a chance to end their experience by playing the 1970’s hit game Oregon Trail!
