Blog Buzz #3
Idaho History Day
On Thursday, May 21st, the 4th grade of White Pine Elementary went back in time to the days of Idaho's Gold Rush, and when pioneers came from Independence, Missouri to Idaho on the Oregon Trail. We the students got to do the jobs the pioneers did back then.
There were eight jobs in all: Milking and Washing, Pioneer Toys, Pioneer Games, Indian Beading, Roping, Pioneer Tools, Butter-Making, and Branding. On Milking and Washing, you milked cardboard carts with a glove filled with water. The helper behind the cow held onto the glove for you. The gloves had holes in them, so you could squeeze out the water. Then, when you were done with that, you grabbed a shirt from a table and got it all dirty in the grass. Then, you took it and placed it in a barrel and started getting it all wet. Then, you used a scrubber and scrubbed the dirt spots off. Then, you took the shirt and put it through a wringer. Then you took it to dry and bring two shirts back. At Pioneer Games, you made things called Moon Spinners. You chose a one-inch button (like a button that goes on a shirt) and put it through string. It's hard to explain how you use it, but mostly you twirl it around and let the string do cool tricks. I never learned how, so Blake had to teach me. I still don't really know how to use it, but oh well. At Pioneer Games you played Egg Races. You took a real egg and put it on a spoon. You carried it to a cone, walked around the cone, and walked back to your team. If you dropped the egg, you'd pick it up, put it on your spoon, and keep going. If you dropped it and it broke, you had to get a new egg, and that's a big waste of time. Then, you played Blind Man's Bluff where they tied a bandana around someone's eyes, and then they'd try to chase you and other players. Then, we played Leap Frog. I think most of you who read this know how to play, so I'm not going to explain the rules. Next, at Indian Beading, you made bracelets to wear. You took a fish string and did a pattern. You could choose 15 plastic beads of any color, and five glass beads. My pattern was: glass bead, orange, blue, black. It turned out beautiful in the end. Then, at the Roping station, you tried to rope animal heads that were stuck on haystacks. I got all of them, and a few times I ripped the heads off the hay. That was fun, but the wrist action was tough. At the Pioneer Tools station, my teacher's husband and my mom were the Trail Bosses there. (I'll explain Trail Bosses later.) We got to use real saws to cut off wood. We also got use drills to drill holes in wood. The old-fashioned tools were harder to use than today's. We also used hammers to hammer down nails. The nails were huge, and the hammers look like the ones we use today, except more rusty-looking. We got our own chunk of wood that we'd cut off with the saws. At Butter-Making, we had to shake milk and other ingredients for fifteen minutes until it turned into a ball shape. It hurt my arm; I guess I'd been shaking too hard at first. Then, at Branding, we used a stick with WP on the bottom, and that stood for White Pine. A Trail Boss stuck the stick in the real campfire, and then he stuck it onto the cardboard we laid out. I got to help push it on. Fire came off the cardboard, and the other Trail Boss sprayed water on it to cool it down. Mine turned out great! Then, we roasted marshmallows. My first marshmallow was nice, tasty, and warm, but my other turned WAY too brown. It tasted HORRIBLE. My mom gave me water to cool my taste buds down. I was relieved after that. It was fun. Then, we ate stew and rolls with the butter we made for lunch, and presented our Idaho History Projects. Then, we sang campfire songs and drew plants that are in 4th grade's Native Garden. Mine turned out horrible because I'm a REALLY bad artist. After that, a woman named Patty Miller came to talk about the Basque Culture. Basque is famous in Idaho because of the jobs that were being offered here in the Boise area. We told about our ancestors, and after I shared mine, I learned that my teacher is related to me!!! My mom and my teacher's husband are distant cousins. After learning about Basque, we did a Basque dance and learned a Basque cheer. It starts out low, then gets louder, and at the end, you laugh. It was funny. Then, we got popsicles!!! It was a fun day.
Trail Bosses are the helpers of the whole thing. They make sure you stay safe and send you to jail if they need to. The jail is a big, white tarp laid out in the middle of the field. If you run or do anything that might cause danger, they send you to jail. If you keep being "rotten," you get sent to the office for the rest of the day. The teachers weren't going to put up with "horseplay." Luckily, no one was sent to the office, but one person went to jail. He came out, though.
I'm going to miss 4th grade so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's almost over; school gets out in a week and a half! At first I thought 4th grade was going to be boring, but with learning Idaho History, I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Goodbye, Old Grade, I'm a leavin' 4th grade. (Original version: Goodbye, Old Paint, I'm a leavin' Cheyenne.) 5th grade will be fun, though. I just hope I'm in the same class as my best and close friends: Olivia, Maddie, Blake, and other great friends. I STILL LOVE 4TH GRADE, THOUGH!!! IT WILL PROBABLY BE MY FAVORITE GRADE FOR A LONG TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GOODBYE! GOODBYE! GOODBYE! (Blowing kisses)
P.S. Sorry about having no pictures. The battery on my camera was low. I'll take pictures of the things I made, though, and post them on the next post. LOVE Y'ALL!
