Old West descends on Ponderosa SDA School for Pioneer Day

[Key Guy]

From the Paradise Post, Califronia

http://www.paradisepost.com/ci_12328982

Quote:

Second graders at Ponderosa Elementary School experienced life in the Wild West Thursday morning when Seventh-day Adventist Academy eighth graders visited their campus for Pioneer Day.

The children learned to pack their wagons for the trail, trade with Indians, make pioneer food, play pioneer games, and wash pioneer clothes. Pioneer Day is an annual event, in which eighth graders from Seventh-day Adventist Academy share their knowledge of pioneer life with Ponderosa's second graders. The eighth graders begin learning about pioneer life their first day in David Vixie's class.

Before they teach pioneer life, they experience it by spending a week a on Applegate trail where they truly live as pioneers - wardrobe and all. Vixie said understanding history and knowing what brought people to where they are now gives them a solid foundation of humanity.

These second graders are provided with "great building blocks," which is the same thing that happened to people on the trail, he said. Pioneers on the trail often included city folks, who were inexperienced with hardship, but they had a dream in mind and were tested. They had not only their physical and mental strength tested, but also their virtues, Vixie said.

The pioneers experienced the shaping of character, virtue and perseverance out on the trail, he said, and it prepared them to be people of success when they reached their destination. With the second graders, this is just the beginning of their pioneer curriculum.

They will learn in their classroom about the pioneers, and the things they learn will make more sense because they experienced it during this event, Vixie explained.

The students get first-hand experience, "and it's fun," Vixie said.

They can "capture their minds with fun," and later the students will realize that what they learned is useful, and it is a stepping stone to what they will learn in the classroom rather than learning strictly from books. "Now learning has more meaning," he said.

Learning through experience adds to the depth of strength and character, Vixie said. And for the eighth graders, teaching something accesses another part of the brain entirely. They are also providing a service to the community by volunteering to teach Ponderosa students about pioneers, he said. The event concluded as the children watched with delight as their principal, Tom Taylor, drove the covered wagon pulled by mules across the field.

(photos online)

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