In the pioneer days, when many families were traveling across the country in a covered wagon, many children went without store-bought toys. However, they improvised with dolls made of apples and corn husks. To make an apple doll, provide each student with a peeled and cored apple. Help students carve a face into the apple and their initials on the back. Allow the apples to dry and shrivel up over several days or use a dehydrator. Once dry, the students can use markers and paints to fill in the carved face, then have the students attach a craft stick to the bottom of the apple, wrapping in in fabric to look like a body. Secure with rubber bands. For a class arts and craft activity, create a pioneer quilt by giving each student a paper square and having her decorate it with a happy memory. Put all of the squares together with tape or staples to create a paper quilt you can hang in the classroom.
Have group story time where the students take turns reading age-appropriate pioneer books to the children that help to give them an insight on what life was like in those days. Book options include "Grandma Essie's Covered Wagon" by David Wiliams, about a true story about a family traveling west in a covered wagon; "Papa and the Pioneer Quilt" by Jean Van Leeuwen, about a little girl on the Oregon Trail who starts to save fabric to create a keepsake quilt; and "Who Was Johnny Appleseed?" by Joan Holub, a story about the famous pioneer who planted apple seeds across America.
Set up an imaginary campfire to recreate a pioneer campfire scene. Teach the children songs that were popular in the pioneer days, which the whole family would sing while sitting around the campfire. Well-known pioneer songs include, "Oh My Darling, Clementine," which has several verses lamenting the loss of a miner's daughter, and "Oh Susanna." Another song you can teach the children is "Home on the Range," which has been adopted as the official state song of Kansas.
Assign each student a famous person from the pioneer days such as Johnny Appleseed, Davy Crockett, Annie Oakley, Sacagawea and Daniel Boone. Each student must research his person in the library then dress up as best he can to resemble that person and present his report on presentation day. An alternative would be to assign a specific role of someone in the pioneer days such as a typical pioneer wife, a one-room teacher, a blacksmith, a Native American, a cowboy and even an outlaw. The children should pretend to be that person or character and present their report in first person. For example, a student who is a general store owner might start his presentation like, "I run the general store in town. Everybody comes here before they head out west..."