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Dobbins fourth-graders experience pioneer days
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .Fourth-graders were encouraged to dress in period-appropriate garb during Pioneer Day. Students Brooke Bobbey (left), Allison Andrews, Carley Francis, and Kailyn Brown showed off their pioneer gear on March 29.
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .Pioneer Day included a wealth of fun pioneer-era crafts and a group of fourth-graders showed off their metal tooling art projects on March 29. They are, from front, Lauren Melillo, Dylan George, Blake Wilson, Zachary Yasulka, Cailor Sundstrom, and Adam Rumble.
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .Pioneer Day included a mid-day hoedown where the fourth-grade students showed off their square dancing skills to parents and friends on March 29.
By SARAH FOOR
Poland become the first chartered township in the Connecticut Western Reserve in 1796, also known as Town One, Range One, when a group of brave pioneers made their way to the Mahoning Valley.
Their adventurous spirit inspired the two fourth-grade classrooms at Dobbins Elementary to celebrate the annual Pioneer Day, held this year on March 29.
The students celebrated Pioneer Day with an entire school day of old-fashioned activities and crafts.
The morning session included a wealth of hands-on crafts. The students completed tin punching, metal tooling, needlepoint, and created a barrel bank, rhythm drums, rain sticks, tribal necklace and mosaics.
On the Dobbins stage, students played pioneer games, watched demonstrations of candle, bread and butter making, and experienced pioneer school.
The intensity of pioneer school made fourth-graders Gianna Stanich and Darcy McTigue appreciate present-day Dobbins.
“You couldn’t be bad at all at Pioneer school. It was all one room and so small that you could see everything,” Stanich explained.
“I like how things are now at Dobbins. I don’t think I could be a pioneer kid at school,” McTigue admitted.
The afternoon session of Pioneer Day included a presentation by the Arms Museum, who displayed a collection of pioneer artifacts from the Mahoning Valley.
The pioneer adventure was intersected by a square dancing performance from the fourth-graders for parents and friends right before lunch time.
Elaine Morlan, who organized Pioneer Day, said the square dancing lessons are similar every year.
“They always balk at dancing with their classmates at first, but they absolutely love it by the time we’re done,” she said with a smile.
Morlan said Pioneer Day continues to be enjoyable for the students because its fun is universal.
“By the end of the day, they understand that it was a tough life, but it’s fun because it’s all make-believe. They get to be active and use their hands and that is always exciting for the students,” she said.