Every other year, we celebrate Pioneer Days at Red Feather, and today was that day! The 4th and 5th graders kicked off the day with a "wax museum". Each child was dressed as a famous person from pioneer times (most all of which were Coloradoans), and when you pushed their "button" they came to life to tell you a bit about themselves. It was fantastic, and all the kids did a great job! The rest of the school loved it too, and enjoyed going around to listen to all the wax figures!
Preschool was invited to join in on the fun, so naturally Sharon and I had to dress up...unfortunately, i look more like Mother Goose, than a pioneer, but hey...I'm a preschool teacher so i guess that works! :)
The Kindergarten and 1st graders look awfully serious here...
but the 2nd and 3rd graders had plenty of smiles!
There were several stations to visit during the day...you could make your own butter from a heavy cream and enjoy it on some flapjacks...
shake, shake shake!
Or you could spend some time in the one-room schoolhouse...whatever you do, don't get caught talking or you get to sit in the corner with the dunce cap on...
and then of course, we had square dancing!
But this year we had a super special treat...author, Sandra Dallas, came to visit our school and talk with the children! The 4/5 class read her book, The Quilt Walk, and then they made this quilt, each child creating a square with artwork depicting a scene from the book, and they displayed it for Ms. Dallas to enjoy.
She read the first chapter of her book to us, and then answered questions and talked about the book with the kids. She shared some fun stories with us, for example, her favorite word is Blue, and she also shared a funny story about being at a book signing with Tony Hillerman. Apparently, whenever authors are at book signings, there is always someone that wants those authors to read a book they wrote....well, Mr. Hillerman told Ms. Dallas, anytime that happens to you, just tell them your publisher wont let you do that for legal reasons. They could accuse you of stealing some of their ideas, so its best not to read them...but then, that was just an excuse he made up since he gets asked that all the time. She also mentioned that she does not quilt, but she appreciates them....i guess she must, since most of her books have quilting in the story. She normally does talks with adults, so i think she was a little nervous to speak with children, but in the end, she said they were great to talk to, because adults are always asking how they can get a book published, whereas the kids never asked, but just discussed how they were going to get theirs published! :) At the end of the presentation, she signed books for the kids (and some adults too).
I've read several of her books, so it was a delight to meet her! That being said, i have since, passed her books on to friends, so i didnt have one for her to sign...i did, however, get a copy of The Quilt Walk for Jordyn, so she could have it signed.
What a fantastic day! Thank you soooo much for visiting our school Ms. Dallas, and for inspiring all of our kids! We hope you had a great time too!
