New Bloomfield Elementary goes back in time

Krista Rubel, a fourth-grader at New Bloomfield Elementary School, shakes a jar of heavy whipping cream to make butter. Students later enjoyed the fruits of their labor on cornbread.
Krista Rubel, a fourth-grader at New Bloomfield Elementary School, shakes a jar of heavy whipping cream to make butter. Students later enjoyed the fruits of their labor on cornbread.

NEW BLOOMFIELD, Mo. - Fourth-grader Erica Ostberg seemed ready to embrace the pioneer lifestyle.

"I want to do this all the time," she said, enthusiastically scrubbing a sock against a soapy washboard.

Some of her classmates were a little less eager to leave the 21st century behind.

"Making butter sucks," said Jason Locke. "You have to shake it all day. I just got a cell phone, and I'd rather be using that."

Realizations are what Pioneer Day is all about. The annual tradition at New Bloomfield Elementary School gives fourth-graders a chance to live like pioneers for the day - albeit in a heated gym, and with a lower chance of catching malaria.

"This past month, they've been learning about pioneers, how they live and what their motive was for moving west," explained fourth-grade teacher Peyton Hall.

She paused to offer a corner of her apron to a student shaking a jar of heavy cream to make butter.

"They get to learn the hardship the pioneers endured, but it's overall a fun experience for them," Hall added. "It's not everyday that they get to make butter and see how a quilt is made."

In addition to making butter - to be enjoyed the next day spread on cornbread - and washing clothes, students tried square dancing.

"It's kind of hard - you have to do it right," said student Krista Rubel from beneath her bonnet.

They also panned for gold (all right, spray-painted beans), made "wanted" posters, cooked miniature apple pies, designed their own wagons, built tiny log cabins and tied dolls out of yarn.

"Can you imagine having to do this every time you wanted a toy?" teacher Laura Sweeten asked while demonstrating the tying technique.

Fourth-grader Avah Evans said she wouldn't mind too much.

"I like making stuff," she said.

Like many of her students, Sweeten dressed up in proper pioneer garb: a charming prairie dress, bonnet and apron.

"This is the same dress I wore in fourth grade," she admitted. "It was enormous on me back then."

She said she fondly remembers her own Pioneer Day, though back then she was more enthusiastic about digging through dirt for gold than carefully crafting dolls.

"Its really fun to be on the teaching side," Sweeten added.