Pioneer on a String

To practice some pioneer songs we are working on, we did our own covered wagon march.  I took a picture of an ox/wagon and attached some cardboard to the back to make a little channel, and then rang a long rope through it.  The rope was long enough to go about halfway around the whole room.  I had planned to attach the ends to the top of a couple of chairs so it was fairly taut, but that did not end up working and it was not high enough for the kids to see.  So I improvised and had a couple taller kids hold up the ends.

During singing time I started by asking them if they could tell me where the pioneers started their journey and where they ended.  Once we figured it out, I put pictures of the Nauvoo Temple on the wall where my string started at the beginning, and a picture of the Salt Lake Temple at the end.  I also put up a couple of pioneer pictures along the way, some happy (singing around the fire) and some sad (burying children).  We talked about why they left Nauvoo, how hard the trip was, and how happy they were to arrive.

Then, as they sang our pioneer songs, I would move the ox cart along the string, pausing at each picture, sometimes going slower or faster depending on how well they were singing.  As the string went around the room, they got especial delight out of watching me zoom around the "turn" in the corner.  I then had a couple of kids take turns doing the same.

One thing I noticed, other than the string issue at the beginning is that the ox cart picture kept rotating down, so I had to kind of hold it up along the strong so the kids could see it.  Not sure how to fix that unless the channel the rope goes through was smaller, but that would then make it harder to move along the rope.  Anyway, it worked out pretty well despite all that.