To Be a Pioneer Primary Trek Activity

You’re going to have SUCH a blast with this To Be a Pioneer Primary Trek activity! You can bring a little mini trek experience into your Primary room or building and try a variety of challenges that will help the children better connect with what the actual experiences of their ancestors may have been like!

I’m so excited to teach To Be a Pioneer (archives) as part of this year’s D&C Songs for Primary – it’s on the list for November which means you can teach it following the busy hustle of your Primary Program!

**See all To Be a Pioneer Singing Time Ideas!**

Primary Pioneer Day Obstacle Course singing time activity! Try this fun kids activity to walk along the trek with mini obstacles and tasks to experience some of the things the Pioneers went through! This would be a fun family or ward activity for Pioneer Day or use it in Primary! Lesson plan for LDS Primary music leaders.

To Be a Pioneer Primary Trek

This Primary Pioneer Trek includes a variety of little activities and challenges that help to represent the different experiences that happen along the trail. You’ll love this activity for Pioneer Day or to help you teach this song any time of the year.

Supplies:

  • Pioneer Clothing (optional)
  • Picture of Brigham Young
  • Heavy Cream, Salt & Jar
  • Snakes – Pictures or pretend snakes or drawn with sidewalk chalk
    • Painters tape to make a path line
    • Maracas (optional)
  • River Rocks – Pictures or cutout cardstock or drawn with sidewalk chalk
    • Squirt bottle (optional)
  • Chairs or a Flag (optional) to claim their “home” in the Salt Lake Valley!
    • Blankets (optional)
Primary Pioneer Day Obstacle Course singing time activity! Try this fun kids activity to walk along the trek with mini obstacles and tasks to experience some of the things the Pioneers went through! This would be a fun family or ward activity for Pioneer Day or use it in Primary! Lesson plan for LDS Primary music leaders.

Setup:

Dressed for the Part – (Optional!) Source some bonnets, hats, vests, aprons, etc. and let the children dress up for the part before you begin.

Put the different stations around the board with their challenge laid out.

  1. Post a picture of Brigham Young somewhere that can be found but may not be immediately obvious. It should be a little ways away from the starting spot.
  2. Setup a table with the butter in a jar. You’ll have everyone help you make this one jar or butter so no one gets tired of shaking – it’s a lot of work! Just set it up in it’s spot along the rotation of tasks.
  3. Tape a line on the ground with painters tape and put out pretend snakes on either side of the path.
  4. Cut out some cardstock “rocks.” Put out the rocks close enough to step to but not so easy that they can just walk. The kids will jump from rock to rock to cross the river. Tape these in place, if possible!
  5. Have someone hide behind the piano, a large box, or just outside the door. They will listen for a certain phrase from the echo canyon, then repeat it back!
  6. Finally, make a destination spot for the Salt Lake Valley. You might put out blankets and a pretend campfire and have everyone gather around after their journey.
Primary Pioneer Day Obstacle Course singing time activity! Try this fun kids activity to walk along the trek with mini obstacles and tasks to experience some of the things the Pioneers went through! This would be a fun family or ward activity for Pioneer Day or use it in Primary! Lesson plan for LDS Primary music leaders.

6 Pioneer Trek Stops

*Note: The full activity includes 15 different stops and challenges! The freebies for this post includes these 6.*

  1. Follow the Prophet – Find the picture of the prophet Brigham Young and skip or hop your way to the picture.
  2. Churn Butter – Shake the jar of butter for 10 seconds, before moving on.
  3. Snake Path – Follow a windy path to avoid the snakes! (Optional: Shake maracas to sound like snakes!)
  4. River Crossing – Hop from river rock to river rock. (Optional: Squirt the children with a mist spray bottle.)
  5. Echo Canyon Call out “echo” and wait for an answer echo in reply.
  6. You’ve Arrived – Pick a spot to claim as your own and sit in your spot!

How to Play:

Tell the children that today, you’re headed on a journey, just the pioneers! We’re going to go on a Trek together and experience a little bit of what their journey was like. I’ll need your help to complete challenges along the way.

If you have a very large Primary, you might ask the Primary Presidency or teachers ahead of time to help and split your group into smaller “companies” so that everyone can participate. You can let one person to each task or wait for everyone to try the task, depending on your time available. You’ll also want a couple of helpers for different tasks along the path. You can use the teachers or invite a couple of kids to help with those challenges.

Sing To Be a Pioneer before you start off on your Primary trek!

Primary Pioneer Day Obstacle Course singing time activity! Try this fun kids activity to walk along the trek with mini obstacles and tasks to experience some of the things the Pioneers went through! This would be a fun family or ward activity for Pioneer Day or use it in Primary! Lesson plan for LDS Primary music leaders.

Pick and choose which of these activities you want to include or run through the whole set of them if you have the whole 2nd hour block! You can also spread this activity across two weeks and plan a resting stop point along the route. This Primary trek would also be really fun as a Primary activity outside of Singing Time.

Start the children off at the first stop on your journey.

Follow along with the series of actions as a group. If you have a small Primary, you can wait for each child to finish the task as everyone cheers them on. They should each be very short and easy to accomplish. In a larger Primary, I would recommend either splitting into smaller “companies” or simply run through the activities relay style where the first child continues to move through the course. The next person in line can move from station to station to try the task as soon as the person before them is finished.

Primary Pioneer Day Obstacle Course singing time activity! Try this fun kids activity to walk along the trek with mini obstacles and tasks to experience some of the things the Pioneers went through! This would be a fun family or ward activity for Pioneer Day or use it in Primary! Lesson plan for LDS Primary music leaders.

Sing through the song again between each station as everyone rotates to the next activity or as you all finish through a station together.

End the activity by singing the song To Be a Pioneer again together. Tell the children that they can be just like the pioneers today, even though their challenges today might look a little different. We can still stand up for our beliefs and do “hard things” while following the path our Heavenly Father has for us.

If you have any extra time, you can share some of your homemade butter on biscuits or ask the children what their favorite experience from the trek was!

Primary Pioneer Day Obstacle Course singing time activity! Try this fun kids activity to walk along the trek with mini obstacles and tasks to experience some of the things the Pioneers went through! This would be a fun family or ward activity for Pioneer Day or use it in Primary! Lesson plan for LDS Primary music leaders.

Butter in a Jar Directions:

  • Half to 1 cup Heavy Cream
  • Pinch of Salt
  • Mason Jar (I would recommend a small jar!)

Fill your mason jar halfway full of heavy cream. Add a pinch of salt. Shake vigorously for 5-10 minutes until it turns from cream to whipped cream, to butter. Pour off the buttermilk or reserve it for something else. Shape the butter into a ball. You can optionally run water over the butter until the water runs clear. But you don’t need to if you’re doing this as part of Primary!

Pioneer Spin the Wagon Wheel singing time activity perfect for this summer holiday! Spin the wheel to pick a way to sing and determine your fate with something that happened along the trail. Fun review game for LDS Primary music leaders.

For another fun similar activity, head over to see this Pioneer Day Wagon Wheel singing time activity!

Primary Trek Printable Song Helps

This free in-post printable includes 6 of the Primary Trek stops with a sign card for each station.

Primary Pioneer Day Obstacle Course singing time activity! Try this fun kids activity to walk along the trek with mini obstacles and tasks to experience some of the things the Pioneers went through! This would be a fun family or ward activity for Pioneer Day or use it in Primary! Lesson plan for LDS Primary music leaders.
To Be a Pioneer Primary Trek Activity Singing time ideas for Primary Music Leaders INSTANT Primary Singing Extended Printables

Join INSTANT Primary Singing for extended printables including 15 different Primary Trek stops including signs for each station, challenge directions, and cute art to go with each of the challenges. You’ll find these bonus files included in the July Doctrine & Covenants packet. You can also find the printables separately in my shop here.

Primary Pioneer Day Obstacle Course singing time activity! Try this fun kids activity to walk along the trek with mini obstacles and tasks to experience some of the things the Pioneers went through! This would be a fun family or ward activity for Pioneer Day or use it in Primary! Lesson plan for LDS Primary music leaders.

Get more out of singing time with the INSTANT Primary Singing membership that includes printable lesson plans, tons of extended printables and an ad-free experience for each featured song of the month, or get immediate access to the entire song list for the year!

INSTANT Primary Singing Doctrine & Covenants Access Packet - Includes teaching ideas for ALL of the Come Follow Me songs for the D&C year including fun singing time ideas for the holidays, custom art flip charts, D&C year themed helps, even bonus planners and teaching demo videos! Everything you need to help you be successful as an LDS Primary Music Leader!

Learn more about INSTANT Primary Singing membership options here!
Have questions or need more help, see this FAQ page here.

For another great and meaningful lesson plan, head over to see this To Be a Pioneer Stories activity!

To Be a Pioneer Pioneer Story - Bring this song to life by sharing a pioneer story from conference for a neat way to introduce or review this D&C song in primary.

What other fun ways will you use this primary trek singing time activity in your Primary room?

Join INSTANT Primary Singing today for immediate access to monthly printable singing time ideas!

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