Third-Graders Square Dance at 'Pioneer Day'

Students at Walker Elementary School took a trip back in time to the days of wagon trains and fool's gold during the school's annual "Pioneer Day."

They churned butter, played with toys from the mid-1800s, made bread dough, shaved with brushes and do-si-doed in the school gymnasium. The school has held Pioneer Day for the past 19 years as a way of bringing the past to life.

Third-graders spent several days learning how to square dance, learning vocabulary like "square your set" and "bow to your partner." The toughest part was getting boys and girls to hold hands, said physical education teacher Pamela Akins-Schanette.

"It was not as difficult as it has been in some other instances," she said.