Girl Scouts of the Golden Plains Council

Prairie Pioneers Girl Scouts of the Golden Plains Council

Complete eight activities, including two of the four starred items.

Purpose: To examine the lifestyles of the early pioneer women living on the prairie in the 1870’s. Girls who participate in the old Cowtown Museum Living History program or at other local museums or special events may compete the requirements needed. The badge may be earned as a troop or individually. Some materials pertaining to this badge are available for checkout at the Girl Scout Center.

*1. Learn how girls in the 1870’s dressed and wore their hair. Style your hair or a friend’s hair in the 1870’s fashion and act out part of a cay in period costume.

2. Learn and complete two or more of the following activities:  Make a hair wreath using wire, silk flowers and silk leaves.  Make a paper doll chaining or cutwork shelf paper.  Make a sachet using fabric scraps and dried flowers or make a pincushion.  Make a hummer button toy.  Try a May Pole dance.  Play parlor games, which include forfeits, which were popular in the 1870’s; games such as Graces, Cup and Ball, Hoop and Stick, spinner tops; or other period games you may have at home such as checkers, Dominoes and Jacks.

3. Re-enact a typical 1870’s school day. Do three or more of the following:  Read from a McGuffey’s Reader.  Write a poem.  Act out a verse or play (elocution).  Write sums on a slate or chalkboard. Check the children’s work.  Have a spelling bee.  Keep a journal.

4. Sewing and needlecraft were necessary skills in the 1870’s. Experiment and practice doing two or more of the following:  Crochet or knitting  Quilting  Embroidery  Cross-stitching  Darning a worn or town fabric or repairing a worn prairie costume from the Girl Scout inventory. *5. Etiquette was very important in the 1870’s. Learn what kind of behavior and social graces were expected of women in the period. Have a tea party or social dance demonstrating some of the manners you have learned.

6. Housekeeping and tending to farm animals were among the daily life chores of the pioneer women. Participate in three or more of the following chores:  Mop a floor  Beat a rug  Dust furniture  Sweep a porch  Tend a garden  Feed the chickens

7. Learn to prime the hand pump and draw water at a well. Do laundry as it was done over 100 years ago using soap, tub and washboard. Hang the clothes on the clothesline to dry.

8. Food preparation was different in the 1870’s. Most food items were homemade, not store- bought. Prepare one or two food items that women in the 1870’s would have made – churn butter, mix cookie dough from scratch, make soup, make a cobbler, etc.

*9. Native Americans, Hispanics and African Americans were some of the racial/ethnic groups living in the 1870’s Kansas. Discover what their housing, food and clothing consisted of. Have a member of one of these groups talk to you about those times.

*10. Promote reading at your school or local library. Suggestion: Kansas Day Exhibit for January 29. Work with the librarian to make a showcase display depicting pioneer life in the 1800’s featuring books such as Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House series or the American Girls collection featuring Kristen; books about the early Native American tribes from the Kansas/Oklahoma region such as the Pawnee and Osage tribes, and/or books featuring Native American folk stories.

11. Donate 5 or more hours of service to a museum of your choice.