Category: Youth Conference

Looking for great Pioneer Trek activities? We have participated in many Pioneer Treks as Trail Bosses, Ma & Pa, and family members. Here are some helpful ideas to make your Pioneer Trek a fun and uplifting event.

Morning Round-Up

Begin each morning on the trail by gathering everyone together. (This will take place after breakfast, family devotionals, and loading trailers. ) Start with a roll call, draw lots for pull position, family handcart song, announcements, and a company hug.  All of this will take less than 15 minutes.   It’s a great way to start the day!

Roll Call

The trail boss will call out the family colors or names and each family will respond with a cheer.

Draw Lots for Pull Position

Our favorite way to do this is by putting a handful of Legos in the Trail Boss Ma’s apron pocket.  There is a Lego for each family. The Trail Boss calls a youth up to pick from the pocket. She stacks the Legos as they are pulled and that is the order for the day.  The order can be drawn again after lunch.

Family Handcart Song

Ask every family to make up a verse to “The Handcart Song”. They can do this as they’re trekking or before Trek. The Stake leaders share their song on the first day before the first pull. Three or four families share their songs each morning at Morning Round-Up.  Here’s the song and an example.  Handcart Song Music

STAKE LEADERS HANDCART SONG

Stake Support:

The stake support is here for you.

We’ll haul some gear and water too.

And, Dan, he has a job that’s neat

He keeps the toilet smelling sweet.

Food Committee:

The food committee keeps the rules.

We wash our hands and clean our tools

Because we know it won’t go well

With diarrhea on the trail.

Trail Bosses:

The trail bosses will lead the way

We’ll lead a song and shout hooray

But we may go a mile too far

 Because we don’t know where we are.

Chorus:

For some must push and some must pull,

As we go marching up the hill;

So merrily on our way we go

Until we reach the Valley-o.

Printable Stake Leaders Handcart Song

Announcements

Share the agenda and any announcements for the day.

Company Hug

A morning “company hug” is a great pioneer trek activity to promote unity. Our treks have been four day events, so we needed four company hugs. Here are some ideas.

1. First Day/Practice Hug: Everyone forms a big circle, trying to stand side-by-side as close as they can, with arms around shoulders. Then everyone moves one step forward to add an extra squeeze.
2. Sit Hug: Everyone forms a big circle. Everyone turns so their stomachs are close to the back of the person in front of them.  Tighten the circle so everyone is close together. Then, on the count of three, sit down.  Everyone should be sitting on each other, so no one should fall!
3. Magnet Hug: Once again, everyone forms a big circle. The Trail Boss yells for everyone with a birthday in January to run to the center of the circle and make a big group hug. Then he yells “February!” and the February birthdays run to the center and join in the hug.  He continues with all the months as everyone gets sucked into the magnet hug.
4. Cinnamon Roll Hug: Save this one for your last morning. Everyone holds hands, making a big circle. The trail boss lets go of one hand and begins to walk to the center, pulling everyone behind him.  The group then goes round and round, forming a tight cinnamon roll. I wish I had a video of our trek kids doing this.  They loved it! Here’s an example from YouTube.  https://youtu.be/inD620ss3Uc

Trail of Hope

In Nauvoo, during pageant weeks, actors stand along the trail to the river and tell their stories to the visitors as they walk the Trail of Hope.  We recreated this powerful experience on our Pioneer Trek. It’s one of our favorite pioneer trek activities.  We held our Trail of Hope on our first night, after dinner and a variety show. We staggered the families to begin the trail every five minutes. They needed to be spaced enough to listen to a story, then move to the next one before the following family arrived. We asked 12 adult leaders and youth to learn the parts. (Most don’t need to be memorized, but the actors should know the stories very well.)  We gave each actor a lantern.  They stood alone on the trail and told their story to each family as they passed.  Here is our script:  Trail of Hope Script

Variety Show

On the first night, after camp has been set-up and everyone has eaten dinner, it’s good to gather and have some fun.  It’s important for the kids to know that even though trek is going to be physically hard, it’s also going to be tons of fun.  You want them to know this from the start.  Our variety show consisted of several youth sharing their talents, plus a skit from our Pa’s, a song from our Ma’s, and some entertainment from our Trail Boss.  This can be really fun.  Tap into the talent in your group and make it happen! I’ll attach copies of our Ma and Pa numbers to get you thinking. You’re welcome to use our scripts if they suit your needs. We asked a quartet of young women to end the night by singing “Happy Trails”.  It was great!

Ma’s Variety Show Song

Pa Skit Script

Pioneer Rendezvous

On Friday afternoon, we always gather for games and competition at our Pioneer Rendezvous.  The favorite events are axe throwing, stilts, tug-of-war, and hoop throwing/catching.  There are many stations with pioneer games.  It’s easy to find other pioneer games and activities through a quick internet search.

Team Building/Get-To-Know You Activities

Here are a few ideas to help build unity within families.

1. Make up nicknames for family members.
2. Have a family yell or cheer.
3. Assign jobs (Load/unload cart, place rocks under wheels when stopped, set-up/take-down shelter, fill water jugs, retrieve bedding from trailer, etc.)
4. Seven Questions on the Trail: Choose one person at a time. The family gets to ask them 7 questions about themselves.
5. The BIG Question: Ask a big question and everyone has to answer it. (What super power would you have? Do you have a phobia? Share an embarrassing moment.  Who’s your hero?)
6. Whomp! Memory Game: Sit in a circle. Person in the middle has a pair of socks in their hand. They run to someone. That person ahs to yell out the name of another person before he gets whomped with the socks.

Games on the Trail

1. You Don’t Say: Game played in two teams- right side of cart vs. left side of cart. Here are the rules:  You Don’t Say
2. Encore: Call out a category. Each team takes turns singing the first few lines of a song until one team can’t think of a song.  Examples: Songs from Mary Poppins or Songs with the word “Night”.
3. Ghost Speller: Take turns saying a letter to form a word. When opponent thinks it isn’t a word, they challenge previous player.  Point goes to person with a true word or the challenger if no true word.
4. Line Up: Challenge another family or two on the trail. Caller yells category and the teams try to line up in order before the other teams.  Category ideas: Age, length of hair, shoe size, # of visits to Disneyland, highest bowling score, alphabetically by middle name, height of favorite Star Wars character, alphabetically by first name of favorite Harry Potter character…More detailed rules: Line Up

Games for Down Time

1. Human Knot: Stand in circle. Put right hands in and grab a hand. Then put left hand in and grab a hand. Try to untangle the knot.
2. Lucky Stiff: Need lots of people. Everyone takes off their shoes. One person stands in the middle of the circle. Everyone else sits on the ground in a circle with their feet pressed tightly against the person standing in the middle. The person in the center crosses their arms over their chest, stands stiff and falls. The circle passes the person around.  Super fun!
3. Ten Fingers: Everyone holds out 10 fingers. Go around the circle and say something you’ve never done. Anyone in the circle who has done it has to put down a finger.  Last player with finger wins.
4. Norwegian Dodge Ball    * Instructions: Norwegian Dodgeball
5. Back Massage: Sit on buckets or stand in a circle. Rub the back of the person in front of you.
6. Run Sheepy Run
7. Kick the Can
8. Steal the Bacon
9. Four Men on a Log   *Instructions: Four Men on a Couch
10. Ape, Girl, Man: Just like Rock, Paper, Scissors: Ape gets Girl, Girl gets Man, Man gets Ape

Family Devotional Ideas

We believe that the experiences the youth have with their pioneer families are the most powerful of a Pioneer Trek.  We encourage you to have morning and evening devotionals in your small family groups.  These discussions will likely be the most important part of your your trek.

1. Pioneer Stories, both historic and modern
2. Great stories from Ma & Pa’s life or other people in the group
3. Talent show (on the spot, silly talents) or Untalented Show
4. Book of Mormon/Joseph Smith/Restoration of Priesthood on Earth- Talk about how the pioneers, who were new members of the church, must have felt about finding the restored gospel. Sing “The Spirit of God” and talk about how exciting it would be to find out that God was speaking to His children again through prophets.
5. How to gain a testimony and feel the Spirit
6. Ask youth to share testimony, scriptures, pray, or lead devotional
7. Theme: “You Can Do Hard Things”- “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me”
8. Appreciation Game (Really great on Testimony Night): Sit in circle. Explain rules at beginning. The speaker says, “I love and appreciate _____ because_____.”  The person being complimented must look at the speaker and may only say, “Thank you.” Then it is that person’s turn to compliment someone else.
9. It’s always great to sing together and kneel in prayer.
10. Use the adult leaders in your family to help with devotionals.

Note: Shorter spiritual thoughts more often usually work better than long ones less often.  Try to make devotional more of a discussion than a lecture.

Plan with a purpose

A pioneer trek fosters appreciation for our pioneer heritage, but it also helps youth overcome challenges, observe healthy family relationships, and strengthen their faith.  Make sure your Ma’s and Pa’s know how critical their role is in providing this unique experience for the youth.   Here is a list of responsibilities to keep in mind.

Ma and Pa Responsibilities

• Love the youth in your family
• Lead and direct by example
• Provide a model of a healthy family relationship
• Ensure that the trek experience is completed safely
• Assemble necessary family equipment
• Prepare and lead family devotionals and activities
• Foster an environment for spiritual experiences
• Know and share pioneer stories to discuss as inspired
• Encourage use of journals
• Prepare physically and spiritually
• Create unity through games, cheers, music, etc.
• Have fun