Gunnison Elementary acts out
Utah history on stage
By Suzanne Dean
Publisher
1-16-2020
GUNNISON—About 80 fourth graders sang songs about Utah and acted out scenes from Utah history during the annual Utah history play at Gunnison Valley Elementary School last week.
The play was structured as if the audience were watching a TV news report on various epochs of Utah history. Ava Anderson and Molli Barney played the anchors who were narrating the telecast.
The play included at least six songs, including one about Indians, another about mountain men, one about pioneers and one about railroad builders. In another song, the students sang the names of all the counties. And two of the songs were simply about Utah being a great state.
During the songs, a slide show was projected with pictures of the things the students were singing about.
The play also presented symbols that represent Utah, including the state flower, state bird and even the state snack, which is Jello.
In once scene, a character dressed as a dinosaur said he wanted to be designated as the state raptor. But another character told him it was too late. His breed of dinosaur was only discovered a few years ago, and by that time, the allosaurus already had the title.
Teachers who directed the children were Erin Cherry, Heather Aragon and Michele Jensen.
