Pocahontas

Last week Mattie participated in her school's History Parade. I was the proudest mama ever! This was not a required activity, completely voluntary, but Mattie really wanted to do it, and she could not have performed better. She really suprises me sometimes because she can be so shy and bashful, but give her an opportunity to get on a stage, and she's all over it!

We debated long and hard about what character from history she should portray, and finally we decided upon Pocahontas. Mattie loves Pocahontas and we had a Native American costume that I was able to alter to fit her, so this worked perfect!

Next we had to come up with a "speech". Mattie is my first child to go to kindergarten, and I have never been to the History Parade before, so I had no idea exactly how much of a "speech" we should prepare for her. Should it be long, should it be short....I had not idea! So I wrote up a brief Pocahontas life summary and we set about memorizing it over the next week.

On the day of the History Parade, Mattie was nervous, but she had an awesome costume and she knew her speech inside and out, so I kept reminding her of those things, and she ended up doing SO GOOD!

Here's my little Indian girl:


Mattie was about the sixth child to go in the parade, and every kid before her just got up on stage, and said who they were, and walked off. No speeches! I worried for a second that Mattie would panic and do the same, but she walked up and did her whole speech, and I almost levitated out of my chair I was so proud!

Here is her speech, which I'm putting here mainly so I can remember it:

Hi, My name is Pochahontas.
I was born in Virginia in 1595.
When I was a young girl, settlers came to my area.
A man named John Smith was taken prisoner by my people.
But I saved his life!
After that I visited Jamestown frequently, and became friends with the settlers there,
and there was peace during this time.
Later, I moved to England, and I died there with small pox in 1617.

Obviously, there is much more to Pochantas' life, but we were trying to hit the high points!

Here is Mattie on stage:

So, the History Parade is actually a competition, and they give awards by class in several different categories, and then the top performers from each class are invited to participate in the History Parade showcase at the end of the week at The Arts Center. Mattie won all the awards for Kindergarten (best speech, best costume, most creative, best essay) and she was asked to participate in the showcase!

Here she is that Friday on the big stage:

She had to go very first, but she rocked her speech again!

I was so impressed with ALL the kids that did the history parade. Tons of talented kids at her school, and lots of really, really good performances. We love our school!