Fifth Grade American History Program

I was not prepared for this at all. Tanner had been talking about it for weeks. He was singing songs at home and I was quite prepared for a boring evening sitting in a school gym listening to lousy singing by a bunch of 5th graders.

The worst part of the program was that I was sitting on the wrong side to get a picture of my son when he had his moment at the microphone. So this is the back of Tanner's head:

At least the other guy is smiling.

But then the program went on and a variety of presentations made the time fly by. There were several songs that all the 5th graders knew.

Speaking parts moved quickly and were well-learned. This is Lincoln's Gettysburg address; an excellent choral reading if you ask me.

In addition to Tanner's singing part, he also participated in his class dance. Good luck finding Tanner in the following video. If I were the Pioneer Woman, I'd give away a prize to the first 5 people to spot Tanner (that would be all five of you that read my blog). But I'm not Pioneer Woman so you're out of luck.

This one, though, takes the cake. Let me remind you that these are 5th graders.

After living on the Indian reservation for seven years I expected to be disappointed with the Indian dancing. But I wasn't. They had a few natives come in and teach these kids the proper way to dance. I'm sorry I didn't get a video of it. It was really good, too. The last song made me laugh. Perhaps President Obama needs to hear these words of advice:

I have to say that it was the most phenomenal 5th grade program I've ever been to (and I've been to a whole three). I was so impressed with the kids and their performance. Kudos to the teachers. They have a lot of patience.

I keep wondering why they were able to pull off such a huge program with these 5th graders. Is it because they're 98% Mormon and used to doing primary programs? Is it because they are 98% Mormon and music is a big part of their lives up here? Is it because of our proximity to BYU-Idaho (100% Mormon) so that makes us all a little more cultured? Is it because we're cold here and there is nothing better to do in the winter? I'm not sure what it is, but I know I'm impressed.