After School Program
The After School Program meets for approximately six to eight weeks, three days a week for an hour session. Children may sign up for this program on a voluntary basis with their parent’s permission. They are chosen on a first come basis until enrollment reaches approximately twelve to fifteen children.
The following scripts will be rehearsed during the After School Program and used during our team’s spring program. The program is a collaborative effort where each team’s class performs exerts from their curriculum unit.
Narratives and Scenes For: Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone (The animated video made about the life of Daniel Boone will be shown on the large screen.) and Johnny Appleseed
I. DAVY CROCKETT
Children’s choir enters auditorium, beating drums and waving flags, while parts from the movie “Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier” are shown on a large screen. The children go on stage and sing a song: “The Ballad of Davy Crockett.”
(Davy Crockett enters looking from side to side, as he comes down the isle of the auditorium.)
Davy Crockett: (He points to the side.) I see a deer; oh yes, and there is a mother bird with her little ones under her wings.
Mother Crockett: (Goes to the edge of the stage.) Da-a-vy! Da-a-vy! Come to supper! Now where could that boy be. The food will get cold. Da-a-vy! Da-a-vy!
Davy Crockett: (Davy answers in a loud whisper.) Yes, ma’am, I’ll be right there. Oh, no there goes the young quail and her little ones. I scared her. I’m so sorry, please come back.
Mother Crockett: Davy Crockett, I want you come this moment. Supper is ready.
Davy Crockett: (Davy answers in a loud whisper.) Yes, ma’am, I am a-coming.
Mother Crockett: (Goes into the house on stage. His five brothers and three sisters were already at the table waiting for Davy.) That’s the second time that I called that boy. He would live in the woods with the animals if he could.
Davy Crockett: (Enters the house and stands beside his father.) I’m sorry Pa.
Pa Crockett: Why didn’t you answer your mother?
Davy Crockett: I did answer her, Pa.
Pa Crockett: Did anyone at this table hear Davy answer?
(Everyone shakes their head and looks down at the table.)
Pa Crockett: Davy, when we call you it is important. Not everyone in those woods is friendly. When we call you, we want you to come. And, also, you knew your ma couldn’t hear you when you called. That wasn’t honest.
Davy Crockett: I’m sorry, Pa. I won’t do it again. (Davy sits down beside his sister.)
(The family begins conversation about their day’s activities for a few seconds then freeze their actions.)
Narrators dressed in period clothes stand on either side of the stage: Davy Crockett lived with his family in eastern Tennessee. His mother and father operated a tavern that was located on a trail between Knoxville and Abingdon, Virginia. It was 1795 and most of the land was wilderness. They were very poor. There were very few paying guests who stayed at their tavern. At the age of 12, Davy was hired out to a family in Virginia to help meet the needs of the family. Davy missed his family. He slipped away one night, and found his way home. As Davy got a little older and two of his older brothers got married, his father became very desperate again. Davy went to work for a neighbor to help pay his father’s debts. In 1806, Davy met and married Mary Finley. They had two boys and a girl. Mary died when their little girl was about six months old. Later, Davy remarried to a widow, Elizabeth Patton who had two young children. By this time, Davy had moved several times and was living near the border of northern Alabama. He had been assigned to a scouting party in the military who were trying to protect the early settlers from unfriendly Creek Indians who lived in the area. (Three or four soldiers come down the isle beating drums.) It was referred to as the War with the Red Sticks. Davy gained a reputation as being a skilled woodsman, as well as honest and dependable. He became a colonel in 1818. When he became a candidate for the Tennessee legislature, many people came to here his speeches. They loved his remarks about politics and the funny stories he told of his adventures in the woods.
Davy Crockett: (Comes to the edge of the platform.) Why, just the other day I was walking through the woods and spied an old coon sitting on the limb. I raised my old Betsy (raises a toy rifle to his shoulders) to shoot him. But the coon pleaded with me not to shoot and promised that he would come right down. Gentlemen, I was embarrassed that he gave up so quickly.
Narrator: Davy had a brush with death when his barge carrying barrels down the Mississippi went out of control and sank. In 1827, Davy Crockett was elected to Congress and went to work in Washington. Andrew Jackson was elected president and held a conference with the Creek Indians. He forced the Creeks to give up their land and move across the Mississippi. Andrew Jackson was a friend of Davy. However, Davy could not support President Jackson. Davy supported the Creeks and said that the land belonged to them. Davy was not re-elected to Congress again. In 1835, Davy moved to Texas. There he fought and gave his life fighting in the Alamo, a war against the Mexicans and those defending the Texas territory.
II. JOHNNY APPLESEED
(Johnny Appleseed comes down the aisle, cooking pot on his head and a knapsack on his back. A scene from the film “The Story of Johnny Appleseed,” narrated by Garrison Keillor plays on the big screen.)
Johnny: Hello, hello, my name is Johnny Chapman. I guess your wondering why I’m wearing this cooking pot on my head. Well, you see, I got nicknamed Johnny Appleseed. People began telling stories about me. They claim that my pack was so full of apple seeds that I had no place for my cooking pot. So I wore it on my head. I liked that so here I am today with my cooking pot on my head. Did you know it is the year, 1800? That’s right and here comes my mom and dad. Hello folks.
Mom and Dad: (Mom and Dad enter from the back.) What are you up to now, Johnny?
Johnny: Well, you see Mom and Dad, New England is a fine place to live. But you see there is a place called the Ohio River Valley and they have no fine apple trees as we have here. So off I go to spread apple seeds in that fine Ohio Valley.
Mom and Dad: Good-bye Johnny. Take care and don’t let the bears eat you up.
(Johnny Appleseed leans on his wood walking stick and freezes actions.)
Narrator: The early settlers had brought appleseeds with them from their homeland. However, as people moved west, they had other things to do beside planting apple trees. There was land to be cleared, houses to be built, and crops to be planted. Who had time to worry about apple trees? Well, that’s when Johnny Chapman came on the scene and decided to do something about planting apple trees in Ohio during the early pioneer days.
Johnny: Hello, Mr. Apple Cider Man.
Apple Cider Man: (Enters from the back.) Hello Johnny. What can I do for you?
Johnny: Do you have apple seeds in your sack?
Apple Cider Man: I sure do and I was just going to give them to the pigs to eat.
Johnny: Please, may I have your apple seeds.
Apple Cider Man: You want these throw away seeds? Well, of course, you may have all of the seeds that you can carry. (Gives the sack to Johnny and leaves.) Good-bye Johnny.
(Johnny freezes his actions.)
Narrator: Johnny Chapman packed a few things in his backpack, and set out on a new adventure. He stopped at a farm now and then, working on the farm for a few days in return for his meals and a place to sleep. Of course, before he left, he would plant a few apple seeds. Sometimes he worked in a lumber mill or in a blacksmith shop. Whenever, he went into a town, the children would shout and call him Johnny Appleseed. Soon people everywhere were calling Johnny Chapman, “Johnny Appleseed.” As time passed, many apple orchards were seen all over the Ohio River Valley, and people knew that Johnny Appleseed had stopped by to plant a few seeds.
Johnny: And that’s how the tall tales began, right here with my cooking pot upon my head.