At the moving up ceremony for my fifth grade daughter, I was expecting to tear up a little and applaud a lot. I was expecting to chat with parents about kids growing up too fast and middle school anxieties. I was expecting the kids to be flitting from one group of friends to another, giddy and nervous. But I was not expecting to see great talks, especially by the fifth graders.

Sure, I have a bias. I’ve known many of these kids since preschool, or met them as they shared classes with my oldest daughter. Of course, I know the principal and the teachers very well too. I also know they have much more experience giving talks, especially this kind of graduation speech. It was the fifth graders’ speeches (none by my daughter) that inspired me though.

Here’s what the kids got right.

1. Get the Audience on Your Side

“No pressure, but I may not graduate if you don’t like this speech.”

The opening line immediately made the audience this fifth grader’s ally. Another said, “I remember Whale Watch like it was just two weeks ago.” Funny, because it was two weeks ago. And because half the parents in the audience had just been on Whale Watch, he tapped in to that shared experience.

2. Tell a Good Story

Students were asked to talk about memories of elementary school years as a prompt for preparing the speech.

“My first memory of school was in Kindergarten when I was sitting in the time out chair with my friend. After a while, we got tired of sitting there so we got up and took the timer. Well, you can imagine, that didn’t work.”

Students used stories to bring their elementary years into focus, rather than using them just as an aside.

3. Use a Theme

Some of the speakers used a theme to pull together their experience. After listing some fond memories of first grade one of the speakers said, “…and we had a play at the end of the year. I was an ant.” Then, after listing a few choice memories of second grade, “and we had a play that year, and I was a caterpillar.” And so on, until fifth grade, where he turned the tables, “and we had a play this year, and I was a baby and had to wear a little bonnet.” The audience listening for the pattern, and took pleasure when the pattern was changed a little.

4. Go for that Moment of Recognition

The kids described their experience at school, but the stories were relevant to the parents’ life experience too.

“She was a great teacher. Most teachers think that you want to listen to them talk for five hours, they don’t realize that they are just talking to themselves.”

5. Enjoy Yourself

The kids were speaking, probably for the first time, in front of a 250 person audience. Yet, they were clearly enjoying themselves. One of the fifth grade speakers could not stop smiling, she was practically bursting with excitement.

“Last week, our class visited middle school and honestly, it was a little scary. The middle schoolers were the most scary of all. But then I remembered when I was in Kindergarten, I thought fifth graders were pretty creepy.”

Another ran up to the podium with an easy stride as if he owned the place. I guess they didn’t know that speaking before a large audience is right up there with the top things people are supposed to dread.

What the students didn’t do is also a model for any speaker. None of the kids spent a lot of time introducing themselves and thanking others. They did not make sweeping generalizations or broad claims. And none of the fifth graders looked down at their speech on paper.

Instead, they really connected with the audience. Their enthusiasm was infectious, their approach seemingly intuitive. Are you a better speaker than a fifth grader? Hope not, because they are clearly getting so much of it right.