In my opinion one of the best units in kindergarten curriculum is Pilgrims and Indians. Mostly because my kids come home looking like this.
Noah sort of missed out because his teacher went with the Pilgrim hat. He didn't get a chance to make up an Indian name. For Ben and Zack, we were asked to come up with a name that combined one of their characteristics with a favorite animal. Hence Ben's Indian name was Laughing Penguin. Easy. I think it took 2 minutes to come up with. I spent a week trying to get a name Zack liked but we didn't really follow the rules. Every time I suggested a name, he would get mad and tell me that it was embarrassing. I am not sure what could be embarrassing about the name Strong Bear or Fast Cheetah. Goofy Monkey, well, he had a point. I enlisted his brothers to help me up the coolness factor. All their name suggestions were rejected too. We finally had to Google Indian names to see if we could find something that he would like. He was kind of tempted by Zackagawea but in the end he finally settled on Eye of the Tiger. I guess he wanted a name with an accompanying theme song.
It took awhile before he actually used the name and made his stuff. I was worried that he would be sensitive about it all. But he came home wearing all his Indian inspired fashions and was really excited. He learned all kinds of interesting Indian facts and was surprised his teacher knew the song for which he was named. He has a wealth of Indian knowledge like how they killed animals and used their skins for clothes. He thinks they are happy now that we invented clothes so they don't have to do that anymore. He also told me that the Indians didn't always use animals for names. They also used body parts, like Squanto (toe). 
