Drama - fun and active learning

Sketches and plays that can make learning fun.

Christmas plays

Christmas Plays

	Our Christmas Play (Brian Ogden, Barnabas) RRP £6.99) An easy-to -perform play for use with 4-7s. The performance is ideal for a school or church production. Starting and ending in Joseph's carpentry workshop, the traditional Christmas story is told through narration, mime and singing to popular nursery rhyme tunes. The play can be performed with groups of any size with very little rehearsal needed. There is also helpful information on using simple puppets as an alternative approach to the performance.   Photocopy permission for all music notation and song lyrics.   Sue says: The format of simple narration and mime interspersed with songs make this play very adaptable. You could use older children as narrators or do the whole production with puppets. In all age settings you could replace the nursery rhyme songs with more traditional carols.
	Easy Ways to Christmas Plays (Vicky Howie, Barnabas) RRP £11.99   Three simple yet effective nativity plays suitable for use with church or preschool / school groups of mixed ages from 3 to 7: Come to my party! The Star who couldn't twinkle, Shine your lights! In order to minimise complicated entries and exits for the younger children, each play is designed to allow all the children to stay on stage throughout the performance. All the children are involved in actions, mimes and songs throughout the play, with the speaking parts designed for older children in the group.   Each play is preceded by a complete story version of the play, complete with black and white line drawings, designed to be told to the group as an introduction to the play itself. The story is followed by a five-week countdown to the performance, with hints, activities and scripts for each week running up to the performance. Suggested stage positions are included.   Photocopy permission is included for the scripts and for all worksheets.
	Easy Ways to Christmas Plays volume 2 (Vicki Howie, Barnabas) RRP £11.99 Three new titles with the same format as volume 1: The Advent calendar puzzle, What can I give him? Silent night.
	Nursery Rhyme Nativities (Brian Ogden, Barnabas) RRP £7.99   Three easy-to-perform plays for pre-school and early years (3-6s).    Uses popular nursery rhyme tunes to tell the story of Christmas. The plays are written to meet the needs of Foundation/Reception and Year 1 groups as well as being ideal for pre-schools and churches.
	The Shining, Signing Star  (Phinn, Slack & Joyce, Sausage Dog Publishing) RRP £19.55   Telling the story of the nativity in rhyme from the perspective of the animals and the stars who were at the very first Christmas, the play uses a combination of English, sign language and music to produce a totally inclusive show that is accessible to children of differing abilities and interests.   Features songs and music specially written for the production by the Ivor Novello award winning composer, Paul K. Joyce, writer of the number one single, "Can We Fix It", theme tune of the hit children's television series, "Bob the Builder".   The Pack contains everything you need to put on a performance: full cast list; props, scenery & costume notes and suggestions; step by step production plan; complete play script; full colour photographs and explanation of the signs; piano/guitar and vocal score; and, enhanced CD with fully orchestrated songs and signed video clips.