Christmas and Easter

These are times of the year where schools are often more receptive to visits from churches helping them cover aspects of the National Framework for Religious Education.

Christmas

Emmanuel... assemblies for Christmas (Mark Baxter, Barnabas) RRP £9.99

A musical and dramatic interpretation of the Christmas story intended primarily for use in collective worship. The material comprises six ready-to-use outlines for collective worship in the busy lead up to Christmas, starting in the first week of Advent and finishing with Epiphany.

Alternatively, it is suitable for use as a stand-alone nativity act of worship with presentation readings or an end-of-term presentation in school or service hosted by the local church.

Inlcudes follow-up suggestions and reflections for the classroom; easy-to use presentation scripts; and easy-to-play music scores for all the songs which are original compositions. Photocopiable permission included. MP3 downloads for songs and backing tracks are available to purchase.

Our Christmas Play (Brian Ogden, Barnabas) RRP £6.99)

An easy-to -perform play for use with Foundation/Reception and KS1 pupils. The performance is ideal for part of a whole school presentation, as a class or year group assembly, or as a school production with parents and visitors present.

Starting and ending in Joseph's carpentry workshop, the traditional Christmas story is told through narration, mime and singing to popular nursery rhyme tunes.

There are opportunities for class-based activities to enhance pupil's learning experience.

The Christmas Journey (Moira Curry and Gill Morgan, Barnabas) RRP £7.99

Create six storytelling 'rooms' and then groups move round the rooms in sequence - the creation story, Mary's kitchen, shepherds' hillside, Bethlehem stable, wise man's palace, modern-day sitting room (to reflect on the final weeks of Jesus's life and the concept that the Chistmas story is only the start of God's rescue plan for the world.

This involves considerable work and the aim is to encourage several local schools to bring their Year 2 children to the experience.

Getting Ready for Christmas (Meg Harper, RRP £9.99

This book explores themes within the Christmas story through National Curriculum subjects such as art and design, design and technology, geography and history, science, maths, drama and literacy suitable for KS2 (7-11s).

It gives ideas for assemblies as well as individual class activities. It includes an easy-to-perform Advent play. This book contains a wealth of ideas for cross-curricular teaching designed to give a host of fresh ideas for the last few weeks of the Christmas term, including a class Advent calendar, Advent candles and St Nicholas Day biscuits.

The material includes class worksheets with full photocopy permission where appropriate.

Easter

The Easter Journey (Moira Curry and Gill Morgan, Barnabas) RRP £7.99

Create six storytelling scenes and then groups move round the rooms in sequence - Palm Sunday, the tenants in the vineyard, the last supper, the garden at Gethsemane, the crucifixion, the garden tomb.

This involves considerable work and the aim is to encourage several local schools to bring their Year 5 children to the experience.

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