Traditional Tales assembly

[Guest]

Hi

I have a reception class of 20 children and our annual class assembly will soon be upon us. This year the format has changed slightly. Last year we got together with another class and acted out Goldilocks and the three bears - the music teacher bought an out of the ark production. This year it is just my class. I have some half formed ideas in my head about what I want to do but looking for some inspiration please. I want everyone to have a line or two. I want at least two songs but I don't want it just to be an acting out of one particular tale. Something like "Once upon a time..." or a journey into storyland.

Any foolproof ideas or suggestions greatly appreciated.

 

[Guest]

could you do something like handa's surprise? the more able could read out a couple of sentences - which animal is their favourite from the story and why, other children could show an animal they have painted and say which fruit they ate - could be in the order of the story? and you could sing down in the jungle with animals from the story. or could be any text about animals....

[Fredbear]

What are your learning objectives, this might help us offer any suggestions to you.

[Susan]

I would recommend that for the smallest headache you showcase the work you are doing in class. If you use Pie Corbetts talk for writing approach you could all recite a story, I once used The Little Red Hen in this way in a Harvest service.

One of the best nativity plays I ever saw was a very impromptu affair with children taking roles as they appeared in the story, they knew the story very well!

I also saw an excellent rendition of the Jolly Postman once, teacher did the main narration.

Whatever you decide, choose a story that the children know well and love and have fun!

[Froglet]

I go for a very chilled approach! Our assemblies have a pre-set theme. I ask if anyone would like to read/speak in the assembly and I emphasise that it will be in front of all the other children and mummies and daddies, not to put them off exactly but I always have one or two that say yes to everything but don't really want to do it.

 

This time we did Owl Babies - I read and the children acted out thinking (all owls think a lot!) and other bits - there was a lovely spontaneous 'oh!' and hands to mouths when I said "their Owl Mother was GONE!" and brilliant flapping and jumping when she returned. They all did Bill's voice and words which sounded lovely. Then I had three of my more confident (and loud!) Y1s reading a simplified version of Jesus calming the storm which I'd written. Anyone else who wanted to speak did the 'welcome to our assembly', 'we are thinking about trust' and the prayer bits.

We'd all made owl baby masks in class (painting and cutting skills practice ) and it was great.