<p>Do you organise a Christmas carol service or assembly and want a set of readings that is traditional but a bit different? This script provides an alternative to the standard Bible readings, with opportunities to include plenty of carols or songs. Your readers could dress in Nativity costumes if you wish, forming a kind of tableau at the end.<br /> There are notionally 18 separate readings: I have sometimes had to combine some for fewer readers, or add introductions and prayers for a larger group - alternatively some without readings could sing in between. For differentiation, some readings are longer, some shorter, some easy, some harder so that you can allocate them according to how confident your readers are.<br /> The piece was written originally for a Year 6 group, but because of the varied level of readings it would suit slightly younger KS2 or older readers too – though you might find for KS3 children you’d have to leave out the donkey!<br /> At the end you will find some notes including suggestions for carols that fit well at certain spots during the performance: a variety so that you can have some for congregation / audience and others for school / group only.</p>

<p>Do you organise a Christmas carol service or assembly and want a set of readings that is traditional but a bit different - more dramatic, perhaps? This script provides an alternative to the standard Bible readings, with opportunities to include traditional carols or songs. With its theme of darkness and light, it can be presented in an atmospheric way with battery-powered candles. Whenever I have presented it, it has been very well received, by parents, children, fellow teachers and the vicar!<br /> There are notionally 12 separate readings: I have sometimes had to combine some for fewer readers, or add welcomes, introductions and prayers for a larger group - alternatively some without readings could sing in between. For differentiation, some readings are longer, some shorter, some easy, some harder so that you can allocate them according to how confident your readers are.<br /> The piece was written originally for a Year 6 group, but because of the varied level of readings it would suit Y5 or older readers too.<br /> At the end you will find some notes including suggestions for carols that fit well at certain spots during the performance: a variety so that you can have some for congregation / audience and others for school / group only.</p>

<p>I wrote these readings originally to go with the wonderful Upper KS2 / KS3 cantata ‘One Bright Star’ by Robert Legg and Stella Vassiliou (which only has a few, very short sections of text) to make it suitable for a carol service performance. They tell the Christmas story through the eyes of, amongst others, Gabriel, Mary, Joseph, the innkeeper, the Wise Men and King Herod. The songs indicated between the readings are from that cantata, which is available with CD backing from Starshine Music, but the readings can stand alone with traditional carols instead as suggested in the notes.</p> <p>There are 15 separate readings, some of which can be split to provide parts for a larger group. In the notes I suggest some parts which are suitable for less confident readers.</p>

<p>MULTIPLICATION AND DIVISION LOOP GAME (FOLLOW ME CARDS)<br /> Fed up with downloading Maths loop games that don’t work? I know I am, and that’s why I’ve made my own which does work! (No embarrassing calculation errors, no duplicated answers that short-circuit the loop.) It’s also 30 questions long – you’re lucky these days if you have a class of fewer than 30.<br /> This one should suit Y5 and Y6, but would also be fine for practice / revision for weaker Y7. The focus is on multiplying and dividing numbers up to 5 digits by tens and hundreds, with a few easy ones scattered throughout for your mixed ability classes. Some doubling and halving is included.<br /> Helpful Hints When doing a loop game with a class, run it once or twice, then time it and keep a “record time” for them to beat up on display. Then you can tell them they must all listen to every question and answer, because any mistakes will break the chain so they must intervene (politely!) if they think it’s going wrong. This helps to keep everyone engaged even when they’ve already read out their own card.<br /> Always shuffle the cards well and give them out randomly – but employ a bit of teacher magic to make sure the less able participants get the easier answers!<br /> Prime the children to automatically repeat their question if no-one has responded within 5 seconds. If they read it 3 times without success, ask everyone what they think the answer is.<br /> If you have fewer than 30 pupils, selected children can be given 2 cards.</p>

<p>The Pocket Watch is a short story combining adventure, a timeslip and the historical fiction genre. There are two versions of the text and the discussion notes, for differentiation purposes.</p> <p>I wrote it for a mixed class of Year 3 and 4 when we were doing a cross-curricular topic called ‘Top Gear’ which included the history of transport, forces in Science and motorised buggies in D&amp;T. It was intended as an introduction to historical fiction and the timeslip device, but I also wanted a text which would include many of the aspects of grammar and punctuation required for the Lower Key Stage 2 National Curriculum programmes of study.<br /> There are two versions of the same story. The easier one is shorter (with less detailed description) and uses generally simpler vocabulary – but not too simple! The stories work both as whole-class shared reading, or as group readers, and I have included discussion notes to assist with this.<br /> A comprehension worksheet is also included: this can be answered using either version of the text. Working through the comprehension and going over the answers would easily take a full lesson.<br /> I have also included a related grammar and punctuation worksheet which includes noun phrases, sentence types, contractions, synonyms and speech punctuation.</p> <p>My classes have enjoyed reading The Pocket Watch, and have produced a variety of their own writing afterwards, including potted biographies of the characters and, of course, the next timeslip.</p>