- Can I adapt this Nativity to best suit my children?
- Definitely yes! In trialling every school adapted the nativity in some way. Some of these adaptations we have incorporated because they enhanced the nativity. Other adaptations and ideas have been noted in the Director’s script to encourage teachers to be creative! It is easy enough to leave out or insert a song or two, or indeed to adapt the songs themselves. The Nativity is therefore specifically designed to be adaptable and flexible!
- How many speaking parts are there in the production?
- There are five main speaking parts:
- Chris and Phil – main characters who can be played by boys or girls
- Narrator 1 and 2
- Simeon – the brother of the Innkeeper who lent Mary and Joseph the use of his stable.
- How many children do I need to perform the production?
- The minimum number is 35, unless you adapt the script. There is no maximum number due to the flexible number of animals, shepherds, Bethlehem Cleaning Crew and other roles in the play. You can easily have 70 to 80+ distinctive character roles.
- How long does the production take?
- The length of the production will obviously depend on how much you adapt the script and how fast the production is. Unedited you should expect it to last about 35 minutes.
- Is the production suitable for Key Stage 2?
- The script and action is particularly pitched at Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1, with the numeracy concepts covered in the songs from the FS/KS1 Mathematics objectives. In trialling, however, one primary school used the material to perform a whole school production. It even included the head-teacher acting as one of the angels, with hilarious consequences!
- Will this Nativity work with just Foundation Stage?
- One school in trialling successfully performed the production with FS and Y1 children. The main speaking parts will need some confident readers and performers. You may well be able to simplify the script a bit and make it totally suitable for Foundation Stage.
- Why do we need a performance licence?
- This is the first Nativity that we have produced, but we have spoken extensively to established companies, e.g. www.starshine.co.uk, who have advised us about standard licensing practise. For further details please contact the Number Fun office.
- What is the Book Art section about?
- In the Book Art section, Rachel and I have put together some great ideas to extend the learning of the children as they prepare for the big presentation day. There are loads of cross-curricular ideas and Maths ideas on each song. There is also a page per song which can be photocopied, coloured and stuck to the other photocopied pages to make a book memento. Each page has some level of interactivity including spinning wheels, flaps, pockets etc. The finished books look stunning.
- How does this link with the other Number Fun Resources?
- This resource is part of the Number Fun family of resources. Those of you who are familiar with Song Resource Packs 1 and 2 will find that we have adapted four of the existing songs for use in this production, as well as adding four new songs. The four that we have adapted are; Farmer Pete (into Shepherd Pete), Dancing in the Sun (into Dancing in the Cloud), The Keep Fit Song (into Bethlehem Cleaning Crew) and Number Fun Rocket (into The Time Rocket). The trialling schools found this link gave them a kick start with their preparations.
If you have any more questions, please contact us and we will endeavour to answer them as best we can! I hope you have as much fun as we have had with Christmas Number 1!