I am so sorry for not blogging in ages, but here is a very belated school nativity blog for you:

The Christmas term ended on a high with the Christmas Show. I put on a production of the Nativity with my grade 4's using the script from the book Jesus' Christmas Party which tells the story of a grumpy sleep-deprived innkeeper constantly being woken up to facilitate the birth of Jesus is his stable and all the guests that cheerily turn up at the door, only to be shouted "ROUND THE BACK" at. Nelson, who played the Innkeeper, got particular joy out of shouting those words, and everyone else loved jumping back at them. We had narrators, Mary, Joseph, 3 Kings, 3 Shepherds (or sheep-herds as the kids pronounce it) 4 angels, a star and 2 sound effects kids who did the knocking on the door, climbing the stairs and such, which was needed in the lack of actual doors and stairs. We practiced and practiced for weeks before and I realise now that I'd become that stressed teacher I'd always seen in my own school production days, organising extra practice time and frantically practicing lines with the kids, though when I was at school there wasn't usually the extra struggle to get the kids to pronounce the words correctly. Poor Joseph (Alejandro) could not for the life of him stop pronouncing "tired" like "tried".

On the day all the kids came in their varying costumes looking seriously cute. Innkeeper Nelson showed up two hours late, which made a proper last rehearsal impossible and almost sent me into a panic attack, but as soon as they were all there and when the other acts went on and did their shows I began to calm down. There were poems, plays, songs and dances from all the years, and we were second last to go. The kids started to get really nervous and I had to try and calm them down. We got together for one last pep talk and then there was nothing left but to perform. I did have to motion a couple of times to people who'd forgotten their lines, and Alejandro still said "tried" instead of "tired", but all in all it went really well and everyone was really pleased with themselves.

After everyone had performed Santa came out of the office with a bag of presents for the kids. I think the idea was that one child would go up at a time, but it ended up as a chaotic Santa mob. Anyway, Santa survived and did a body-pop dance with the high school boys.