TEY-10.2

RESOURCE REVIEW A Bundle of Joy FOR MANY PEOPLE, the traditional nativity show cuts the ribbon on the festive season. For the teacher, of course, it can be a very different story. No matter how sentimental you get about Christmas, putting on a nativity can be every bit as stressful as trying to find accommodation for a heavily pregnant young woman during the peak census season. Even though parents would forgive anything as long as they can glimpse their little darlings on stage, professional pride compels teachers to put on the best show possible. That can be an enormous undertaking. Fortunately, the clever people at Out of the Ark Music are experts at providing more heavy lifting in this area than any grumbling donkey. Their latest festive offering for children aged three–six is called A Bundle of Joy. This cheerful retelling of the Christmas story looks at the whole fable from the miserable perspective of the poor donkey that carried Mary to Bethlehem. Spoiler alert: the bundle of joy that is Jesus turns out to be the perfect cure for donkey’s grumbles. As you would hope and expect, the script features all the usual characters from the Christmas story, which means there are enough short speaking parts to cater for a whole classful of children. There are also plenty of suggestions for staging, costumes and props, as well as ideas for increasing or reducing the cast list according to the needs of your school. THE VERDICT ● Great songs ● Charming script ● Well resourced ● Guaranteed crowd-pleaser ● This nativity is bubble-friendly UPGRADE IF… You doubt your ability to create a musical nativity show by yourself. RRP £53.85 (with Words on Screen™ eSongbook and Annual Performance Licence) A joyous (eventually) Christmas production for children aged three to six. AT A GLANCE ● Easy to learn songs ● Age-appropriate script ● Closely follows the nativity story ● Fully resourced REVIEWED BY MIKE DAVIES Visit: outoftheark.co.uk At the heart of the show, however, are the songs. As existing fans of Out of the Ark will appreciate, they excel at creating the perfect soundtrack for each of their shows. Carefully crafted for their charm and age- appropriate simplicity, they are the glue that holds each production together. Most importantly for the busy teacher, they provide everything required for even the least musical amongst us to teach each song with confidence, including optional sing-along software, Words on Screen™ that allows the children to learn the music and lyrics with the minimum of fuss and preparation. I’ve known classes snatch valuable practice whilst changing for PE. So, there’ll be no anxiety attacks as to whether the kind lady in the village will have recovered from her cold in time to accompany the children on the piano. Now, you might be a creative genius who would rather produce a nativity from scratch. For the rest of you mere mortals, however, Bundle of Joy could be the answer to your prayers. Teachearlyyears.com 61