I love Christmas. I love the lights. I love the idea behind the commercials.

Christmas is the festival of light, the winter solstice announcing the end of  darkness and the beginning of  sunnier days. So whether we are religious or not, Christmas brings some light to all our lives.

And of all the Christmas stories, my favourite is “Rudolph, the red nosed reindeer”. Rudolph, reminds us that everyone has something special that makes us necessary. And this is a timeless concept.

I have always loved using this story in class.   It allows you to talk about bullying, about helping, about behaving with your peers, about reaching your true potential …Rudolph has no age barriers.

Rudolph was a misfit and someone believed in him and gave him an opportunity.  We all are, or have been, Rudolphs…the question is, can we act like Santa?  Are we able to see beyond our prejudices? Do we give opportunities to all our pupils so they can shine?

So, this is our Christmas present for you. Here you have several resources that you can use if you decide to work with the story of Rudolf in your class. We have prepared several scripts and activities adapted to different stages, from pre-primary to 6th grade. We have also prepared the characters of the story so you can use them as puppets to practice the story

Characters

Script Pre-Primary

Script First Cycle

Script Second Cycle

Script Third Cycle

TIPS AND TRICKS

• Remember that “We learn while we use and we use while we learn”.

• Give them a lot of practice, include the story in your daily routine, explain it “with them”, not “to them”.

• Practice the story first with your fingers with the whole class, each finger is a character.

• Practice the story first with flashcards.

• The class delegate can choose who he wants to be and can choose the rest of the characters.

• Then, when they have learnt it, let them act it out. Act it out just once a day, if not they can get bored.

• Let them switch roles, so they will learn the the whole play.

• After all this practice, they are ready to tell the story. Create the puppets (with the pictures and the ice-cream sticks) or…they can dress-up as reindeer to do it.

• Let them explain the story to their younger peers, go to other classes.

• They can create a comic with the story, they can draw the background and place the reindeer pictures in front.

• You can coordinate with the Arts & Crafts teachers so they can create their antlers in the Arts class. This is a great site where you can download all you need to create great reindeer antlers:http://mylittle3andme.co.uk/childrens-christmas-craft-reindeer-antlers/