December 19, 2017

With preparations for Christmas in full swing at Bangkok Prep and following a highly successful Year 6 production, excitement was mounting for the performance of ‘Forgetful Santa’ by Reception at the end of term one.

Throughout the term the students have been busy learning songs and practising narrating their lines to tell the story of Santa, continually forgetting to do something important during the run up to Christmas Day. Did he forget the crackers, the turkey for Christmas dinner, the Christmas tree or something else?

Ms Catherine Frisbee was instrumental in supporting the children, to learn the long list of songs during our music lessons. Some of the children’s favourites were ‘Forgetful Santa’, ‘Christmas Cracker’ and ‘Christmas Play’. The actions to accompany the songs came from a mixture of some of the British Sign Language gestures we use within class and other suggestions from the children to help act out the lyrics.

The dance routines were practised with a little hesitation to begin with, but with Ms Jacqueline’s and Ms Melissa’s enthusiasm they were soon being performed independently and confidently, like true stars.

The dress-rehearsal on Thursday 7th December to Years 1-4 produced many enthusiastic performances to a full auditorium @53, which contained many of the children’s older siblings. Several students made a point of coming up to me later in the day to say how much they had enjoyed the performance and how impressed they were with the singing. Staff members were equally complimentary and were highly impressed with how independent the Reception children were during the performance. Such positive accolades for some of the youngest children in our school.

As with all performances, the one that really matters is when the auditorium is packed full of proud parents. They are eager to see how the songs that have been practised, at home and in the car, all fitted together and to finally discover what did Santa forget?!

On Friday 8th December, the Reception children performed to a full house made up of parents, relatives and Year 5 and 6. They sang all of their songs clearly and with gusto; danced confidently and with precision; delighting and making both their parents and teachers extremely proud.

During the closing scenes it was revealed that Santa ha forgotten Mrs Claus’ present, the most important gift on his list.

After a rousing finale, the children enjoyed photos both on stage and in the Early Years garden. Families joined their children for refreshments and it was wonderful to share the happiness and excitement generated from the performance with everyone.

A number of parents remarked on how impressed and surprised they were with the confidence of their child, standing up on stage in front of an audience and dancing enthusiastically. Mr Owen was astounded by the amount of work that the children had put into learning all of the songs and was also very complimentary about the amazing costumes, provided by our hugely supportive parents. Khun Patrada also expressed how much she had enjoyed the performance and we were honoured to welcome Khun Patrada and her family to our show.

The Reception team would like to thank all of the Reception parents for their support in supplying the wonderful costumes for the performance, as well as their encouraging smiles and words throughout these initial months. This truly was a magical moment to end our first term and one that we will not forget!

Vicki Pearmain

Early Years Co-ordinator