All posts,  The Bush

Xmas Tree 3: teaching with humour

Gosh – life overtook me again yesterday part-way through my Christmas Tree series of posts. (It was called sunshine after a week of grey skies, and there was a mower with my name ALL over it.) But I am back now with the last one (or two, haven’t decided yet!) instalments of our Christmas Tree night.  The previous ones are here, here and here.

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As you already know, our school is little – we have just one teacher and a teacher’s aide.  Both are lovely women who, by the nature of their special and sometimes demanding jobs, have an enormous influence on our kids.  The decision to have a Christmas Tree this year was reasonably last-minute. The school had not had one for years (with all activities usually taking place on Break-Up Day) and our teacher, Mrs S, hadn’t done one with us before.

But she, and her trusty off-sider Mrs O, rose to the occasion with fabulous results…

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This is Mrs S – she’s only little, but she has those kids’ attention at all stages.  I love that she is strict but kind – and has a wicked sense of humour.  The students had a week to rehearse their skits and were pretty much word-perfect.  I think they truly identified with the humour in the mini-plays.  They performed some Roald Dahl poems – oh, how I adore Roald Dahl.  He is wicked.  And funny.  And wicked. My favourite combination…

Cinderella was up first… my favourite lines:

I’ll visit every house in town
‘Until I’ve tracked the maiden down!’
Then rather carelessly, I fear,
He placed it on a crate of beer.

At once, one of the Ugly Sisters,
(The one whose face was blotched with blisters)
Sneaked up and grabbed the dainty shoe,
And quickly flushed it down the loo.

Everything was a little upside-down – Cinderella was played by a boy, Prince Charming by a gorgeous tall girl, the Ugly Step-sisters by two of the sweetest and prettiest girls in school. (Aussie Irony 101).

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There was quite a bit of action and head-rolling (just what one looks for in a Christmas event!).

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Check out Cinderella under the piano… s/he cracks me up!

Little Red Riding Hood also turned the tables on the Big Bad Wolf … please read that poem in the link … the line ‘she whipped a pistol from her knickers’ had the audience rolling in the aisles…

They also performed the Three Little Pigs which brought the house down (ahem!)…

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It was like no version I had ever seen before…

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Little Red Riding Hood was back in the thick of it, gathering more pelts than you could point a pistol at.

There were ‘proper’ Christmas items too, of course.  Like the Little Drummer Boy.

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Can you spot my two?  The Little Drummer Boy took his part very seriously, including the headscarf which may or may not have sought to wrest the lead role from our son…

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And that pony in the manger?

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It was a rough night with the new baby, apparently.

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This bit nearly brought me undone… par-rum-pa-pum-PUM!

And that most traditional of all Christmas Carols – The Rusty Holden Ute sung to the tune of Jingle Bells. (Lyrics added at end of post).

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The ‘beer-bellied’ participants were having a knee-slapping good time!

It was a wonderful, wonderful night.

With kids front and centre as the stars…

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And this woman firmly behind them…

Thanks Mrs S (and Mrs O) for teaching our kids well, and for not forgetting to help show them not to take themselves too seriously, and that life is fun.

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Aussie version of Jingle Bells

(by Colin Buchanan)

Dashing through the bush,
in a rusty Holden Ute,
Kicking up the dust,
esky in the boot,
Kelpie by my side,
singing Christmas songs,
It’s Summer time and I am in
my singlet, shorts and thongs

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Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Christmas in Australia
on a scorching summers day, Hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut!,
Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute.

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Engine’s getting hot;
we dodge the kangaroos,
The swaggie climbs aboard,
he is welcome too.
All the family’s there,
sitting by the pool,
Christmas Day the Aussie way,
by the barbecue.

*

Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Christmas in Australia
on a scorching summers day, Hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut!,
Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute.

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Come the afternoon,
Grandpa has a doze,
The kids and Uncle Bruce,
are swimming in their clothes.
The time comes ’round to go,
we take the family snap,
Pack the car and all shoot through,
before the washing up.

*

Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Christmas in Australia
on a scorching summers day, Hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut!,
Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute.

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LATE EDIT: This is a rusty Holden ute!

(Click on image for original site details.)

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