Have a Pinteresting Mothers Day
It's just two weeks now till Mothers Day here in the UK, so we've updated our Pinterest page with some great ideas and resources for Mothers Day . Click on…
Our First Easter Updates
With Easter just 8 weeks away, we've updated two of our best-selling Easter CDs. We have upgraded Our First Easter PLAY and Our First Easter SHOW to now include lead sheets…
Happy Christmas
Happy Christmas from everyone at Learn2soar. We hope all of your Christmas musicals and nativity performances have gone really well. Please let us know about your success stories and feel…
‘Teach Early Years’ Magazine feature on our Nativity Plays
A big thank you to 'Teach Early Years' magazine for their article on Learn2soar Music, which is to appear in their latest issue. Here is what they wrote: Super Simple…
A Bumper Harvest: Harvest Assembly Songs and Ideas
It’s Harvest time! As many schools and churches are now in full preparation for their harvest festivals, teachers and children’s church workers everywhere are looking for harvest assembly songs and ideas…
Well, there’s no need to look any further than Learn2soar Music’s range of harvest assembly songs and ideas. We have four great harvest CDs/downloads suitable for ages 3-11. Each contains catchy songs, simple scripts and lots of extra fantastic resources:
This truly is a bumper harvest assembly songs and ideas CD/download. With seven songs and dozens of pages of stories and ideas. You have everything you need for a harvest spectacular or split up the material so that you have plenty of songs and ideas for the next several years in a row. Either way it’s fantastic value for money.
What teachers say: “We used this CD with our whole school from Y1 to Y6. Each year group performed a different song, while the script was read/performed by the older children. It went very well indeed. Thank you very much.” – J Crompton – Music Teacher (more…)
Free Assemblies
It's time to assemble your school assemblies for the new year... so we have some free assemblies for you: As the new academic year dawns upon us many primary teachers begin…
‘No Christian assemblies please, Not in our school’
Christian assemblies seem to be dying out. Here is our view on the current state of Christian assemblies in schools, given the current legal requirement for all pupils in England and Wales to take part in a “broadly Christian” act of daily collective worship.
One of the most common queries we receive about our products is the good old ‘is it religious?’ question. The answer we always give is, ‘yes and no!’ In other words, although most of our school assemblies and children’s musicals contain Christian themes, each script also gives the customer the flexibility to remove religious references altogether, if required. This is because each product contains editable versions of the scripts, with many also containing multiple script variations, including non-religious alternatives. Therefore, even our most Christian assemblies can quickly become non-Christian assemblies if so desired.
However, looking back to when we started in business in the early 2000’s, this issue was a lot more challenging for us. Back then, each one of our assembly CDs and school musicals had just one, un-editable script. Regretably, there was very little flexibility. Therefore after a few years of…
Customer: “Is it Religious?”
Us: “Yes!”
Customer: (Silence as they hang up)
… we were forced to become more flexible, from a financial point of view as much as anything else. (more…)
10 Leavers’ Assembly Ideas! Fresh ideas for Year 6 Leavers
It’s that time of year again when teachers everywhere are preparing for their school leavers’ assembly…
If you’re starting to make plans but find yourself short of inspiration, don’t panic! On this page you’ll find 10 Leavers’ Assembly Ideas for you to use for free.
1. Alien Invasion Play
Set your class the thrilling challenge of creating their own leavers’ play about an alien spaceship that suddenly lands in the school grounds on their final day at school. Out pops a group of curious aliens who have never seen humans before! They know nothing about feelings, friendship, learning, or even our planet. Wide-eyed and eager, the aliens bombard the children with questions, desperate to understand this strange new world.
The children must become both storytellers and teachers, answering the aliens’ questions by sharing their own memories, experiences, and hopes for the future. Possible alien questions to inspire the play:
- What is school, and why do you come here every day?
- What are friends, and how do you know if someone is a good one?
- Why do teachers tell you what to do?
- What happens when you leave school—where do you go next?
- Why do humans laugh, cry, or get angry?
- What is a family, and why do you live together?
- Why do you play games, and what do they teach you?
- What is the future, and why do you sometimes worry about it?
- Why do humans dream, and what do dreams mean?
- What makes you proud, excited, or scared?
Encourage the children to weave these questions into their play, using dialogue, storytelling, and even songs or movement. As they answer, they’ll reveal their own feelings about growing up, leaving school, and stepping into the unknown.
(more…)
Very Pinteresting – Learn2soar Music is now on Pinterest
We're delighted to announce that Learn2soar Music has now begun placing links to resources and ideas on Pinterest: To start with we've created 4 boards for: Leavers Assembly Ideas Nativity Play…
CDs vs Downloads in a Children’s Musical – 7 Reasons Downloads Win!
Not every school is lucky
enough to have musicians capable of playing along to an entire children’s musical production. That’s why Learn2soar Music provide professional backing music for each children’s musical we sell, so your cast can sing along karaoke style for a fantastic performance. But what format should you use for the backing music? A CD or a download? Every children’s musical we publish is available in both formats, but we believe downloads are always the best choice and easily win the ‘CDs vs Downloads’ battle. Here are 7 reasons why downloads save time, save money, save hassle and even help save the planet…
enough to have musicians capable of playing along to an entire children’s musical production. That’s why 1. CDs Get Damaged Easily
Are you old enough to remember when the first CDs came out in the early 80s? Manufacturers boldly stated that scratches and dirt would make no difference to the playing quality! Today that claim is almost as laughable as early cigarette advertising which promised ‘amazing health benefits’! How times change…
We’ve all shared the frustration of finding that our favourite disk is suddenly jumping through the best song and when we examine the disk surface, it’s usually the smallest of scuff marks that’s the problem. Let’s face it, a jumping CD is annoying. However, a jumping CD in the middle of a children’s musical performance is an absolute nightmare! Over the years we’ve sadly heard several horror stories of that very event occurring! Fortunately, digital downloads played through a computer, MP3 player or iPod don’t get dirty or scratched and always play perfectly well. (more…)
9 Unique School Music Workshops
9 Unique Music Workshops from Learn2soar Music
You may have noticed that we offer very popular ‘Music Man‘ and ‘Pop Star‘ music workshops to UK-based Primary Schools and Pre-Schools. However, did you know that we offer several other unique music workshops, projects and services? We’ve recently updated our Music Workshop Pages and added a new Special Projects page, where you will find full details. Here are some of the highlights…
Learn2soar Music 2015 Publishing Plans
LEARN2SOAR MUSIC 2015 NEWS: January 2015 This time last year we revealed plans for 7 new publications, but as the year progressed, we were sadly only able to publish 4 of…
Learn2soar Music Has A New Website For Christmas
Christmas has come early. Learn2soar Music has a new look website for you to play with. Our new look website features some major improvements and changes: Responsive pages for easy viewing…
What A Star Nativity Play: How your children can shine like stars!
‘What A Star’ is a groundbreaking nativity play designed to boost your children’s self-image. This blog looks at how and why it was made.
Early in 2013 I had an idea for a new nativity play for young children. The premise was simple: a little star who wasn’t very good at shining would be chosen by God to become the brightest star of all, shining over Bethlehem, guiding the wise men to visit the newborn baby Jesus.
I suggested the idea to my teenage daughter, who ran with it. Within a few days she had enterprisingly produced the first draft of what would become: ‘What A Star!’ A nativity play for ages 3-7. In her script, my daughter had introduced the idea of the star going to ‘star-school’, but being the worst in the class at everything, getting teased by other ‘bigger, better stars’ and feeling unhappy at being so small and shy. By the end of the play of course, Leo the little star becomes the biggest, brightest, most important star of all, as he shines over Bethlehem’s stable.
All good and well, but what surprised me most was that my daughter had chosen to give this star a name… Leo! Having written dozens of nativity plays over the years, my first instinct was to change the name or remove it altogether. But then I thought about the significance of this tiny name…
Straight away, I should state that I never read horoscopes, or take any interest in star signs or the zodiac, but I do know that because my birthday is in late July, my star sign is ‘Leo’. Therefore, as I read the first draft of the script, I immediately felt a connection to this little star, who didn’t feel as good as all the larger, older stars in his class.
BRAND NEW: Our First Nativity 2
Due to popular demand, we’ve created a follow-up to our biggest seller: ‘Our First Nativity 2’ is out now…
Back in August 2010 I had one of my better ideas, to create the simplest nativity play possible for very young children, calling it ‘Our First Nativity’. A few months later it went on sale, and we were astounded by the response. It was soon outselling all our other products combined and has now gone on to become our all-time best-selling product by a long way.
It has since spawned a whole host of related early years publications, ‘Our First Harvest’, ‘Our First Easter Play’, ‘Our First Easter Show’, ‘Our First Spring’, ‘Our First Mother’s Day’ and ‘Our First Christmas Play’, all of which have done well in their own right. I had planned to give the ‘Our First’ range a bit of a break, but then last year I had a few very interesting phone conversations… Over the course of a two-week period, I spoke to several customers who all said the same thing, that they had bought ‘Our First Nativity’ when it had first been released and that they loved it SOOOO much that they had decided to re-use it again and again and again, every year without fail! Wow! (more…)
Christmas Plays in the Summer – My Strange World
Our sales of Christmas plays get earlier each year. This blog discusses the fact that lots of teachers like to be extremely well prepared! It's the 1st of August 2014…
Primary School Leavers’ Assemblies
Exciting Primary School Leavers' Assemblies It's that time of year again when year 6 teachers all over the country are thinking about their school leavers assemblies. This year, why not…
‘Away WITH The Manger’ in the newspapers
This article is from 2014
‘Away WITH The Manger’ is one of our most popular Christmas plays. In this blog, co-writer Stuart Ross writes about the publicity it’s been receiving.
Two years ago, I released a Christmas play titled ‘Away WITH The Manger‘. The play had been lovingly crafted over a long five-year period and had originated from an idea by my 9-year-old daughter. She actually wrote the first few scenes including the first song which goes like this…
“Away with the manger, two robbers stole it,
They were called Bob and Bill and they were both big twits…”
The hilarious story then tells the tale of two bungling burglars who are on the run with a bag of stolen jewels. Through a strange turn of events, the jewels are hidden in the local school’s nativity manger and soon the comical crooks want them back! As the characters stage their school nativity play, mayhem ensues, but one thing is clear… crime doesn’t pay, as the crooks are eventually locked up. The play then finishes with a glorious nativity scene, with Mary, Joseph, Shepherds, Wise Men, etc… reminding the audience of the true reason for the season.
‘Away With The Manger’ was an instant hit and has now been successfully performed in thousands of schools around the world. However, one thing we didn’t realise when publishing it, was that certain British national newspapers had a different agenda… (more…)
Around The World In 80 Sales… of Mothers Day Songs!
Our Mothers Day songs available on two different Mothers Day CD's, really have gone round the world... It's nearly Mother's Day! No, I've not gone mad... In the UK Mother's day…
Palm Sunday Is Missing!!!
Palm Sunday is sadly ignored by most modern calenders, but this sad omission may be indicative of modern society’s uncaring side…
On the wall in my office is a wall planner published by ‘Teach Primary’. It contains an extensive list of important dates from many world religions including obvious events like Christmas, Easter, Ramadan and Diwali, as well as more minor dates like All Saints Day and Ash Wednesday. As I was studying the planner recently, I noticed a surprising omission. Palm Sunday was missing! Later, I checked all the other diaries and calendars around our house and found that only one noted that this coming Sunday April 13th would be Palm Sunday.
I believe that Palm Sunday is an important date and shouldn’t be ignored. That’s one of the reasons why I recently published a short Palm Sunday children’s musical: ‘The Donkey’s Tale’, which tells the story of Palm Sunday from the donkey’s point of view. As Jesus entered Jerusalem on a humble donkey, the people shouted ‘Hosanna’, which literally means ‘save us’.
The people of Jerusalem were hoping that Jesus would save them from Roman occupation. Of course, that wasn’t the case, but the reason this story always impacts me is because it reminds me of all the people in our world today who are also shouting ‘save me’…
New Learn2soar Blog
LEARN2SOAR NEWS: April 2014 Welcome to the new Learn2soar Blog Hello, I'm Stuart Ross, the main composer and managing director here at Learn2soar Music. Welcome to my new blog. Below…
Learn2soar’s New Google+ Page
LEARN2SOAR NEWS: March 2014 Learn2soar On Google+ Good news, Learn2soar now has a Google+ presence. Have a look here: Learn2soar On Google+ By Learn2soar Music
Our First Spring
LEARN2SOAR NEWS: February 2014 NEW: 'Our First Spring' - songs and play for ages 2-7 Sing-a-long to spring with 'Our First Spring', which can either be used as a fun…
The Donkey’s Tale
LEARN2SOAR NEWS: January 2014 NEW: 'The Donkeys Tale' - Easter Musical for ages 7-11 EE-Awwwwww! 'The Donkey's Tale' is a NEW Easter / Palm Sunday mini-musical, perfect for school assemblies…
Publishing Plans for 2014
LEARN2SOAR NEWS: December 2013 Exciting NEW products planned for the new year... We have several new CDs/Downloads in the pipeline: 1. OUR FIRST SPRING: Springtime songs, scripts and resources for…
Christmas Play In ONE DAY!
LEARN2SOAR NEWS: November 2013 NEW: Christmas Play In ONE DAY! For Ages 7-11 We have a new CD/Download out, just in time for the busy run up to Christmas. The…
Christmas Around The World
LEARN2SOAR NEWS: October 2013 'The Real Saint Nick', Re-branded as 'Christmas Around The World' One of our most popular products has just had a makeover! 'The Real Saint Nick' has…
What A Star!
LEARN2SOAR NEWS: September 2013 NEW: 'What A Star' - Nativity Play for Ages 3-7 Out now, What a Star tells the enchanting story of Leo the little star who is shy…
Is it Summer time or Harvest time?
LEARN2SOAR NEWS: August 2013 It's summer, but it's our Harvest products that are HOT! Yes, it's August! Most people’s favourite month of the year... summer holidays, sun, sea, relaxation. Surely…
HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY LEARN2SOAR!!!
LEARN2SOAR NEWS: July 2013 Looking back over 10 amazing years! It's party time here at Learn2soar Music as we celebrate our 10th birthday! But where on earth have the last…