Class Time (Or Practice)

• Have a written list of props and write child's name beside the one they are doing, so if you have more than one practice or especially if you do a performance later, you know who did what, the kids will often decide they want to do something different and not having practiced with that prop it can mess up your performance (I learned the hard way).
• We practiced without the light set-up (and in my case not even on the stage).
• The kids can break into groups anywhere in the building to practice you do not need the light’s or special stage set-up for practice.
• Janice had a larger group of 24 kids (I had 10). She was doing four different pieces, so each group had their own props and music. So they went into different rooms to practice. We practiced as one group.
• Give each group a copy of the lyrics with the WORDS underlined or bolded which will be the cue for the leader (reader) of that group.
• Children can learn when to hold their prop up, take it down, movement, see the other participants, etc.
• As they read the lyrics out loud they can pause after each highlighted word to make sure the kids are on cue for the first run through.
• We had only one practice on stage, with the Black Lights, the Sunday before our performance in front of the entire congregation.
  This was due to scheduling conflicts the entire month. I could never set the stage up the night before as the room was booked for other events. Which at the time was frustrating on my part, but it turned out the kids did great with only one Sunday practice on the stage with the lights, the Sunday before we did our performance, for the church.
• You will need a minimum of two teachers. One to work with the kids and the other to look after cueing the music (same required for performance).