Alternative Graduation performance ideas?

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
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Hi! One of my gigs (a small independant buxiban w/ kindie) wants to have a special kind of grad play in a few months. I want to help them out because it’s a nice school with good people and I like the kids. I don’t teach kindy there, but I do teach the G1 to G4 range.

They have done the “each kindy class does a short musical play and the older students do speeches/ otherwise show off English skills etc.” for a few years now. Everybody is sick to death of this routine, and we want to do something different. The parents are very happy with the skills we have taught the kids, we just want it to be an “appreciation party” kind of deal. Lots of photo ops, little speaking, etc. There are a couple of girls who could be convinced to put together a dance/choreography routine.

One of the ideas we had was of a sort of grad fashion show. We were thinking we could have the older students act as MC’s, and the younger ones do the catwalk thing. There’s an outdoor venue near the school that can be rented (good exposure/ advertising) and PA/ sound/ video people can be rented.

Basically, we want it to be reasonable short and sweet, and NOT too boring. There aren’t too many kids and we all get along very well, and the English skills and public speaking skills are (I believe I’ve taught them well) up to snuff. We want it to be as fun as possible for the students and hopefully not too stressful. It’s supposed to be fun after all.

But I run out of ideas there. I want to get the ideas rolling now and begin practicing now so we can relax (more or less) when the day comes. I hate stress and I hate trying to cram students.

Anyway, thats the idea, I can put together some audio/visual for atmosphere. There are some studio flats that can be utilized. The stage is basically there, except the “catwalk” part that can be built, and the students are very capable.

Thats the idea as of now. Any other alternative ideas? How to make this one work? It’s a school effort and I’m happy to help them out. More “creative interludes” would be cool. Like a Variety show? Maybe we can have a magic act and a comedy section or something like that.

Input is appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

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Wahh! Nobody wants to help me!!! I’ll just have to do it myself.

OK, Heres my plan: My job is to prep the two grade school classes for this school celebration shmozzle. The kindys are doing a “fashion show” that will showcase indigenous cultures from around the world. Short speeches, lots of photo ops. I don’t teach Kindy, but the classes that I do teach will hopefully complement the kindy performance with good timing and comedy interludes.

The Grade 4 kids are going to be alternating between doing the MC duties and magic tricks. Maybe they will have short speeches but I doubt it. I’ve been teaching them public speaking, speech writing, and putting them up as performers forever so it should be good. One ot them is a girl who wants to do a dance/ choreography thing with her friends from another school so that will be a nice interlude as well. These are super great kids, and theres a lot of talent here.

The G1 Kids, I’m thinking about teaching them more short drama. Very short. Like funny TV commercials. I have this idea where they could actually be TV people for one skit and throw one liners at each other while wearing boxes on their heads painted like TV sets. I’m thinking “who’s line is it anyway” kind of shorts. They can do short speeches maybe, or sing a jingle as well. These kids are a bit shy, but they can memorize things well already. I think I can make them do the job but maybe need some help here.

Keep in mind the G1 and G4 classes only have 5 students each. Kind of makes teaching there a dream.

The final performance will be held in an outdoor square, with a stage, sound and lighting rental that will be more than sufficient to handle the job. One of the reasons is that this small school wants to attract more students. Apparently, competition is tough. They honestly deserve the extra patronage. It’s a good, clean, no-bullshit school that really needs to bullshit a little more to get the cash flow rolling in.