This assembly written by Sue Russell is one of a set of class plays covering Units 6A - 20 of the UK History National Curriculum, Key Stage II. (It was actually this one, on Henry VIII, which launched me into writing full-time … this is possibly my favourite – guaranteed to make me laugh whenever I picture my class performing it). All are available on my website www.plays-r-ussell.com
There are two other assemblies on The Tudors – “Tudors Rich and Poor” based on Unit 8 and “Tudor exploration” based on Unit 19.
These assemblies are easy to do, written ‘by a teacher for teachers’ to minimize the time and stress ingredients which can be so off-putting when considering ‘a performance’. Written for a cast of 30 (this number can easily be adapted to a smaller class size), each assembly comes with a seating plan – included so that the children file in, in the correct order, and speak in the correct order!
A suggested selection of rock songs are included which, in my experience, really ‘lift’ the performance, and are chosen to appeal to children and adults alike!
My assemblies are written to entertain and educate – they are based on the curriculum, according to the QCA documents, and cover all the major teaching points for each unit of work.
I have written plays for other subjects such as science , geography, PSHCE (Citizenship Skills) and one-offs like Valentines and St. Patrick's Day. These can all be viewed on my website www.plays-r-ussell.com which has a complete listing of my material under UK and USA catalogs.
In addition to these 'large cast, plays for performance' I have produced a set of Group Readers which are for groups of 6 children, written in sets of 5, complete with quizzes. These are a great in-classroom resource, for guided reading or 'mini performances'. Again, these can also be seen on my website www.plays-r-ussell.com
Henry VIII and his Six Wives Assembly by Sue Russell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.