Crying Mother

 Crying Mother Poster

So, some of you may have seen my cry for help yesterday, in figuring out the "crying mother" poster. 

Thank you for your suggestions!!

Well, here's what I came up with! 

Introducing:

My mom! 

(Isn't she beautiful!?)

Thanks mom for being such a great sport and letting me use you!

Ignoring the disturbing hole in my mom's eye, it looks like she is really crying! 

(I debated wether to put the whole in the tear duct, where tears actually come from, but thought the dark pupil would be less noticeable.)

 So, here's what I used:

• I enlarged my mom's picture at Costco. It is a 16x20 for $5.99!  (I also debated about their poster-board option, but wasn't sure how sturdy it would be. I asked the lady at Costco to show me an example, and it is NICE stuff. a 16x20 would run you $14.99, but would elminate the need for a foam board, and spray adhesive...so it's almost even.)
• Elmer's craft bond adhesive spray (Walmart)
• Krylon finish spray (Walmart)
• Color aplicator (Sally's Beauty supply $1.89)
• Foam board (Walmart $2.84)

Here's a close up of the sprays.

**You can see on the first picture, the one that shows the finish project, that it blotchy. You might try another finishing spray, or even the gloss finish instead of the Matte. The finish is to keep the dripping water from destroying the picture and board.

Steps:

1) Poke hole in eye. (I used my eyelet setter)

2) Spray adhesive to back of picture. Make sure to protect whatever you are spraying on, from the overspray. I just used an old towel.

3) Adhere picture to foam board

4) poke hole in foam board through the eye. (Yes, it's disturbing, but take deep, slow breaths, and you'll get through it...) again, I used my eyelet setter.

5) Spray lots of coats of the finish all over the board, in nice even coats. (Don't follow my example. apparently, I did not do a good job...) I also did a few extra coats on the hole of the eye, and also on the back of the board.

6) I had about 7" extra foam board that I trimmed off, so there was a nice, even border around the picture.

7) I still haven't figured out how to attach the bottle, but this is my plan for Sunday:

Yup! Mega blocks! (Yeah, I spray painted my bottle black, in an effort to be more sneaky with the kids. Totally unnecessary! I built a little tower, propped up the bottle, and when I'm ready, I'll just reach over and squeeze the bottle.  After the surprise has been made (that the mom actually cries), I'll just hold the bottle as I walk around the primary, making my mom cry. I'll post an update if I think of someway to hold the bottle to the poster. 

8) WAHLAH! Have a blast!!! I'm so stinkin' excited for Sunday!

April: week 4 (Test)

Hat/Mystery word game

***This is not my original idea. I have no idea the original source, as I have seen it in numerous places...***

Update: I tried this with my junior and Sr. Primary today, and they loved the game....the Hat....no so much. Only one little girl wore it.  :) I just held up the cards so the primary could see. Thanks to a comment left by Dana, who suggested  taping the card to the kids' heads. That could be fun! Also eliminates concerns about lice. Ack! Thanks Dana!!!

This game is similar to the keyword game.

I have 4x6 index cards, that I have written a key word on. 

In primary, pick one of these cards, or have a child pick a card.

Invite another child to come up and wear the hat. 

Once the hat is on, show the card so everyone BUT the child wearing the hat, can see the word. 

For Juniors: you might have the child go out in the hall, and then tell them what the word is.

Then, sing the song, but do NOT sing the word that is on the hat. At the end of the song, the child wearing the hat tries to guess which word is on the hat.

Hint: Help out your primary by putting your finger to your lips as if to "hush" them when the key word comes up in the song...

My key words for "The church of Jesus Christ" are: Know, Believe, Follow, name, right, light, proclaim, etc...

(this is my son. Isn't he handsome?)

Mystery Mom Motivation!

Mystery Mom Motivation

This is just a quick activity to help motivate singing, and keep the interest up during repetitions!

I took a picture of two mothers from our ward. One for Senior, and one for junior. I cropped the pictures, and printed them out as an 8x10, so it was just a portrait picture. (You can print an 8x10 or 8x12 at Costco for $1.50!)

I may or may not use this picture frame, but cut out puzzle pieces to cover up the picture. As the kids sing and master different phrases to a song, invite a child to come and take off a piece. To keep the suspense, you might take a piece off yourself, to save the middle piece for last. :)

Mother's day song

This Sunday I will be teaching one of our two mother's day songs.

The following is my lesson plan, but you can do this for any song. Just look at the words, and think of questions you could ask the children that would require them to listen carefully. Then, find visuals to match (or pictures).

The key to learning, is REPETITION. The red words represent when I sing the song alone, and the purple words represent the kids singing with me.


I'm planning on this taking about 10 minutes.

Song: My Mother Dear (pg. 206)

1) Ask the children to listen to the song, as I describe a special person. I will tell them who it is at the end, so listen carefully! (sing song through, then have them sing the last phrase, starting with "A person bright and lovely..." with me a few times.

2)Tell them to listen for some rhyming words in the song. (Night, bright, cheer, dear) Sing the song again. Post these answers up on the board as they are given, and then sing the song again, pointing to the words when you get to them.

3) Have them listen for 3 things that a mother is like, while they pat their  legs to the beat.  Movement is always a great way to keep their attention through repetition.

4) As you ask for answers, pull the corresponding visual from a bag, and have them sing that phrase a few times.

(Basketball = sunshine...I'm sure you can do better than that, but that's all I could find to represent the sun...., Flowers = flowers in the spring time, blue-birds = happy song of bluebirds, Mirror = A person bright an lovely)

5) Invite children to come and hold visuals while they sing with you through the song. Then, have them find another friend to hold their object, and they take a seat, and you sing it again!

6) Tell them that you will be putting stickers on "super singers" and sing it again another time or two, or until  every child ends up with a sticker. You can do this throughout the entire process, just be sure you tell them what the stickers are for at the beginning.

April: week 2 & 3 (Reinforce)

I'm so excited about this week, because I get to bring back the Magic potion!   It's been over a year since we last did this, and it was SUCH a big hit. I love this idea because we can repeat, repeat, repeat! And even the tiniest juniors can be involved, even though they can't read yet. Besides, how could a science experiment in Primary, NOT be fun?!


Click HERE for a full, detailed description on how this works. I'm just going to give a brief summary below...

1) Write out the words to the song in 4 or 5 different colors on a dry-erase board. 

 (I did this last year to review How Firm a Foundation)

2) Have this prepared before hand: The clear cups contain a mixture of water and vinegar. The teaspoons have a drop of food coloring under a scoop of baking soda.

3) Invite a child to pick a spoon, and stir it in a cup of water. It will start to fiz as they stir. When the fiz goes down, it will reveal a color. 

4) Then, have a child (or several children) come up and erase that color of words. Then, sing through the song.  You could also sing through the song WHILE the kids are erasing the words, to maximize singing time, and minimize waiting time.

5) Repeat this process until all the words have been erased. 

*** If you have separate Jr. and Sr. music times, you'll have to be quick about changing the water/vinegar out and setting up the spoons, and rewriting all the words. 

Last time, I forgot to add the vinegar to the water for Sr. sharing, and there was no fiz!

Totally lame! 

Don't forget the VINEGAR! :)

April: week 1 (introduce)

I really liked the suggestion on how to introduce this song, as outlined in the 2010 outline for Sharing Time, so, that is where my INTRO comes from. I will do the same INTRO for both Junior and Senior, but will change how I go about teaching the song for both groups.
***I plan on reviewing He Sent His son, so that plan is at the bottom of this post***

INTRO:

Ask the kids to stand up if:

• They have ever belonged on a sports team.
• Belong to a neighborhood
• belong to a family.
• If they belong to a church.
• Ask them what church they blong to. Show them a blown up picture of the Church Logo.

               

Tell them that belonging means to be an important part of something. We are all members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We belong to Christ’s church.

JUNIOR primary:

(We have a VERY young Junior primary...)

Tell the kids that you brought a friend who also belongs to this church, who wants to teach them a song. Show them a puppet. (It would be awesome if this puppet could wear a missionary-type name tag) Tell them that they will take turns singing: when the puppet sings, it is the children’s turn to listen, and when it is the children’s turn to sing, the puppet will listen.

Have visuals up on blackboard, scattered, and have the kids help put them in the right order.

Procedure: The puppet will sing a sentence of the song, the kids will find the correlating picture, the puppet will re-sing that sentence, then the kids will sing that sentence. (most of the sentences are VERY short, so do a few repetitions for each one) Then, group the sentences into phrases (each color below represents a “phrase”) and sing through that phrase.

I belong to the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I know who I am.

I know God’s Plan.

I’ll follow him in Faith.

I believe in the Savior Jesus Christ,

I’ll honor his name!

I’ll do what is right!

I’ll follow his light!

His truth I will proclaim!

When finished, have a volunteer, come point to each picture as the puppet and primary sing through the whole song.

SENIOR Primary:

 Have visuals scattered on board. Start singing, and have the kids put the pictures in the right order, but only one person can put a picture up at a time, then they will  pick someone else to find the next picture. When the pictures are in the right order, talk through the song with them, explaining the importance of each phrase.

Review: He Sent His Son

Invite kids up to hold visuals for the Questions, leaving spaces between each child, for the answers. Post the answer pictures, scattered, up on a blackboard. Ask a question, then have a child go find the matching answer, and stand in the correct spot. Sing through that question and answer, then repeat. When all pictures are in the correct spot, sing through the whole song.