Primary Singing Ideas

Picture a Christmas

2010-11-30T15:57:00.000-08:00

I'm still here. Barely.

I was released last Sunday, but am now the first counselor in primary. However, we have a christmas program coming up on December 12th, so they are having me do double duty until that is over.

I would still like to post ideas and flipcharts as they come, so don't forget me entirely!

So two weeks ago, I tried to introduce the song "Picture a Christmas". It was a TOTAL flop. Probably my worst singing time ever. I think I confused the kids more than I helped them.

So, I thought more about it during the week, and came up with something more simple and MUCH more effective.

In fact, we learned BOTH verses very well, in only 10 minutes.

I appologize that these are not *quality pictures. I remembered to take them right before leaving for church, so it was just a spread-them-out-and-snap-a-picture moment.

I found pictures to correlate with the things sung in the song:

Picture a STABLE

Picture a sacred silent, NIGHT

ANGEL, STAR, BABY JESUS, etc.

you can find my file of pictures HERE. I found them from google searches and sugardoodle clipart.

(NOTE: the pictures are NOT in the order of the song. I just formatted it that way...because I was in a rush and put pictures in when I found them.)

Picture a Christmas

I went through the 1st verse and put the pictures up on the blackboard with a magnet, as we got to each phrase, so they would understand which pictures went to which phrase.

Then, we sang through the song together. I took a small 5x7 picture frame, and "framed" each picture we sung about. Then, I called up a child to do the same thing. I think it was a sunbeam. She did perfect. Some of the pictures are oriented landscape while others are portraits, so they had to rotate the frame to fit the picture.

After we had done that a few times (each time a different child "framed" the pictures), I mixed them up and scattered them around the blackboard. They did the same process of framing the pictures, but it was more tricky since they now had to "find" the pictures.

I told the children I was watching for those that "knew" the song really well to come help me. That really motivated them to sing out and try their best. I was thrilled that this activity worked well from the sunbeams all the way to the 11 year olds. We were able to sing it OVER, and OVER, and OVER, and...you get the point.

Again, this activity could work for any song, but I liked it because we "pictured" each event of the song.

Fill-in-the-blank game

2010-09-20T11:59:00.000-07:00

Lame title, I know. Let me know if you can think of something else to call this...

So, the songs have hopefully all been taught, and now we just need to polish up and review all the songs from the year.

This is a quick-prep activity that you can use on many songs, or just one song.

We chose to work on just one song.

Object:

When the piano stops playing, fill in the words.

Game:

1) Have two players come up to the front of the room.

2) Roll the dice to find out how many words the kids will need to remember, after the pianis t stops playing. (For example, I rolled a 5)

3) Start singing the song, and the pianist will pick a spot to stop playing.

4) Starting with the next word, the kids will need to fill in the next words. Since we rolled a five, the kids will need to write in the next five words. I love my dry-erase boards for this, but you could also use the chalkboard, or a regular piece of paper.

5) This is NOT a race game, so if BOTH kids get it correct, both teams get a point.

6) In between "rounds," we sang through the whole song/verse. While we were singing, I'd walk around and pick the next two players, and motion them to come up to the front. I like this game, because there is really little "down time" and the kids need to concentrate on the exact words.

7) The "winning team" got to listen to a personal performance of the song/verse, by the losing team. :)

Tips:

Some primaries may not be able to "handle" competition games, and be so concerned about the losing/winning that reverence becomes an issue. I have a great primary who just enjoys playing the game, so we can do these competition games.

I think this is appropriate for SR primary only, since writing words is involved. You could play a similar game with the juniors, by just having them SAY the words.

Didn't get a PDF in your e-mail?

2010-09-14T22:03:00.000-07:00

I'm afraid I may have missed several of your requests for files, specifically the motivation chart PDF.

It's much easier for me to track who I've sent it to, if you e-mail me at sillysinginglady@gmail.com

I'm so sorry if I've missed you. It certainly wasn't intentional!

-Sincerely,

The Singing Lady

The Holy Ghost Flipchart

2010-09-04T23:09:00.000-07:00

So, I know this was a song taught several months ago, but I was planning on reviewing it today with my kids, and realized I didn't have any visuals. I desperately searched for one already made, but I just didn't feel comfortable with the way the Holy Ghost was depicted in many of them.
I really feel the Junior's do better with visuals, to help them remember the words. So, if you need help with this song, hope this helps!

Word document HERE
PDF file HERE

(Oops...I just realized I didn't capitalize "He". Hopefully you can just change it with a pen?)

(I realize this picture would go much better with the same line on the second verse "Oh may I always listen, to that still small voice", but I'm only teaching the first verse, and thought it still fits.)

Please Excuse My Mess

2010-08-29T18:34:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to clean up the blog so it is easier to use, but I'm not very good with computers. Please bare with me as I figure this out!

Quick review idea

2010-08-29T17:20:00.000-07:00

HELLO! (...hello... hello... hello...) Anybody there? (...there...there...there...)

Once again...I find myself appologizing for the lack of posts. With vacations, and school starting, I've been trying to find the "balance" between all things. Isn't that what I said last time too? Has anyone ever figured out "the balance"? We're getting closer, and I've neglected you long enough...

So, the next few posts will be about review ideas. My program is not until Halloween, but I know some of yours' are coming up in the next few weeks, if you haven't had it already.

I did this idea with my kids last week (this week was Stake Conference). I'm trying to isolate some of the songs that are starting to be "forgotten" and need some review of the words.

We took the song "I know that My savior loves Me," to work on.

Juniors:

I placed the visuals randomly around the room, on the wall, on chairs, the piano, etc. All places where the children could see them. I told them the visuals to our song were scattered around the room, and I needed help getting them back in order. I told them to look at the pictures while I sang the song, and see if they could find the right pictures to the words. After singing it once, we went through the song, phrase by phrase, as they brought up the correct pictures. We reviewed each one as many times as needed for them to get it. By the end, they had it down again.

Seniors:

Hand out the visuals to the kids, randomly. Then, ask them to come and put themselves in the right order, before you and the primary finish singing the song. Challenge them to get faster and faster each time.

Skittles game

2010-07-14T09:19:00.000-07:00

on our new facebook page, Annie left this idea just moments after I started up the page. I can tell the facebook page is going to be a great resource for ideas and information! Check it out!

Skittles game:

(As always, be sensitive to food allergies.

Fruity candy is usually safe, but always get approval from the primary presidency first!)

"We take a bag of Skittles and I draw names and the child comes to the front of the room. They close their eyes and put a skittle in their mouth and try to guess the color. If they get it right then the get to pick a song, but if it's wrong then it's my choice. It's a great way to review program songs, the kids love it, and it's super easy...hardly any planning involved. I always give each child 3 or 4 skittles after singing time so there's no fighting."

Some variations I thought of for reviewing ONE song:

You could use this like I use the magic potion game. Write out the words to a song on a dry-erase board using marker colors to match the colors of skittles you have. If they guess the correct color, you erase that color of a word. If they guess it wrong, you don't erase any words. You can switch this, depending on the tendency of your primary, i.e. they prefer to get them wrong so they don't have to erase any words. :)
The color of the skittle represents a certain phrase of a song. If they guess it right, they sing just that phrase. If they guess it wrong, you sing the entire song.
The colors represent different ways to sing the song, if guessed correctly. If guessed wrong, you just sing it normal.
Do you have any ideas? suggestions?

Love this idea, Annie! Thanks so much!

Lesson plan for Sunday

2010-07-10T22:42:00.000-07:00

Here is my "lesson plan" for Sunday

Review song: "Follow the Prophet"

I'm going to bring in a few rhythm instruments:

a triangle

wood agogo (I had to google it to find out what it was called...:)

Guiro

maraca

One at a time, I'll have a child come and play one of the following rhythms while we sing a verse of the song:

For example, on the triangle, the child will play the quarter note, followed by 3 quarter rests. (I'll help them if needed)

For Senior primary, we'll add on each time we sing. So, we'll have the triangle play the first rhythm, the agogo play the second rhythm, the guiro the third rhythm, and the maraca play the rhythm of the melody, all playing simultaneously.

For Junior's, we'll keep it simple, by having just one instrument and one rhythm at a time.

Month's Song: "Come Follow Me"

I'm going to try the "Balloon-pass" found on this blog. I'm focusing on the first verse this week, and will learn the 4th verse next week.

Idea: Pass around a blown-up balloon while singing through the song. Whoever has the balloon when the song ends, will pop it. (For kids that are afraid of the popping, have a pair of sissors to trim off the knot, so it won't "pop". )

Inside the balloon, is a paper with a question or scenario. Have the child read and answer the scenario/question. Continue with a new balloon.

I'm slightly worried about kids holding on to the balloon so they can pop it, instead of passing it on...so I'll try to think of a remedy for this....

I hope to sing through the song 5 times, so here are my 5 questions:

1) My brother hit me, because I wouldn’t let him have a turn playing a game on the computer. What should I do?

2) Mom is calling for me, and I know she’s going to ask me to do a chore, but I’m busy doing something. What should I do?

3) I’m bored in sacrament meeting. What should I do?

4) Name one way we can follow the savior.

5) We just did a fun activity for sharing time and my friends are having a hard time remembering how to be reverent. What should I do?

*A special thanks to my own children for the inspiration behind these scenarios....

TIP: We have two singing times, one for Junior, and one for Senior, so I printed out two sets of questions, and have them pre-stuffed in the balloons. I don't want to haul around a bag of blown-up balloons, so I'll blow and tie them up behind the piano, during the opening exercises.

I have a bag for Junior primary, and a bag for Senior primary.

Other song: "Here Comes the Ox Cart"

I do NOT like to spend a lot of time on visuals, unless I plan on using them over and over. However, I made an exception for this song. I am NOT an artist...which might help explain the gigantic cart pulled by the tiny ox....oh well....

The wheel turns with a little handle on the back.

It's some hardware thing I found in my husband's tool box that is attached to a screw from the other side.

The kids can turn the wheel slowly, as we sing the song.

To introduce the song, I'll ask them to listen to what kind of song the wheel is.

(Sing the song for them)

I cut the wheel into wedges that can be lifted up, to reveal a question about the song.

I'll have a child lift a flap, read the question, we'll sing the song, and then have the primary answer the question.

Questions:

1) How many times do we sing "creak"?

2) What is the wheel made of?

3) What kind of animal pulls the cart?

4) How fast does the cart go?

I put a little piece of double-sided tape under the wedges, so they would stay down when I needed them to.

You can easily put actions to this song. Have the kids roll their arms, and then bend from side to side at the waist for the "creak" part. I think this could be a fun "wiggle" song for July.

Another new blog and facebook page!

2010-07-10T14:33:00.000-07:00

I personally am loving all of the singing time blogs out there! I just found this brand-new blog that someone linked to on the yahoo groups page.

(If you are not a member, you should join! It's an awesome resource!!)

The blog is called "Singing Testimonies". It only has two posts up, but quite a few ideas. One I think I will use this sunday.

Also, I have started a facebook page so we can better share ideas and ask questions. I receive lots of questions and great suggestions via the comments on this blog, but I'm afraid many do not see these suggestions. I hope the facebook page will be a better source.

You can check it out here. Let me know what you think!
*Remember, it was just created...so there's nothing there yet! That's where YOU come in!*

July flipchart: Come Follow Me

2010-07-02T00:57:00.000-07:00

So, this flip-chart still isn't the way I wanted it, but my time has run out. Hopefully you can download the word-document and tweak it the way you want! :)

I hope this is helpful to at least some of you! I only did verse 1 and 4, as that seems to be the pick of the majority.
Word document for verse 1
Word document for Verse 4
PDF file for verse 1
PDF file for verse 4

To introduce this song, I'm taking it straight from the Children's Sacrament Meeting Presentation outline for July, which is as follows:

"Encourage the children to follow you as you touch your nose, shake your hands, and fold your arms Tell them that we can follow Jesus by doing the things he did.

Have them tap the rhythm of the song with two fingers of one hand against the palm of the other hand as the music plays.

Prepare footprints with the words of the song written on them. Invite the children to place the footsteps on the board one at a time, as you sin and they echo each phrase. Arrange the footsteps so they lead to a picture of the Savior." CSMP outline 2010, page 15

For SENIOR primary, you could then mix up these footprints, and have a child come and try to find each correct footprint in the right order, as the primary sings through the song. you could have them just point to each footprint, or actually put them in the right order. This last option would work best if using magnets on a blackboard.

If you are planning on doing this as well, here is a link to the footprints I made, with the phrases on them.
Word file footprints
PDF file footprints
Here are pictures of the flip-chart:

Ordinary Adventures of a primary chorister has a GREAT flipchart as well.

Guest Post: Song review idea

2010-06-30T22:38:00.000-07:00

The flipchart is comin...I promise! I have some family visiting, and time got away from me! I'll work hard and get it on here as fast as I can!

In the meantime...

I love it when you e-mail me with your ideas. Laura G. sent me this one, and I think it is such a neat idea! Thanks Laura!!!

I love to sing.I love to teach.
I love children. I love Primary.

(It just may be the funnest calling in the church.)

Here is something I put together. I invited a different child up to choose an object and each one represented a new way to sing the song we needed to review for the month.

Ex: Flash light: turn the lights out and sing.

Slinky: Loud or soft.
Tissue: plug your nose
A Boot: March to the music as you sing
Pointer: Invite a child to lead the music or point to the chartMittens: Clap the rhythm while singing
Pictures of friends (or Friend Magazine): Turn and sing the song towards a friend
Cap: Sing Acapella (without the piano)
Turtle: Slow
Racecar: Fast
Ball: Invite 2 children to toss and ball back and forth
and every time they drop it you have to start the song over again.
Lala stick
Girls Only
Boys Only
Bumble Bee: Hum
Whistle: Whistle the song
Popcorn: Sing Popcorn Popping
Teeth: Sing with your teeth clenched
Glue Stick: Pretend to glue a part of your body and sing it that way. Ex: Glue your hands to your head. Or your elbows together.
Wiggle hand puppet: Choose a wiggle song & change it up a bit.Microphones: you sing with 2 friends
Sun glasses: sing with your eyes closed.
Egg shakers: Sing staccato.you get the picture....with 24 total or as many pockets you need to fill up!

You could change it and be creative with anything you can think up!!!!

PS. I don't explain them ahead of time. Just as we go. Turned out to be a HIT!

Flipchart request

2010-06-27T19:08:00.000-07:00

I'm in the process of making the flipchart for "Come Follow Me." I know, I like to ride it close to the deadlines...

I was wondering what verses you plan to do. I'm definitely doing the first verse, but not sure about all the others.

I think this song would be nice to make into more of a musical number, with a flute and/or violin. We have a few children in our ward who play these instruments, so it's great to give them the opportunity to use their talents. There are lots of different instrumental arrangements for this song.

If you want flipcharts for the other verses, let me know which ones you plan on doing, so I can create something for you!

-Trisa

June Song: The Holy Ghost

2010-06-17T21:16:00.000-07:00

I appologize for my long hiatus! I've been trying to get my life more in order and give my kids more attention, and time just got away from me! I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last post!

Also, our primary sings at a nursing home, twice a year, one which occured just last week, so I've been trying to get ready for that and Father's day. I haven't even introduced this month's song yet!

That being said, I really struggled with this song. I sat down shortly after my last post, all excited to create a flipchart, and just couldn't wrap my head around how to put images to the words. It's especially difficult, as we are not to try to portray the "holy ghost" in any way.

However, HUGE thanks to Tiffany from Port Orchard, who e-mailed me HER flip chart! I think it's awesome and hopefully it will be of help to some of you

Word Document here and PDF file here

She also did the second verse, but I just didn't post the pictures here....

As far as introducing the song...if you haven't already, I love this idea HERE on Camille's primary blog page, and also HERE, on I Sing U Sing. Both are fantastic resources as well

Potato Head Review

2010-05-21T14:04:00.000-07:00

For Mother's day, I wanted to do something motherly-related for singing time.

I got the inspiration from this blog. She had real mom items to dress up with, but I didn't have enough of these things, so I came up with using the Potato-head toy.

This would work well for Father's day, or any day, for that matter.

This IS a "competition" game, which I generally try to stay away from. I did preface this game to the kids, by saying that we are often discouraged by competition games, because sometimes, the kids get too wrapped up in winning the game, instead of just having fun playing the game. Then I told them that I have been watching them for the 2 years that I have had this calling, and felt like it is something they could handle. I knew that THEY knew how to have fun, without making others feel bad, or getting out of control.

They did just fine. :)

Anyway. On to the game:

I had prewritten two posters with blanks on them. Except for the color of marker, the posters are the same. I used heavy duty magnets, and posted them on the blackboard.

Each team gets a Mrs. Potato Head set.

(I think we had glasses and the purse too, but I forgot about these when I took the picture)

The game:

1) The primary sings the song continually, until the game is over (the poster is filled in).

2) Each person fills in TWO words on the poster, and puts ONE piece on the potato head.

(We had 11 pieces, so that makes 22 words to fill-in on the poster)

3) Once you have played, you can not go again. (I wanted to make sure that not the same 5 people were playing the game.) We let teacher's play as well.

4) First team to complete their poster and have the MOST complete Mrs. Potato head, wins.

5) If you are caught NOT singing, I will pull off a part from your assembled potato head. I HIGHLY recommend doing this, or they get too caught up in the game, and forget to sing. I DID take off a piece or two during our game...

This was such a big hit, and I know THEY know the words to the song now. When the game was over, I didn't say anything about the "winner", but as soon as the winning team had one, I just stopped the game and said "Great job everyone! you guys did awesome!" and moved on to the next thing in my lesson plan.

Images for Faith poster

2010-05-19T10:29:00.000-07:00

I received several requests for the images I used on my Faith poster.
There are two pages for this document.

I posted some more tips on how to make the poster on the original post.

Here you go!

PDF file, click here

Faith Images

Faith poster

2010-05-18T13:47:00.000-07:00

The song I picked for May, is "Faith". I know MOST of you did NOT pick this song, but I think this idea could work for many songs. This song worked particularly well, because there were 4 main ideas presented. (Please forgive my photography skills. They are very lacking...)

I started by showing them this poster:

I asked them what Faith is. After I got a few answers, I told them to listen to this song about Faith.

As I sang the song, I used the string behind the poster, to pull up the pictures out of their "boxes"

When I was finished, it looked like this.

Then, I pulled the pictures back down into their "boxes" and asked the kids what was in each "box". I was thrilled with their answers (and listening skills) when they used words and phrases from the song!

Then I called up volunteers to help pull the pictures out of the boxes as we sang the song. I love activities like this, that even the littlest kids can do.

Here is another poster I helped my mother-in-law make.

I love the blue!

TIP: use eyelets to help reinforce the holes, so they wouldn't rip

TIP: Put a piece of cardboard on the back of the poster, in between your string holes. This helps to keep the poster board from bending when you pul the string.

I made my boxes from a 6x6 square of scrapbook paper. Then I scored a line 1/2" inch on three sides, and then another 3/8" of an inch towards the outside of the box.

Cut out the two bottom corners, fold them over each other and glue.

This is what the "inside" of the box looks like.

Funny side note:

When I started this blog, my sister was just called as primary chorister.

Then, my Mother-in-law.

Then, my mom

(well, she's Stake Primary music leader, but ya know...same field..).

Then, My sister got released.

but now...

my other sister has just been called as primary chorister.

YAY!

More ideas!

May song?

2010-05-05T10:30:00.000-07:00

"Apple" left this comment:

"I'm not sure where to post this, but here goes. I have noticed that May is a month that we can pick our own song to teach the children. Mother's Day songs are perfect but I am wondering what other songs choristers are teaching this month. We had a regional conference last week so this will be our first week of Primary for May. I am not sure what to teach. Would love to hear from everyone."

Great Question!

So, what are you teaching for May?

Our primary is doing "Faith" (CS 96)

Isingusing blog posted an awesome teaching idea for the "Fourth Article Of Faith" song.

Crying Mother

2010-04-28T10:55:00.000-07:00

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)

2010-04-21T12:36:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-04-21T12:05:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-21T11:18:00.000-07:00

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)

2010-04-15T14:11:00.000-07:00

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)

2010-04-07T21:44:00.000-07:00

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.

April flipchart: I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ

2010-03-27T10:12:00.000-07:00

You can download the WORD DOCUMENT or the PDF here.

MIA...

2010-03-21T08:48:00.001-07:00

Hello! I hope you have all had a blast teaching Follow the Prophet!

I appologize for my lack of posts. I decided to take a trip to Utah to visit my family, so things got busy quick, and I just didn't have time to post. I've got several ideas for April's song, so don't give up on me yet!

E-MAIL: If any of you have requested files or flip-charts in the last week or two, and I have not responded, please let me know. You can e-mail me at sillysinginglady@gmail.com

Just some ideas for Follow the prophet, if you still need them:

While visiting my brother's ward, I got a few ideas.

The chorister had made prophet puppets out of the large paper grocery sacks, with the eye holes cut out. She'd call on a child to come be the prophet, and wear the mask. When it got to the chorus, the child would do an action and the rest of the primary would "follow" them. The kids were thrilled to be able to just wear the mask!

Today, (since I just got home last night), I plan on bringing out the cubes. One cube will have the names of different prophets, and the other will have the various ways of singing: loud/soft, stop/go, eddie spaghettie, etc.

Follow the Prophet Flip chart (partial)

2010-03-05T21:38:00.000-08:00

Oops. I deleted part of this post. Oh well...

Ahha! I remember what was in that part of the post I deleted! These EXTRA verses come from the June Friend, 2001 issue. And the Monson verse comes from the March 2010 issue.
(June, 2001 Friend, Page 46)
These are the verses that I will be doing. You are welcome to them, or you can make your own.

NOTE: Words should say "when HE went to pray", not we.
I'll try to fix this soon...

Download the PDF here and the WORD document Here

March: week 1 & 2 (introduce and reinforce)

2010-03-03T22:54:00.000-08:00

Sorry this is getting out so late. I had orginally been planning on doing something completely different, but after I had made it last night, it just didn't seem right. I'll probably use it for something else, so stay tuned!

For our primary, I've decided to teach the entire primary just the 1st verse about Adam, and the verse about President Monson (in the March 2010) friend. Then, I'll have 5 other groups/classes sing verses for 5 other prophets. I'll include those below.

Update: I've been getting lots of questions about if I will do both Monson and Adam in the same week. I think I will do Monson first, and then Adam next week, using the same idea. I just don't see how I can put up another set of footprints without wasting everyone's time. Besides, after introducing the chorus, and working on the new verse, I don't think there will be extra time.

To start off, I'll ask the kids to pretend we are going on a hike in the mountains. It is very dark. What tool could we use to help us see better. When they say "flashlight", I'll show them my flashlight. I'll tell them that the light from the flashlight will help us to stay on the path, and not fall off or to go "astray". I'll tell them that to go astray, means to go off the right path.

Then I'll show them a picture of a President Monson, and ask them who it is. We'll talk about how a prophet is like a flashlight, in that he helps us to stay on the path of righteousness, so we can return to our Heavenly Father. Our Prophet can guide us because he knows the way!

I'll sing the chorus to them once, asking them to count how many times I sing "Follow The Prophet."
(six). Arizona forever, posted a great video of ASL for the chorus.

Then I'll show them the board (I'll use the bulletin board) with footprints all over it. At the Top Left Corner of the board, I will have a picture of a group of people (Go to sugardoodle.net for clipart) and at the Bottom right, I'll have a picture of the Prophet we are singing about.

Each footprint has part of a phrase on it, (i.e. Adam was a prophet, Adam was a Bishop, First one that we know, Fifth one that we know, etc.) You'll notice, some of the phrases are found in the song, and others are slightly different.

I'll tell them that we have to follow the footprints to get to the Prophet, but only some footprints will lead us in the right direction. Some footprints have one word that is not part of the song. When we find a footprint with the wrong words on it, we'll take it down. By the time we are finished, we should be left with a footprint path that leads from us to the Prophet. (see picture below)

To play, I'll have a child come and pick any footprint. I'll ask them if those are the right words, or the wrong words. Some are pretty obvious, but others would make complete sense. If they are not sure, we'll sing the verse together as a primary and have them listen extra carefully. Then I'll ask them again if it belongs or not.

Here are links to footprints with the Adam and Monson verses on them. If you are having problems downloading them, it is probably because I have Microsoft Office 2004 and you have a newer version. For some reason, it's messing up the format.

Follow the prophet footprints .doc

Follow the prophet Adam footprints 1 .doc

You'll want to pre-plan your maze route, and put the footprints up in the right spots, or it won't work! :) (see the example below) Remember, to take down the wrong footprints. You should only be left with the footprints that make the path to the Prophet.

Here is a link to some blank footprints, so you can copy as many as you want and write in your own words.

blank footprint.doc

Here are our other verses, that will be given out to classes later. All these were found in the Friend, and I got approval to sing. I'll probably at least sing through them once in the coming weeks, but we won't spend a lot of time on them.

Nephi: (June, 2001 Friend, Page 46)

Nephi was a prophet, tried to get the plates.

He dressed up as Laban by the city gates

With his brothers waiting, Nephi went inside.

He knew God would help him, and with him abide.

Samuel: (June, 2001 Friend, Page 46)

Samuel the prophet, Lamanite by birth,

Prophesied the time when Christ would come to Earth.

Cried to all, "Repentence!", shouted from the wall.

Wicked would not listen, tried to make him fall.

Joseph: (June, 2001 Friend, Page 46)

Joseph was a prophet, first one in our day.

He saw God and Jesus when we went to pray.

he prayed with great faith to know which church was true,

Jesus said to "Join none. Truth shall come through you."

Monson: March 2010 Friend, page 25 written on the picture of president Monson in bottom Right Hand corner)

Heavenly Father loves us, and wants us to return,

he blesses us with peophets who help us to learn.

President Monson humbly leads God's church today.

As we heed his words, we'll walk a righteous way

We will also be doing Daniel, and Noah from the song book.

February: week 4 (Test)

2010-02-25T09:44:00.000-08:00

We have stake conference this week, so I get a week off! :)

However, this is what I had been planning on doing:

Have a table at the front of the room with an eraser, bean bag, or anything that can be easily grabbed.

Have two children come and stand at opposite ends of the table. Make sure they have their hands down by their sides.

Then read them a question from the song, (Example: How could the Father Tell the world of Love and Tenderness)

The kids then race to grab the object in the middle of the table, and have to recite the "answer" (He Sent His Son a New born babe, with peace and holiness) in it's entirety.

We are counseled NOT to have competitions in our primary, as this can often lead to hurt feelings, or focusing on "fairness". etc. BUT you could have a common goal for the entire primary. This could be as simple as bringing a cut-out car, drawing a line on the chalkboard with a destination at the end of the line. Then, every time a question is answered correctly, without any help, the car moves along the line to the destination. You could do the same thing with a picture of your primary trying to get to Heavenly Father, etc. Or filling a jar with marbles every time a question is answered. BE creative!

I always think that my primary will need these kinds of visual goals to motivate them, but most often, they are just enjoying playing the game, and don't need this.

I still might do this the first week of March, but I do feel like my kids know this song now, and It's probably time to move on.

Here's wishing you a successful primary Sunday!

Miscellaneous...

2010-02-15T14:51:00.000-08:00

I just had a couple of random things I wanted to share with you.

First of all, I wanted something to help the kids track their progress in learning the program songs.

You may remember this post, which I used for last year's program to help motivate them to sing out.

I loved the "grading chart" that I have seen in other places, but wanted to simplify it for the younger kids. After all, my 1st grader doesn't really understand what an A+ verses a C- means. So, I kept with the same theme, and used the same smiley faces.

I plan on bringing it out on the 4th Sunday, when we are "testing" the song. I played around with just posting the smiley that they are on, or to keep all the smileys up as they earn them. Still not sure about that, but for now, all of the smiley's are going up. I am leaning toward just posting one smiley per song. So, if they are doing "great" then, that Smiley will be the only one on the row. (The Extra songs are songs our presidency has picked out that we would like to use, in addition to the others, for the primary program)

I like to figure out what songs we are singing for the entire month. I made this chart on in excel, and just update it for each month. Before the first sunday of each month, I'll e-mail the file to the pianist and presidency members. Ironically, I was the one that could never find the paper after I printed it out, so I finally taped it to the inside of my primary songbook. This has been working great for me! I always know where it is!

Here is a close up of the chart:

I mainly pick an opening song, list the songs I plan on using during singing time, a closing song, a birthday song (I get stuck in a rut and can't remember which songs we have sung), a welcome song and then I list a handful of wiggle songs that we can jump too if needed.

Lastly, we are doing the songs of the heart idea. I can't remember where I read about it, but thought it was a great idea. I just cut out a bunch of papers with hearts on them, and asked the kids to write down their favorite primary song. We keep the jar in the closet in the primary room, and I get it out each week. If we have extra time (HA!) we'll pull it out and draw out a song or too.

I went through all the cards and wrote down a list for the pianist with the page numbers. There are a few more "unfamiliar" songs that were written down, at least for our primary, such as "We'll Bring His World His Truth" so I'll make copies of that so we can have that for the kids who don't know the song so well.

February: week 2 (Reinforcement)

2010-02-09T22:15:00.000-08:00

REPORT: This activity went much better than expected! (YAY!) We ran out of time, so I'm bringing it back for next week. One thing we did, that the kids loved (probably because it was such a challenge) was we kept singing each phrase the way it was described on the back. For example, the first heart we put together said Girls sing, so everytime we sand the song, the girls sang just that phrase. Then, we added on to that. So by the end of the song, you are doing something different for each phrase. I'm not going to lie, it was VERY confusing, but we all had a blast!

(What is up with the blogging format?! It seems like they went back to the old way. So, sorry this post is formatted weird!)

So, I need to be quicker about posting my ideas. I swear I had this idea before crazychorister posted hers and Arizona fever posted hers, but now it looks like I'm copying. I think we were just all on the same brain waves. :) They both come up with the best ideas! Anyway, this is kinda a mix of both of their ideas.

So, I found out last week, that my primary does NOT know this song as well as I had hoped. So, this week, I needed to do some serious focusing and repetition. I wanted to do something with it being Valentines Day, so this is what I came up with:

I made hearts with part of a phrase on one side, and the remaining half of the phrase on the other. I tried to include pictures to help the younger kids. You can download the word document here and the PDF here. (I seem to have issues with my files, so as always, e-mail me if you have problems and I'll e-mail the file directly) IF YOU ARE HAVING PROBLEMS with the FILE, check below at the scribd thing. Does that work?

For Jr. primary, I plan on dividing the board somehow, so that the LEFT halves of the heart are on one side, and the RIGHT sides of the hearts are on the other side of the board. This way, they know if they pick a heart-half on one side, they'll know it's match is on the other side of the chalk board.

(Like my shag carpet in place of the chalkboard?) :)

For Sr. I will just mix them all up together to try to be more tricky.

To play:

I'll have someone come pick the first half of the heart. (I'll try to use the sunbeams for this, so they can take participate)

Then, I'll call up someone else to find it's matching half. Once the match has been found, and the heart put back together, they can flip it over to find out how we are going to sing the song. We'll practice singing just that line of the song a few times, and then sing it with the rest of the song, but sing it "that way" when we get to that particular line. (Is this clear as mud?!)

For example, it might say "whisper sing" on the back of the matched heart, then we'll sing just that line, whisper singing, a few times. Then, we'll sing the whole song like normal, but just "whisper sing" when it comes to that line.

For Senior primary only: we might try singing all the different ways at once. First phrase: boys sing, Second phrase: whisper sing, Third phrase: stand on one foot, etc. We'll see how it goes...

The different ways we will be singing:

Boys Sing

Girls Sing

Clap the beat

Turn the lights off

Whisper sing

Loud Sing

Stand on one foot and sing

Slow sing

Sing to back of room

Broken Heart Game 1

Um, how did it go for you?

2010-02-07T18:11:00.000-08:00

So, the hand mapping thing did. not. work. with my primary. It was actually hilarious watching these kids wave their hands around. AFter a few repeats, I stopped. It was pointless.

As far as the rest of the "plan", it went okay, but not as well as I had hoped. Did you have success? Did you do something different? I really thought my kids knew this one, but apparently, they have never heard it. Made for a fun 20 minutes of singing solos for me. (ACK!) I'm going to have to do some serious brain storming this week!

February: week 1 (Introduce)

2010-02-03T22:09:00.000-08:00

This is a fairly familiar song to the children, which makes our lives easier! This is a pretty simple idea, but thought I'd share it anyway. The Crazy Chorister has a much more fun approach to the introduction, so make sure you check her out!

To begin, I will sing the song through for them and ask them to count how many times I sing "His Son" in the song. (5 times) You could have them stand up whenever they hear it, as well. Kids need to MOVE! :)

Then, I will show them the bulletin board where I have posted the Questions from the flipchart. (you could mix these up

Below that, I will have several pictures. All of the "Answer" pictures will be there, but some other random pictures from the GAK kit will be there too. The answer pictures, are the same that are in my flipchart, in an effort to be consistent and not confuse them. You can download the word file of Just the pictures here: UPDATE: Apparently there is some problem with the last picture of the JUST PICTURE file. It's the picture of the girl with the savior in the background. I got this picture off of Sugardoodle.net (link to the side) under the category of Jesus. I'm not sure why this picture is not showing up. When I download the file onto my computer, it's working for me. Is everyone having this problem?

Update part II: I've uploaded a different version of the file. Please let me know if you are still having problems viewing the pictures!

I'll tell them that this song is made up of Question and Answers. I'll sing them the question, then the answer, and ask them to decide which picture describes the answer best. Then, we'll place the corresponding picture underneath it's question. (Most of the kids will probably figure out the "answer" pictures since they will have a white border around them, and the GAK pictures do not, but that's okay!)

(This is a picture of what it should look like at the end, after the "other" pictures have been taken away.)

After each Q & A, I'll have them sing with me, while mapping the melody with our hands. (Place your palm flat towards the ground, fingers extended, and raise and lower it according to the notes of the song.) I like to do this as it gives them something to focus on and helps them physically understand the relation of the notes.

If time at the end, I'll have them stand up on the Questions, and sit down on the Answers, as we sing through the whole song.

Flipchart: He Sent his Son

2010-02-01T22:23:00.000-08:00

Here is my version of the flipchart for February's song: He Sent His Son.

Download the Word doc HERE

Download the PDF HERE

(drop me an e-mail if the files aren't working)

January week 5: Game

2010-01-31T18:25:00.000-08:00

I wanted desperately to get this posted before today, but it just didn't happen. However, I am SO happy to report from personal experience, that this worked AWESOME for our primary!

I have the entire primary time for singing time on 5th Sundays, so I took the opportunity to play a game with the kids.

FOOTBALL!

I got the idea from the primary music group on yahoo groups. (If you are not a member, SIGN UP!) There are some awesome ideas and helps! Thanks Angie Rhodes, for the awesome ideas and questions! (I don't know if you check this blog or not, but I wanted to make sure I give you the credit for this great idea!)

I probably put in way too much time on this, but I love how it turned out. You could just draw one out on the chalk board when you get to church, and keep it simple. The kids will still have fun!

I printed off three footballs from the internet onto card stock. One ball was used for the 1st verse, another for the chorus, and the third for the 2nd verse.

On the back of each football, I wrote a "Wiggle song". (see examples below)

To play, I first chose someone to come pick our game ball, and set it on the 20 yard line.

Then we sang through the verse/chorus, and I told them to pay special attention to the words. Then I asked them some questions (posted below). If they answered correctly, which of course they did, I would move the ball to the next yard line...or so. I tried to move the ball so that by the time they answered the last question, they would make a touch down.

We had fun raising both our arms in the air to say "GOAL!" when we made it.

After every 3 or 4 questions, we would sing through the verse, to keep it "fresh" in our minds.

The wiggle songs I chose, were to really give them a break and get up and m.o.v.e!

Here's what we did:

Head Shoulders Knees and Toes: We all stood up, and did the actions, like normal. The next time through, we stood still except for the last word (nose) and pointed to it, but didn't sing the word. The next time, we added the action to the next to last word (point to mouth) and did not sing it as well. So every time you sing the song, you add another word to be left off and point to that body part in its place. By the final time through, there will be no singing, and only pointing to the body parts. (Is that completely confusing?!) Sorry! I actually only tried this with Sr. primary and they loved it. I think Jr.'s would like it too)

Give Said the Little Stream: You can read about how to do this here. This is one of our favorite wiggle songs, and I LOVE to see the concentration on their faces!

Popcorn popping: I got this idea from another blog...but can't remember who. (Ugh, I'm so bad about that! SORRY!) Anyway, the tuba section of the BYU marching band, will sometime play "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree". They only do this when we're winning (I was a member of the band for 3 years while at BYU). When they play, the fans will randomly jump out of their seats, like popcorn popping. When we do this with the primary, there's not so much singing happening, but they love it and it helps to get the wiggles out!

Questions used: Again, these are Angie's questions, so I take NO credit for them! I loved the more thought provoking questions such as "What does it mean to "Give My Heart to Him." I was really impressed with the answers that even the sunbeams gave. It was an awesome experience.

**for the fill-in-the-blank questions, I raised a finger for each blank instead of saying "A blank blank blank in a beautiful place. I told them to listen for the missing words. They got it.

Verse 1:
1) A __ __ __ in a beautiful place
2) Who was gathered 'round Jesus? a) people b) children c) apostles
3) He __ and __ as they felt of His love.
4) Each saw the (what) on His face? a) lines b) beard c) tears
5) The __ that He __ for His __ ones
6) I know He feels for (who)? a) me b) you c) us
7) I did not __ __ or __ on His __
__, Jesus is real to me.
8) What scripture story could the first verse be talking about?
9) How can Jesus be real to you if you didn't see him in person?
When they are done answering these questions, they should have made a touch-down and are now ready to take a break and do the wiggle song listed on the back of the ball. A NEW game-ball is chosen and placed on the 20 yard line.

Chorus:
1) I know He (what)? a) gives b) loves c) lives
2) I will follow __
3) __ __ I give to Him
4) I know that (who) loves me? a) Heavenly Father b) my Savior c) my
mommy (I emphasized that although all three of these individuals love us, the answer is the one sung about in
the song)
5) What does "My heart I give to Him" mean?
6) When we sing about something we know, it is the same as what?
(bearing testimony)

Verse 2:
1) Now __ __ __ in a beautiful place
2) (what) the teachings of Jesus? a) teaching b) hearing c) learning
3) Parents and teachers will __ __ the __
4) (what) my path every day? a) lighting b) righting c) fighting
5) __ in the __ of my Savior's love
6) I feel His (what) touch. a) tender b) gentle c) loving
7) __ each day, I will __ His way
8) Home to my (what) above. a) Father b) Savior c) heaven
9) Living __ __, I will follow __ __
10) How do parents and teachers help guide the way?
11) We sing "Living each day I will follow His way." How does that lead us "home to [our] Father above?"

January week 4: Testing

2010-01-22T22:09:00.000-08:00

So, this week, we're supposed to be "testing" on the song, but since there are 5 weeks, and I'll have the entire singing/sharing time next week, I'm doing one more reinforcement-type week.

And actually, we didn't have much time to cut off all the ribbons to the box last week, so I'll be finishing up with that. They were really anxious to see what was in the box, and kept glancing at the clock, worried that we wouldn't have enough time, which is what happened. But they were working so hard, so I'm bringing it back this week so we can get to open the box.

However, my plan next week is to use the mystery word poster. For both groups, we will cover up the words, but I'll try to use the younger kids (non-readers) in Junior to come up and cover up the words, to try to keep them engaged while the older kids can focus on the missing word.

Sorry this is such a lame post, but I hope it might help somehow!

I'll try to post my flipchart for He Sent His Son this week.

No promsises though...I've just discovered an exciting blog that teaches you how to build pottery-barn style furniture for CHEAP. :) I know, totally not related, but I've got my pieces to start building, and I can't wait! :) The blog is Knock Off Wood . I have never built anything before, not even held a drill! So, this will be an experience!

January week 3: Reinforcement

2010-01-16T12:18:00.000-08:00

I'm SO sorry that I'm getting this out the day before Sunday, but we had a death in the family. Yes, our pet hampster of 2 years, passed away. It's been a little emotional over here, and I just wasn't able to get to this until now.

I found this idea, somewhere... I'm pretty sure it was on a fellow chorister's blog, but I swear I went through every archive and could not find it. So, to whomever's idea this is, THANK YOU. Please let me know so I can give you credit!

Anyway, here's the plan:

You take a box (I used a shoe box), place a reward inside (I used Smarties') and wrap it up. Then you attach a bunch of tags with ribbons. The orginal idea [insert name of person who deserves much credit here} was to put the names of all the program songs on the tags, and as the kids mastered each song, they would cut off a tag, getting them closer to finding out what is inside the gift.

I'm modifying this idea just a little, to use it for just ONE song. I placed a phrase or two of January's song "I know my Savior Loves Me" on each gift tag. There are 9 tags total. Here are the linkgs to the tag PDF and WORD Document. files.

I'm going to start with the Chorus, (all on one tag). We'll work on singing it until we've mastered it. This means, no visuals, and no singing help from me. Once they've got it, I'll call a child up to cut the ribbon with the corresponding tag.

We will work through the song backwards, starting with the last phrase of the second verse FIRST. That way, we can just add on, singing to the end, and not have to stop the song in awkward places.

I'm not sure if we'll finish in one Sunday, (probably not), so we'll finish the next week if we need to.

We have split Senior and Junior singing time, so I have already pre-cut the ribbon for the Senior Primary, and will just use the same tags.

January week 2: Repetition!

2010-01-06T13:14:00.000-08:00

So, last week, we introduced the song, and sang it through once or twice.

This week's goal is just to repeat like crazy, but not let them get bored.

For my repeat week, I desperately tried to come up with an original idea, but let's face it, I'm just not that creative. :) so, I'm adapting an idea from Sofia's primary ideas.

The idea is to get some smaller, white dry-erase boards. She mentioned you could get them at Target or the dollar store. I couldn't find them at either, so forked out a few more bucks at wal-mart. I have plans to use them for other things, so I'm considering it an "investment." :) Of course, you can always use just the chalkboard. The erase-boards are nice because of A) color, and B) That the rest of the primary can't really see what is being drawn until it is time for the reveal! (I think I've watched too many reality shows...)

Bascially, it's a game of pictionary. :)

For Junior primary: We'll review the song once, and then I'll call up two children to come and illustrate something that shows that Heavenly Father Loves them. (i.e. families, nature, gospel, etc.) (I'll have a jar of paper strips if they need an "idea"

While they are "illustrating" we will sing through one verse of the song with the chorus. We'll alternate verses, to make sure they get practice singing. When we are done singing, it is time for them to be done coloring, and to show their picture to the primary, where we (the primary) will then guess what their picture is of.

I plan on using the popsicle stick idea to help me pick my helpers, but The Crazy Chorister has some great ideas on other helper-picker methods.

I'm hoping that with the 20 minute allotment for singing time, all of the children will get a turn. We have about 30-40 in Jr and 20-30 in Sr.

for Senior: I'm trying to make it a little bit harder, and so they have to pay attention to the song more. They will be asked to illustrate a line of the song while we sing a verse, and then we'll have to guess which line they drew.

I'll have a jar with the following lines written on separate strips of paper, so they don't take too long trying to pick out a phrase: click HERE for the word file, or PDF file, so all you have to do is cut up the strips and stick them in a jar.

Since two children will be drawing at one time (each on separate boards) I'm going to have them illustrate the same idea. It will be fun to see the different interpretations!

Once all of the papers have been drawn, we'll stick them all back in again until we run out of time.

Here are the phrases for the wordstrips...

A long time ago in a beautiful place

children were gathered 'round Jesus

Parents and teachers will help guide the way

Lighting my path everyday

I did not touch him or sit on his knee

Now I am here in a beautiful place, learning the teachings of Jesus

Wrapped in the arms of my Savior's love, I feel is gentle touch

My heart I give to him

Each saw the tears on his face

I will follow faithfully

home to my Father above

I know that my savior loves me

January: week 1

2009-12-31T11:45:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I'm not starting the year off very well with my resolutions..., but I found this idea on The Crazy Chorister, and thought it was just exactly how I would want to present this song and theme for the year.
Click HERE for her idea of introducing the song. I always struggle with presenting reverent songs, as I'm always trying to get kids active and involved. So, I'm going to be weak on my first week (haha) and copy her idea. Thanks Crazy Chorister!

As far as the story goes, I found this great summary on sugardoodle.net from Cara (click here)

I cut and taped this story to the back of various Gospel Art Kit pictures, as follows: GAK 314, 315, 316, new GAK book 84.

I've got an idea for next weeks' reinforcement of the song, so stay tuned!

January Flip chart: I know My Savior Loves Me

2009-12-29T19:58:00.000-08:00

This my first time doing this, so I hope it works, but you should be able to access the word here and the PDF file here UPDATE: Apparently there is some problem with the WORD file download, but the PDF still works fine. E-mail me at sillysinginglady@gmail.com if you would like the word document.

Here is a flipchart for January's song: I know My Savior Loves Me.

Hopefully it will open up in a Word Document and you can alter it as much as you want. If you have problem, just leave your e-mail and I can e-mail you the file.

Most of the clipart came from sugardoodle.net (don't you just LOVE the new format for that site?!) and a few clipart items came from from MSNclipart.

Note: This song is a great one to had your primary children as part of the visuals. (I'll note the pictures that I plan on taking pictures and then inserting them in place of the current picture)

This would be a great one to have one of your primary children holding a picture of Jesus, just as the girl shown is doing. You could do a different child for the second chorus.

Take a picture of a primary child holding a large cut-out heart.

You could take a picture of your primary here, or even just a class during their class time.

Take a picture of one of your primary teachers with one

of their primary kids.

Or, a parent with their child.

New year's resolution (s?)

2009-12-29T15:23:00.000-08:00

I love New Year's because of "resolutions" I make. I know I won't end up following through with most of them (how pathetic is that to admit?), but I love how it motivates me to TRY and be a better person. :)

So, I'd like to share three of my resolutions with you:

Number 1: Have regular posts on this blog. IDEALY, I'd like to plan out a whole month at a time. I will basically be posting my lesson plan and ideas for each Sunday. Mainly this is for a selfish purpose: to help me plan ahead so I'm not fumbling around Saturday night trying to come up with something to do in the morning. However, I do hope you find something YOU can use in your primary. This blog used to have several authors, but they have now all been released, and it is only me now. If any of you want to contribute, LET ME KNOW! :)

I will probably use a lot of the same ideas as last year, since it has been a year since the kids have seen them, and why stress out about always trying to come up with something new?

Number 2: And because I like to contradict myself (just ask hubby) I'd also like to try to come up with more original (aka, ideas from my OWN brain) ideas. I may not post many, but It's not very helpful to go from blog to blog and find the same idea reposted (okay, so I'm mainly the one found guilty of this...hence the resolution to be better....)

Number 3: Help you guys out with "flipcharts". I seem to get a lot of requests for the ones I made, so I'll try to find a more efficient way of getting them to you, instead of you having to leave an e-mail. (Although it was really fun to see how many of you wanted them!)

So, to start, I decided I needed to get organized. When I was called as chorister, I inherited a box full of "visuals". I went through every envelope to see if the contents were something I would use, and if so, I packaged them up, and labeled them with the song title.

Then I placed them in my box (wasn't trying too hard to find a nice container for them, and this box fit perfectly...) and put them in alphabetically, according to the song's title.

I don't use a lot of poster boards (I find them a pain to store) and when I do need a "poster" I usually use my dry-eraser board. I also put in my game and review contents, such as the keywords, puzzle pieces, hit-or-miss game pieces, mystery word covers, etc.

Inside the song envelopes are anything I used to teach those songs. I use a lot of small visuals that the kids can hold and move around on a chalkboard, and then the 81/2 x 11 pages that I put in my "song book." (see below)

Now my "songbook" is empty and ready to go for the new year. I hope to have my plans ready for Sunday in the next day or two, so check back soon!

As always,

Music Melody Map

2009-11-12T21:35:00.000-08:00

I remember doing this for music class when I was in Elementary School. The teacher made this weird map of lines, symbols, squiggles, etc. that correlated to the melody of a musical piece. I remember specifically doing this for some of the Nutcracker Ballet pieces.

Anyway, I thought I would try it with my kids to teach them "Joy to the World" since it is a fairly simple song, but can be tricky due to holding out words over multiple notes. Using this method, we could sing the song over and over and hopefully keep their attention. You could do this for any song

I told them we were going to learn a new song, then showed them a poster that looked like this:

I had fun with them and asked if anyone knew the song. Of course I got lots of puzzled looks and remarks. So I had our pianist play the first few notes until they recognized it. Then I sand them for it while I followed the "map" with my baton. (Baton's are excellent pointers...)

Then I called on volunteers to help me follow the map while the rest followed with their fingers in the air. I also shrunk this down and put 4 on an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of cardstock, cut them out, and passed them out to the older kids AFTER they had practiced in the air with me a few times.

I asked for them back, but told them if they wanted one to take home and practice :) they could come by after primary to get one.

After a few repetitions, I'd ask them what words went to the blue marks, or the red marks, etc. They did really well!

How it works:

Blue marks: Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

Purple: Let earth receive her King!

Green: Let every heart, Prepare him room

Red: And Saints and Angels Sing! And Saints and Angels Sing!

Orange: And saints, and saints, and Angels sing!

Just follow the marks with your fingers to fit the words.

If this doesn't make sense, I could make a video...

...but then I'd have to sing a solo...

...and reveal my identity....

...but I would do it...

... just for you. :)

So, let me know if I need to.

P.S. I have the PDF of the little pass out cards if anyone is interested. I really wish there was a way to just post those on here....does anyone know a way to do this?

I am Glad for Many Things

2009-11-11T21:22:00.000-08:00

There are several songs about "Thanks" in the Children's Songbook, so we have been quickly learning a few.

One easy one to do (and one that most probably know already) is
"I am Glad for Many Things" -Children's Songbook pg.151

For this one, I started telling them what I was grateful for: my family.

Then I cued the pianist and sang the song for them.

When we finished, I had my "boing" ball and asked them
"What are you grateful for?"

I then tossed the ball to a child with a raised hand. (When they catch the ball, the ball goes "boing!"...at least most of the time...sometimes they had to punch the ball again....) They said something they were glad for and tossed it back. I did this for 3 or 4 children, then we sang the song again.

**I got my "boing" ball at Fred Meyer's for about $10.00

Pumpkin song pick

2009-11-09T21:31:00.000-08:00

OOPS! I thought I had this one posted! Pumpkins are still in season though, right?!

Our program is over! YAY! I don't normally get teary in public, but those kids definitely made it hard to keep the tears from flowing as we sang Families can be Together Forever with the congregation. They did absolutely fantastic. AND, I didn't even need the motivational chart!

For primary, after the program, we gave the kids a little break and just sang some of the fun "wiggle" songs. I wanted a fun way to choose the songs though, so I found this idea on sugardoodle posted by Amanda Fennema.

I took a pumpkin and printed our various facial features for our Mr. Pumpkin. I cut them out, and wrote a song title on the back. I chose a child to come up and pick a feature and put it on the pumpkin. I put double sided sticky tape on the back of the features and it worked ok. However, next time I will probably do it like ChicoandJo.com (the pictures below came from their site.)

For the eyes, I just wrote down one song title on one, and had them put up in pairs. You could write the same title twice, or you could just have them pick one eye at at time, so each eye has a different title. The kids really had fun making their own pumpkin face, and getting to do all those action songs.

I found templates for face features here:

Christmas Devotional

2009-11-09T21:20:00.000-08:00

Our ward includes some senior citizens at a retirement home, located across the street to our chapel. The different auxillaries take turns doing a devotional for anyone who wants to attend, in their dining hall. It's the primary's turn in December. Our primary presidency has planned a special Christmas devotional that basically tells the nativity story with scriptures and songs.

I thought this is a great idea and thought it might be a great opportunity for your primary's as well. I know my kids love to meet all the "Grandma's and Grandpa's" after the program, and having had a grandparent in a nursing home, know the residents would love it even more.

Here is our program, but you could substitute other songs and scriptures:

Read: Luke 2:1-5
Enter: Mary and Joseph
Song: When Joseph went to Bethlehem (we're going to have our Valiant 11 Boys each solo a sentence in this song = 5 solos)
Read: Luke 2:6-7
Song: Away in a Manger (3 CTR 6 girls will sing the verses and the primary joins in for the chorus)
Read: Luke 2:8-12
Enter: Shepherds
Song: The Shepherd's Carol
Read: Luke 2:13-14
Enter: Angels
Song: Joy to the World
Read: Matthew 2:1-2, 7-11
Enter: Wise Men
Song: Silent Night

The Angels will be all the girls, the shepherds are the Jr. boys, and the Wise Men are the Sr. boys. Mary and Joseph are the two oldest boy and girl in the primary. We debated about how to have the characters "Enter" but we decided on having a "stage" where Mary and Joseph will be and then the children are either sides of the stage, sitting down. When it comes their turn to enter, they will stand up and remain standing.

I am excited about this and the extra opportunity to remember the importance of this Christmas Season and share it with others.

presentation motivation

2009-10-19T12:49:00.000-07:00

catchy title? Oh well, I tried. :)

I feel like my kids know the songs. They've worked really hard all year, practiced with their CD's. and they have them down. I also know that they can be strong singers with lots of volume from different activities we've played durring singing time. However, getting them to sing out in front of all those people, is another story. I've got a relatively shy group of kids with a few who can really sing out. When they do, the others sing out more. So I've been trying to think f something to help motivate them to sing out AND that I can use for the actual program, next week.

Although anything but revolutionary, this is what I came up with.

I went to msn clipart to download the smiley's. (just did a search for "smileys"). For the board, I trimmed down a bulk cereal box (you know, the kind you get at Costco), so that it would be nice and sturdy. I had a spool of ribbon laying around, that still had the "wrapping" on it. he ribbon had one layer of a clear plastic, the same width as the ribbon, so I actually sewed the ribbon to it, threaded it through the board, and then taped the other side down.

I am happy to e-mail you the pdf, so you can just print, cut and assemble. Just leave your e-mail in the comments. You can resize the font and images to make it work for whatever board you have.

ON the back, I figured out where the ribbon would need to be for the different achievements, and made corresponding marks. This way, I don't even have to look at the front to figure out where the ribbon is.

I tried it yesterday, and it worked awesome. The kids eyes were glued on me, and it helped them forget how big the chapel is...at least I think it helped. :) The measurements are about 16x9, so it won't be too distracting to the rest of the crowd. I'm only planning on "conducting" them when they need it.

Good luck to everyone and their programs!

Teaching rhythm

2009-09-30T17:13:00.000-07:00

Another idea by Trisha...

To learn a song that has a strong beat (like How Firm a Foundation), here's another idea.

I made rhythm sticks out of 5/8" dowels cut into 8" lengths. I found 3' and 4' dowels at our local building supply store.

I made enough sets of sticks so that at least half of the children had a set. If a child didn't get a set of sticks first, they clapped. And we switched sticks often so that all of the children had a chance to clap and use the sticks.

First, I had us all clap or tap out the beat. The beat never changes in most of the Primary songs. Each song is usually composed of three or four beats in each measure. The beat just goes on and on. You can talk quite well while you and the children are clapping/tapping the beat. I repeated "The beat goes on and on. It never changes" to the beat a couple times to emphasize the steadiness of the beat.

Second, we all practiced clapping/tapping out the rhythm. For the rhythm, you clap or tap each time there's a note in the song. It usually works out to a clap/tap for every syllable in each word. For example, How Firm A Foun-Da-Tion, Ye Sa-Ints Of The Lord with every capital letter indicating a clap/tap.

When the children had the rhythm under control, I switched it up.

One side of the room kept the beat, while the other side of the room clapped/tapped the rhythm. That way, they could hear the differences between the beat and the rhythm. And then we switched sides.

You could use a teacher or member of the Presidency to lead one side of the room while you lead the other side. I used one of our 11 year-old girls that was musically talented and who was leaving within the next week to attend Young Womens. She loved it. The kids loved it too.

We repeated both verses of How Firm a Foundation several times, but the children didn't seem to notice all the repetition while tapping/clapping the beat or the rhythm of the song.

Italian fun

2009-09-30T17:06:00.001-07:00

This post is an idea submitted by Trisha...

Thanks for the great idea!

(If anyone else has an idea, to share, let me know!)

Because most music words are Italian, I decided to teach the children some common Italian music words while reviewing songs for the program.

I used the following pairs of words:
* Forte (loud) and Piano (soft)
* Allegro (fast) and Largo (slow)
* Staccato (crisp, detached) and Legato (smooth, connected)
* A capella (without music) and Con musica (with music)
* Regazze (girls), Ragazzi (boys), and Insegnanti (teachers)

I used an online translation site to find the translations for girls, boys, and teachers. The site also says the words for you so that you can hear the correct pronunciation (http://www.oddcast.com/home/demos/tts/tts_tran_example.php?). It works for other languages too. Want to learn Head, Shoulder, Knees, and Toes in another langugage? This site is extremely helpful for that. There are other such sites out there, but this is one of my favorites.

I dressed in a trench coat, with a hat, and big sunglasses. I was a detective and I invited the children to play detective with me to figure out some Italian words that have to do with music and singing.

For Junior Primary, I hid the pairs of words in numbered envelopes under their chairs so that they could help me find the missing Italian words.

Then, I had the children with the number one words come up to the front and hold their words.

I had a "magic wand" (a digital drumstick with the power off). I told the children my wand could read Italian, so they had to guess what each word meant based on how my wand responsed. I'd read each word by running the tip of the wand across each word. Then, my wand would respond in a corresponding way. I'd then ask them what they thought that word meant in English.

* Forte (very large movements)
* Piano (very small)
* Allegro (very fast)
* Largo (very slow)
* Staccato (robot-like, sharp)
* Legato (flowing, almost dancing)
* A capella (sharp, cut off motion towards pianist)
* Con musica (pick up/include motion towards pianist)
* Ragazze, Ragazzi, and Insegnanti (point towards girls, boys, or teachers, or point to pictures on the board or on a poster, or walk around tapping a few gently on the head)

For Senior Primary, I also put "How?," "Who?," and "When?" wordstrips on the board. For each set of words, they helped me deduce if that pair of Italian words helped us know WHO shoudl sing, WHEN we should sing (or sing with accompaniment), or HOW we should sing.

We sang through several songs in the program with a different set of words for each song. The children had to watch the wand carefully to know how to sing the song at any given moment because the wand would switch back and forth between each word in a pair. If they needed extra practice with a song, a helper got to come up and direct the wand with the appropriate motions for the Italian words used with that song.

At the end, we sang through a couple songs using all of the Italian words together. They really had to watch me and my wand then!

I also sent home a straw with each child. The straw had a little paper flag taped to the end of it. The "flag" listed all of the Italian words we learned that day. I told them they could practice their Italian and music with their families.

Primary song hospital

2009-09-09T21:25:00.001-07:00

This seems to be a very popular idea, as I read lots of "Versions" on it at sugardoodle and yahoogroups

I read through them all and mixed and matched ideas to fit what I thought would work for our primary.

Before hand, I asked a brother in our ward to be our Doctor. I picked this brother in particular, because he has a background in music, which is helpful for "diagnosing" our primary.

I made this board from a tri-fold display bought at target. I spent WAY too much time drawing my "floating" hospital (I think I still need some lessons in art and drawing 2 dimensional figures...) So hopefully you can think of something MUCH simpler.

The inside is pretty boring. I ran out of time to decorate it more...which may be a good thing. :)

The inside says "Primary Song Hospital."

On each of the three sections, I taped the edges of a file folder together, and taped that on to each section. The sections were labeled "waiting room", "Emergency Room" and "Discharge".

I printed out forms for each of the songs, with a separate sheet for each verse. I was worried that we would run out of time. After having done it, I would recommend having one sheet per song, despite the number of verses. We weren't able to get through all of the songs.

I placed all of the sheets in the folder labeled "Waiting Room"

I did this on the 5th Sunday, on which I have the entire singing/sharing time for just singing.

I introduced our Doctor, outfitted with a white lab coat, stethoscope around his neck, and a clipboard. Then we had a volunteer "nurse" pick out a patient to be diagnosed. The nurse gave the paper to the Doctor, and we sang the song, then had the Dr. tell us our diagnosis. Our Doctor did a fantastic job in telling them "good news" and "bad news".

If the song got below a 4 in any category (words, smiles, watching chorister, melody, etc.) then it was sent to the emergency room. For Juniors, I'd pick an "ambulance driver" to drive the paper to the emergency room, and we all made siren noises.

If the song was discharged (meaning only 4 or 5's) then the entire primary received a squirt of "Miracle Spray". This is just lemon crystal light in a spray bottle. I told the kids to say "AHHH" if they wanted some, and if they didn't to just keep their mouths closed. THIS was a HUGE hit.

I wish we had been able to go through all the songs and then had time to work on getting the Emergency Room patients discharged...but maybe next time.

Little People review

2009-08-27T21:57:00.000-07:00

Hi! I'm back! I'm sorry for the lack of posts, but we've recently moved...took forever to get the internet hooked up...went on vacation...blah blah blah...

Anyway, I've been anxious to post this idea I used a few weeks back. It worked surprisingly well!

We had learned the verses to Families are together forever the previous week. So, this week, I reminded them about the song we had learned about "families". Then I brought out a family of "little people". I had a Dad, Mom, Brother, Sister, and Baby.

I told the kids to look at them very carefully. After a few seconds, I covered them up, and we sang through one of the verses.
When we finished singing, I took away one of the figures (all still covered up), then had them guess which one I took. They had no problems figuring it out.

but then...

we added the family "pets".

For junior primary I added them two at a time. For Senior primary, I just stuck them all out at once. After adding the figures, we'd cover them up, sing a verse, then I'd call a volunteer to take one away, then they'd guess which one was missing.

We played this Over and over and over, so they didn't notice how many times we sang through the verses! At the end, I told them I was going to try to make it harder, by having the sing BOTH verses...giving them more time to forget! They loved the challenge. My own kids begged to play the game when we got home from church.

Can you tell which one is missing?

When I do this again, I plan on bringing in "extended" family, i.e. aunts, uncles, cousins, etc! :)

Repeat Parakeet

2009-07-23T12:54:00.000-07:00

(I think I got this idea from online somewhere--but it has been over a year ago--so if it is yours--feel free to take credit in the comments!!)

Supplies: Picture(s) of parakeets, dice (I made a large one that I use for all sorts of stuff)

Activity: I started out by showing a couple pictures of parakeets (I used my sons book, but you could get them easily off the internet) and a few fun facts about them. I finished with the interesting tidbit that some parakeets can be taught to repeat what you say! I then magically poof-ed them into parakeets so they would have to repeat what I said.

A child would come up and roll the dice--what ever number they got was how many times the primary would have to repeat what I said. I would then sing a line of the song, and we would sing it as many times as was on the dice. Once they get lines, you could do this with two lines grouped together etc. Whatever your needs are.

Then entire time I was being goofy and really playing up the parakeet teacher part. Have fun with it--be silly--they'll love you for it!

Basically, that was it. . . super simple and the primary LOVED it. My sunbeam was so excited about it he insisted on wearing a green and yellow stripped polo shirt to church so he could look like a parakeet. Funny kids!

music lesson and repeat activity

2009-07-20T15:08:00.001-07:00

A sister from my previous ward did this once, and I was amazed at how it caught the attention of the kids, so I decided to try it this week.

We are learning Teach me to Walk in the Light this month, and since it is a fairly simple song, this was the perfect activity for it.

I was a music education major at BYU, so I had a conducting baton. I'm not sure where you can purchase one, probably at any music store...

I pulled out my baton and asked the kids what it was. Then we talked about the role of a conductor. A lot of them thought his/her job was to tell the group to play high or low notes. To give them a hint, I conducted "softly" with my left hand palm down as if to say "Shhh!" and my right hand conducted close to me with smaller movements. Then hands shot up everywhere and they realized that a conductor told the group HOW to play/sing.

We tried a few others, such as LOUD, quickly, slowly, staccato, and smoothly. I stopped there with it, but one Sunday, I plan on actually conducting them like a real choir and having them follow the way I conduct.

However, for this week, I brought out this little sign (8 1/2 x 11) on card stock. Then we had a quick lesson about the music symbols and what they meant.

okay, so I couldn't upload it, but it was basically this:
pp
p
mp
mf
f
ff
I put a mouse by the pp and a lion by the ff to help remind them which one was soft or loud.

Then I handed my baton to one of the children, and let them drag it up and down the chart to "conduct" us on HOW we should sing. I had to remind them not to move to quickly since it's hard to change your voice that quickly. We only did it a few times, but everyone wanted a try! I'll definitely be bringing this one back, and I'm glad I could get in a quick theory lesson!

overheard at our house...and your primary?

2009-06-14T22:49:00.000-07:00

This is a personal post, but thought my fellow choristers might get a kick out of it.

I have a 3 year old sunbeam, boy. He loves to sing around the house, and usually, it's one of the primary songs. Usually, it's just a phrase of the song that he'll sing over and over.

Today, he was singing a new variation to My Eternal Family

It went like this

"I am a builder, YES WE CAN!"

If you have ever seen "Bob the Builder" you'll get this. :)

Visuals Matching Game

2009-06-14T22:02:00.001-07:00

Well, this may be my last post. A new stake is being formed in our area and I've been moved into a new ward. So I have officially been released as our ward Primary chorister. Very sad.

Since I was sick last week, I just got started on "I'll Seek the Lord Early" today. For the setup, I hid my visuals (all pictures: "youth" - a picture of my daughter, "truth" - gavel, "scriptures", "prayer" - child praying, "living prophets" - recent Ensign picture of First Presidency, "commandments" - tablets, "love" - heart) behind numbered construction paper in random order. On the back of one piece of construction paper, I taped a picture of the Savior.

I set everything on the chalkboard ledge. I started out singing only what corresponded to my first visual then had everyone sing that part with me. ("I'll see the Lord early while in my youth") Then I drew a name and had someone pick a numbered paper. I showed them what was behind it. If it matched what we sang, I would put the visual up and move the construction paper up so the kids would know that the visual was gone from behind that one. If the visual didn't match, I covered it back up and we sang the line again, doing this until they found the match. Then we would all sing as far as we had visuals for and I would continue to sing the line for the next visual at the end, then have them sing it all with me, then draw another name and see if they could find the match for the next visual.

Once all of my visuals had been revealed and matched, we sang the entire song and I finished off "I will seek the Lord early and He will be found." Then I told them that all of my construction paper had already been chosen, however, there was one more visual - a picture of the Savior - that they would need to find. If they chose a number that didn't have the Savior behind it, I covered up visuals in order. (I.e. - the picture of the Savior was behind #4. Someone chose #3. I showed the children the back and then covered the first visual with #3 construction paper.) I figured I would cover the visuals in the order of the song, rather than corresponding to the number chosen, as we would have sung the song multiple times with the earlier visuals and didn't want to cover the newer visuals too soon.

This went over really well. We sang the song many, many times. This took us the entire 20 minutes and kept the kids' attention so they could try to remember where they had already seen some of the visuals.

Primary Putting

2009-05-31T23:03:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a little stressful trying to come up with another fun idea for today, it being the 5th Sunday. I had a random thought that utilizing more sports ideas would be a fun idea for teaching during the summer and the first one that popped into my head was making a golf course. After much thought, here's what I came up with:

I covered a Huggies box (one of the jumbo packs from Costco) with old wrapping paper turned inside out and cut 8 "holes" along the base. Then I printed out PRIMARY PUTTING in cute font on colored paper and taped it to the box. (But ran out of time to further decorate so if I ever do upload a picture, please don't judge me!)

Anyway, then I numbered each hole. Then I labeled 8 strips of construction paper with the number 1-8 on one side and put the name of one of the songs we've been working on on the other side. Since it's only May, I had 3 WILD cards, as I'm very much planning on using this as review in the future as well.

I had all the kids think of their favorite Primary song while I put my strips of paper on the board. (For some reason, very few can come up with a song on the spur of the moment.) Then I put a line of masking tape on the floor and drew a name for our first golfer. We sang the song corresponding to the number of the hole the ball went through. If a golfer hit the ball through a hole and we had already sung the song, we would just sing it again - review, right?

Lots of fun! And reusable!!! Please share any other sporty ideas!

Baptism; new song/review combo idea!

2009-05-31T22:48:00.000-07:00

(I know it was the song for May, but this idea will work on other songs as well. My apologies for lack of pictures. My daughter dropped our digital camera in the pool and it is fried. I will see if I can work some miracle with my cell phone to add later.)

I printed out all the words, cut each out individually and backed with colored paper that was cut about 1/2" larger than the white sheet. (Yes, this took some time, but it also made it much easier to prep for the following weeks!)

I left some colored pages blank and utilized the Detective Clueless idea. I wrote scriptures in very small handwriting on the colored pages and told the kids which file to look in to fill in the blank. We would start singing at the beginning of a verse and stop when we came to a blank. That way, we ended up singing through each verse multiple times. We also got to use the scriptures and learn more about Jesus' baptism.

It took us a couple of weeks to get all the way through the song and fill in the blanks. Then for review, since I had all the words on seven different colors of construction paper, we used "exploding water", as my kids call it, and sang the whole thing through 7 times. They love watching the water bubble over and get so excited trying to guess what color will come up next.

Reverence

2009-05-31T22:35:00.000-07:00

First - my apologies also for slacking in the posting department. This singing/sharing time took place about 2 months ago but things have been super busy for us.

We were having a little trouble with lack of reverence. Not just the children but teachers too! So our Primary president called and asked if I could teach the children "Reverence Is Love" during her sharing time. Which got me to thinking, "What is reverence? How can I teach this song and keep it fun and interesting while reverent at the same time?" Sign language! So I picked out the main words, looked them up on an online ASL site and memorized the song.

Our president began by assigning a "noise" to each class. For instance, the Sunbeams mooed the next class counted to 10 repeatedly, etc. Then she told them that when she raised her hand, they were all to make their assigned noises and stop when she lowered her hand. She then told of Jesus and the money changers in the temple, raising and lowering her hand at appropriate times. She also discussed the meaning of reverence and how we can show reverence and then turned the time over to me.

I told the children that I wanted to teach them a special song about reverence but that they would have to be reverent to learn it. I'm no soloist, but I did sing and sign at the same time (ask your pianist to slow down if you want to try this!). Then I invited them all to sing and sign with me anything they could remember but to particulary watch for the sign for "reverence". After 2 times through, I asked if anyone noticed what the sign was. Then we went through the first line, learning words and signs. Then added the second line, sang from the beginning. Then added the third line, sang from the beginning. Etc. To finish, I had them sing the song twice through, once with words, the second time only with signs.

The Spirit was so strong. And the kids love the song. We are going to sing it as a part of our program to help the reverence in our sacrament meeting as well.

Hit or Miss Game

2009-05-30T14:55:00.001-07:00

This Sunday is the fifth sunday, and I have the entire singing/sharing time. I wanted a game where we could sing like crazy and review songs, but also have fun.

This idea was inspired by someone with the idea of "musicship"...but I can't remember who.

****I just got a comment referring me to the correct site. The Crazy Chorister was the one I got the original idea from. Thanks to Dana who sent this information!****

I tweaked it a little to make it work for our primary and what we needed to get accomplished.

On a poster board, I made a grid: 1-6 across the top and A-G going down the sides. I cut out 3x3 squares of cardstock to fill in the blank spaces. The children will come up (for Juniors) and pick a square and the older kids can just call out coordinates (A2) for example. Behind the square will either be a symbol or blank. If it's blank, we don't do anything, and have someone else pick another square.

I have 3 different symbols on different colors of cardstock; a 4 stars, 11 ships, and 6 flowers. On each of the symbols, I penciled in a song title.

All of the cards will be faced down, as so:

The ships represent the program songs. (I divided up the verses, so one ship would represent "How Firm a Foundation (verse 1)" and another ship would have "How Firm a Foundation (verse 3)".

The flowers represent songs we will be singing at the retirement center in two weeks. These are "non-denominational songs". We have our Father's day songs, one of our mother's day songs, I am a Child of God, Wise and Foolish Man, etc. You could just do wiggle songs for these.

The stars represent "free choice", where the child can pick any primary song he wants.

For most of the songs, I will have a little bag with papers inside, with different ways to sing the song. I thought about bringing my dice, but it's getting hard enough for me to move around without carrying a ton of stuff. These papers might say "sing staccato, stand on one leg, loud and soft (I have sticks with a lion and a mouse that they can alternate during the song), girls sing, boys sing, don't sing words that begin with "H", etc. If they have a rough time with a verse, we'll probably review a little and sing it again.

****It would be fun to have a picture or phrase or something underneath all of the squares that they slowly uncover. However, leaving it blank, you can use the poster over and over, just rearrange the cards and erase the song titles for different ones as needed****

Teaching scramble game

2009-05-24T17:28:00.000-07:00

I'm excited to share something that worked AWESOME for me today. This can be used with ANY song, but worked particularly well with this one, since it wasn't "wordy" and on the slow side.

(This was for SENIOR primary. I'm working much more slowly with the Jr'.s and have been doing more basic activities with simple visuals. I think Jr.'s could do this if there were pictures, rather than words)

Last week I introduced this song with this awesome idea from this blog
Some changes I did were: My pictures were on half a sheet of colored paper, I didn't use Popsicle sticks (just the picture backed on colored paper), and I changed some of the words that were colored to fit the visuals I could find...not change the words themselves of course, but which words were colored. :) For example, I didn't color the word "Obedience" as that was a visual I found hard to find, but colored "Father" instead. I tried to have the same amount of colored words per verse. I hope that wasn't too confusing! :)

Anyway, I felt this song was simple enough to introduce ALL three verses at once. Then I could work on individual verses as needed.

This week, I wanted to focus on the 2ND verse of Baptism.

I cut out 2 1/4" in. strips from a poster board (4 of them) and wrote the four phrases on them, like this:

I took the four strips to church with me. We sang through the 3 verses, using the idea from last week, where the kids stand up on the words of the picture. Then I posted the four strips on the blackboard with magnets, in a mixed up order. I called on a volunteer to put the strips in order while the rest of the primary sang with the poster.

She was able to do it, no problem. So then I challenged them to do something harder. I took a pair of scissors and chopped a few of the phrases up like this:
Then the first volunteer and I mixed up the phrases again and called on another volunteer to come up and put the phrases together and in the right order. They started rearranging the pieces the same time we started singing the verse.

If they were unable to put the pieces back together before we finished singing the "round" was not mastered. I would let them finish putting the pieces back together while we waited (usually just a few seconds), we'd mix them up and call on another person to try. If they DID succeed in putting the phrases back together before we finished singing, it was too "easy" so I chopped a paper or two to make 1 or 2 more pieces.

We have more than 20 kids in Sr. primary and everyone who wanted to have a turn (which was all but one or two) got to have a chance at unscrambling the phrases. They loved it! Sometimes I had to remind the others to keep singing as they were caught up in the volunteer's efforts. I held up the poster with all the words until I noticed that the kids were singing, but no longer looking at the words. YAY! :)

This is how the pieces looked on the board after every turn. I'd have the volunteer who just finished rearranging the pieces, help me mix them up again.

***Towards the end, when there were the most pieces, I brought out my conducting baton (I never use this...I still have it from my band directing days...) and they could just point to the scattered pieces as we sang them. I've heard of people using fly swatters and swatting the phrases...but as this is a more reverent song, I didn't feel that was appropriate.****

Update:

2009-05-16T17:54:00.000-07:00

Hi!
I just wanted to put up a brief note about my lack of posting. My main excuse is that I don't have anything original and the ladies with links on the side of the blog have come up with lots of good things.

My second excuse is I'm due to have a baby soon (could come next week...but not due till June) and have not found the energy to do anything elaborate or even worth posting.

I'm not giving up yet, just wanted to explain the absence of posts. I hope you all are finding wonderful ideas to help your sunday's out!

-Trisa

Mother's Day

2009-04-19T17:20:00.000-07:00

We started learning our Mother's day songs today, and it went so amazingly well. I received a degree in music education at BYU, and have been trying to use the things they taught me in my early childhood music classes. One of the biggest things they tried to emphasize is that
1)Don't try to teach part to whole, but whole to part. In other words, try to sing the entire song 90% of the time, instead of by phrases.
2) Let each repetition have purpose and meaning

I find these things to be difficult to do while holding the children's attention. Today, I think I finally would have made my professors proud! :)

We are singing "Dearest Names" and then going right into the first verse of "Love at home". Today I taught Dearest names.

I picked this one because it is not a familiar one, but I thought the kids would grasp on to it quickly. They totally did!

The words:
I know a name, a glorious name,
dearer than any other!
Listen, I'll whisper the name to you...
It is the name of Mother!
Mother, so tender and kind and true,
I love you! I love you!
Mother, so tender and kind and true,
I love you!

I started out by bringing a duck puppet, but any puppet or no puppet would work. For Sr.'s I didn't use the pupped. I told them my friend (the duck) wanted to sing them a special song about someone, but she was really shy, and would only whisper the name to someone listening very carefully.

I sang the first half of the song. When I got to "Listen, I'll whisper the name to you..." I started walking around the primary with my puppet and bent down to a child to whisper "mother" when the song came to it. Then, I had that child come to the front and we started the song over and we each picked a child to whisper "mother" too. Then the 2 new children, plus the original child and I, went back to the front, where we started the song again. It only took a few times through the song, before each child had been whispered the word.

Next, I had them sing with me from the beginning, and really sing out the special word, to make sure we all heard it right. At this point, I took off the puppet.

For the next half of the song, I showed them the sign language for "I Love you" (you know, the one we all know) and asked them to raise their hand if they knew what it meant. I was actually surprised at how few hands went up. I told them to listen to the next part where I would tell them would the sign language meant. I did the sign language everytime I sang "I love you" then invited them to sing the second half with me, and do the sign language with me. We did this a few times.

Lastly, I asked them if they could stomp their feet, Left foot then right foot, to the word "Moth-er". We tried that a few times. Then, we stomped our feet as we sang the second half and did the sign language to "I Love you." Then I had them listen for three things "mother" is and put their fingers up 1-2-3 as we sang them, WHILE doing everything else.

The next time, we clapped on the words "tender","kind" and "true"., while stomping on mother and doing the sign language.

For Sr.'s we kept going. I had them stomp on mother, but clap on all the "and" words. That was tricky.
Then, I had them pat one leg than the other (right left) for "tender", snap on "kind" and tap their head on "true".
the last time, we did everything above, but added the claps in between the words on "and".

Then of course, we had to sing it from top to bottom a few times. They LOVED it. and you can see how many times we were able to repeat the song.

Sigh, I LOVE successful sundays. :)

Teach and Review with Ker-plunk!

2009-04-09T18:47:00.000-07:00

So, it's been some time since I've had any ideas for singing time, but I finally came up with one! I've been trying to come up with an idea that would be fun, capture their attention, but also let us learn and review the song. This is my idea...

I am teaching "When He Comes Again" for the April song, but this idea would work for any song and can be used in many different ways.

Ker-plunk is a game I picked up at toys r us for about $12. If you have never seen it, the basic concept is that a bunk of sticks are placed through the middle of two cups, and then marbles are placed on top of the sticks. One by one, the sticks are removed, while trying not to let any of the marbles fall.

There are three colors of sticks. Neon Pink, Neon Orange, and Neon Green.

I have divided my song into three phrases and coordinated them with the color.

Neon Pink: "I wonder when he comes again. Will herald angels sing? Will earth be white with drifted snow, or will the world know spring?"

Neon Orange: "I wonder if one star will shine far brighter than the rest? Will daylight stay the whole night through? Will song birds leave their nest?"

Neon Green: "I'm sure he'll call his little ones, to gather round his kneee, because he said in days gone by, suffer them to come to me."

I'll call up children to remove a stick. If the stick they chose drops marbles, we will sing that color's phrase. How many marbles drop, will determine how many times we will sing the phrase...up to 4 times through. (so if 6 marbles drop, the maximum times we will sing that phrase would still be 4).

In order to keep their attention through the repeating of phrases, I have visuals for the words, about 3 per phrase. I'll pick three kids to hold them up and get them in the right order. If we need to sing it again, they will pick someone else to hold their picture and get it in the right order. Hopefully I'll be able to use all of them at least once, hopefully more.

I'm not sure if I'll do the same thing with the Sr.'s or not, since they pretty much already know the song, but I'm hoping this will help out my Jr's. :)

You pick Songs results

2009-03-26T13:38:00.000-07:00

Thank you everyone for sharing your songs for the months of April and July. I was finally able to come to a conclusion. I will be doing "I wonder When He Comes Again" for April and "Teach Me to Walk in the Light" for July. It is such a relief to have these chosen!

Just in case you are still agonizing over the decision, here are the results:

Most people are doing "He Sent His son" and "I Feel My Savior's Love" for April and July, but here are the other options:

April
I wonder When He Comes Again
He Sent his Son
I Feel My Savior's Love
He Did that We Might Live Again
Jesus Once was a little Child
Beautiful Savior

July

My Family Is of God
Teach Me to Walk in the Light
He Sent His Son
I Feel My Savior's Love
Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam
Where Love Is
A Child's Prayer
Love at Home
The Lord is My Light
Did Jesus Really live Again?

Good Luck!

Reveiw the songs: Face off

2009-03-22T14:16:00.000-07:00

The are so many great ideas out there - especially with so many fabulous sisters sharing their ideas online and sometimes I get overwhelmed and want to try so many of them. The other night as I lay in bed ponder the upcoming Sunday (today) I said a prayer asking for help to know what it was that my Primary needed - what would be a good way to review the songs learned so far. The following idea came to mind:

Have two children come to the front and give one of them an object to hold. The one holding the object begins the song, then, whenever they want, they pass the object to the other child and then it is the other child's turn to sing. They keep passing the object back and forth and only the one holding the object sings. Now, if they come to a part of the song where they are unsure of the words the primary kids that are sitting down can raise their hand and sing that part of the song.

The idea was so simple, and didn't require much from me, rather it was putting it all in the hands of the kids. It was fabulous and fun. For the object I used 4 block letters that spelled "home" and used one block at a time, so that each song got sung through 4 times. I used this game to review the three songs we've learned this year. First we sang through the song together as a primary and then I used the popsicle sticks to choose children to come up and sing. We have a combined jr and sr primary and I was nervous about calling on the little kids to come sing, but I shouldn't have worried - they did great, really, some of them knew the songs better than the older kids. When the child who was singing stumbled on some words, the other primary children would raise their hand, I would choose one, and they would "sing" that part of the song and then the child whose turn it was would resing that part and then continue on.
From this little song review I would have to surmise that my Primary likes the "Family is of God" song best. When the two children were taking their turns singing on most of the songs the other kids in the primary were quietly listening, but on the Family is of God, especially on the chorus, almost all of the primary kids were quietly singing along - it sounded really neat.

Our primary is small and almost all the kids had a turn. There were actually a few who didn't want to take their turn and a couple of them I had to encourage to come up and do the best they could, but the majority of them were dying to have another turn. One advantage for me was I was able to assess each child and see where they might need extra help. Like I said, some of the little kids really surprised me and they knew much more of the words than I supposed they did. It is the older kids that I need to figure out how to get them to open their mouths more and sing because they were the ones more unsure of some of the words.

My Eternal family...revisited.

2009-03-16T09:15:00.000-07:00

I mentioned this on my original teaching post of My Eternal Family, but it worked SO well yesterday, I just had to share again.

I didn't try it for Jr. primary, but it worked awesome for Sr. primary.

The first week of March we introduced the song. The second week was stake conference. So this week, I wanted to see how much they remembered. I had my "scattered visuals" on the board, held up with magnets. I told them we would play a game of "tag". I picked a child to start. She was to find the first picture, and then tag someone to find the next picture, etc. The rest of the primary just sang the song over and over with the flip chart until all the pictures were in order. We got through it 7 1/2 times! :)

I told them that was pretty good, since we had only one week to learn it, but I thought we could do much better. Then I called on 4 kids to come up and work as a team to put the visuals in order while the primary sang. They got it done before we finished the song even one time! we did this a few times, and the kids were edging out of their chairs to have a chance to prove how well they knew the song. We obviously couldn't let the ENTIRE primary do it, so I called up two kids to turn over one picture each. When we sang through the song and came to the picture turned over, I DID NOT SING, to see how well they knew it. We turned over 2-3 pictures each round.

They are really learning this song well. It was one of those activities where even the kid-that's-too-cool-for-singing-time was participating. YAY for successful sundays! :)

Song - the 12 apostles

2009-03-08T22:03:00.000-07:00

In preparation for General Conference next month we are helping the kids get familiar with the 12 apostles. I have 8x10 pictures of each of the 12 apostles (we are still including Elder Worthlin, even though he passed away - the song doesn't work as well with only 11). We use the music from "The Books of the Book of Mormon" in the childrens songbook and sing the apostles in order of seniority - Elder Packer down to Elder Christofferson. Each time we sing (this is our 2nd Sunday doing this) I first go through the pictures and say the apostles name and have them repeat and then we try singing slowly with the music.

I first started this with my own children who are 6 and 4 years old and when they would see a picture of an apostle in the Ensign or somewhere, or hear their names mentioned in church they would say, "hey, I know him". I wondered if becoming familiar with the apostles would help kids be a little more interested in conference if they "knew" some of the speakers, instead of them just being "some old guy" ( that was always my thoughts when I was little).
At the least, the primary kids are enjoying learning the song.

Free choice songs for April and July

2009-03-07T09:16:00.001-08:00

So, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm having a really hard time deciding on songs for these months! I know a lot of you are NOT slackers like I am and already have them picked, and probably on CD's for your kids!

So, I thought it would help to "poll the audience" to see what songs you are doing for these months, and then I'll post the results.

For April, I think I've decided to do The Easter Hosannah (Children's Songbook (68 & 69). I guess one of my struggles is that I feel the words need to teach something and need to relate to the monthly topic. There was a song in the friend by Janice Kapp Perry, (1999?) called "I Love to Learn of Jesus Christ" that I thought about doing, but I can not find a recording of it to put on a CD for the kids (which I still plan on doing, once I figure out these months).

I would love any of your ideas, and I'm betting there are others out there in the same boat that I am!

My eternal family, verse 2

2009-02-27T17:50:00.001-08:00

I had some requests to do verse 2, even though I am not planning on teaching it.

I've actually seen lots of great flip-charts for this verse, so if you don't like this one, I'm sure you can find one you do like. Carrie has a great one here too.

You can download my version of the flip- chart to verse 2 here. I did not include the chorus, since it was on the last visual file.

We have stake conference this week, so I get a break! But as for the following week, I don't really have any great ideas. I didn't get as far as I'd like with the song last week, so we'll just be playing games to review the phrases, like turning over pictures, or mixing them up and having the kids put them in the correct order by the time we finish singing the verse.

However, because there are 5 sundays this month, the presidency is giving me the entire singing/sharing time for music, so I'll have to come up with something really awesome. :) If your primary doesn't have something special to do on 5th Sunday's, you might ask if you can have the time, especially since it's really hard to teach these songs with just 10 minutes each week!

My Eternal Family: visuals and plan

2009-02-25T23:14:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: For safety reasons (Just trying to be extra cautious and to prevent spam) If you have left your e-mail address in the comments, I'll delete the comment after I send the e-mail. If your comment is deleted and you did NOT get an e-mail of the PDF, please let me know.

TIP: Sugardoodle has an AWESOME collection of clipart and pictures to make your own flipcharts!!but you probably already knew that...

So, I'm going to be honest, and say that this song is NOT my most favorite. And luckily for me, my presidency feels the same way, so we plan on only doing the first verse. I had a hard time finding visuals that I liked for this song, but found one that came close on Sugardoodle (click here) Like Carrie, my pictures came from the sugardoodle clipart file and MSN clipart, and also the one image (the construction man) by Valerie Gardner.

I wanted more pictures than the one on Sugardoodle, because I have lots of kids in Junior primary that would learn better from lots of pictures, than words. This is my version of the 1st verse for a flip chart HERE to download the file. This is my first attempt at the shared file thing, so let me know if it doesn't work for you, or if you'd rather have the file e-mailed. Here is what they look like.
I think I got this idea from the primusic group, but I can't remember. I'll show them this picture and ask them to tell me what this man does for a job. After they tell me he is a "builder" I'll tell them that this "builder" is also my Dad! (He's so awesome and took this picture for me on Saturday night!)

I'll describe the things he has built, i.e. most of the homes I lived in as a child, other buildings, and now oversees the building of LDS churches and temples in the Texas area.

But that is not all he has built. He helped to build a righteous family. (I'll have the latest picture of all my siblings and their families from out last reunion, and tell them that by being a righteous priesthood holder, having family scripture study and prayer, and being a great example to us, he helped build a firm foundation for each of us to start building our own righteous families. Then I will tell them that we will learn a song about how we can be our own builders of a righteous family.

I will then show them the blackboard with the same visuals from the flipchart, only bigger, separated (only one picture per half sheet of paper) and without words scattered on the board. I'll tell them we need to build this song. We have all the right pieces, but we have to put them together to make our song. I'll sing it through a few times to help them hear the melody, while they look at the pictures and try to figure out the correct order.
(the scattered visuals)

Then, one at a time, I'll call up a "builder" (I'll probably bring my son's toy construction hat) let them wear it, and find the correct picture for each phrase. As we find the pictures to complete each phrase, we'll sing through that phrase a few times. If they get stuck, I'll sing the entire verse to them. If time allows (I'm very lucky to usually have 20+ minutes for singing time) we'll turn over the pictures to help them memorize the verse.

If you want the plain PDF file for my "scattered" visuals, let me know in the comments so I can e-mail it to you. This is NOT the flipchart. Just the pictures without words that my kids will listen to to the song to put them in the correct order. The flipchart is in the link above.

Give the bishop a heart attack

2009-02-15T15:12:00.000-08:00

We did this to make a Valentine's card for the Bishop, but it could work anytime during the year.

(Sorry, no pictures! Put it together late last night)

Fold poster board in half. Cover says: Bishop: The primary gave you a heart attack!
Inside says: We sang with all of our hearts today!

I had a clear jar filled with cut out paper hearts. I told the kids that as I saw them trying their very best to sing/learn the song, I would ask them to write their name on a heart and put it on our card for the Bishop, because they were trying with all of their hearts to do their best. The kids did seem to try harder, but it was also hard for me to teach and try to call on kids to put their names on hearts at the same time. Next time, I would have a presidency member picking the kids, so I wouldn't have to worry about it.

Hand jive for Birthday Song

2009-02-15T15:06:00.000-08:00

I read this idea on the yahoo groups. LOVED it, so did the kids. :)

To "You've Had a Birthday". It might work on other songs, but I haven't tried it.
I told them they were so good at all the birthday songs, it was time to make them more tricky.

Teach them the hand jive first:
Slap legs twice, clap twice, wave hands in front of the other twice, then switch and REPEAT!

It is also suggested to do the chicken dance to this song. I'll try that next time, since the jive was such a hit. Helps to get wiggles out too!

Chicken Dance:
both hands make a "talking"motion, 4 x
flap wings like a chicken (hands by armpits, and wave the elbows up and down) 4x
make body twist back and forth (4 beats)
clap four times, repeat.

Reader Trisha adds:

It works for the "This month is such a special one. It's birthday time for you" song as well.

The last measure, I do the hands on top of each other and switch which hand is on top, then with both hand, point out with one finger towards the birthday children on "to you."

Popcorn Popping in Portuguese

2009-02-14T17:04:00.000-08:00

We are the first ward in the building this year and have had issues with kids leaving the Primary room right after the closing prayer in the past - kids running out into the parking lot, disturbing classes getting out later, etc. So now we keep all the kids in the Primary room until their parents come. Yep, not always a lot of fun. We're working on ideas to keep their interest and their reverence until we can release them to their parents. Any ideas are welcome!

So far, the one that has worked best (and really only works for certain types of kids, I fear) has been with the impromptu help of a teacher who served his mission in Brazil. He taugh us the word for "popcorn" in Portuguese. It's "pipoca" (pronounced pea-POH-kuh). We then sang Popcorn Popping, changing all the popcorns to pipocas. It was really entertaining.

Verse Review

2009-02-11T20:36:00.000-08:00

I used this to review the first verse of How Firm a Foundation, but it could be used with any song.

My visuals for the first verse look like this. . .

The previous week I had introduced the visuals, explained the song and taught the verse. My goal now was to review and cement what they had learned.

I had the oldest class put the visuals in order (as shown above) on a bulletin board before we finished singing through the song twice. When they were done we sang it together as an entire primary (ours is combined Jr & Sr) to check it.

I told the children I was going to trick them by turning over one visual. Then they sang it again--without me singing on the part with the visual turned over. We did this over and over until all the visuals were turned over and I wasn't singing at all. Each time I made a big deal about how NOW I could trick them or said things like, "Oh well, I have only turned over red so far and I KNOW I'll trick you by doing a YELLOW one" etc. As they sang, I would cover my mouth and put my arms out or my hands on my hips with an expression like "I got you now!" on my face. The kids ate it up. They LOVED it. We sang the song repeatedly and they had a lot of fun trying to prove to me that I COULDN'T trick them. After everything was turned over I told them they must have super x-ray vision to see through the paper and I bet if I turn the bulletin board around THEN it would trick them. Even the little sunbeams were singing their hearts out to prove me wrong. The kids had a lot of fun and didn't even realize how many zillion times we sang the verse!

Magic potion; a review for How Firm a Foundation

2009-02-07T12:55:00.000-08:00

I have read about this idea several times, but wasn't sure how to adapt it for what I wanted. Thanks to my awesome sister, we came up with a plan! I'm so excited to try this tomorrow and am sure it will be a hit!

They have only learned the first verse of How Firm a Foundation, so I wanted to review it this week before moving on to the third verse.

Preparation: write out verse in different colors on a dry-erase board to match your magic potions. (I got mine at wal-mart for $8!) Gather supplies: vinegar, cups, spoons, baking soda, and food coloring.

How it works:

1) Fill several clear containers (I used plastic drinking cups) with about 3/4 cup water and 1/3 cup vinegar. (the ratio can be varied, but more vinegar= more fiz= more fun! PLACE CONTAINERS on a BAKING SHEET, as this WILL MAKE A MESS!!!!

2) place one small drop of food coloring on a metal spoon (don't use clear, since you can see the color on the other side), then place a heaping teaspoon of baking soda on top, or enough to make sure the food coloring is covered.

3) Have a child come up and pick a spoon to stir in a cup of "water".

It will fiz like crazy and remain clear while fizzing, so make sure they keep stirring.

Once the fiz has settled down, the color will show up.

I will be using 6 different colors. red, green, yellow, blue, orange (one drop yellow and one drop red), and purple (one drop red and one drop blue)

(notice the water on the bottom of the baking sheet? It WILL bubble over and make a mess. Paper towels would be a good idea to bring...)

My plan:
We will review the first verse of How Firm a Foundation, with the picture visuals I taught them with, and tell them that I am looking for a super singer to help me with an experiment. After singing, I'll show them this board:

I'll pick my super singer to come up to the front and pick a spoon to mix into the solution. Once the potion has made its magic color, we'll erase the words on the board with that color. (I didn't have a yellow marker, so black will represent yellow). I'll pick several kids to come up and help erase the words so more kids will be able to participate.

Then we'll sing the verse again, this time with our board with colored words, and again, I'll tell them I am looking for a super singer to help me. Repeat the process as time allows, or until all the words are gone.

More Games!!!

2009-02-06T22:00:00.000-08:00

These ideas are from Penny Judkins and were emailed to a past Primary chorister who then printed them out and left them in the binder. Bless you, Karla!!!

The ideas were all just in a list so I've tried to break them up into categories - I'll make a different post for each - to make them easier to find/more helpful when you are desperate for a game or an original source of motivation! I have also tried to include any further suggestions (or warnings!) I have in parenthesis or otherwise. (Some parenthetical information is hers.)

Here it is as I've retyped it into my computer:

******************

A year’s worth of Singing Time Ideas

Gathered and compiled by Penny Judkins of Vancouver, Washington.

These are all fun ideas, but the most important thing to remember is to follow the Spirit. Pray about your Primary children and your calling. Use only those things that you feel inspired to use. Always bear your testimony because, above all, we are teaching Heavenly Father’s precious children the gospel through music! – Penny Judkins

GAMES: (These incorporate lots of songs. Holiday ideas are italicized.)

· BALLOON POPPING – Put titles of songs inside balloons and then blow them up. Have the kids come up and sit on the balloons to pop them to see which song to sing. Or you can put phrases inside and you sing the song until you get to that phrase

· BALL TOSS – This is a mini basketball hoop with a miniature basketball. Depending on how many shots they make tells us which song we sing. If they can’t make any, we sing what the pianist wants to sing. ((S)he likes to pick once in a while.)

· BEAN BAG TOSS/PASS – Have the pianist play a song that you need to review. Everyone sings the song as they pass the beanbag. When the music stops the person holding the beanbag sits down. You can also toss the beanbag to a child and they have to tell you the next word in the song. (I like to add that if they get so many correct in a row, they get to pick a fun song.)

· BIRTHDAY CAKE WITH TOO MANY CANDLES – I made up a birthday cake the size of a poster board. I filled it with candles. I tell the kids I’m getting WAY TOO OLD! And I need them to help me get some of these candles off. The candles have the #’s and ideas on them. The kids love to help me not be so OLD. Can also be turned about and made to put the candles on the cake. The candles are separate and can be taped on and off as everything is laminated.

· BOOK OF SINGING STORIES – Make a book with poster board. On each page have a picture or “clue” depicting a Primary song. (There is an example in one of the previous posts. Very nice, Trisa!) The kids get to turn the page to the song they want to sing. I have several pages that I can change out. You can use color copies of the GAK pictures. They’re lovely!

· BOWLING FOR SNOWMEN (Yep, not my original idea) – Use snowmen clip art (I have a cute hyperlink in my post from December) and print out several snowmen. Tape them to water bottles. Cover a basketball with batting (I used a volleyball) and wrap white string around it to hold the batting in place. The kids try to knock over a snowman with a snowball. The snowmen will have #’s on them for the songs.

· BOY WITH BACKPACK – This is a poster of a boy facing away and we’re looking at his back. He’s wearing a backpack that I’ve slit the top of. I attached a large gallon-sized Ziploc bag onto it. Inside I have pictures of books, ruler, pencils, erasers, etc. Things you use for school. I have used the backpack to “fill” to get ready for school and to empty it for Spring Break or the end of the school year. On the back of each item is the # or idea for the song(s) we’re learning.

· BUILD A JACK-O-LANTERN – I use a real pumpkin. Not carved. I made different eyes, noses and mouths and let the children choose faces and put them on the pumpkin. Duct tape works best to attach them. I laminate everything so I can use it over and over. Black construction paper works best for this feature.

· CHAOS & DANGER – This game came from teaching “Keep the Commandments”. Plan in advance to have the pianist play a different song than you’re singing. The kids realize how important it is to STAY within the guidelines the Lord has given us. They have to figure out which song the pianist played and which song we were singing.

· CHIMES – Make or buy chimes and have the children play the corresponding tone to match the song. (According to another source, this can be done using 9/16-inch electrical conduit. Cut the first pipe 8-1/8 inches long. This is “D”. Cut the second 8-3/4 inches. This is “C”. (9” – B; 9-3/8” – Bb; 9-9/16” – A; 10-1/8” – G; 10-3/8 – F#; 10-5/8” – F; 11” – E, 11-3/4” – D, 12-3/8” – C; 12-7/8” – B)

· COMBINED EASTER PROGRAM FOR SINGING/SHARING TIME – Take any holiday story or parable from the scriptures. Add songs intermittently and you have a wonderful combined Singing/Sharing Time. Some can be found in the Primary files.

· CONCENTRATION – Put pictures or words up on the chalkboard and cover each with a piece of paper. Take turns flipping the paper. I flip one and the children flip the other. When they match one we sing that song.

· DICE – I made a musical die by wrapping a small square box with white paper. (I used a foam cube and wrapping paper.) I wrote on each side of the box a different way to sing the song. (See Motivators: Voices.) I have several different die I’ve made with different things on them – fast, slow, staccato, legato… (I really like to teach musical terminology whenever possible. I will use vivace, andante, etc… Kids are like sponges and they learn it so well! Don’t be afraid that they’re too young to understand. Don’t a lot of people take up piano lessons while they’re in Primary?)

· EASTER BUNNY WITH EGGS/SONG TITLES IN PLASTIC EGGS HUNT – Use plastic eggs that come apart. Put #’s for the songs, who can sing, or anything applicable to what you are learning at the time. Be sure to talk about the “true meaning of Easter” and that we’re just pretending and having a fun time.

· FISHING- Attach paper clips to song titles, have a baton or play fishing pole with a magnet at the end for the “hook”. The children fish for the songs to sing or how many measures you will go into the song.

· FISHING FOR CRICKETS WITH SEAGULL – I attached a Little Mermaid Scuttle (seagull) to a dowel with yarn. I hot glued a magnet to his beak. I printed out crickets from the Mulan movie and glued paper clips to them. Near the 24th of July, I tell the story of the crickets and seagulls as we sing the pioneer songs.

· HANGMAN/RESURRECTED MAN

· HIDE THE NOTE

· HOLIDAY THINGS (easy!) – It’s just use your imagination time! Around any holiday you can find things that correlate. Build a snowman or “undecorate” the Christmas tree in January. Have love letters in February. And so on…

· “JEOPARDY!” – I got BIG cardboard pallets from Costco (they use them in between their toilet tissue cases). I have 4 categories listed on top. Some of these might be: Seasonal Favorites, Blast from the Past, Sacrament Meeting Program (I like to add Past and Present), Shake, Rattle and Roll. (I love to throw in a Worded Weirdly category.) Under each category, in a column, have the numbers 1-4 listed. Behind each number will be a question. As the children pick the category and the point value, you give them the answer (i.e. the Lord provides a way) and they give you the name of the song in question form (i.e. What is “Nephi’s Courage”). Then you sing the song.

· MAGNETIC LETTERS – Use the magnetic letters that you use on the fridge. Put them in a bag or appropriate container for the season. The children draw out a letter and choose a song that starts with the letter they pulled out. For the sake of time, I use the letter that correlates with the number in the alphabet that letter is. - 1-26 – and make a list ahead of time and you CAN use the songs over and over.

· MEMORY GAME – There are many variations to this game. Use your imagination for this one. I had two boards with pictures that depicted songs. They turned over one from each board. If they matched, we sang their choice. If they didn’t, we sang my choice.

· NAME THAT TUNE – I give a clue to the song and they tell me how many notes they need to name the song according to what help the clue has been. Sometimes I turn it around and they choose the song, give me a clue and I have to guess.

· PICK A FLOWER – I put flowers all over the Primary room in cups. I had a vase in the center up by me. Each time a child chose a flower, they came up and put it in the vase. When we finished singing time that day, we gave the flowers to the pianist.

· PICK A PICTURE – Match it with a song. I got a bunch of pictures from the library and put them in a box. The kids choose a picture and tell us which song it reminds them of. Then we sing it. This is great for taking a break after learning a new song.

· PIN THE BEE ON THE FLOWERS – This is like Pin the Tail on the Donkey; however, I have a poster board full of flowers. The flowers have #’s on them. The kids pin the bee on the flower and that tells us which song to sing, or if we’re working on it, how many times in a row we will sing it. Or course, we use a different “voice” (see Motivators: Voices) each time.

· PUNCH POSTER – I made a poster board with 9 holes cut out of it. (I used one of the demonstration boards to it would stand on its own.) On the front of the poster, I put words under each hole like: Hi-yah! Ka-pow! Hit Me! Etc. On the back of the poster, I put a single piece of tissue paper masking taped on the back of each hole (masking tape is easier to take off and replace later to re-use the poster). I also taped a piece of yarn above each hole on the back. To the yarn I tape whatever I want. (I cut out some foam circles and will write the title of a song on a piece of masking tape on the circle.)

· SILLY HAT SINGING TIME – I went to a thrift store and bought a small lampshade. I turned it upside down and attached the ugliest 3” ribbon I could find. The lampshade is brown gingham, the ribbon has colorful circles. I cut music notes from construction paper and laminated them. Whichever class is singing the best, their teacher has to wear the “hat”. I start out wearing it first. I have also turned it around and let the child singing best and sitting reverently wear it and lead the next song. The kids love to have their teacher be the one to wear the hat!

· SINGING BASEBALL – Draw a baseball diamond on the chalkboard. Divide the group into two teams. Coach has a player in the warm-up box and one in the batter’s box whenever their team is up to bat. Player steps up to the pulpit when at bat. The Questions are “pitched” (read) to players and score is kept according to value of question. Paper hats are moved around bases according to hits and runs. Each team only gets two OUTS per inning. After two RUNS, change team up to bat. A “bell” is rung every 3-4 minutes, then it’s time for a MUSIC QUESTION. Sing the song when the question is answered correctly.

· SINGING OLYMPICS – During the Olympics in SLC we opted to “pass the torch” in Primary as well. I made a torch out of a flashlight with red cellophane paper over it and we passed it around the room. When our song finished the next person got to pick the next song. We also had 4 different games going for our Olympics.

· S-I-N-G-O GAME – Take a piece of foam core board or poster board and make a grid on it like a Bingo card. At the top instead of writing Bingo you write “Singo”. In each square you put a small piece of one side (hook) of Velcro. Then you make two sets of markers – one for them to draw out of a basket and one that will be on the board. I laminated these. (I used foam.) I made mine different colors so I could easily keep them straight. One side can say anything you want – I put “You’re a singing superstar” on some of mine and the other side will have different categories on it. You then put a small piece of the other side of Velcro (loop) on EACH side of the board pieces. (I cut my loop pieces in half so that I wouldn’t have leftover hook pieces.) To play, you put the markers on the board with the category side facing out and a child draws a marker from the drawing set. They then have to choose a song to sing that fits the category they have drawn. If the group can sing it well enough in your opinion, then they get to turn the matching piece around on the board. The goal is to get a straight line just like in Bingo. For the free space, let them have a free choice marker. (I start with this one and they sing the CSMP song we’re working on for the month.)

· SNOWBALL FIGHT – (paper toss) – I give each child a piece of paper. Make sure you stress the fact that we’re in the church and sometimes we “toss” snowballs! (Be careful or this activity can get too rowdy.) The kids (with teachers’ help sometimes) write their names and their favorite Primary Song. I invite a class at a time to wad and toss their “snowballs” to me. Then I pick up a snowball and we sing that song. This activity serves a dual purpose; I keep the snowballs and make a list of the children and their favorite song. Then I have my Top 10 Favorites list!

· SONG (WORD) SEARCH – Make a word search puzzle with song titles hidden in it. There are many sites on the Internet that will do this for you. All you have to do is print out and blow them up. (Much more fun for Seniors.)

· SONG TABOO – This is the same as the game Taboo; you make up cards for the children to pick from. They have to guess the song title without saying the words on the card. Then you sing the song: i.e. “I Am a Child of God” – taboo words: Heavenly, Father, Parents, Children.

· SPIN THE WHEEL – (Song titles)

· TARGET GAME – I made a huge cardboard target (could draw on the chalkboard) and made 8 sections. I had the children make paper airplanes. As they sang the songs, I picked the one sitting most reverently and smiling while they sang. They got to fly their paper plane at the target to see which # (song) we would sing next. Tons of fun! At the end of singing time, I let everyone fly their planes at the target.

· TIC TAC TOE – Theme the X’s and O’s after the season. For Thanksgiving, paper pilgrims and turkeys, for Christmas, angels and shepherds, etc. Draw a large grid n the chalkboard or poster board. Each playing piece has a song listed on the back appropriate to the situation.

· TOILET TISSUE UNROLL – Unroll a roll of toilet tissue and write song titles on random squares and re-roll. Then let each child take off one square and the ones with song titles get to lead their songs.

· TOP 10 SONGS OF THE YEAR – (See Snowball Fight or Easter Egg Hunt) or Poll the Primary. Put together a list of the most requested songs. Start at #10 and sing your way to #1.

· TURKEY SHOOT – I bought the little accordion fold turkeys. I took a dart gun and let the kids shoot a turkey. Whether they hit the turkey or not, they got to choose a turkey that had a number written on it. The number corresponded with a song. The kids sing the song and tell me what blessing the song reminds them of.

· TWO BAGS – I went to fast food places (2 or 3) and asked for donations of their paper wrappers and French fry wrappers. Most of them are very happy for the advertisement. I put song titles in them and let the children reach in their favorite bag and pull out one thing. That’s what we sing.

· WHAT SONG AM I? – I made up a poster that has big colorful music notes on it. Eight to nine in all. Sit the poster on the ground and either a child or I throw a beanbag and whichever note it lands on tells us either a phrase from a song, the page # of a song, or tells us three words in a row in the song. The kids guess which song it is and then we sing it.

· WHO WANTS A MILLION BLESSINGS? – This game is the same as the Millionaire game but you use questions about the songs you’re working on. The lifelines can be: 1 – ask the audience, 2 – check the book, 3 – 50/50.

· YEARLY THEME GAME – Take the theme of the year and make up a song to go with each letter in the words or a song for each word. Let the kids pick a word and sing the song that correlates with it.

More Motivators!

2009-02-06T21:59:00.000-08:00

MOTIVATORS: (Can be used to keep singing the same song over and over while keeping it fun.)

· CLAP, SNAP, STOMP – Use it individually or with partners. “Can your hands follow my hands?” Or use body rhythm pattern such as clap, clap snap, snap, stomp stomp. Partner Rhythm pattern such as patsch (pat thighs), clap, cross touch to elbows.

· DANCING SINGERS – Have a group of about 8 children come up to the front. Make a circle. Go around in a circle, stepping up tall on one beat and down low on the next and so on. Really fun for “Truth of Elijah”.

· DRESS THE MISSIONARY – Bring two sets of each item – suit coat, name tag, shoes, Book of Mormon, etc. Select two helpers. The team that sang the best got to “dress” their missionary. Then the team that had their missionary dressed the most when time ran out got to sing their favorite song.

· HOT & COLD – Make a note out of black poster board. Send one child out of the room. Hide the note. Then the children are to sing loudly if the “seeker” is “HOT” (near the note) or softly if the seeker is “COLD” or far away.

· MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS – The children love to play the tambourine, maracas, cymbals, rhythm sticks, etc. I love to pick them up at tag sales, thrift stores, etc. Or make your own. They’ll sing the same song 5 times in a row and not even notice.

· PAPER ORCHESTRA – This is so much fun! Everyone gets a piece of paper and you make different noises with the paper. You can roll it and sing through it, you can blow on it and make a squeaking noise, tap it for “raining” sound, use your imagination! Time is your only limit. At the end of our time, I have them tear them into little pieces and see how quietly they can sing to see if they can hear all the pieces hit the bottom of the trash can as everyone walks quietly by it.

· SCARF MOVEMENT – I bought a bolt of material at a sale really cheap! I cut it into squares. Each child gets a square or scarf. You “paint” with the scarf by moving them through the air. Such as: move it gently, it’s so gentle just like this song and just like Jesus.

· SHAKERS – (toilet paper tubes with rice) – I made shakers out of toilet paper tubes filled with uncooked rice. I wrapped them with wallpaper that I got free from a yard sale. The kids love to keep time or match the rhythm to the songs. Make sure the paper you wrap them in is pretty sturdy or you’ll have rice everywhere!

· SINGING IN A CAN – Cover a Pringles/peanut can with cute paper or musical notes. Make papers that give directions to sing such as: Sing with your eyes closed, Humming only, Sing with your favorite accent, Sing standing up, Sing with your nosed plugged, If you have a gerbil don’t sing, Sing every other word, Sing with your mouth closed, etc.

· SQUIRT GUN/CRYING MOTHER POSTER – I use this poster for Mother’s Day and for after the program. I drew a picture of a mother’s face, big on a poster board. I cut out her eyeballs and hold (usually ask for help) two squirt guns in the holes. As the children sing beautifully, the mother “cries” as she is touched by the beauty. This can get out of hand easily, but each time I have used it, the Spirit is strong and the kids try really hard to sing beautifully. I tell them they bring tears to my eyes sometimes. (This has to be done in “good taste”.)

· STOP & GO – Make a traffic light out of 2 black poster boards. Cut out 2 traffic lights and put red, yellow, and green cellophane in between where the lights should be. I let the children come up and shine a flashlight through the colors. We sang on green, stopped singing on red and did something different every time on yellow (girls, boys, clap to rhythm, hum, etc.)

· UMBRELLA/RAIN – I use a real umbrella and a mist bottle (squirt bottle) with plain water in it. I use the finest mist so no one really gets wet. As we are learning a song, the better they get the words and melody, the more it “rains”. I spray on top of the umbrella and the child is holding the umbrella. Once in a while I get a little crazy and spray toward the audience…oops!

· VOICES – I.e. Cowboy voice, opera voice, MoTab voice, mouse voice, boy voice, girl voice, etc… ***Note from Wendy: Be careful when using “voices”! The first time I used them, I made the mistake of using them while we were singing program songs and we ended up with “cowboy voice” on “I Know that My Redeemer Lives”. Not good! When singing reverent songs, I think it is best to stay away from “voices”. Instead, I prefer to teach the children to follow my hands dynamically – we can even crescendo and diminuendo now!***

· YARN SINGERS – I took 3 colors of yarn, cut them in different lengths and tied them all back together in no particular order. I wound them up and put them in a paper sack decorated really cute. As the children sang a child pulled the string between their hands. Each color determined who would sing. One color was for boys, one for girls, one for everyone. As the string was different lengths of colors, it was fun to see the “change”.

New Song Teaching/Review Ideas

2009-02-06T21:58:00.000-08:00

· CROSSWORD PUZZLE 1 – Make up a crossword puzzle for the song you’re learning. The clues would be the key words to the song. (I had the key words to vs.1 all going across and vs.2 all going down.)

· DETECTIVE CLUELESS – Make up a question for each phrase of a song. Reduce font to smallest size possible. Label a large envelope “Classified Files”. Place the questions inside. Dress as Detective with trench coat/hat/sunglasses… Bring a magnifying glass. Make five question marks labeled with the five W’s – laminate, stick magnetic tape on back to place on chalkboard. Five important W’s. All detectives (or reporters) know that they need to ask these questions when looking for clues to solve a case. WHO-- WHAT-- WHEN-- WHERE-- WHY. For each question, call up a child (assistant detective) to read a question with the magnifying glass.

· ENVELOPE GAME – Print out the words to the song and cut them out. Make enough envelopes with song lyrics for groups of 3-4 children. I use pictures for Jr. Primary since they can’t read. As you all sing the song, they put the words (or pictures) in the correct order. Good way to learn a song!

· ERASURE PASS – Preparation: On the board is a list of words in groups of three. Each distinct group includes one word from the song being taught and two words that mean the same or opposite. Example: The song being taught is Seek the Lord Early. I would choose SEEK as my first word and with it place the words LOOK and SEARCH. My next group might be for the word YOUTH. With it CHILDHOOD and ADOLESCENCE. Another group might be FATHER, MOTHER and HOLY GHOST. Stand in front of the children and state the rules: 1 – No talking, 2 – No throwing the eraser, 3 – Give the eraser to someone who hasn’t had it, 4 – Erase only the words NOT in the song. (We want the words that remain on the board to be the words in the song in the order they appear in the song) and 5 - DO NOT STOP SINGING! (You may go through the song 10+ times before all the wrong words are erased.) The children then come up one at a time and erase one word not in the song. Teachers may help non-readers or you may need to prompt when few words are left. Make sure you keep the rules in effect. If a child erases a wrong word, be prepared to write it back on without stopping your singing. After all the wrong words are erased, have the children sing only the words on the boar. Then switch and have them sing all the words except the ones on the board. (This may take a while for them to catch on to. Especially since they don’t know the song to start with. Plan accordingly for time. Don’t use this with a long song!)

· LEPRECHAUNS & SHAMROCKS – This is a poster to help us learn songs. In each of the leprechauns hands are shamrocks that have phrases from the new song. I have also had the letter from each word on the shamrocks and they have to put them in the right order.

Program Progress

2009-02-06T21:57:00.000-08:00

· CELESTIAL CHALLENGE – This idea is from The Primary Page. It has a gold sun, silver moon, and white stars all on a black board. Each is labeled accordingly – celestial kingdom, terrestrial kingdom, and telestial kingdom. On little squares of poster board, I have made up “icons” for each program song – a picture and the name of the song, for both the younger and the older children’s benefit. They are taped in “Outer Darkness” at the beginning of the year. Then once a month, we have our “Celestial Challenge”. I have them sing each song and the presidency tells them whether or not they have sung it well enough for the program (Celestial Kingdom/sun) or maybe it needs some more work. The goal is to get them all on the sun (Son).

· COOKING UP A SONG – Take kitchen containers, a mixing bowl, a spoon and an apron. Tell the kids that we are cooking up a song. I had a volunteer put on the apron and choose a container (empty Cool Whip, etc.) and add the “ingredient” to our mixing bowl. Each container has a slip of paper that says either line 1, 2, 3 or 4. While they are stirring, we have to sing that line 5 times to help it cook. Believe it or not, this really worked. They all wanted a turn, and I told them lots of stuff about how their singing helps it to cook. You decide which order to put the ingredients into the mix!

· CROSSWORD PUZZLE 2 (Okay, my pride says I have to take credit for this one!) – This one works better for Senior Primary, but you could have teachers help in Junior Primary. You can review multiple songs at a time and still keep their attention with this one. Pick out the key words to multiple songs, say 4 songs, 5 words from each. Keep a list of which word comes from which song. Create your crossword puzzle. Color code your clues so that the kids know which clues come from which song. Clues are then written as “the missing letter”. For instance: If you chose “lived” from “I Lived in Heaven” and “foundation” from “How Firm a Foundation” you would write the clue for 1 DOWN – I_IH and 1 ACROSS – HFA_. The blanks represent the key words. Just make sure that all your words from each song are the same color or it will be too hard. Sing each song. Tell the kids what color clues go with the song. You will most likely have to sing each song a couple of times through for them to figure out what line all the blanks come from.

· GET THE BUGS OUT – I went to a Party/Dollar Store and bought real looking plastic bugs. (I think they cost me 8 for $1.) The kids got a real kick out of it. I put them in a paper bag and had attached a small piece of tape to the bottom of each bug. I had a number written on each so I could control which songs we sang. The kids pulled one bug out or “caught” one and then had to hold it while we sang the song. We then decided if the bug had been “caught” so we could put it in the BUG JAR (a big Miracle Whip plastic jar that I had decorated with bug stickers). If not, the bug went back into the bag. Great for reviewing CSMP songs!

Miscellaneous

2009-02-06T21:56:00.000-08:00

OTHER IDEAS:

· QUICK-DRAW SONG – When the attention is wandering or I just need to bring them back, I tell them we are going to do a “quick draw”. Everyone think of your favorite song. Put both hands on your knees. When I say, “Go!” raise your hand. The first one I see gets to pick the song, “On your mark. Get Set. Go!” This can also be like Pictionary where they draw a picture on the chalkboard of the song they want to sing.

· ROCKET – BLAST FROM THE PAST – (I am so going to do this for 2009!) – To incorporate past songs that the children have learned into weekly singing without always picking the same ones over and over, I am going to make a rocket out of a tall empty cheese ball or Pringles can with a lid. Decorate it to look like a rocket. Put all of the songs from the last several programs and any songs they already know from the book in it. Add the new songs as we learn them. This would also be good for substitutes or to hand over to a new chorister so they will be up on what songs the kids know.

· STAND UP, SIT DOWN – Print the key words to the song out. As you pull out the key words, you stand up and sit down when those words come in the song.

· YOU BE THE CHORISTER TODAY – I walk around and touch the children being most reverent and best examples. They get to lead the music in Primary that day. I’m still up there teaching but they get to lead.

Another idea for How Firm a Foundation

2009-01-31T18:11:00.001-08:00

The art work is courtesy of Jeni at Singing time Helps, I just put two on a page, rather than one per page, I will cut them in half before using.

I am going to have the kids put the pictures in order as I sing the song a few times - to get them familiar with the song. Then I will give a picture, or two, to each class and they will be in charge of those words and we will go around the primary room with each class singing just their "part".

I've split songs up into parts like this before, having one class in charge of just one phrase, and we go around the room and have the class stand as they sing their part (the pianist has to keep watch to slow down between parts) and the kids really love it, and they really learn the song well using this method.

NOTE: In respect for Jeni's terms of use, you will need to go to her blog (following the link above) to view the visuals discussed in this post. Go there--they are great! Thanks for the reminder Jeni!