Crying Mother

 Crying Mother Poster

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

Thank you for your suggestions!!

Well, here's what I came up with! 

Introducing:

My mom! 

(Isn't she beautiful!?)

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

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

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

 So, here's what I used:

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

Here's a close up of the sprays.

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

Steps:

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

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

3) Adhere picture to foam board

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mystery Mom Motivation!

Mystery Mom Motivation

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

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

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

Miscellaneous...

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. 

presentation motivation

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!

Give the bishop a heart attack

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.

More Motivators!

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”.

Another Motivator

Sometimes I feel like I'm overkilling songs we're learning - having the kids sing them over and over again until they hate the song. (Okay, hate may be a little strong, but I start getting that feeling too like they're dreading having to sing it yet again!)

I've recently discovered that often times it's just that they're singing very softly because they really do know the song well already. So I will just randomly tell them that on the next verse, next time through, or whatever, I'm going to be watching for the person watching me the best and singing (emphasis on actually singing!) the loudest and that person gets to pick their favorite song for us to sing. It's work wonders for me in Senior Primary especially!

Spaghetti Eddie

Audience: Both Jr & Sr

Preperation: Make a Speghettie Eddie poster. Put a hole in the mouth and string yellow yarn (speghetti). Laminate (I used clear contact paper).
In Action: I talked up my friend "Spaghetti Eddie" for two weeks. I told the kids that he loved music and when kids sing REALLY well, it makes him want to eat spaghetti and he LOVES spaghetti so they needed to learn the song. The second week, Eddie and I had a little talk and he didn't feel like they knew the song well enough for him to come, but he sent me with a coded message to help them better learn a verse that was giving them trouble. They were very motivated to really learn the song and sang their hearts out. Now he will come to church and the better they sing, the faster he'll slurp up his spaghetti. They will try to get him to finish the ENTIRE bowl before the end of singing time. You could incorporate other activities with Eddie (such as Don't Forget the Words or Keywords) at the same time.

Rain, Rain

Audience: Junior and Senior Primary
Preparation:: Bring a squirt bottle with water and an umbrella

Details:Use this activity to review a song they already know. Invite a child or primary leader to come up to the front (pick someone you know will ENJOY this and not get upset if they get wet). Have them hold the umbrella and tell the group that the better they sing the more it rains. . . and if they sing REALLY well, the storm just might blow under the umbrella. As they sing, squirt the umbrella and if they are doing super well, sneak a few squirts underneath on the child. It is also fun to surprise the kids by occasionally squirting those sitting down.