Potato Head Review

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.

Mystery Mom Motivation!

Mystery Mom Motivation

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

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

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

Mother's day song

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

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

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


I'm planning on this taking about 10 minutes.

Song: My Mother Dear (pg. 206)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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