My eternal family, verse 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.