Seminary! and Scripturgories

 Got called to teach early-early mornings seminary (6am) this year, and I'm loving it!  I've learned lots and thought I would record some of my activities and whether they were successful or not, so that I can possibly use them for future years.

Today, for instance, I'm prepping a ton of categories for SCRIPTURGORIES which is my church-focused version of Scattergories.  I've always loved this game and had success with it when I subbed.  I did a smaller version last week with my students and they enjoyed it.  Some items led to good discussions and fun arguments about whether an answer "counted" or not.  

The only issue was that I asked the students to help me come up with some topics based on what we'd been studying.  This was the difficult part, and it took up too much time.  At 6am their brains weren't ready to think on that big picture level, plus some had never played the game and didn't understand.

So, to solve this, I have written down 137 different categories regarding church related things, scriptures, people, events, modern/ancient, daily church life, etc.  What I plan to do it print the master list and in class just pick 10 random numbers and do those categories.  That way we can use this list multiple times and each round will be different.  Some categories are definitely harder than others.  Some have very direct answers, others have very wide answer options, and I like these because it gets them to think about how random stuff can apply and make a case for it.  We often vote if the majority thinks it's a good answer, or I am the usual tie-breaker or final decision maker.  

It's a game that requires minimal supplies - really just paper and pen and the list of categories.  Maybe an Alphabet dice, but even that you can just draw letters out of a hat or ask Siri to give you a random letter.

Here's a few of the categories, to give you an idea:

Hymn or Primary song title

Food mentioned in the scriptures

A bad habit someone might be trying to work on

A commandment

A video you’ve seen at church

A Leader in the scriptures

A miracle mentioned in the scriptures

A name or title of Christ

A sport you might play at a youth activity

A place you might go for a double date

A reason someone might miss church/seminary/activity

Checking the Charts

We had a big shake-up and boundary change in our ward recently and lost a bunch of people, including our primary chorister.  So I was asked to sub for a couple of weeks.  As it had been a bit since I'd been in and I knew the program was coming up, I figured I should probably check out the program songs. So we literally did just that.

I started by getting into my awesome outfit:

Calling Doctor Crazy!

I tried desperately to find a stethoscope but had no luck, so I settled for a little flashlight and a tongue depressor.  Then I pulled out my chart (clipboard) and pen and got started on the check-up.  I had previously hidden the names of each song under a few chairs, so I had each "patient" come to the front and tell us who they were (the name of the song).  I then proceeded to check them out while the kids sang the song.  I would get the started waving the tongue depressor down, and once they were singing I looked in the kids ears, mouth, listened to their heartbeat, opened their eyes wide, checked their armpits, had them make a muscle, bent as many joints as I could do.  As long as the song took.  We then went through my chart notes together.

Each chart simply had 4 sections listed:  Ears (loud/soft), Pulse (slow/fast), Throat (words), and Heart (feeling).  I talked about each one and had them join in on whether or not each was good enough or needed some medical attention.  

On some of the easier songs I had other kids be the doctor to each other, and I switched once as well and had the kid be the doctor to me.  The rule if they got to be the doctor was that they had to wear the funny hat, I'm always a big fan of supporting those who are willing to not worry about whether they look silly or not!  The kids sometimes had a hard time not giggling instead of "checking" but other than that, we had fun.  If it had not been fast Sunday I would have brought in a small piece of candy or lollipop to send them home after their "doctor's visit."

Reverence is Love (Personalized)

Was asked to sub (yay!) and had fun with some new ideas I thought I would share.

For "Choose the Right" the regular chorister told me the kids were mixing up certain words, like "right / light" and "in / when".  So I simply wrote two sets of words on papers and had kids come up and hold them.  When we got to that spot of the song we stopped and figured out which one it was and then the wrong one was crumpled up and thrown at the audience, gently of course.  I also thought it would be fun to bring in a paper shredder and let them shred whichever word was wrong.

The 2nd verse on "When I Am Baptized" was also giving the kids some troubles, so I focused on the idea of "washing" our wrongs away.  I found an old eyeliner pencil in my rarely used makeup bag and first practiced on myself!  I had 4 kids come up and asked them if they had washed their hands.  I then had them show me, and I then proceeded (with their permission) to use the eyeliner pencil to write a word on their hand, one that the kids had a hard time remembering.  Then they held their hands up so the kids could see them.  As we sang and the kids remembered the words better, I used some makeup wipes to clean each word of the hands.  The kids thought it was fun and crazy.  It was a little hard to write some of the longer words on small hands, so be aware of that.  

Another song the chorister wanted to introduce was "Reverence is Love" so I found a great idea to personalize the song a bit.  I asked parents to send me pictures of their kids doing a few things like "thinking" or "being kind" or "sitting quietly".  I then used those pictures to make visuals.  They absolutely loved seeing their own faces and recognizing friends on the signs I was holding, I loved seeing their smiles really light up when they recognized someone!  It helped them be reverent too, because they were looking and not talking, and we also discussed how each of us helps everyone be reverent.

These are the ideas I implemented, and they worked well.  Another idea I had that I didn't have time for was with the song "Hum Your Favorite Hymn".  I remember my mom always loved pointing out the two "V" words (vim and vigor), and what they mean.  I started thinking we could relate that to a "Flying V".  Have one kid get up and start singing the song by themselves (if you get a brave soul) or maybe you, and then have kids come join in in a "v" shape behind the front person, helping sing.  You could talk about how birds take turns being the leader to help the whole group, relate that to helping each other sing, as well as make good choices (relating to the song).  I'll have to try this out sometime and see how it goes.

And here are a few other random ideas I didn't get to but wanted to try:

1) Have someone dressed as a mailman periodically bring in a "letter" address to primary or someone specific that has song or clues inside.  

2) Door 1 or Door 2 - get some big fridge boxes and have something behind each one, maybe a good thing and a "ZONK" or something like that.

4) Singing Bee - like a spelling bee, but have it in teams, maybe they come up and everyone sings, you listen to the leaders of both teams and if someone misses a word they go to the back or go sit down, see which team lasts longest.

Primary Pox

A while ago I posted about giving the kids "Primary Pox" where they got dot stickers put on them if they were singing.  This time I switched it up a bit.  I got a double sided poster board and drew a girls face on one side, boys on the other.  Then I handed out a few stickers to each kid (or had the teachers pass them out).  Then as they sang well I pointed to kids and they quickly came up and put a "pox" dot on the other teams (girls vs boys) face, to see which one would be covered quickest.  I think the only this I'd have changed is that I needed to use bigger dots, so it would fill up faster!

You could use this idea with a bubble gum machine drawing, where they try to fill up the machine.

Back to School

Kids are back to school (halleluja!) so we went back to school for Primary as well.  I dressed up in a teacher outfit, white shirt, black skirt, glasses, hair in a bun with pencils sticking out, etc.

I started out by telling them I would start filling out report cards for the Primary Program songs, and give them grades on each song/verse.  I had the "report card" on a clipboard that I displayed, and made sure to have a big red pen when I marked their grades.  I hemmed and hawed and tried to make it seem like I was really debating what grade to give them.  (in later weeks I brought the report card back out so they could see that they were getting better):

Then I brought out my backpack that had school supplies in it, which they took turns picking so we could review our program songs:

Ruler:  Slide your finger up and down to have them get quieter or louder.  This was so fun because I tried to do it really quick and surprise them, made us all laugh.

Glue:  Have the kids "glue" themselves in a position and hold it the whole song if possible.  I pretended to squeeze the glue all over them quickly before we started.

Markers (8-10):  Split the markers into two hands, raise hands back and forth and whoever is wearing those colors has to sing.

Eraser:  Erase words from the song.  I wrote the words directly on the erasers so they could pick.

Paper: Quickly pass out a piece of paper to everyone and show them how to pull it in and apart to make a snapping sound.  Then have them keep the beat of the song while snapping the paper.  They seemed to enjoy this, even if their rhythm wasn't always quite on time.

Dry Erase Board: Have a kid come up and give them the board and marker, then sing the song and when you cut the kids off, the volunteer has to write down the next word.  This is always fun because I love to catch the kids that aren't paying attention and keep singing, and we all get a good laugh and do the word AFTER the one they said.  You can switch it up with other kids every so often, or if you have a bunch of boards you can have them all try and see what the majority of guesses are.

Pencil Sharpener:  Have the kids practice "sharpening" their words but practicing their enunciation.  This is key for me (the leader) to get into and make it obvious and very silly, but it helps them get the idea.

RECESS!  This involves a bell which, when rung during a song, means that the kids take a "recess break" from singing while the piano keeps playing.

UNO

To learn "The Lord Gave Me a Temple" (pg 153) I wanted to find an activity that would have lots of repetition, but also mixing up lines so they could learn them separately.  Came across a version of UNO that I thought might work on this blog HERE.

I made the board very similar, a big poster board, with 4 colored sections: red, yellow, green, blue.  I put pictures for each section of the verse, and broke each section into two lines (they used 3).

I then got my trust UNO cards out from the game closet and went through deck, only using the 1s, 2s, skips, reverse, wild.  I put the cards in an order that I liked, so they could work on a few lines before we mixed things up.

So if they drew a blue 2, we would sing the 2nd line in the blue section.  If you got a skip, you could pick a line to remove from the board.  If you got a reverse we would reverse to a section of the song they picked and sing it again.  Wild they could choose what they did.  Anyway, as we went along over and over through the song, parts were removed so they had to keep remembering what was there.

I think overall this was good because they learned the song better, but the mix-up was a bit confusing even for me and I think it could have been more organized.  Doesn't help when I keep messing up the lines myself!  I do think this UNO board could be adapted very easily to other songs, I put plastic over the top so I could change pictures/words for other songs.

Primary Olympics: Review

We participated in the Primary Olympics this week since the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics just finished.  The idea came from here, and I used it to review our primary program songs.  My version followed hers closely, with a couple changes.  I printed out the cards for each event, but I added the images from the official olympics website to the front so they would have to guess based on the picture what event they wanted to do.  You can use most any song for review, you don't have to use the same songs.

First we started off with the Torch Relay: Teach Me to Walk in the Light.  As suggested, I taped red/orange/yellow tissue paper flames to the top of a flash light and we turned the lights off while they passed it around and sang the song.

After that, kids could pick which event they wanted to do:

Archery: The Lord Gave Me a Temple vs2.  As the kids sing the teacher/kid stretches their arm out like they are shooting an arrow.  Out/wide stretch for louder, in/narrow for softer.  *this was a little hard because they are still struggling with the words on this song

Volleyball: I Will Follow God's Plan for Me.  Split the room in half, each side sings until the leader "volleys" the song to the other side and they pick up where they other side left off.  *this was fun!

Rhythmic Gymnastics: the Lord Gave Me a Temple vs1.  Keep a rhythm while singing, like LAP, CLAP, SNAP, THUMBS over shoulder.  *Had fun with this but also a challenge to keep it up, the kids liked it and we did a couple of rounds of this to get better.

Marathon: Praise to the Man.  Sing as much as you can in one breath.  *Fun, but obviously some of the kids didn't quite get the concept of NOT breathing, some insisted they had sung the entire verse and chorus without taking a single breath.

Synchronized SINGING: I Love to See the Temple.  Kids have been learning sign language for this song, so we practice synchronizing our motions.

We finished by doing a Closing Ceremony, passing the torch around again while singing our closing song.  In one of my few times of bringing a treat, the kids got a gold/silver/bronze wrapped candy piece on their way out the door. (rolos, kisses, etc.)