Christmas Bells!

I love Christmas time for many reasons, but one of my favorites in primary is that we get to do bell songs.  My mom had metal pipes (probably that my dad made) that we could ring, but they were kind of awkward to use and were either muffled by little hands or too loud.  I am sometimes cheap when it comes to primary stuff, but I had to invest in a set of beautiful colored bells found on Craigslist, because I remember how much I loved playing them when I was a kid. These are much easier to use than the ones mom had!

 To start, I went over the rules for bells:

1) Hold them by the handles, not the bell part
2) Ring them once, not over and over
3) Ring them nice and confident, but not hard or violent
4) Only play when it is your turn (color)
5) Try to sing while doing bells
6) Pay attention

We had to do "Christmas Bells" pg 54, of course.  Coordinating bells with small children is much harder than you can imagine, I made a color coded key:

 They did a pretty good job with following, although there is always at least one who zones out or is so busy singing that they miss their only note, but its fun to give them a little wink or nudge to pay attention and they usually do better the next time.  It takes some coordination for director as well, trying to follow key, sing, and often help smaller children.  I made sure to always have one sunbeam do the color that required the least amount of notes, and often I had them stand by me so we could do it together.  I switched a number of times so everyone got a chance to do a bell, depends on the size of your primary.

I cannot tell you how much the kids love playing bells!

We then moved on to another song, "Little Jesus" pg 39, which is another favorite song and very simple. Easier than the first song, especially with rhythm.  This was a good one because you could have the bigger kids do the red/orange/yellow, and the youngest do your pink and blues, and still feel like they are a part of the music.

I really wish we could do bells in sacrament meeting, but our counselor said no.  I know others don't have a problem with it, but I understand that the handbook rules are perhaps a little bit vague, so we go with how they read it and move on!  We had a great time in primary at least and they were really getting good at it after a few weeks of fun practices.

Nursery Now

I was asked recently if I could handle doing singing time in nursery as well as primary, and I said "Heck Yes!"  In fact, my old ward did this so I was expecting it, so when I mentioned it maybe someone thought it would be a good idea.  I think so.  Nursery singing time is so much fun!

To help myself out, especially with going straight into nursery from singing time in Senior Primary, I got on pinterest of course and looked for ideas.  The one that I liked the most that was on a number of boards was to create a nursery container and have numerous props for a rotation of songs.  Loved the way this would simplify so I immediately started putting one together.

Here are the contents of mine:

1) Sunbeam necklaces - Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam, I am Like a Star

2) Missionary tags (clothpins) - I Want to Be a Missionary Now, I Hope They Call Me on a Mission

3) Bell bracelets - Do As I'm Doing, My Hands

4) Flashlight - Teach Me to Walk in the Light

5) Prophet Pictures (got these from the Friend - love the pictures and the info. on the back about each prophet) - Follow the Prophet

6) Raindrops - Rain is Falling, Give Said the Little Stream

7) Summertime Felt cutouts - "What Do you Do in the Summertime?"

8) Still working on putting together some shaky eggs for various songs as well (plastic easter eggs with rice or other shaking materials inside to make noise).  Also want to get some "Happy Family" visuals, and maybe put a list of song ideas on the inside of the lid like others do.  I also have some small pictures of temples around somewhere that if I can find I will add, to do "I Love to See the Temple".  When I have time!  HA!

This has been so helpful as it is all contained in one easy to grab box that fits nicely into my primary bag.  So glad I did this and would highly recommend.

Picture a Christmas: Take Pictures

When I started working on "Picture a Christmas" pg 50,  I thought I would use the "picture" idea to help the kids remember the words, maybe have them pretend to have cameras and click each time another scene is shown.  Or I was going to have camera outlines with pictures on each of the lens circles.

But I got a better idea that the kids enjoyed a lot.  I had paper flannel pieces for the nativity, so I took a series of pictures using these.  The first photo had just the stable.  On the 2nd photo I added the night sky, and so on.  I then put them into a slideshow on the laptop.  In primary I was able to click on each picture and they could watch each item being added to the nativity scene.  Junior Primary thought it was pretty amazing that each item just "appeared" as if by magic.
 

Picture a stable in Judea

Picture a sacred, silent night

And can you hear the angels near

and see the star so bright

Picture the little baby Jesus, think of his life and words so dear

Sing praise to Him

Remember Him, as you picture Christmas this year.

Picture the kind and gentle Joseph, picture the mother, Mary, fair

And can you see so reverently, the shepherds kneeling there.

  Also, one thing I made a point about was that the 1st verse is all about setting the scene of the outside (stable, night, angels, star).  The 2nd verse is all about putting the people inside the scene (Mary, Joseph, shepherds).  Jesus is in the chorus, which means he is the focus and center of it all.  It helped the kids understand how the song was set up, and that it had a logical progression.  It helped me too!

Gathering Around for a Round

I love singing rounds, my extended family has done them for years at reunions.  The primary songbook has a number of rounds, but many are never sung.  So for Thanksgiving I wanted to do my favorite and the simplest of them all, "For Health and Strength" pg 21.

We have a huge Junior Primary so I had them stay in their seats.  First we counted 3 on their fingers as they sang, for the 3 things to give thanks for.  After practicing the simple words a few times, we split them into two groups and tried the round with teachers helping.  They did pretty good, enough that I was able to split them into 4 groups, although 2 worked better.

Senior Primary was even more fun, but only worked because I have a small senior primary group.  Since we were singing a "round", I told them they needed to be "around."  I had them literally gather AROUND me in a circle and then I split them into 4 quadrants, about 4 kids each.  Then we sang the round in 4 parts, while I turned in a circle in the middle, helping each group when it was their turn.  It was a lot of fun and I think they enjoyed watching me try to keep up and spin around.  Love having a smaller group to work with!

Samuel Says

Instead of the more traditional Christmas songs, I thought I'd teach the kids "Samuel Tells of Baby Jesus" pg 36, as I like the different view of the story as told by Samuel the Nephite.  I found a flannel story picture of a Nephite and then created my own visuals (shown here) to help the kids remember the words.

First verse I started out by explaining that the song begins with Samuel telling what will happen in the future, and I drew 4 speech bubbles for each phrase:

1) within 5 years
2) night will be as day
3) baby Jesus will be born (mixed up in picture - sorry)
4) in a land far, far away

For the chorus, I explained to the kids that they should image how they would respond if they were listening to Samuel's words.  He says something and then they say something back.  So I also did speech bubbles for this, and talked about how the word "HOSANNA" is a joyful exclamation of happiness and excitement.  They really got into that, and sang out with real gusto:

The 2nd verse is all about how the story actually happens as Samuel says it will.  The story itself now unfolds.  Since Samuel the Lamanite is known for prophesying while standing on top of the wall of the city, I did my visuals for this verse on brick shapes, and then build the wall that he would stand on.

This was a lovely song to work on with the kids, I only wish I had more time to prepare it, they struggled a bit with the 2nd verse when they were singing it in sacrament.  But they sure knew their HOSANNAS!

Raindrops & Birds

A fun and quick activity song is "Rain is Falling" pg 241, and you can change it up very easily, depending on the seasons or weather, etc.


I made some quick raindrops and give them to a few kids.  As we sing they put the raindrops where we sing, like on the ground, head, nose, toes, etc.

You can then change it to any of the following:

"Birds are flying all around..." (this one is popular because of the colorful birds)
"Snow is falling all around..."
"Sun is shining all around..."
"Wind is blowing all around..."


This works really well for a wiggle song or for nursery also.  If you don't have enough props for everyone, the others can act things out with the hands, rain falling, birds flying, etc.

Help Hand Sign

I thought I knew most of the songs in the Primary Songbook, but I was wrong!  Most I don't know are probably not my favorite, but I recently came across "Help Me, Dear Father" pg. 99, and really loved it.  Honestly not sure how I missed this one!  Great message, good progress of verses, lots of repetition, simple yet memorable tune.

Since the word "Help" is in this song numerous times, I taught the children the hand sign for "Help".  I found a great website that describes and shows pictures and explanations and videos of many hand signs.  Also, we are lucky to have someone in our ward who is fluent in Sign Language, so I checked with her and confirmed that I was doing it right.

The sign for "help" is made by closing your left hand into an "A" (fist with thumb up).  Place the outstretched palm of your right hand under the left "A" hand and raise both hands. 
 
I thought this was an effective and simple way to teach a great song!

Position Cards

Thought this would be fun and easy, and it was a hoot! 

I call them "Position Cards" which are simply drawings of stick figures in different positions.  Got these from this site, sized them about 1/4 page, laminated them and put them on a ring for easy flipping.  I mostly use them with faster songs.  As the kids sing I flip the next card and they try to get in that same position.  It's quite entertaining to watch, especially if the teachers try!  *In fact, for a future song I think I'll have the teachers demonstrate and the kids will love it.

My favorite use of these so far has been for "Book of Mormon Stories" pg 118, because normally I'm not a big fan of that song, especially with the kind of cheesy hand signals.  This gave them something to do that was different, but still involved movement.  It was especially funny when I sped it up towards the end and was flipping them pretty fast, almost had to stop conducting I was laughing so hard, and they were having a great time!

Map it Out

To teach "I Will Follow God's Plan" pg 164, I figured I'd focus on the idea of a plan.  I had previous purchased a map of the United States for a craft project, and only used one state, so I cut out the rest of the map and then printed some small clip art items to represent words to the song.  Before primary I laid them out on the map so they all fit and marked a dot where each should go, then drew a line from one to the next.  I had the pictures start near our home state, and end way up high on the other side, kind of to represent Heaven.

The kids got to come up and figure out which picture applied to the next line of the song, then place it on the map in order and then we sang the song.  On a later date, I removed various pictures to see if they could remember what was in that spot and the words to go with it.

Misc. Ideas I've Done Before

Some fun ideas I've used for previous sub jobs in primary music, I plan to reuse these when I need a filler:

A fun way to do the song "Hinges" pg 277, is to bring in a smooth leather belt and show the kids how to fold it in half, then open the middle, then while holding the ends closed, draw your hands apart quickly and the middle section will close and snap quickly, making a loud cracking noise if you do it right.  You can let a few kids try it themselves and see if they can get the hang of it.

I love the song "We Are Different" pg 263, because its got a good rhythm, and I like the progression of each verse.  It's also a nice song to use for a Welcome song.  I had fun last Sunday with this, having the kids sing the first two lines "I know you, and you know me..." and shaking the hands of the two kids on their side of them.  Then on the next part when they repeat the same thing, I had them do the same, except cross their arms and shake opposite hands.  They thought it was fun and a good way to meet their neighbors and introduce new kids as well.

*For a more recent review of this song, I did a slight modification and had them continue to hold hands after shaking, to form chains, both with arms regular and arms crossed.  The arms crossed was a big hit and got them laughing.

I Stand All Amazed

"I Stand All Amazed" pg 193, is a pretty difficult song to teach the younger children, lots of big words and hard concepts.  So I used pretty standard visual drawings and pictures for the first verse and then did more focus on the chorus, which has a lot of great material in it and some repetition which always helps.  I worked a lot with the junior primary on this so they could at least join in strong with the chorus. 

First, I talked about the word "Wonderful" and we talked about why something so terrible as Jesus dying was actually a wonderful thing for us.  This helped them understand the two seemingly different ideas of death and wonderful.  Then I had them listen to me say the word a couple of times and then I had them clap out the three syllables, with a little longer on the first syllable.  We practiced the rhythm over and over, and then whenever we sang the word wonderful, they clapped the rhythm along with singing.

Also, I had the kids make an "O" with their hands and they did this each time we sang "Oh it is Wonderful..."  They really paid attention and sang well, waiting for their chance to lift up their Os and also clap the word Wonderful.

Simple ideas, but effective for the younger children especially.

*Eventually, if I have time, for the senior primary I'm going to copy the song from the book itself and give them each a copy and we are going to go through the song a bit and talk about some of the words, maybe dynamics or other notations.  If there is time I'll let them use colored pencils to make notes on the music itself, to help them sing the song with more feeling and thought.

Remote Control

I made this giant remote control based on the idea found here:

One kid got to come up and push the buttons for the following actions as we review a song:

On/Off: start piano
Play: start singing
Pause: stop singing
Fast Forward: sing faster
Rewind: sing slower (or you could jump back to previous line)
Vol Up: sing louder
Vol Down: sing quieter

At first the kids went crazy pushing buttons too often, so I had to explain that you had to have some space between buttons.  Also, this was tough for the pianist to follow but I'm glad she tried keeping up!

Also, made these signs as they are very handy to have for last minute activities (soft/loud, go/stop, slow/fast):

 

Favorite calling here I come!

I finally got my favorite calling, one I have long coveted!  PRIMARY CHORISTER!

My mother was one of the best primary choristers there ever was, and my sisters all had a turn before I finally got the chance, so I have lots of great ideas and props to pull from, not to mention so many clever ideas from pinterest.  And some ideas of my own.

I am mostly creating this blog to help myself remember ideas for the future, what worked and what didn't.  Many of these ideas could be easily adapted to lessons, and I will include some of my lesson ideas that have worked well, from past years of being a primary teacher and primary counselor. 

I don't always know all the words, or have a perfect voice, or make the most perfect visual aides, but I have a lot of fun, am enthusiastic, definitely don't take myself too seriously, and love the music and the kids I teach.  I'm so excited and can't wait to get started!