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!