Primary Pirate

Aaaarrrrrrgggg Mateys!  This week we had a visit from the Primary Pirate!  Got some of my pirate costume stuff out, and borrowed a few accessories from mom. 

My kids modeling some of our awesome pirate paraphernalia!

I also happen to have a small wooden treasure chest which I filled with some "jewels", and then interspersed some puzzle pieces.  I think I got the blank puzzle pieces from Michaels or Hobby Lobby.  On one side of the puzzle I drew a treasure map. 

Treasure Map - primary room - red X marks the spot!

I then chose a helper "parrot" (I actually had a parrot beak they had to wear) to come up and dig through the treasure to find the pieces.  We would sing the song as they each worked on putting the puzzle together.  Finally they were able to discover where the treasure was hidden!

Singing Time Vacation!

School just started for us, so I decided that I needed a VACATION!  (got the idea here)  When music started I didn't say anything, just started setting up a camping chair, then got dressed in a Hawaiian shirt, hawaiian leis, a pair of sunglasses, a big floppy hat, and I got out a drink and straw and sat down, telling the kids that summer was over for them, but my vacation had just started.  I told them they were going to be in charge today instead of me and I was just going to relax.

I had a bag for each song we have been working on, with various props I had used.  I then picked a kid for each song and they could look through the bag, decide what props to use and how to conduct.
This worked pretty good, but they weren't quite as independent as I had hoped, they still needed lots of help deciding, holding things, pointing at the right parts, etc.  Which of course I then used to my advantage and at the end told them that apparently they weren't quite ready to replace me yet, so next week I would come back from vacation and get back to work!

Keep the Commandments

Teaching the song "Keep the Commandments" (pg 146) can be fairly easy as there is a lot of repetition.  This concept worked really well:

1) Ask the kids "Where do we find the commandments?"  When they say scriptures sing the song "Scripture Power" and while doing so dress up someone as a warrior, specifically with the "Sword of Truth" and "Shield of Faith" from the 2nd verse.  I also talked about the difference between warrior offense (sword, etc.) and defense (armor/shield)  You could the discuss a few of the commandments and see if they can figure out which ones are offense (the ones that are proactive - the SHALLS), and the ones that are defense (the SHALL NOTS).

2) Ask "Who brought us commandments?"  Sing "Follow the Prophet" Moses verse (pg 110) and dress up another kid as Moses.  I put some of the key words of the song on a "staff" and had him raise it up and then lead the kids around the room.  

3) Now tell the kids that the best way to keep the commandments is to do them over and over until they become habit. Then have them learn the song by showing the repetition of certain phrases. I wrote the beginning of each line on the board to show how it often repeats, and then I had "Moses" use his staff to point to each line as we sang it.

4) I had a little time left at the end so we sang the song a couple more times and passed around a set of commandments I made out of cardboard, and when I stopped the music the person holding it had to name one of the 10 commandments.

Ice Cream Stacker

I recently saw an ice cream cone template and went a little crazy and colored a ton of different ice cream flavors (got pretty creative, and they sure look tasty).

31 flavors

 I had them start by chanting, "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ICE CREAM!" just for fun.  Then I handed out some ice cream flavors, which had name of the Books of the Book of Mormon on them. They had to try and stack them on the cone in the right order.  If someone wasn't sure they put their flavor wherever and then those who didn't have a flavor at the end could come up and switch them around to get them in the right order.  Best to start with the youngest and have the older ones make corrections.

I will say this was a struggle for them, they were very unsure of the order of books.  I guess my primary teachers drilled it into me because I STILL sing them when I'm trying to find a book in the Bible, so we will be working on this again as they need lots of practice.

But it was still a hit, because who doesn't love anything to do with bright, colorful ice cream!  And I had as much fun coloring them as they did stacking them up in primary.   I'm sure I'll be using these for various things in the future.

Bee Break & HSKT

My newest favorite creation: Head Shoulders Knees Toes poster!  Got the idea here and tried to make it my own, love the addition of movements as well as body parts!   Each of the parts are attached with magnets so they are interchangeable.  The magnets aren't all that strong so I keep the pieces in a bag when traveling, but I like the magnets better than velcro because they are easier for the kids to attach and detach.

 

Also, I thought we would take a break from reviewing all the program songs.  We are (mostly me) getting tired of them so we took a BEE BREAK.

I happened to find a bee puppet that is attached to a glove in the primary closet and I pulled that out.  I then used the puppet to pick a kid to come up, but then they had to Be the Bee, which meant wearing a headband that I had attached yellow/black twisted pipecleaners to, which obviously looked like very authentic bee antennae.

I also had a bee hive and bees visual, so they picked a bee, which had a song written on it, and then flew the bee into the hive.  All the songs were summer/outdoor type songs to go with the theme.  I even mixed it up by having them hum a song like bees, or buzz like bees whenever there was an "S" sound.  The kids were so cute with their little antennae headbands.

Potato Heads

Back to my trusty potato heads ahead, they are so much fun I almost like playing with them more than the kids.  Especially when they got "Darth Tater"!  Makes me laugh every time.

Anyway, this time I decided that each part stood for a certain song, for instance shoes were for Come Follow Me, Ears were Tell Me the Stories of Jesus, etc.  Some were more of a stretch than others, I'll admit!

I had two blank potato bodies for each side of the room and lots of extra parts strewn around on the table.  I also had a 3rd potato head that was already fully dressed.  What I did was I would take a part off the fully-dressed one, and then turn it around and two kids from each team would then race to figure out which part was missing and then take that same part and add it to their potato, so as mine got "un-dressed" theirs got "dressed". We would then sing the coordinating song, and the person who had won that round helped me conduct.   At the end I gave each team an award "most creative" or "craziest" or "most colorful."  Those are some fun taters.

Feel the Music

Music and feeling go hand in hand for me, so I wanted to convey the idea that I want them to put "feeling" into their music, not just singing it blandly, but making it a part of their body, almost like they can touch it.  Got this idea here and mostly followed the same plan. 

I created a simple board display with two holes in it, which had flaps of cloth on the back.  I had a kid put both hands in the holes and I would then put an object in their hands, which they would then have to feel and try to figure out what it was without looking, and then decide what song it also represented:

• I Know That My Savior Loves Me = felt heart
• He Sent His Son = envelope
• Follow the Prophet = toy lion (we are doing Daniel in the Lion's Den), could also do a candy cane for a staff for Moses, etc., or Friend Magazine
• Church of Jesus Christ = small church figurine, or a missionary tag
• The Holy Ghost - bird (represent a dove), maybe a blanket for comfort
• Faith = seed
• Come Follow Me = shoe
• Tell Me the Stories of Jesus = book

After we sang the song I reiterated that you don't always have to know ALL the words to a song to FEEL what it is like or FEEL its meaning.  A fairly simple way to teaching putting feeling into the words.

Tell Me the STORIES of Jesus

I come from a family of storytellers, my mother being the best of all.  She is well-known in the kids' schools for her stories and props.  Where do you think I get a lot of my good ideas?!  Anyway, I introduced the new song "Tell Me the Stories of Jesus" (pg 57) by focusing on the first line about telling stories. 

"Who likes to hear stories?" I asked.  All of them raised their hands.
"And who tells you stories?" Most of them said their parents or teachers.
"What stories do you like to hear?"  Everyone had an answer which I let a few share, then I told them that some of my favorites stories were about Jesus.  Ask them to share a few that they can remember.

Then introduce the song by breaking down each line this way:

1st line: Imagine you are sitting in front of your mom or your dad and you are asking them to "Tell me the stories of Jesus, I love to hear."  Tell them that when they sing the song at the program, they should look right at their parents as if they are actually asking them.

2nd line: Now imagine that you are sitting around Jesus, that he is here, and you can ask Him to tell you his own stories and hear about them from himself.  What would you ask Him to tell you about?  "Things I would ask him to tell me, if he were here"

3rd line: Ask the kids if they like books with pictures or no pictures best.  Most will answer pictures.  Pull out two pictures similar to these and explain that "wayside" actually means "countryside", showing that Jesus often taught the humble people who were farmers, shepherds and fishermen.

"scenes by the wayside"

"tales of the sea"

4th line: Just repeat the 1st line, but backwards.  You can joke about how kids ask over and over for the same thing, like: "tell me a story please, please just one story, one story and I'll go to bed..." so the 4th line is like you repeating yourself but in a slightly different way.

I think this was very effective and the kids understood the song so much better and I think they really enjoyed the story concept.  If I had a smaller primary I might even gather them around on the floor like they are listening to a story.  I also plan for the program to have a couple of older kids sing vs 2 and 3, and then have the primary all together repeat the last line.  Love this song and these kids!

Campfire

Since we are close to Pioneer Day, I figured we'd do something a little more exciting, so I coordinated with the presidency to incorporate their sharing time.  We removed all the chairs for the kids, left a ring for the teachers on the outside, and built two "campfires" in the primary room, since we have so many kids we couldn't fit all of them around one.  I brought in some wood and made the campfire rings on some towels so it wouldn't make a mess, then got a bunch of red, yellow, and orange tissue paper and placed that in the middle to make the "fire".  You could also enhance this by putting a flashlight or LED candle underneath, but it was too bright in our classroom for this to really work.

This "campfire" I made using rolled up cardboard instead of logs, less messy and the kids don't pick the bark off and throw it at each other!

We then gathered the kids around the fire, and we went back and forth between telling stories that related to the sharing time theme and pioneer stories, and then singing songs in between.  We also would periodically ask the kids questions about the stories and if they answered correctly we handed out marshmellows.  They were pretty attentive.  Great to mix it up and enjoyed having the kids settle down and bit and listen to some good stories.

Hats off to Hats!

I love collecting fun hats for the kids' dress-up box, and they work great for primary as well.  Last week I brought in a bunch of fun hats, and then I passed them out to the kids who were singing nicely.  I did this a few times, moving them around from person to person so most everyone got a chance to wear one. 

Just a few of my fun hats!

 After that, I did my usual and turned it into a game of torturing their teacher, ME!  We sang the song Primary Children Sang as They Walked (pg 214) which has a lot of repetition of the word "walk".  So when we sang the word, I had the kids who hadn't had a turn with hats take one from someone and walk it up to me (I was sitting on the floor so little kids could reach) and stack it on my head, meanwhile I am trying to sing, conduct, and balance about 20 hats by the end.  Of course, they loved it when they all fell down and I had to try to stack them up again.  I will say I was sweating pretty good by the end of that one.  Here's to Hats!

Fireworks!

I pick and choose only certain important holidays to "celebrate" in primary and the 4th of July is one of them, and this was such a great way to do it!

Got the idea here, and modified it of course:

First, I filled some big red, white and blue balloons with some confetti using a funnel, and I also put a small piece of paper with a song in as well.  You don't need a ton of confetti for this to work great.

I then blew them up and attached them to a bulletin board, along with some streamers coming down so they looked like fireworks.  Now, the question was, how to pop them in a fun way.  As always, I raided my mom's supplies and came up with a couple old, wooden cork/pop guns.  I hot glued a push pin to the end of the cork (making sure I could remove it later and not ruin her toy) and practiced "shooting" a balloon.  It worked great.

So, in primary I was obviously careful to keep the "gun" to myself until they were ready to shoot off their fireworks.  One kid came up and they would shoot the gun at one of the firework balloons, which would then pop and send the confetti flying!  So much fun, it really surprised the kids the first time and they loved the excitement!  Like I said, you don't need much confetti because it flies everywhere and I was smart enough to think of putting down a big sheet so it was mostly contained.  I then had another kid come up and they had to search through the confetti to find the paper with the song on it.  It was a BLAST!!

I say Potato...

Was wandering around the house looking for primary ideas when I came across my kids' box of potato head parts.   Looked like fun.  So we did a potato-themed singing time, since potatoes are pretty much my favorite food.

I had two potato heads and basically I would put a body part on either one or the other depending on how good one side of the room sang.  I then had kids who were singing well come up and switch a body part for one they preferred.  Fun & simple.


We then played Hot Potato, I brought in a real potato and they passed it around the room until the music stopped and whoever was holding it at the time had to tell me the next word of the song, so they had to be concentrating on the words as well as where the potato was.  A simple success!

Pull-Tab Pictures

This was one of my moments where I think, "Hey this would be such a fun idea!" and then later realize that it is WAY more complicated than I first thought.  But, I did it.  It probably didn't turn out quite as good as I hoped, but I think it helped the kids get the idea of the song, which has some difficult concepts to cover.  Anyway, I basically made a pull-tab visual, like those books where parts can move, and it was for the song The Holy Ghost (pg105).  It definitely took some engineeering to figure out how it all would work:

before the tabs are moved

after tabs are moved

 And here is what the back looks like:

The Black Hat won't be Back

Well, not all Sundays go as planned, in case you were thinking that all my plans work out perfectly.  This Sunday was one of those fail days, but the great thing about it is that primary is the most forgiving place, as long as you don't take yourself to seriously.  The teachers/leaders jump in all the time to help out, and the kids get a kick out of my mess-ups, and they really enjoy the fun.  So, don't stress if it doesn't work, and just change it up next time.

To introduce the June song "The Holy Ghost" pg 105, I had some pictures already done, but instead of putting them up on the wall or board, I tried hanging them up on a clothesline.  However, when I got there to set up, I realized there really wasn't places to hang it up properly.  I finally used some pushpins but with the weight of the pictures, I wasn't sure it would hold, and it also sank pretty far down so I had to kind of hold it up anyway.  I attached the pictures with clothespins, and each picture had a color of the rainbow marked on it with sticky notes.

For the activity I tried this, which also was kind of a fail. I couldn't find a black hat so I found a deep, black bag and I placed 8 different color crayons in the bottom.  It was supposed to be dark enough that the kids wouldn't be able to tell the colors apart when I asked them to pick a specific color that coordinated with one of the pictures.  Then they would say they needed more light to pick the right color.  Then I would ask them if they wanted to use a flashlight and talk about how that is like the Holy Ghost guiding us with light.

However, my black bag was just not dark enough, or maybe the room wasn't dark enough.  I had to put my head almost completely in the bag to block out enough light.  So, I had the kids just reach in without even looking, and then asked them if it would be easier if they could see or if they had more light.  Then the flashlight.  So it still worked out but not as good as I had hoped.

Not to mention that in senior primary (luckily not junior) my clothesline did come unpinned and the push pin went flying across the room in the middle of the song!  I just smiled and kept singing, while the secretary helped me hold it up for the rest of the time.  And one of the boys found my pushpin, so all in all it ended well enough.

However, it was not all a fail.  We were a small group this week so not only did a lot of kids miss my mishaps, but junior primary was small enough to gather them in the middle of the room instead of way spread out to the edges.  Then I passed out my new "shakey eggs" I finally got around to making*, and we did "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam" pg 60, while keeping the beat and then shaking the eggs vigorously instead of jumping in the air at sun-BEAM!  They did great and the eggs were popular in nursery as well.  Now I just need to sanitize them all!

*Fill colored plastic easter eggs with various shaking items like rice, small beans, wheat, etc. anything that makes a rattling noise but doesn't spoil.  Only fill about 1/4 of the egg and then seal with hot glue.  I like to carry mine around in an actual egg carton for fun (also makes it easy to see if someone has not returned one to you).

Four (Three) corners

Apparently Four Corners is a well-known game, but I've never played it or heard of it.  Thought it would be fun to try since I didn't get much prep time in this week.  This is where I got the instructions, and I changed it a bit.

I had one kid come to the middle of the room and be blindfolded.  Then the rest of them had to find a corner (technically we did 3 corners as piano was in 1 and would be unfair advantage) of the room to go to, with at least 2 kids in each corner.  The middle person then listened as everyone sang the song, and pointed to who was singing the best.

As the other blog also did, I explained that we would be listening for the best singers, not the loudest.  I reviewed some of the requirements for nice singing:

1) Strong voice, but not necessarily shouting
2) Knowing the words and enunciating as much as they can
3) Trying to follow the right notes
4) Singing together at the right speed


When the middle person picked the best group, the rest of the people sat down in the middle and were a new group together.  Then the winning group had to split up into corners again, so they would be broken up and have to keep trying to win with less people, meanwhile the middle larger group had a chance to get back in the game.  Each time people moved, I reminded them to not just follow their friends but think about who they would sing with the best.

As I assumed would happen at this point, in junior primary the middle section out-sung the fringes.  However, I was impressed in senior primary when the smaller groups still won against the larger ones, until finally two boys held their own all the way to the end!

This was a great activity for movement, working together, and getting everyone involved, especially if they ended up in a small group where every voice counted.

Flash Mob Music

This idea was a little hectic, but I always love when something you do gets to that ONE kid who doesn't always participate, and this one did it.

Anyway, the original idea came from here, and I used it to work on the song "I Know that My Savior Loves Me" for review.  I didn't really tweak the idea that much.  Here's how it worked for us.

I printed the words to the song with key words highlighted.  I then handed out strips of paper with each of these words written on it and told them not to show anyone what their word was.  I then explained that I would start the song singing by myself, and when we got to the word that they were holding, they would join in for the rest of the song.  By the end, we would all be singing.  The printed/highlighted words were so they could see when their word was coming.

We did it this way, and then we did it backwards, where all of us started singing together and then dropped out one by one as the word was sung.

It took a little more explaining for many of the kids to get the concept, and we did it a few times through to get it.

So, it just happened that one of my older boys who doesn't sing much got one of the words that was at the beginning of the song.  He was pretty unhappy that he had to be singing almost by himself, with only me for company.  But I really encouraged him to be strong and that it wouldn't last long, and he did it and even seemed to like it.  I made sure to praise him afterwards for being brave and I even got a smile out of him!

MInute to Win It

There are tons of "Minute to Win It" game ideas floating around, so I thought we'd do a couple.  I only had time for one but it was fun and also pretty challenging, a lot harder than it looked for any of us.  This one I just had two kids come from either side of the classroom and they had to drop popsicle sticks in a cup from chest level.  We sang our song for a minute and then saw who won.

The other one I had wanted to try was one we did at a primary activity, where the kids have to transfer M&Ms or skittles from one bowl to another, by sucking them onto the end of a straw.  Even harder for the younger ones to figure out, but fun and there is candy involved, always a hit.  Just need to have clean straws for all the kids!

Faith Flowerpot

To introduce the kids to the May song "Faith" pg 96, I got an idea from this post about using a flowerpot.  Went out and bought a cheap plastic one and then prepped by attaching a flower with a pipecleaner stem to the bottom of the pot.  I then squished it down flat into the bottom and covered it up with some brown material so it looked like dirt in case any of the kids looked inside.

I started by showing the kids the pot and talking about planting flowers, asking them what they needed to grow.  When someone said "sun" I took out my picture of a sun and taped it to the pot.  Then we sang the first line of the song.  We proceeded with the other symbols which were an ear for listening to prayers, a seed, and a heart, singing each section and adding them together.  Finally on the very last section which goes "when I do right I know" I talked about how if we have faith and we do what we need to do, then we get the blessings from that of knowing what is right and wrong, just like we get a flower if we help it grow.  Then I pulled up the flower out of the pot, and it had the word "right" written on it.

I actually did two verses like this, I simply attached two flowers, but separated each with a bit of cloth, so that after I pulled one up, the kids didn't know the 2nd one was in there.

It went pretty well, even if the two flowers looked a little small for a such a big pot!

I Belong...3 weeks in a row

These visuals for "The Church of Jesus Christ" came from a sugardoodle link here, and they were so easy to print and use.  I like the pictures taken straight from the primary songbook and that they were on full pieces of paper so it makes for a big visual aide that they kids can see well.  You do have to cut out your own steeple, but its pretty simple.

FIRST SUNDAY: Before the kids come in I built the temple with the "I" statements only using magnets.  They already partially knew the song, so I had them fill in each statement and then placed the pictures on top of the "I" statements.  Then we went through it again, seeing if they remembered it without the word clues.

I talked specifically about the word proclaim and had them give me ideas of what it meant.  Since its a harder word they tended to get quieter at this point, so I talked about proclaiming to be like saying something strong and with excitement, and said their voices should do the same, get strong and have some excitement.  This helped a lot to end the song on a strong note.

SECOND SUNDAY: I started with the "I" statements placed on top of the pictures.  Beforehand, on the back of the "I" statements I placed post-it notes that had a description written on it, like "a girl with black shoes", or "a boy wearing a tie".  A kid was chosen to come up and randomly I picked a statement for them to finish.  If they did it then we moved it over to start a new building next to the original, and they also got to pick a person that fit the description listed on the back to do the next one.  This worked really well and I found out which phrases were the trickiest to remember.

THIRD SUNDAY: I just held the words and pictures in order.  I had one side of the room sing the "I" statements, and the other side sing the rest, pictures as visual clues.  They loved this because I had to run back and forth between them, trying to switch the pictures at the same time, and I didn't always keep up with them, but they got a laugh out of it, and by then they really knew the song!

Articles of Faith: Hand Signs

Our primary president showed us some Article of Faith hand signs to help the kids remember them based on the number.  Here they are, I thought they were pretty clever and helpful:



1st - 1 finger pointing up to God
2nd - 2 fingers for Adam & Eve
3rd - 3 fingers for 3 syllables of "A-tone-ment"
4th - 4 fingers for 4 steps of principles & ordinances
5th - Hand with 5 fingers, place on head like an ordination
6th - 5 fingers  wrap around 1 pointer finger (steeple) on other hand and it looks like a church
7th - 5 fingers form a "mouth", 2 fingers are the "tongue" sticking out
8th - 5 fingers held out like a book page and 3 fingers scroll across the hand (page) like you are reading
9th - Show 9 fingers but hide the thumb,  because it hasn't been 'revealed'
10th -10 fingers for "ten" and again for "tribes"
11th -Two hands flat and facing each other make the 11, then put them together like you are praying/worshipping
12th - 2 hands make a crown
13th - 5 fingers for honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, then a thumbs up for doing good

Primary Punch

My favorite show when I was sick from home as a kid was "The Price is Right" and so many of the games they play on that show can be adapted to primary singing time.  In fact, my dream one of these days (after the program) is to do a "The Song is Right" day in primary and do all sorts of games like Primary Punch, Primary Plinko, etc.  I even have a really "loud" jacket to wear that is very shiny and exciting.  Can't wait!

This is what mine looked like, but not even this nice.

In the meantime I'm working on trying out a few of these games.  Primary Punch is one of them.  The kids get to punch through a tissue paper covered cup and get the song title inside (or object to represent the song).  I wanted to have a whole board and nice set-up but I didn't have the right materials and my husband wasn't around to help with some logistics, so I just threw something together like this:

The kids loved the idea and had fun, so that's the most important part.  But it needs some tweaking for next time.  They got so into the punching that the cups didn't last long on the board and came off.  Also, putting rubber bands around tissue paper so it didn't come off or rip was harder than it looked, should have had my kids help but I was running behind. 

This is what I'm going to try next time!

I think next time I'll try something more stable, put the cups behind a sturdy piece of cardboard, and just tape or glue squares of tissue paper over the holes.  Much simpler I think.  We shall see.  I'm envisioning something more like this:

Now I think I'll go scrounge up that loud jacket and get working on a Plinko board, I'm thinking of using pegboard, seems like it would be pretty simple?!  However, in primary music I've learned that what seems simple can actually be fairly complicated, so this time I'm not going to try throwing it together last minute.

Conference

What a great conference we had last weekend, I'm all refreshed and ready to go after a nice break from primary planning.  Oh, and I just have to share the great conference helper my sister made for me:

Its a jewelry/craft storage box, and before conference I fill each compartment with some candy.  The kids get the candy that corresponds to each speaker if the can recognize them.  The kids love it and dad & mom too!  I also print off personalized conference packets to keep them entertained and focused.  There are tons of different conference ideas on pinterest and sugardoodle.

I've got a great family, by the way.  Last year I wanted to have a tent for the kids to sit in during conference like King Benjamin's people did - turned the door of their tents toward the temple and the prophet.  I asked my dad to make one.  I just wanted a simple triangular A-frame type set-up.  I should have known it would end up being slightly more complicated, but the kids loved it and it was roomy enough for them to enjoy it too.  Thanks Dad!

Mix-Ups

I've been doing primary music for less than a year and I'm already tired of the same old Welcome Songs.  I would LOVE to have an updated Primary Songbook sometime!  Until then, just gotta get creative.  So first I changed the words on "Fun to Do" to say "Meeting a Friend" or "Meeting New Friends."

But that was only one day.  Then I got on pinterest...

Found this awesome idea here to mix up the "Hello, Hello" pg 260, welcome song by using different languages.  A visitor gets to pick a stick with a language on it, and then we sing while replacing "Hello" with the word for hello in that language.  I knew it would be a hit because especially the older kids love trying to sing the birthday song that is in a bunch of different languages, only this is simpler and the little kids can get it too!  The link above shows even more language options, but I'm keeping it simple for now and will add more when they become bored of these.

(Want to eventually switch to actual flag representing each country)

I also "mixed up" our work on "Follow the Prophet" pg 110.  I modified the idea here, and took key words from the verses we are working on, then found a substitute word to replace.  I HAD to steal their idea, which was to replace "follow" with "swallow", and even though we are not doing the Jonah verse this year, still so funny!

Anyway, I made footprints and wrote all the right words and replacement words on them, using different colors for the three different verses.

For junior primary I gave each kid a set of footprints and they had to pick the right one.  Then we put the right ones on the board leading to a picture of the prophet, and the replacement words I gave to the kids and they could put them somewhere on the floor leading somewhere else.  When we got a verse done, we sang it.

For senior primary, we have a small group, so I split them up into three teams, one for each verse.  I had scattered all the footprints on the floor, all mixed-up.  Each team had to find all the words in the right color for their verse, take them to one corner of the room, then put them in two lines.  1) one line for the right words in order.  2) one line for the replacement words in order.  I thought they'd get it pretty quick, but it took some time and some continued directions to help them along.  It was helpful to have some of the adult teachers jump in to help.

When all teams had theirs right, I let each team sing the "silly" version of their song with all the replacement words, and then everyone together sang the right words.  They struggled with singing the "silly" version because I could not find perfect rhymes/rhythms for every word, but it was still fun and it mostly got them up and out of their chairs and working together.

On a more reverent song, I would not do the silly word mix-up, but since this is a pretty upbeat song and it has funny lines already, I figured it was okay.

Follow the Prophet: Family Feud

We've been working on the song "Follow the Prophet" pg 110, for a few weeks now, so I wanted to see if they are really getting the words and the story behind them.  So I made a quiz about the 3 verses we are learning.  Each answer had 2 options, and both were phrases from various parts of the song, just mixed up from a different verse.  For instance:

Q: Where was Moses leading Israel?

A: (wrong) Lion's Den,  or (right) Promised Land

I would pick two reverent kids to come up and gave each of them a flyswatter.  I read the two possible answers out loud and laid them out on a table in front of them.  Then I quickly read the question and they had to see who could swat the right answer first.  Some of them were tough, because both answers could work so they had to really think about the words from the correct verse.  Even the Sunbeams had heard the song enough that most of them eventually figured it out, and I purposely gave them the easier questions.

There were 5 clues for each verse, and I had this charted on the board.  All the questions were mixed up so as the kids answered questions correctly I put them up on the board in their corresponding spot in relation to the 3 verses.  When we got all the answers right for one verse we paused and sang it, and then continued on until we had done all 3 verses.

For junior primary I made sure to repeat the answers a number of times for the youngest who couldn't read.  I also had them review the 3 verses before we started the game.  Senior primary did not need this review.  I also did not separate them into specific teams like boys/girls, left/right etc.  Instead I just gave points to the color of the flyswatter the winner was holding.  That way no one really felt like the were on the losing team particularly since I handed out the flyswatters randomly anyway.

This took up quite a bit of singing time, but I really liked it because it showed me just how much they were really understanding the song, not just memorizing it, and the kids had great fun whacking away at the right answers.

For a wiggle song we did the "Wise Man and the Foolish Man" pg 281, and I had the Sunbeams be the floods, all holding a blue blanket that they raised up on each chorus.  An older (taller) class stood behind them with clouds (quilt batting) and lowered them as the rains came down.  Sunbeams were pretty uncoordinated, but it was fun anyway, and got all of them involved.

All About Faces

Primary was "All About Faces" this week!  Introduce by talking about a singing faces, i.e. open mouth, eyes watching, ears listening, etc.

First, I introduced the kids to my FIRST faces:

I got the idea for these guys on pinterest and made them my own. They are awesome and popular with the kids!  Cutting through the tennis ball to make the mouths was harder than I thought it would be so my husband took pity and cut them with a dremel tool.

Anyway, I let the kids pick their names and they talked the the kids a bit.

A funny way to do this is to tell the kids that they are going to make different faces and the kids have to guess what emotion it is.  Obviously, they really can only make one face, but you can have fun with that.  Use the following:

1) surprised - open the mouth really fast and wide
2) tired - open the mouth a little slower
3) funny - open the mouth a little and then jiggle them up and down
4) scared - open the mouth fast and wide, have them "shiver"
5) singing - open their mouths medium and wave them around like they are bobbing their heads to a beat

This was quite funny and the teachers laughed even more than the kids.  For a warm-up song I had the kids grab a slip of paper out of the golf ball mouths, which had a fun song written on it, and we sang that song.

For the SECOND faces of the day, we worked on "Follow the Prophet" pg 110, with a kid being the prophet's face, idea found here:

The THIRD faces of the day were for lip syncing, again reviewing songs they are working on for the program.  These visuals came directly from here and there are many different designs to choose from, the only trick was to get them sized right for kids mouths.  Luckily I have two good guinea pigs at home to practice with!

Make sure before you have kids do these that you explain that it is inappropriate to be sticking their tongues out, etc. that they only get to do it if they will try to sing the words.  These were quite funny looking so it took some time to stop the giggling, but they quieted down when I said they wouldn't get picked if they were not singing.

Finally my FOURTH faces of the day I only did in Senior Primary, where we worked on the song "Latter-Day Prophets" pg 134.  I knew they had memorized most of this song before hand, so I passed out pictures of all athe latter-day prophets and asked them to figure out the right order.  I'll admit, a few of the kids knew the order a lot better than I, something to brush up on for next time.  *(If you do this song, make sure to research some different wording to add the most recent prophet(s) to the end).

Marching into March

March is upon us, so in Primary we "Marched into March."

We started by practicing our marching in place, while I got my marching gear ready.  I put on my marching hat and I had a baton to keep the beat.  Then we sang "Follow the Prophet" while literally marching around the room, with me leading the way, holding a picture of the prophet we were singing about.  We did a couple of rounds to review each verse.

After getting everyone settled again, I took my hat off and put it to the side.  I told them we would then review some song by doing fun actions.  I prepped my hat before coming in to have the action cards already in it, so they were amazed when I had someone come up and pull a card from my hat, not knowing they were there the whole time.

I've seen lots of action cards on pinterest, with the usual ones like jumping, turn in circles, wave your arms, but I wanted some different stuff, so I made up my own.  They really enjoyed swimming in place and conducting music.  They were a little hesitant about the chicken and robot dances but finally got into it, especially after I demonstrated.

Magic Potions - So Much Fun!

The kids earned their Fun Fourth Sunday pretty easily this month because they already knew "He Sent His Son" fairly well to start with, and its a favorite for many of the kids anyway, including mine.  I went to pinterest to find something fun, and came across this Magic Potion idea that I tweaked a bit to work for us.  It was so much fun!  I think I got more excited than some of the kids and it worked perfectly.

This definitely took some prep before, between, and some cleanup after, but so worth it.

First I took three review songs and wrote out the words to each on a dry-erase board.  Key words in each song were written in different colors, two colors for each song.  One song had a mix of green and orange key words, the next one had red and blue, and the third had key words written in purple and pink.

I had 6 clear plastic cups filled about 1/3 with vinegar.  I had 6 metal spoons, and had put drops of food coloring on each, to make the 3 different colors.  I then used a separate spoon to cover each of the colored spoons with a big pile of baking soda.  You want to make sure the food coloring is completely covered up.  I was worried that it would leak through but it didn't.  I had all this on a big cookie sheet with towels on hand to clean up any extra mess.

Each kid I picked would come up and pick a spoon and start stirring it into one of the cups.  The BEST part about this is that because there is so much baking soda and the food coloring is at the bottom, and because the liquid kind of hardens the soda up at the beginning, it takes a bit of stirring for some of the soda to dissolve and the color to come through.  Meanwhile its really fizzing and overflowing, and then finally the color appears.  It was quite suspenseful, and I was just as excited as the kids were!  Once the color came through and the liquid died down, we would erase the words that matched the color, and then sing the song, seeing if they could fill in the blanks.

The only trouble we had is it took a bit of down time to erase all the words, so next time I would have a second kid on hand to start erasing the minute they knew what the color was.  It helps to have big words too, I had to kind of squish mine in, so shorter songs, or one song per color might have been a little better.

Don't forgot you have to re-prep all of this again before Senior Primary comes in, and then clean-up afterwards, you don't want the room smelling like vinegar for too long!

Follow the Prophet: Scrolls

For "Follow the Prophet" pg 110, this week I brought robes, headgear and props (stuffed lion & a staff) to dress up a few boys as our prophets Daniel and Moses, and then had a boy with a suit/tie fill in for our modern-day prophet in the last verse.

For the Daniel and Moses verses, I also made these scrolls, an idea I got from here.  There are lots more examples of scrolls for all the other verses as well.  I drew my own pictures but made the wood part the same way, with two large craft sticks taped together.

The Moses verse is tough, with lots of hard words and complicated ideas, so we're really working on that one.  The kids loved dressing up as prophets and especially holding the stuffed lion.

He Sent His Son: Q & A

"He Sent His Son" pg 34, is a personal favorite primary song of mine, but I feel for the pianists because it is not an easy song to play, strange rhythms and pauses.  Anyway, still I love it.

No big surprise, this song is all about Questions and Answers

So I made a Q and A practice session:  (it took me 3 weeks to notice I'd drawn the question marks backwards!  And I'm an english major - I was pretty humiliated)

 Each set of Q and A's has pictures to help the kids remember, and I used corresponding colors.  I used these in various ways to help the kids remember the song:

1) Hand them out randomly and tell the kids to put them in order, but they have to do it totally SILENT!  This is tough but we went through it together to see if it was right.

2)  Give the questions out to some kids up front, and then give answers to kids in the audience.  The questions have to go find their answer partners and bring them up to the front.

3) Give Questions to one side of the room, Answers to the other, let them sing back and forth.


One other important note for the kids they liked was to point out that when the song say "rise with living breath" that it is a clue to what they should do with their voices.  Take a big breath and rise with the song.  Then we practice holding the long note and see if they can stretch it a long time before the next phrase.  They really like doing it that way and it fills the gap that happens if they just cut the note off too early.

Snowball Fight!

For one of my fun activities earned by learning their last month's song so well we had an indoor "snowball" fight.  The original idea came from here with my own twists of course.

I handed out 1/4 cut papers and told them to write down their favorite primary song and their name.  As they did this, I began to get my winter clothes on.  Wool hat, scarf, coat, gloves, etc.  I think I left the boots at home!

When they had their papers ready I told them to squish them into a ball!  (they were pretty hesitant to do this at first so I actually had to show them).  Then I told them we were going to have a snowball fight with me as the target!  They loved the idea.  On the count of 3, with a few false starts, they all got to throw their "snowballs" at me, while I tried dodging and ducking.

When they were done I picked one off the floor and we sang that song. 

I even saved all the snowballs and thought I'd do it again sometime.

Originally I was going to have them throw at each other in two teams, but I could see a few of them getting carried away.  I may try this version with a smaller group and spread them apart a little more.

Another variation I thought of but didn't do at the time was that each person's song I picked got to borrow one of my winter clothes to wear, so it would take a while for me to get "undressed" and I would play up the idea of being too hot or too cold, etc.

No matter what way you do it, a big hit all around and the teachers got a kick out of it too!  (next time I'll have to get them in on it)

Gethsemane

Got approval to sing "Gethsemane" for Easter Sunday!  So excited to have a new song and so beautiful.  I first heard this at a baptism and have loved it ever since.  It is written by Melanie Hoffman and can be found on the "Stories of Jesus" CD which can be purchased here. 

A few of the kids already knew this song and loved it already so they were excited.  I introduced it by showing them a video done by Mormon Soprano.  (She states that she has permission to use the music and the pictures are all church approved for general use.)  The children loved watching it and many were humming along by the end.  Then I quickly taught them just the chorus, and had them sing it along with the video a second time.  It was a lovely, quiet feeling, even with the large group of junior primary we have, and the senior primary enjoyed it just as much.

For the actual performance, I'm having a small group of girls sing the first verse, and a small group of boys do the second verse.  All will sing the choruses and the part that builds up to the climax.  This part is especially difficult because they are words that don't have a lot of concrete meaning.  So I came up with four images that I thought would help them remember the key words (hardest thing, greatest pain, biggest battle) and then I stair-stepped them on the board.

Since the song starts out talking about Jesus climbing the hill, we talked about how hard that was, and then I had a child come up and move the picture of Jesus up to each paper and "climb the hill" as we sang a line of the song.  I also talked about how I wanted them to start quieter, and then add more intensity as we went, so at the climax of the song they would be singing very strong, like going up stairs.  This lead into a reminder about the difference between singing loud and singing with strength.  Always a good thing to review!

After church, I had one Sunbeam come up to me and say, "Do you know what?  Jesus did a hard thing!"  Love when they are getting it.  One of my older boys who doesn't always participate a lot came up to me and said that this was his favorite song and he had it on his ipod and already had it memorized and was really excited that we were going to sing it.  Music can work miracles!

Primary Pachyderm: Conducting

I saw this idea a long time ago in a previous primary, and always wanted to do it, so when I got called, its the first thing I made:

Its rough around the edges with so much use, so I'd like to re-do it a little more like this one, with a gray nose that's a bit shorter, although the long one made it look all wrinkly, so we'll see:

The kids absolutely love conducting the music with our Primary Pachyderm.  They simply put their arm inside the "nose" and conduct, or I do it sometimes just to make them laugh.

They also love conducting with my different wands, which include a clear sparkly wand, a drumstick, a big turkey feather, and a butterfly wand.

Along the same lines, I noticed that our presidency gets long Laffy Taffy rope candies for the kids birthday.  What better for a wand?!  So when the kids have a birthday and come up to get their candy, they get to help conduct their own birthday song, with their birthday candy.  Pencils work as well.