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.

Senses: My Heavenly Father Loves Me

I remember when my mother taught us the song "My Heavenly Father Loves Me" pg 228, teaching us this song in primary many years ago this way, so I couldn't help do it for my primary kids, and they loved it!

Simply collect things that coordinate with the lyrics of the first verse, that can actually appeal to their senses, and let them experience it as they sing:

1) "Song of a Bird" Bird whistle - watch for the ones that you fill with water so it sounds more realistic.

2) "Look at the Blue Blue Sky" binoculars - kids ones that are sturdy and inexpensive

3) "Rain on my Face" squirt bottle - actually squirt some water high up in the air and let it fall on their faces, they love it!

4) "Wind as it Rushes By" pinwheel or fan - I like the pinwheel because they can blow it, but I've also used those small hand-held fans that are run by battery.

5) "Touch a Velvet Rose" rose - I got lucky and got this from my mom, its a beautiful rose made out of velvet and the kids love holding it, especially the younger girls, because it is so soft.

6) "Walk by our Lilac Tree" scent - Keep an eye out for lilac scented spray, but you can pretend with most any scent because most of the kids won't know the difference.  I used Febreeze once!  Also, I squirted this as well way up in the air (or down the aisle) so they can smell it but it doesn't get in their eyes or anything like that.

7) "Beautiful world" globe - I got this small squishy ball that looks like a globe from Global Credit Union, it works perfectly, but a spinning globe might be fun as well.

I Know That My Savior Loves Me: Tell the Story

I love this song and it tells a great story.  A focus on "telling the story" will help your kids learn this song better.  For visual aids I used a simple flip chart with pictures from the Gospel Art Book, Ensign, and other church-approved pictures.

First, start by asking the kids "How do stories/fairy tales start?"  (could use a visual of a fairy tale from a book or movie here)

You'll get a few answers like "Once Upon a Time" or "There Once Was" or hopefully "Long Long Ago."  Focus on that and say that our song tells a story too, and it starts off just like that.  "A long time ago"... Then ask about setting, characters etc.  go through the first verse, talking about each one:

Setting: a beautiful place
Characters: Jesus, children


Part way through 1st verse, point out that we join the story when it says, "I know he feels for me..."  Then point out that, just like fairy tales, we can imagine ourselves in them.

At the chorus, tell them, "Now that we have told Jesus story, let's tell what we believe and know."

2nd verse:  Point out that the setting is the same "beautiful place", but point out that the time and characters have changed slightly.

"Now" instead of "A Long time ago"
"I" instead of "children"
 
The 2nd verse is all about telling our own story, followed again by telling what we know to be true.  This is not a fairy tale.  It is the story of Jesus and of us!

Getting our Songs in Shape!

To start out the new year and track the songs we are learning for the program in September, there were tons of ideas, but I decided to do the following idea found here and change it up a bit for my own purposes.

First, I made it on a file folder, because I hate having to carry around big posters and papers, since its tough for me to haul a bunch of stuff.  This was simpler for me.  I stayed with the "shape" theme, but I also added a column with a picture of a silly monkey on top.  This means that when the kids earn their "Star Quality" status on a song, I will then reciprocate by doing something fun/silly.  I record it on the chart so they can be reminded of the fun things they got from all their hard work.  As you can see the chart picture was taken later in the year when we had already made some progress.  This has been very helpful for me as well to kind of visually see how we are doing and what needs a little more work.