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!