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!
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Saturday, June 20, 2015
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:
And here is what the back looks like:
 |
| before the tabs are moved |
 |
| after tabs are moved |
And here is what the back looks like:
Saturday, June 13, 2015
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).
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).
Saturday, June 6, 2015
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.
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.
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