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!