Primary Pox

A while ago I posted about giving the kids "Primary Pox" where they got dot stickers put on them if they were singing.  This time I switched it up a bit.  I got a double sided poster board and drew a girls face on one side, boys on the other.  Then I handed out a few stickers to each kid (or had the teachers pass them out).  Then as they sang well I pointed to kids and they quickly came up and put a "pox" dot on the other teams (girls vs boys) face, to see which one would be covered quickest.  I think the only this I'd have changed is that I needed to use bigger dots, so it would fill up faster!

You could use this idea with a bubble gum machine drawing, where they try to fill up the machine.

Back to School

Kids are back to school (halleluja!) so we went back to school for Primary as well.  I dressed up in a teacher outfit, white shirt, black skirt, glasses, hair in a bun with pencils sticking out, etc.

I started out by telling them I would start filling out report cards for the Primary Program songs, and give them grades on each song/verse.  I had the "report card" on a clipboard that I displayed, and made sure to have a big red pen when I marked their grades.  I hemmed and hawed and tried to make it seem like I was really debating what grade to give them.  (in later weeks I brought the report card back out so they could see that they were getting better):

Then I brought out my backpack that had school supplies in it, which they took turns picking so we could review our program songs:

Ruler:  Slide your finger up and down to have them get quieter or louder.  This was so fun because I tried to do it really quick and surprise them, made us all laugh.

Glue:  Have the kids "glue" themselves in a position and hold it the whole song if possible.  I pretended to squeeze the glue all over them quickly before we started.

Markers (8-10):  Split the markers into two hands, raise hands back and forth and whoever is wearing those colors has to sing.

Eraser:  Erase words from the song.  I wrote the words directly on the erasers so they could pick.

Paper: Quickly pass out a piece of paper to everyone and show them how to pull it in and apart to make a snapping sound.  Then have them keep the beat of the song while snapping the paper.  They seemed to enjoy this, even if their rhythm wasn't always quite on time.

Dry Erase Board: Have a kid come up and give them the board and marker, then sing the song and when you cut the kids off, the volunteer has to write down the next word.  This is always fun because I love to catch the kids that aren't paying attention and keep singing, and we all get a good laugh and do the word AFTER the one they said.  You can switch it up with other kids every so often, or if you have a bunch of boards you can have them all try and see what the majority of guesses are.

Pencil Sharpener:  Have the kids practice "sharpening" their words but practicing their enunciation.  This is key for me (the leader) to get into and make it obvious and very silly, but it helps them get the idea.

RECESS!  This involves a bell which, when rung during a song, means that the kids take a "recess break" from singing while the piano keeps playing.

UNO

To learn "The Lord Gave Me a Temple" (pg 153) I wanted to find an activity that would have lots of repetition, but also mixing up lines so they could learn them separately.  Came across a version of UNO that I thought might work on this blog HERE.

I made the board very similar, a big poster board, with 4 colored sections: red, yellow, green, blue.  I put pictures for each section of the verse, and broke each section into two lines (they used 3).

I then got my trust UNO cards out from the game closet and went through deck, only using the 1s, 2s, skips, reverse, wild.  I put the cards in an order that I liked, so they could work on a few lines before we mixed things up.

So if they drew a blue 2, we would sing the 2nd line in the blue section.  If you got a skip, you could pick a line to remove from the board.  If you got a reverse we would reverse to a section of the song they picked and sing it again.  Wild they could choose what they did.  Anyway, as we went along over and over through the song, parts were removed so they had to keep remembering what was there.

I think overall this was good because they learned the song better, but the mix-up was a bit confusing even for me and I think it could have been more organized.  Doesn't help when I keep messing up the lines myself!  I do think this UNO board could be adapted very easily to other songs, I put plastic over the top so I could change pictures/words for other songs.

Primary Olympics: Review

We participated in the Primary Olympics this week since the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics just finished.  The idea came from here, and I used it to review our primary program songs.  My version followed hers closely, with a couple changes.  I printed out the cards for each event, but I added the images from the official olympics website to the front so they would have to guess based on the picture what event they wanted to do.  You can use most any song for review, you don't have to use the same songs.

First we started off with the Torch Relay: Teach Me to Walk in the Light.  As suggested, I taped red/orange/yellow tissue paper flames to the top of a flash light and we turned the lights off while they passed it around and sang the song.

After that, kids could pick which event they wanted to do:

Archery: The Lord Gave Me a Temple vs2.  As the kids sing the teacher/kid stretches their arm out like they are shooting an arrow.  Out/wide stretch for louder, in/narrow for softer.  *this was a little hard because they are still struggling with the words on this song

Volleyball: I Will Follow God's Plan for Me.  Split the room in half, each side sings until the leader "volleys" the song to the other side and they pick up where they other side left off.  *this was fun!

Rhythmic Gymnastics: the Lord Gave Me a Temple vs1.  Keep a rhythm while singing, like LAP, CLAP, SNAP, THUMBS over shoulder.  *Had fun with this but also a challenge to keep it up, the kids liked it and we did a couple of rounds of this to get better.

Marathon: Praise to the Man.  Sing as much as you can in one breath.  *Fun, but obviously some of the kids didn't quite get the concept of NOT breathing, some insisted they had sung the entire verse and chorus without taking a single breath.

Synchronized SINGING: I Love to See the Temple.  Kids have been learning sign language for this song, so we practice synchronizing our motions.

We finished by doing a Closing Ceremony, passing the torch around again while singing our closing song.  In one of my few times of bringing a treat, the kids got a gold/silver/bronze wrapped candy piece on their way out the door. (rolos, kisses, etc.)

Pioneer on a String

To practice some pioneer songs we are working on, we did our own covered wagon march.  I took a picture of an ox/wagon and attached some cardboard to the back to make a little channel, and then rang a long rope through it.  The rope was long enough to go about halfway around the whole room.  I had planned to attach the ends to the top of a couple of chairs so it was fairly taut, but that did not end up working and it was not high enough for the kids to see.  So I improvised and had a couple taller kids hold up the ends.

During singing time I started by asking them if they could tell me where the pioneers started their journey and where they ended.  Once we figured it out, I put pictures of the Nauvoo Temple on the wall where my string started at the beginning, and a picture of the Salt Lake Temple at the end.  I also put up a couple of pioneer pictures along the way, some happy (singing around the fire) and some sad (burying children).  We talked about why they left Nauvoo, how hard the trip was, and how happy they were to arrive.

Then, as they sang our pioneer songs, I would move the ox cart along the string, pausing at each picture, sometimes going slower or faster depending on how well they were singing.  As the string went around the room, they got especial delight out of watching me zoom around the "turn" in the corner.  I then had a couple of kids take turns doing the same.

One thing I noticed, other than the string issue at the beginning is that the ox cart picture kept rotating down, so I had to kind of hold it up along the strong so the kids could see it.  Not sure how to fix that unless the channel the rope goes through was smaller, but that would then make it harder to move along the rope.  Anyway, it worked out pretty well despite all that.

"Search"ing in the Sand

To practice "Search, Ponder and Pray" we went on a sand search.  Ok, so actually it was more like a wheat search.  

I happened to come across some sheets of Shrinky-Dink paper (you draw on it, heat it in oven and it shrinks to smaller/thicker plastic pieces) so I drew some of the images on this and shrunk them down.  They gave me some trouble curling while cooking but I managed to flatten most of them out okay.  I also remembered to use a hole punch on each.  I then took an old 2x4 and put a bunch of small nails in a row so the pieces could hang on each nail.

I then found a storage tub we weren't using and needed to fill it with something like sand, but less messy.  I thought of beads or rice, but then remembered a ton of wheat cans my MIL gave me that I doubt I would ever use.  So I filled the tub with a couple cans of wheat, and buried the plastic pieces. 

 

During primary, I had the kids take turns searching through the sand, using silly digging tools.  Some did not work so well, but it was funny to see them trying!  Then they had to put the piece on the board in the right order, or change one before that was in the wrong place.

It took longer than I thought but it was fun.

Search Ponder & Pray Poster

I saw this poster on pinterest (no mention of who made it) for "Search, Ponder & Pray" (Pg 109) so I thought I'd do my own version, and it was both fun to make and fun to share.  The kids liked all the colors and pictures, and I let them point to them with with choice of fun pointer sticks.

 


A couple things I did was asked them if they noticed some things that were repeated.  They noticed the scriptures first, so I talked about how the song is all about getting information from the scriptures.  Then they noticed the word "DO" so we talked about how getting answers to prayers requires us to DO something, not just wait around for something to come to us, that Searching, Pondering, and Praying are all actions we can take to get answers.  Loved this poster, sometimes simple is best!

Mother do you love me?

I wanted to do a different song for Mother's Day because I've heard the standard ones a million times, and all of them seem to focus on how beautiful or lovely mother looks.  Not that I mind that sentiment, its just that mothers do so much more than look pretty.  So I decided to use the song "Teacher, Do you Love Me?" (pg 178) and changed it to "Mother, Do you Love Me?"  We have some pretty musically talented people in our ward, so I also asked the female primary teachers to learn the adult part, and sing it with the kids.

My mom and I

So far it is going really well, and as for the kids, they are singing it beautifully.  I mostly taught them the song with some visuals, and started by asking them about all the things their mothers do for them.  I also pointed out the lovely line about how they will still love you "even when you turn away, or go astray, or disobey".  Got me a little teary-eyed talking about how moms will never ever stop loving their kids.  I know my mom won't ever stop loving me, and I'll never stop loving my kids.  No matter what!

Anyway, I'm so excited to have such a great song to sing for all the moms!

My kids and I

(Update: The song was so beautiful on Mother's Day and I got tons of thank yous for the lovely sentiment.  It was a touching song and both the kids and the teachers did a wonderful job.  I'm so thankful the teachers were willing to sing.)

Big Words Billy

Last week we did the BIG!  WORD!  GAME! to learn the meanings of the words in "Praise to the Man" (hymnal pg 27), so this week we followed it up with "Big Words Billy".  I got this idea from various other blogs and made it my own.

I drew a picture of "Billy" on a piece of cardboard and put a small hole where his mouth would be, and then put a deflated balloon in the hole.  Since the big words are pretty hard still for the kids to remember, I put a list of these on the side of the cardboard so I could point to them as we went along.

Luckily, I also enlisted my husband's help.  Originally the plan was to have him blow up the balloon from the back while the kids sang, but when we attempted a dry run at home, it was way too hard to blow up the balloon.  So he got his trust bike pump out and that worked much better.

As the kids sang, he would blow up the balloon, going slower or faster depending on how well they sang.  Of course, MOST of the kids wanted it to pop. so we went ahead and popped a few, but it was kind of funny because we were all so scared of when it would pop that we kept laughing and some were covering their ears (luckily no crying), and then a couple took a really long time to get big enough and my husband was pumping like crazy and the kids were laughing at him even more.  It was great fun!  In senior primary we let a couple of the kids do the pumping themselves but it was harder than it looked.  Anyway, it was fun and the kids sang their hearts out.  It was helpful to do a quick review of the meaning of the words before we started.  I think we'll probably bring Billy in next week as well since it was so fun, as long as my husband is willing to do it again!

BIG! WORD! GAME! Come on down...

We played the

BIG!

WORD!

GAME!

to practice our words for "Praise to the Man" (Hymnal, pg 27) this week!  I figured since its a pretty fast-tempo song, we could get a little loud on this one.

First, you gotta get into the fun of it.  My dad has this awesome jacket that has been through a lot in our family.  His mom made it for him for a dance way back.  It had blue velvet lapels, and it is made of some sort of turquoise shimmery substance.  We used it to play dress-up when we were kids.

When we got older we even were brave enough to have him wear it to daddy/daughter dances, and it was the hit of the party!  It's rather threadbare now and well used and loved.  Anyway, I borrowed the jacket and made a fake microphone with a toilet paper roll, a styrofoam ball, and tin foil, and I did a type of "Price is Right" sort of game show, where I made the audience say "BIG" "WORD" "GAME" every time with their BIG voices, and when I said "Come on down!" they had to run down the aisle looking excited, etc.  Actually it was a little sad because most of the kids had no idea what "The Price is Right" was, so I explained that it was the go-to show at 10am when you were home sick from school!

Anyway, the game was basically set up so that I had cards with one of the big words on it:

PRAISE

COMMUNED

JEHOVAH

ANOINTED

SEER

DISPENSATION

EXTOL

REVERE

HAIL

ASCENDED

TRAITORS

TYRANTS

VAIN

MINGLING

CONQUER

They were called to pick a word and then were given two different definitions and had to guess which was correct.  Sometimes we would try out the definition with the other songs words to see if it made sense.  Some of the definitions were close to be tricky, some were pretty funny.

I then put the words up on the board, and wrote a "translation" underneath so it made some sense to the kids.  I think this went really well (despite them not having the privilege of knowing the greatness that is The Price is Right) and I find it very helpful and important for them to understand the words of the song.  

p.s. They also love thinking of the part that says "V-A-A-AIN" like a staircase going down.  And of course they loved learning to sing "HAIL!" with a lot of energy and strength.

Mirror, Mirror: Beautiful Savior

To teach "Beautiful Savior" (pg 62) I started off by focusing on the word "fair" since it is repeated a number of times.  I brought in a big mirror from my house and I held it up and asked the kid to look in it.  Then I asked them if they knew a story that had a mirror in it.  Someone mentioned Snow White, so then I asked them what the Queen says to the mirror in that movie:  "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, who is the FAIREST of them all?"  Then I had the kids tell me what "fairest" meant.  Took the junior primary a couple of guesses to define it properly.

I then went on to explain that "fair" meant beautiful and that we would be "Beautiful Savior" and that it started with 3 different mentions of the word "fair."  I also then took a moment to explain that "beautiful" is not always just a reference to a girl, but that it can be applied to lots of things/people, so the boys wouldn't be embarrassed by it.

After that I talked about how Jesus would be "beautiful" to us, and asked the kids for some suggestions:  1) that he is perfect  2) he is bright/full of light 3) he has a happy, kind face  etc....

In talking about the first line, I mentioned how it starts with the brightest thing, the sun, and then the moon and then the stars, so that they understand there is an order, but that Jesus is brighter/fairer than all of those other things.

I had pictures for the rest of the song and I put them all around the edge of the mirror (it was round) and then had the picture of Jesus in the middle.

We also had fun at the end of the song, because it repeats the last line.  So I had them pretend they were the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and they could sing like opera if they wanted, they love when we do this!  I always remind them that singing "big" doesn't mean singing "loud", just with a giant full voice that sounds nice still.

This is going to be a beautiful song!  I'm having a solo/duet do the 2nd verse which is more complicated.  I'm hoping I can also have them do the descant but its pretty high range so we'll see if that happens.

If I Listen With My Heart vs.3

If I Listen With My Heart is a lovely song, but vs. 3 is a bugger to teach because most of the words are about feelings, not images.  So I found a couple of great ideas to teach this and incorporated them myself:

#1 - Stained Glass: see pictures and description HERE.

You take a picture of Christ and print it on heavy white paper.  Then you cut out a stained glass pattern (show on the above link) using lightweight colored paper (I used pastels as they worked best with what I had on hand).  You then glue the colored pattern onto the picture of Christ and after drying, cut it out in 4 pieces, each one with a section of the verse on it.  The kids can pick a piece and you have them build a stained glass window, attaching the pieces with clear tape to a clear surface, like a piece of framed glass, or I used a plastic sheet protector.  When it is done, then you turn the light off and shine a flashlight through the back and you can see the picture of Jesus through the stained glass window.  To show that the Holy Ghost will show us Jesus, and we can hear his voice.  This worked well and the kids were very impressed, they loved the surprised of seeing the picture through the colors.  I started off the lesson by talking about stained glass windows in other churches, asking if any of the kids had seen them.

#2 - Paper Bags: see pictures and description HERE.

Basically you tape black/white cutout pictures of concepts on the inside of brown paper bags.  As you get to each section you have the lights off and you put a flashlight inside the bag, which lights up the picture/words.  This shows the kids how the light of the spirit can help us see and understand things. Like listening with your heart.  As for implementation, might want to put something heavy at the bottom of the bag so they don't tip over. Make sure the bag tops are opened well.  Practice moving the light from one to the next so you can see the picture clearly.  A nice bright light is best, especially if the windows are letting in lots of natural light and the room isn't very dark.  Simple but effective.