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.