Week 24-The Holy Ghost and Walkie Talkie Review

This week we learned the second verse of The Holy Ghost. The second verse begins with "And when we are confirmed by sacred priesthood power, the Holy Ghost is given to us to guide us every hour". So to introduce this topic of being confirmed I read to the kids a journal entry that I wrote at age 8 after I was baptized and confirmed.

Then we sang through the words all together using a flip chart, and adding to our "comforter".

The second part of the verse goes, "Oh may I always listen to that still small voice, and with its light I'll do what's right each time I make a choice." For this I put on these huge ears, that I laminated and glued to a headband. I told them that my hope for myself and for all of them was that we could always have big, huge, listening ears like these, that can always hear and listen to the small voice of the Holy Ghost. And then I sang ever so dramatically, "Oh may I always listen to that still, small voice...". Then we all sang together and added the rest of the patches to our comforter.

Then we did a sort of surprise review activity. I had my husband go outside the building with a walkie talkie while we were working on our Holy Ghost song. Once we had finished all our Holy Ghost singing, I used my walkie talkie to give him his cue. I was making like I was putting my props away behind the piano, so that I could secretly be talking into my walkie talkie as I said, "Well, I guess we're done a little early, gee, I don't really have anything else planned..." (this was hubby's cue)


My husband then said through his walkie talkie (the volume was turned up enough on my walkie so all the kids could hear this): Come in singing lady, come in singing lady
The kids were so confused, wondering where that voice was coming from. I pretended to be confused to and followed the sound to behind the piano and pulled out the walkie and said to the kids, "What? The voice is coming from this? Where did this come from?"
I then said into my walkie, "Hello? Who is this?"
Husband: This is blue eagle and I have an emergency
Me: An emergency, well what kind of emergency?
Husband: I'm having a music emergency. At this very moment there is a dangerously low level of music in my heart. My heart is week, my pulse is thready, the birds aren't singing, and my fingers aren't snapping. I've lost all the bounce in my step. I can't whistle anymore, and worst of all, "I'm a little teapot" is stuck in my head. I need to hear a song right away.
Me: Uh, Roger,...so what can we do to help?
Husband: You're the singing lady. You and your kids need to sing me a song.
Me: Well, we know lots of songs...
Husband: No, it needs to be a song about the Savior
Me: we know lots of songs about the Savior
Husband: I need to hear one about the Savior and how he was sent to earth, and how he died for us and then rose again, and how the scriptures tell us to live like Him.
Me to the kids: Anyone know what song we could sing to him? (I helped them come up with "He Sent His Son"
Me to the walkie: Ok, we're gonna sing,He Sent His Son. I'm gonna set my walkie on the podium, and you just listen.
Then the kids and I sang the song.
Me: Did that help?
Husband: That helped a little, but I'm gonna need more songs...
He then described another song for us to sing, and we continued like this until we were out of time.
At the end of the last song we had time for, I said into the walkie, "Gee, I sure hope that helped, the kids and I are out of time" This way my husband knew to end with, "I think I'm cured! Yes, it's a miracle! My snapping's back, my hummings back. Blue eagle is out!"
The kids really liked this activity and it's easy to make it last as long or as short as you want.

Week 23- 4th of July review

How exciting to have the 4th of July be on Sunday! I was reading ideas online, and there was one chorister who was planning on sharing the story of how Willford Woodruff had a vision of the signers of the declaration of independence. Since the sharing time lady told me to take a lot of time, I decided I'd go ahead and give a little history lesson before we started singing today.
I started by telling the kids I was going to be their history teacher, and I grabbed a big, old book, that I had written "History" on, and pretended to start reading from it. (WHile I spoke, the pianist played "battle hymn of the republic" in the background.) I told them that over 200 years ago on this very day, the 4th of July, these men (I pointed to a picture of some of our founding fathers), men like Benjamen Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams, made this (then I pointed to my fake declaration of independence.) I took down the declaration of independence and walked around the room giving all the kids an up close look as I explained what these men wrote in the declaration, and how the declaration was so important to our country becoming free. Then I said, "What if I told you, that these very important men in U.S. history, who you'll learn all about in school, that after they died, THEY WANTED TO BE BAPTIZED INTO THIS CHURCH!"
I told them there was another character in this story, Willford Woodruff. I told them that he was the prophet of our church after these men had died and how he had a vision where the signers of the declaration of independence asked why no one had been baptized for them and that they wanted their temple work done. I told them how he was baptized for all the signers of the declaration, and that he baptized his friend for many presidents of the U.S. I ended with, "These men who were so important to this country, after they died found out what was most important of all...returning to our Heavenly Father. And that is why they asked WW to be baptized for them.

I then turned to another part of my "history" book and told them that I wanted to teach them about our flag. I told them what the colors symbolized and the stars and stripes, etc. Then I showed them the little flags I had made and told them that each one had a freedom written on it, that would tell us which song to review. For example, one of the flags read, "I have the freedom to be a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints". So then we reviewed our song, "The Church of Jesus Christ".

For the senior primary, instead of doing the bit about flags, I went straight from the WW story to our song review using POP-its! I asked permission from the primary president first to use these loud, kind of messy 4th of July things, and she said it was no problem. Clay helped me put the names of songs to review inside of each of the POP-its. The kids loved the POP noise and the flying mini streamers! I loved today and I was AMAZED at how reverent all the kids were during their history lesson. Bless their hearts!

Week 22-The Holy Ghost

The last Sunday of June, we finally got to our June song, "The Holy Ghost". To introduce the song, I found a sort of music video of "The Holy Ghost" that another lady put together to show to her primary. The video was so beautiful, and I felt the Spirit everytime I watched it, so I though what better way to teach about the Holy Ghost, than to have them FEEL the Holy Ghost as they watch the video. Clay was soooo wonderful to figure out how to burn the youtube video onto a DVD for the kids to watch. The kids loved the video, and I'll try to figure out how to download it here. It was nice to be able to bribe them, "If you guys sing really well, you can watch the video one more time."
Anyway, after they watched for the first time, I used another chorister's idea of having them clap the rhythm as I sang both verses. The idea is to point out that just like the song has a constant, steady beat, the Holy Ghost is constant in our lives.
To help them try to memorize the song, I made an interesting "comforter" that needed some fabric patches. The kids really had to use their imaginations, since I don't sew and my glue-gunned baby blanket wasn't exactly beautiful. As the kids learned lines from the song, I had them take turns picking out a fabric square to go on our comforter. They learned the first verse this week, so we'll finish filling in the rest of the squares another week.

Week 21-Cut the tie

When I saw this idea online, months ago, I knew that I HAD to do it for Father's Day. First, I made my own ties, with a song we've been working on on the back of each tie. I taped the ties up around the room, and I explained to the kids that they would take turns picking a tie. (I wanted them to think that this was all I had planned on doing). I let someone go pick a tie and announced which song was written on it and then said, "ok guys, I want you to sing really nice and loud and...". Then I trailed off and made an expression like I just had a great idea pop into my head. I said, "I just got an idea of how to make this a little more interesting". Then I said, "Brother such and such, could you come up here?" Before primary began I had given this brother a truly ugly tie to wear. I gave him a chair to sit in up in the front of all the kids and explained to the kids, "I hate to say it, but brother such and such's tie is kind of hideous." Then I pulled out a big pair of scissors and the kids all gasped. I told them that if they sang a song well, I would cut off a piece of his tie, and keep going until he was only left with the very top. I loved how shocked they all were, especially as they saw me actually snip snip away at his tie. Each piece I cut off, I then threw out to the kids and they liked trying to catch little tie souvenirs. This was such a fun day!!!

My paper ties

Week 20-Love is Spoken Here, Families Can Be Together Forever

I wanted the kids to learn these two songs to sing for Father's Day in Sacrament meeting. Love Is Spoken Here and the first verse of Families Can be Together Forever are both in the same key, so we could just go straight from one song to the next with no pause in between.


For Love is Spoken Here, I found an idea online called "What's behind door #1 and door #2?". I would sing to them part of a line from the song, and they had to pick a door and see if the rest of the line was behind that door. The other door had silly endings to the line. Here's what I came up with for the silly endings:
I see my mother kneeling:
1.) With her family each day
2.) As she scrubs the kitchen floor

I hear the words she whispers
1.) when she talks to herself
2.) As she bows her head to pray

Her plea to the Father:
1.) Quiets the neighbor's cat
2.) Quiets all my fears

And I am thankful:
1.) Love is Spoken Here
2.) Toothepaste was invented

Mine is a home:
1.) Where every hour
2.) that Santa Claus visits at Christmas time

Is blessed by the strength
1.) of Lysol disinfecting products
2.) of Priesthood Power

With father and mother
1.) tap dancing on the patio
2.) leading the way

Teaching me how to
1.) chop an onion without crying
2.) trust and obey

And the things they teach are crystal clear
1.) For love is spoken here
2.) because they never stop talking

For Families Can be Together Forever, I found a "repeat parrot" idea for the Junior Primary. I started by showing the kids a picture of a parrot and telling them some cool facts about parrots, emphasizing how they can mimic human sounds and actually repeat things you say. Then I told them I was going to magically turn them into parrots. Once I "transformed" them, I had kids take turns rolling a large dice, to see how many times they had to repeat what I said. Of course, the things I told them to say were lines from the song.


For Senior primary, I figured most of them already knew this song so I wanted to find some silly way we could sing it over and over again. I decided to make a paper family, and the kids would take turns picking a member of the family to sing like. Then that member of the family would be moved in front of the house. Here's how we sang for each of the family members:
Mom-sing the verse super fast (cause moms are always runny around, super busy)
Dad- sing each line twice (because dad's like to repeat themselves)
Teenage sister-insert the word "like" a lot. I made a sign with the word, "like" on it and held it up everytime I wanted them to sing it. It was funny to hear, "I like have a family, like here on earth..."
brother-sing staccoto (cause little boys are always "jumpy" and bouncing off the walls)
baby-sing in a baby/crying voice.

Week 19-More Review

So our primary is participating in our community's "Hope for Haiti" concert this Saturday. We're singing two songs for it, and one of them needed a bit more work. So to review that song, I used one of Emily's ideas, again, of making a gameboard. I made a large dice and the kids would take turns rolling it and trying to get our little marker closer to "Haiti". All of the spaces had silly things written on them, like "if you know the bishop's last name, sing the first verse". There were also spaces that sent the kids backwards. Since the concert on Saturday will be to earn money for Haiti, I used Cole's fake money in the game. If they landed on a space that asks them to sing one verse, they get $5 (which is placed in the money envelope) for two verses they get $10, and for all 3 verses, they earned $20. Of course they only get the money if they sing nice and loud. At the end, the Junior primary was really excited to hear that they had earned $110 dollars.

Week 18-Magic Singing Spray and Potato Head

(This isn't my picture. I stole it from the blog I got the idea from because I forgot to take a picture of the spray bottle I used.)
To continue practicing some of our songs, I found this idea and thought it was so easy and simple, yet so fun--Magic Singing Spray. All you do is fill a spray bottle with lemonaide, or whatever juice you like, and label it "magic singing spray". Underneath that, I wrote, "Great singing is just a spray away".

I also included on the label:
Directions for use: Spray two squirts directly into mouth and swallow for best results.
Side effects may include but are not limited to: dizziness, fatigue, headache, itchiness, nausea/vomiting.

The idea is that the singing spray makes them sing better. Many of the kids wanted several doses.

My sister found this idea of playing hot potato. I used a regular potato, and then stuck potato head eyes, a nose, and mouth in it. It looked pretty silly. You start singing a song and the kids begin passing the potato around. The piantist stops the music, and whoever is holding the potato has to say what word or line comes next in the song.

Week 17-The Fourth Article of Faith

I was asked to teach the kids the 4th article of faith for this week. I found this idea from a primary blog. I wrapped up a shoe box and put some candy inside. Then I tied multiple ribbons around the box. Attatched to each ribbon was a gift tag with a line from the song on it. Once the kids learned the first line of the song, I called on someone to come up and cut off that ribbon. Once all the lines were learned and all the ribbons removed, the kids got to have the prize inside.

Week 16-Mother's Day Review

I'm really behind on this blog as evidenced by my writing about our Mother's day review in June.
Anyway, I used my sister Emily's idea of making a big poster mommy and having the kids take turns giving her accessories (mother's day gifts).
I found all of the accessories at anthropology.com and just printed them off and laminated them. Then on the back of each I wrote the name of a song we've been working on, plus a couple mother's day songs that we hadn't learned yet, but are short and easy to teach.

Then I put each "gift" in a different gift bag. Each kid would then choose a gift bag, pull the gift out, see what song was on the back, and then tape it to the mom poster (I told the kids our poster mom was named "Page"). Then of course, we would sing that song.

If I were to do this again, I would make the mom look a little more...hmmm...not so manequin looking. She looks a little spooky to me, eventhough I do like her outfit.

Week 15-I Feel My Savior's Love

There's no song assigned for the month of May, however, our primary still had a new song to learn due to an upcoming Hope for Haiti Concert. The Humanitarian Service Committee has decided to do a benefit concert for Haiti. Every church in the area has been invited to attend and participate. I mean EVERY CHURCH, not just LDS churches. I think it's really gonna be something to see! The primary has been asked to sing a song for this event so this week, we learned the first verse and chorus of "I Feel My Savior's Love."

One night, while looking at endless singing time blogs, I came across this idea that I had to steal...Magic Potions! You start out by writing all the words to the song in red, green, yellow, or blue.

Then to set up the potions, you fill four clear cups with about 3/4 cup water and maybe 1/3 cup vinegar (more vinegar=more fun!). Then you place four spoons in front with a different color of food coloring on each.


Then you cover the drops of food coloring with baking soda.

Then you call on someone to choose a spoon and stir the magic potion. It bubbles and fizzes and then, with more stirring, turns red, blue, green, or yellow.





If it turns yellow, all the yellow words are removed and the kids have to sing the song without those words. You continue this with all the colors until no words are left.

For the junior primary, this idea had to be adapted since many cannot read. So I put the words and helpful pictures on different colors of paper. Whichever color appeared in the potion determined which part of the song we would learn first. If the red appeared, we would learn the part of the song on the red paper first, etc.

Week 14-Whooooo loves to sing?

My sister-in-law Liesel made the most adorable owls for Valentine's Day (her family's theme was "Owl love you forever") and when I commented on her blog about them,(how I'd love to fit owls into singing time somehow) she offered to make some and send them to me. Are you kidding me? How nice is that? She sent me enough owl parts on the cutest paper to make 10 large and 10 small owls and she even came up with the name for the singing time activity..."Whooooo loves to sing?" Very clever.

We had a good number of songs under our belt and I didn't want to add another new song so it was great to use the owls as a review game. I brought a little stuffed owl (which actually belongs to Grandma) and tossed it to someone sitting reverently. As I threw it I said, "Whoooo love's to sing?" Once the child caught it, I said "Tyler, (or whatever name), do you love to sing?" If the answer was yes, then "Tyler" got to pick out a mommy owl from the tree. On the back of the mommy owl was a song, and on the corresponding baby owl, was a way to sing the song.

For example:
I Know that my Savior Love's me: you lead
He Sent His Son: just your class sings
Follow the prophet: leave out the word 'prophet'
The Church of Jesus Christ: Sing acupella (sp?)
Mother, tell me the story: sing with the lights out
We sang other songs too that won't be part of the primary program, but you get the gist.

Week 13 -Mother Tell Me the Story

We needed to start learning a song for Mother's Day so I introduced "Mother tell me the story" by acting the song out with Cole. I sort of rocked him back and forth with a blanket while we sang the song to each other. I know I use Cole too much, and I hope that doesn't offend people. He's very convenient.

Then, I had four books displayed (since the song is about bedtime stories), labeled as book 1,2,3,or 4. In each book was a line from the first verse of the song (which is the only verse the kids need to learn). I called on someone to come up and try to find the first line of our song in book one. Once is was found we practiced that part of the song. We continued this for the rest of the books. For the "mommy" verse of the song, I passed out the words to the teachers and they filled in as the "mommies".

Week 12-The Church of Jesus Christ

The song for April was "The Church of Jesus Christ". It's just a great little, upbeat song. I thought it would be fun to visit some of the kids houses before Sunday, and video tape them. My idea was to have different kids in the primary each sing a different line of the song and video tape it. Then I could play the video for the primary on Sunday, and it would play the whole song for them with the singer constantly changing.

The kids loved it. They wanted to keep watching it over and over, especially the kids who were in it. Later, to help them really learn the words, I had fun pressing 'play' then pausing it to see if they could think of the word or phrase that comes next.

We also learned a couple more verses of Follow the Prophet, again using actions and dancing.


_

Week 11-Easter eggs

So the next few posts don't have any pictures because they're still on my camera at home and I'm at my parent's house. I'll have to add the pics. later.
For week 11, I used one of my sister's ideas of doing a little easter egg activity. It was very easy to prepare and fun! I brought in an Easter basket filled with plastic eggs. In half of the easter eggs I had a piece of paper with a song named on it for the kids to sing. The other half of the eggs had an easter joke inside. So the kids took turns picking out an egg from the basket and seeing what was inside.

Week 10-Review with E. Bunny

I knew a large portion of our singing time would be spent reviewing our two songs for the Easter program (Hosanna, and I know that my Savior loves me.) I wanted to make it a little different though.

So I told the kids that when a friend of mine found out that we would be singing Easter songs that day, he insisted on coming. I said that this friend of mine thinks he's some kind of Easter expert. Then I brought out our guest which was a stuffed bunny, that I just referred to as Easter Bunny. I told the kids that he can talk to me and that he says he's very "hoppy" to be here with them. I made a few other bad Easter puns throughout singing time. After I placed E. Bunny on the table, I pretended that he told me that he would prefer for someone to hold him. The kids loved getting called on to hold the bunny as we sang. Then after each song, bunny would tell me what he thought about the song. After the kids sang Hosanna, I said that Bunny thinks the song is missing something. Bunny explained that what he thinks the song could use is a "ding-dong-ding". So then the kids were split into two groups, so one could sing the regular verse, and the other could sing the ding-dong-dings.

Eventually, we said goodbye to E. Bunny and moved on to learning another verse of "Follow the Prophet", again using hand motions and actions to remember the words.

Week 9- Hosanna, and Follow the Prophet

This week we had to start learning two songs. I wanted the kids to sing in Sacrament meeting for the Easter program so we practiced "Hosanna". (I'll also have them sing "I know that my Savior loves me" for Easter.)
For "Hosanna", every line of the verse ends in an "ing" word: ring, king, sing, and bring. I posted these words with pictures on the chalkboard in a mixed up order. Then I sang a line of the song, leaving out the last word, and had a volunteer pick which "ing" word ends the line best. We did this for all lines of the verse. And now anytime we review the song, I can pull out the pictures of each of the "ing" words to help us sing it correctly. For the chorus, we talked a little about what "Hosanna" means, and then I told them that the chorus is just singing the word "Hosanna" four times.
After they got the basics down, we jazzed it up a little by dividing in half and having one side sing Hosanna, and the other be the echo.

Then we moved on to learning "Follow the Prophet." I read on sugardoodle about someone who uses a little disco inspired dance for the chorus. So I decided this song was going to be all about dancing and doing actions to remember the words. I made a funny, large disco ball to get the kids excited about dancing. This week, the kids learned the chorus, and the first verse.

Love craft sticks

More nursery stuff. Here's a boy and girl praying. The kids hold these while we sing, "I am a child of God" or any other reverent song.

Some monkeys the kids can swing around for, "5 little monkeys swinging in a tree".

Week 8-Olympics

The actual winter olympics were finishing up this week so someone on sugardoodle.net had the idea of doing a singing time winter olympics. I loved this idea especially since we needed something fun to help us review our songs plus some others. All the images were already made and available at sugardoodle.net.

I chose volunteers to come up to the board and pick a sport.

Speed skating: we sang "Do as I'm Doing" super fast
Ski jumping: we sang "He Sent His Son" and jumped (or skipped) over the word "sent".
Figure Skating: Everyone had to hold a figure skating pose while singing
Freestyle skiing: the volunteer could pick any song, sung any way
Snowboarding:"chalkboarding": We sang, "My Heavenly Father Love's Me" and two kids were told to draw pictures on the chalkboard of things in the song while we sang.
Bobsled: 4 kids lined up like a bobsled team and together had to walk to the end of the hall outside the primary room. The rest of us had to see if we could sing "I Know that My Savior Love's Me" loud enough for them to hear us at the end of the hall.
Biathlon: The biathlon involves shooting, so I brought Cole's nerf gun. The volunteer had to shoot the nerf gun at the floor where there were the names of four different songs on four papers. Whichever song the dart landed closest to was the one we sang.
Curling: I printed off a curling "house" which is the goal or target of curling and layed it on the floor at the front of the room. Using a stick (from Luke's pinata) and a ball, the volunteer had to start at the back of the room and sweep the ball to the "house" before we finish singing.

We also kept a medal count to see how many events we could do in our 20 mins. At the end, all the kids picked out a gold, silver, or bronze treat (reese's peanut butter cups, peppermint patties, and reese's peanut butter cup dark chocolate.)

Nursery

I was asked to start doing singing time with the nursery. It's a little hectic since there's two different nursery classes. With primary, that makes 4 singing times. So this last Sunday, I did singing time with junior primary, singing time with nursery class #1, singing time with senior primary, and singing time with nursery class #2. It was...fun?
I'm working on getting a collection together of visual aids for the nursery kids.

They each hold a star for singing, "I am Like a Star" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

Animals for "Old MacDonald Had a Farm".

Suns for putting up to their faces while we sing, "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam." Unfortunately, a few of the kids tore their suns apart. This project definitely calls for heavy duty paper plates.

Wiggle-O-Meter

I made this a while ago, thinking I would need it often. As it turns out, I've only pulled it out once. These kids aren't too wiggly. They're pretty darn attentive. Too bad.
The time I did use it, when Junior primary was being a little too noisy, I pulled it out and said, "Oh no, I just checked my wiggle-o-meter and there's bad news. According to this, we have a serious case of the wiggles on our hands." I told them that we needed to get the level of wiggles down. I had a couple kids lead us in "Do as I'm Doing". Each time we finished singing, the red would go down more and more until it reached "calm and cool".

Week 7-Finishing "He Sent His Son"

This week we needed to learn the end of "He Sent His Son": the double question "What does the Father ask of us? What do the scriptures say?" the answer, "Have faith, have hope, live like His son, help others on their way", and the final couple lines "What does He ask? Live like His son." I hung the cards on the board like this.

After I had someone reveal the double question, I told them that the answer was like a list. The answer listed four things that we need to do. So it's a sort of "to do" list. I told them that I had some different lists with me and I needed them to help me figure out which list belonged in the song.

They had no problem figuring this out of course. So then I had someone remove the "A" fromt he answer card.

All that was left was the couple lines that summarize the whole song, "What does He ask? Live like His Son."

Week 6-He Sent His Son cont'd

We had already learned the first 2 questions and answers for "He Sent His Son" so my goal was to learn the 3rd question and answer. On the chalkboard I hung the cards we had learned so far with the new ones covered up.

I had one of the kids reveal the new question, "How could the Father tell the world of sacrifice, of death?" We talked about what those two "grown-up" words meant. Then I told them that before we showed the answer I needed to tell them about what was in my bag. (I knew I needed to have hearts today because it was Valentine's Day.) I carried my bag over in front of everyone, pretending that it was really heavy. I said that I had a picture of someone in my bag who loves them sooo much. I said that He loved them so much that as soon as I put His picture in my bag, the bag was filled up with love. Then I started pulling out handfuls of hearts and letting them fall on the floor. As I pulled out more and more hearts I continued talking about how this person loved them so much and how I knew that He loved them so much because He did the most loving thing in the world for them. By this point, they all knew that a picture of Jesus was in the bag and they helped tell about what He had done for us that was so loving (sacrificing His life for us) and how because of Him we can live again. I showed them the picture which was of Jesus with a little child (one that was in a beautiful frame that I had borrowed from my parents.) They liked the picture and the big mess of hearts I had made on the floor.

Then I had someone come up and reveal the answer, "He sent His son to die for us and rise with living breath".