Week 1-Subbing

I've only ever been a primary chorister once before, which was in New Orleans with a primary consisting of 10 or so children pre-Katrina, and about 4 post-Katrina.

When the primary president called me a couple weeks ago saying that she desperately needed a sub for primary chorister, I was very happy to help out. It was a Saturday night when she called so I needed some quick ideas. My sister Emily gave me some great ones.

On Sunday, I used craft sticks with page numbers on them (I went through the children's songbook and wrote down the numbers for all the familiar songs.) Then I had the children take turns picking a stick, and we sang whichever song they pulled out.

For Junior Primary, whoever picked the song also had to choose how we would sing it: loud, soft, quick or slow. I brought four stuffed animals to represent each way of singing: a turtle for slow, monkey for fast (a monkey was all I could find), a deer for soft, and a dinosaur for loud. Most of the kids picked the deer oddly enough.

For Senior primary, whoever picked the song also had to wear a card, taped to their forehead and stand up in front of everyone. The cards said things like, "Look at your teacher while you sing" or "sing with your legs crossed" or "wink while you sing". So the kids would sing the song according to the card, and the person wearing the card had to guess what the card said. They really liked this game and wanted to keep going when time was up. Thanks for the ideas, Emily!