Thirteen Articles of Faith

This is an activity that we did last year.  It is a great one to do and needs to be started in January if you want to do it.  Each Sunday while the kids are sitting down and waiting for the Presidency to be ready we sing for a few minutes.  We sang a different Article of Faith every 3 weeks.  So for the first three sundays in January we worked on the 1st, the next three sundays we worked on the 2nd (and reviewed the 1st).  Finally after we learned all thriteen I let them know that we would be having a test the next sunday.

TEST DAY!  We brought in our trusty helper, President Quenzer.  He was perfect since he is slightly bald.  I had tied curly string together in bundles of 1, 2, 3, 4, etc up to thirteen.  I chose a volunteer to pick a bundle.  We counted the strings to see which Article of faith they were to be tested on.  They had to sing it without any help, prompts, or scriptures.  If they passed they got to tape that bundle of string on President Quenzer's head.  When we were done he looked beautiful.  Yes those wonderful children passed off every single one!

Password

My ultimate favorite activity to play with senior primary!  Pick 5 songs to sing that day.  Then choose three words from each song!  That is all the planning that needs to go into this activity.  It's easy to prepare and my senior primary kids absolutely LOVE IT!

In our music time, we involve the teachers ALOT.  The kids enjoy having the teachers be a part of the activities and our teachers like it just as much.  Here is an example of one round of password.

I choose a teacher to be the first contestant.  They come up and sit in a chair.  Then I choose three students names from my choosing jar.  They each get one of the words that match the first song.  There is another chair facing the teacher.  Each child takes turns sitting in that chair.  They give the teacher clues and try to get them to say the word on their card.  We have rules on the clues such as; no sign language, no "sounds like", and no opposites.  Sometimes they get the word right away. Other times it does take the teacher awhile!

After the teacher has guessed all three clues, they then have to figure out what song it is.  The kids love it when they know and the teacher doesn't!  After the song is guessed we sing that song.  Then Round Two!  The next teacher comes up.

This is a great activity when you just want to review songs.  When we announce we are playing it, the kids almost let out a cheer! But then they remember they are at church and the hold it in! :)

If you need more explanation let me know!  Hope I explained it well enough!  Happy singing!

Snowball Fight!

I saw a post on another blog last year about letting the children have a snowball fight in primary.  I wanted to tweek it, so it seemed to be more purposeful.  I asked our Stake Presidency member if he would help out.  He LOVES primary and loves to come in to visit.

We gave each child a half sheet of paper and a pencil.  Junior Primary wrote their name on the paper, senior primary wrote their favorite primary song.  I then had KING HEROD come into the room.  We had dressed him up to look like a king.  He sat in a chair in the front of the room and scowled at the children.  I told the story of King Herod and how he was also part of the Christmas story. It was a great opportunity for the kids to hear how angels and Heavenly Father were protecting the Baby Jesus. 

After I was finished I had the kids wad their paper up into a snow ball.  I drew names out of my choosing jar (5-6 at a time).  Those kids got to stand and on the count of three they threw their snowball at King Herod.  He was a great actor and really made it fun!  Then King Herod picked up one of the snowballs.  What ever song it said, that is what we sang (for Junior, if it was their name they got to pick a song).  We were able to do this so that every child ended up gettting to throw their snowball at King Herod.

At the end King Herod said he felt the spirit in their singing and his heart had been softened.  It was a lot of fun and added a new dimension to the Christmas story that oft times gets left out.

Daddy's Nail Salon!

What a fun day we had in primary today!  We invited a few dad's to join us for singing time.  I had 8 bottles of very wild and bright finger nail polish.  On the bottom of each bottle I put a number (1-8).  Each number corresponded with a song.  If they sang the song well, I chose a child ot come up and paint two of the dad's fingernails that color.  Our dad's knew ahead of time waht we had planned.  Then after all the nails were painted the dad's walked around the room "Modeling" their nails while the kids sang.  I had nail polish remover in the hallway for those who wanted to take it off.  A big hit for a review activity.  Thanks to my friend Angela for this idea!!

I PRAY IN FAITH

This was a song we chose to teach the primary for the month of June.  Today we taught them the first portion only.  I really emphasized what the song meas with the Junior primary.  I asked them questions that led to the lyrics of the song.

1) What do you do with your body when you pray? I gave silly choices like swim? jump rope? etc.  When I got the response I was looking for KNEEL, I then had everyone kneel on the ground while I said, " I kneel to pray"  then we sang that.
2) When do you pray?  Wednesday? Sunday?  Quickly I got the response of EVERYDAY!  so we added that in to the song, "I kneel to pray, everyday"
3) Then I asked who had a dog.  What do you say to a dog when you want it to bark (or talk in dog language)?  It took a bit but then a boy got it! SPEAK!!
4) Who are you speaking to when you pray?  HEAVENLY FATHER!  We added that part into the song as well.  We slowly were building the song."I SPEAK to HEAVENLY FATHER."
5) Why do you pray to him?  These kids were great.  It didn't take any coaching for them to say because he hears and answers our prayers.  So we added in, " He HEARS and ANSWERS me."
6) Then I finished by asking them how they knew all of this was true?  What gave them this testimony?  FAITH so we finished the song ," when I pray in FAITH."

Then we sang the song through completely doing various rythmn beats, like clapping, slapping legs, marching, etc.  To wrap it up we had a contest...teachers versus kids.  The kids won!  They usually do!

Primary Clue

I am TERRIBLE about updating this blog!  But today was so fun I had to make myself sit down and do it!  In primary today for review we played the game CLUE.  I told the kids that i heard "someone" singing "one" of their program songs in a certain "place". Their job was to figure out  1) who it was 2) what song was being sung 3) and where they were singing it.  On the board I had wordstrips with their choices:
SONGS:
Praise to the man
If I listen with my heart
Stand for the right
Scripture Power
I will follow God's Plan

PLACES:
garden
car
camping
temple
family home evening.

After I explained the rules of clue I introduced the people they could chose from.  (as a side note, our ward has a great deal of parents who LOVE to come in and join us for singing time.  We use parents quite often and they are very enthusiastic actors).  Each adult was in costume and ran in to the room when introduced in full character.

PEOPLE:
Cheerleader (wearing a lettermens jacket and shaking large pompoms)
Doctor (wearinf scrubs, a iso mask and a stethescope.  he listened to kids' hearts as he walked in)
Super hero (wearing a mask, cape, & a superman S.  she "flew" in a had her cape fly over kids heads)
 Football Player (wearing shoulder pads and carrying a football, ran in as if about to score)
Pioneer (waerinf a bonnet, skirt and apron,  she was late because her handcart broke down)

The game was simple.  To earn a guess the kids had to sing a verse or chorus of one of our program songs that we;ve learned so far.  I then selected someone who was singing their best to guess.  When they guessed the person they guessed acted in character.  For example the football player yelled and spiked the ball, the cheerleader kept making up cheers, the docotr threatened to give shots, the pioneer just kept asking to sit down and lost her shoe and the superhero lifted up chairs with one hand.  It was hilarious and the kids loved it.  After their guess i would tell them one thing that was wrong with their guess.  For example, if they guessed the DOCTOR was singing PRAISE TO THE MAN in the GARDEN, I would say...Not in the garden.  And then I would turn over the wordstrip that said garden.  Even if more than one part of their guess was wrong, I would only divulge one part.  If I told then it wasn't a certain adult, that adult sat down.  We had time to run through the game twice because it was fifth sunday and we have the entire time. 

This really was a HUGE hit!  Difficult to explain but hopefully you get it!
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KNOCK MY SOCKS OFF!

I have used this phrase when I encourage the kids to sing loud.  "Sing so loudly that it knocks my socks off!"  I saw an idea similar to this on another blog (can't remember who or when sorry) and modified it.  It was a HUGE hit, especially with the Junior Primary.  I strung a clothesline up and attached 6 outlandish socks on it with a clothespin.  I explained what it meant to knock someones socks off.  Then I told them they would get a chance to knock all the socks off the line.  I used this to teach the first verse of Scripture power to the Junior primary.  We broke the verse into parts, had an object for each part.  I taught them the part, we practiced and then we tried to KNOCK A SOCK OFF!  To do this they had to sing the part they learned, correctly and with volume and energy.  If they did (the pianist was the judge) a child got to come yank any sock off the line and throw it into the air.  If they didn't we sang it until they did.  After a sock got knocked off we went to the next part of the verse.  To knock the second sock off they had to sing the earlier learned part plus the second.  It slowly built.  By the time we got to the last sock they were singing the entire first verse with chorus beautifully!  Here is how I broke it up:

PICTURE OF THE SAVIOR:  Because I want to be like the Savior and I can
BOOK OF MORMON AND CLIP ART OF PLAN OF SALVATION:  I'm reading his instructions I'm following his plan.
CLIP ART OF A MUSCULAR ARM FLEXING: Because I want the power his word will give to me.
PAPER DOLL WITH A FEW OUTFITS (I discussed what it meant to "change"):  I'm changing how I live, I'm changing what I'll be.

SCRIPTURE POWER

Since the theme this year is about the sciptures, we chose this as one of our optional songs to teach.  Our kids already know the first verse very well.  Since today was such a crazy day with kids finding new classes, we decided not to start on a brand new unfamiliar song.  So we had a fun activity for learning the second verse of scripture power.

I had five gospel pictures of various scripture stories.  Behind them I placed:

1. a sword clip art with a word strip reading FIND
2. a shield clip art with a word strip reading  TAKE
3.armor clip art with a word strip reading WEAR
4. word strip reading FIGHT
5. word strip reading WIN

I had a reverent volunteer come up and draw a word strip from a basket.  The word strip matched with one of the gospel art pictures.  They had to figure out which one it went to.  For example, I had a picture of Lehi preaching to the people in Jerusalem.  The corresponding word strip for that picture was "Listen to the Prophet" .  You could use any pictures and matching phrases that you wanted.  When they made a match they got to remove the object from behind the picture.  Here is where it gets fun, but probably difficult to explain.

On another board I had the letters POWER.  The helper put whatever object they found under the correct letter.  For example, the sword is number one so it went under the P, the shield is number two so it went under the O, etc.  Each letter corresponds to a portion of the 2nd verse as follows:

1 (sword) I'll find the sword of truth in each scripture that I learn
2(shield) I'll take the shield of faith from these pages that I turn
3(wear)  I'll wear each vital part of the armor of the Lord
4(fight) I'll fight my daily battle
5(win) and win a great reward

Once the put up the clip art and word strip I told them what the line of the verse was.  Then the pianist played just that part for them to hear, then we sang just that phrase.  Once they had it we started our game.  The pianist played the entire second verse (minus the chorus).  We hummed the parts we hadn't learned yet and then sang the phrase we new.  The first time through was mostly humming.  The game continued with the next helper who matched a phrase with a picture, took the objects from behind it, and matched it on the board to our word POWER.  Then we repeated the song, now with two phrases and the rest humming.  It was fun.  By the end of singing time we knew the whole verse!  The humming made them really pay attention!

I hope this makes sense!  Just let me know if you have any questions!
Happy singing!

New At This!

Well, I have been our ward's primary chorister for about a year and a half.  I am alwasy utilizing others blogs and am so grateful to them!  I decided that I should share as well.  I've never done a blog before so..wish me luck!