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.