I am a Child of God because....

Today we built a Child of God.  I used some cut outs that I created last year.

This is what they look like when completed.  I did Junior and senior primary each a bit differently.

JUNIOR:
We are working on learning all 4 verses of "I Am a Child Of God." I started with the boy cut out.  I did not tell them that there were two.  I put the head on the board and told them we would be building a child of God.  I explained we would start with a head.  I had them all touch their head.  Everyone has one just like Heavenly Father and Jesus.

To earn the torso, arms, and legs they just had to sing their best when worked on each verse.  We only got through 2 verses this time.  Sometimes I had them sing just the chorus to earn limbs, sometimes verse only, sometimes both. This took half of our time.  Between the placing of each piece I had 3-4 kids come up and finish the statement, I am a Child of God because.....  We had some amazing answers! 

After the boy child of God was built I had two of the sunbeams come up; a very girly looking girl and a boy.  I asked the kids what the differences were.  Some of their answers included; boy/girl, wearing a dress/wearing a tie, long curly blond hair/short dark hair, blue eyes/brown eyes.  I talked to them and emphasized that we are all children of God yet he made us all different! 

Then I announced we needed a GIRL child of God as well to show how God made us different!  So we continued working on our song and built the girl.  I continued bringing up kids between each piece to complete our phrase; I am a Child o God because....The kids really enjoyed it and most importantly we felt the spirit.

Before they were excused to leave I explained to them how they were bearing their testimony for us today by #1 singing and #2 by completing the phrase.

SENIOR:

For senior primary we had a contest.  Who could build their Child of God first, the boys or the girls. We would sing the verse as a group, then the girls would sing it alone and then the boys.  I would choose who sang it best on the following criteria:
1. Volume
2. Clarity of lyrics
3. Reverence before, during, and after the song
4. Reverence while the other group was singing

It was very hard to judge, they all sang so awesome!

I used the complete the phrase idea with the senior primary as well.  SO many kids wanted to do it.  It was awesome! The spirit was so incredibly strong in our primary room!

To close I shared with the kids the story of Moses from Moses 1.  After being taught that he was a Child of God created in God's very image, Satan came tempting him.  He called Moses a son of man.  He did this to create doubt in Moses' heart about his divine identity.  Moses replied in Mose 1:13,"Who art thou?  For behold, I am a son of God!"  I was very emotional when I read this verse to the children.  The spirit was incredibly powerful at that moment.

I told them that when life gets hard, challenges arise, they feel alone or sad, bullied or afraid, they can do as Moses did and declare..."I Am A Child of God!"  And they will feel peace.

I am so excited about this years Primary Program Song selection!  It is going to be an amazing year!!

Sing in Different Langugages

We went around the world singing!!  We learned how to say the word "sing" in different languages and then learned a little bit about that country as well.  Then we sang the song "Sing a Song" CS-253 replacing the word "sing" with the new language.  It was a BLAST and the kids enjoyed learning so much!

FINLAND:  they speak Finnish, sing is Laulaa (pronounced La.loo.la)
They have over 188,000 lakes
In June and July the sun shines all day and night
Santa Claus has an official office there
Donald Duck was banned because he has no pants on

ITALY:  they speak Italian, sing is Cantare (pronounce can.tar.ee using your best Luigi accent!)
Most crowded country in Europe
National animal is the wolf
Ice cream and fruit pies were invented here
4/5 of Italy is mountains

SOUTH AFRICA:  they speak AFRIKAANS, sing is Sa (pronounced su, as in sun)
Has a penguin colony
3 of the 5 fastest animals live here; cheetah, wildebeest, lion
Famous for Macadamia nuts

SWEDEN:  speak Swedish, sing is Sjunga (pronounce hun.ya)
Sun sets at 3:30 PM in winter
Sun rises at 3:30 AM in summer
On Easter children dress up as witches and trick or treat

GERMANY: speak German, sing is Singen (pronounced zingun)
They have over 300 kinds of bread
Gummi Bears were invented by a German
Have over 150 castles and 400 zoos

CHINA: speak Chinese, sing is Cha (prounced cha, said very quickly)
The tallest mountain on earth is here, Mt. Everest
Calligraphy invented
More people live here than any other country

KENYA: speak Swahili, sing is Kuimba (pronounced koo.eem.ba)
Worlds greatest Safari destination
two seasons only; rainy or dry

Name that Christmas Song

For Senior Primary we decided to challenge their minds!  I used the Thesaurus and "tweaked" the words to our favorite Christmas songs!  They then had to guess what the song was.  Once they guessed we would sing it!

1)  Orbs Radiating, Attendants Musing  (Stars were gleaming, Shepherds dreaming)
2)  Quietude Observe the Descendant   (Hush, see the Child) from Shepherds Carol
3)   Distant With No Trundle  (Away in a manger, no crib for his bed)
4)  Yuletide Reverberations  (Christmas Bells)
5)   Mute Dimday  (Silent Night)
6)  Cherubs Noted Aloft  (Angels we Have Heard on High)

Christmas Fun!

We worked SO hard on our program.  Then we worked SO hard for the ward Christmas program!  I decided that the kids needed a break!  So we had a day of singing fun!

I picked a few songs that I felt comfortable allowing the kids to be "silly" while singing: Snowman and Christmas Bells.

We used some fun cards created by Alison over at http://www.oopseydaisyblog.com/.   Here is a link to the post Christmas Ways to Sing Cards, so you can print them off yourself.




I folded these up and put them in a Christmas Bucket.  Now for the fun!
In Junior Primary I picked a helper to draw out an action.  I would then demonstrate it. The helper got to stay up front with me while we all sang the song doing the action.  This was the repeated over and over with a new action each time.  The kids loved it!  They still are asking when we will do it again!

For Senior I changed it up a little bit.  I gave a different action to EACH CLASS.  As we sang, the class had to do THEIR action.  After each song we would pass the action clockwise.  Every class got a chance to do every action at least once.  This had to be one of the funnest things we have done all year!!

Aren't they cute?