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? 

SING-O! BING-O!

Who doesn't LOVE Bingo?  This is a fun version of it that I made up for singing time.  Easy to do!  Create a Bingo card with the letters S-I-N-G-O across the top.  Then under each letter are the numbers 1-5 in mixed up orders.  I made a card for each class.  Make sure no two cards are alike.

I have no printer ink, so I had to hand make my Bingo cards this time!!

You can use this to teach a new song or for review other songs.  I have in a jar pieces of paper to draw out after they sing what ever song or portion of a song I ask.  They get a number of letters based upon how well they sing.  I would draw any where form one bingo piece up to four!  The pieces were in a jar as follows;
S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, I1, I2, I3, I4, I5, N1, ...etc. I think you get the idea.  When I drew the pieces I would call out the coordinates.  The teachers had each been given a marker to mark them off.  Some teachers did it themselves, some let a child do it.

Here are some examples of how teachers marked them.

So...what do you win if you get a SING-O BING-O?  When a class gets a bingo they get to choose which song we sing.  I let them know this right at the start so that they would all be thinking of a song!

I was a lot of fun and an easy way to get A LOT of singing done!

BOPPIN' POP!

Happy Father's Day!  I used an idea that I saw online (eek! Can't remember where!)

Items:
One swimming noodle, cut into 5 pieces
5 Colorful paper ties with song titles written on the back
1 tie sitting on top of the piano with my pianist (hidden)
Dads


I had invited 5 dads to come visit us in primary on Father's day.  I did this for both Junior and Senior (so 10 dads in all).  I had them come in and sit with their kids.  I had the ties up on the board and picked a kid (whose dad was NOT there) to come up and pick a tie. On the back of the tie was a song title.  Since this was a fun day we did review and other fun songs.  I used;

Smiles
Choose the Right (1 verse only)
Hinges
Stand For the Right
Nephi's Courage (1 Verse only)

One the sixth hidden tie was Daddy's Homecoming

 Now comes the FUN part!!  I would choose a dad to come up and sit in the chair.  I would then give his  child/children a noodle.  The object of Boppin' Pop is to get Dad's mouth to match the words of the song.  When they BOP him on the head, his mouth opens up.  We did a quick demo on the first dad.  If there is more than one child they would take turns, or do verse and chorus, etc.  This was an instant hit with both the kids AND the dads!

After that dad was done, we would let him sit back down and do the next tie, etc.

After we snag the last song, and everyone thinks we are don my pianist holds up the hidden tie and says,"Wait you forgot one!"  This is where it gets REALLY FUN!

I have ALL the dads come to the front.  They are very reluctant, unsure of what I am going to do to them next!  Then I start handing THEM a noodle!  Suddenly the kids know what is going on!  I then have each of the Father's children come stand in front of their Dad!  The dads then BOP their kids while we sing Daddy's Homecoming!  Everyone loved this!!  One dad said after we were done, "That song wasn't quite long enough!"  Sxo we sang it again!!  A lot of fun!!

COURAGEOUS SUNDAY!

It is time to start teaching Nephi's Courage.  Most of our kids already know this song so we were able to spend only one day on it.  We called it COURAGEOUS SUNDAY.  On the chalk board I listed the following things:

Sing a Solo
Quote and Article of Faith
Conduct a verse of the song
Read a Scripture
Bear your testimony
Act out what we are singing
Escort a teacher around the room while we song
Dance to the song

I read the list aloud and talked about how these things take courage for us to do.  We then talked about the great courage that Nephi had to do the things that he was asked to do by the Lord.  For courageous Sunday, I was going to see who had courage to do some of these things.

We began by singing the chorus of the song.  I then drew a name out of the jar and asked, "Do you feel courageous today?"  I emphasized that it was ok if they didn't.  If they did, they got to pick one of the things to do.  Then that item was erased.  If they chose something that involved music, we would do that on the next part of the song.

Next we sang the first verse (if someone for instance picked to dance, this is when they would do it.)

After we sang I chose another name and asked again, "Do you feel courageous today?"  I did have several kids say that they weren't feeling courageous today and that was OK!  I put there name back in the jar so that they would still be chosen on another day.

We continued to do this until we had got through all the courageous deeds, or ran out of time.  I broke up the singing as follows.

Chorus
COURAGE TEST
Verse1
COURAGE TEST
Chorus
COURAGE TEST
Verse 2
COURAGE TEST
Chorus
COURAGE TEST
first half of verse 3
COURAGE TEST
second half of verse 3
COURAGE TEST
chorus
 COURAGE TEST
Then we ended by singing the entire song.

I had so many kids come up to me after wards that had not been picked who said they had courage!  They wanted to do one of the tasks for me!  it was amazing to see the response that i got out of this activity!  They learned much more than the words to a song.