2013 catchup!

And, 4 months later. This year is flying by. January's song was "I Am a Child of God," February's was "My Heavenly Father Loves Me," March's was "If the Savior Stood Beside Me," April's (my choice) was "On a Golden Springtime," May's (my choice) was "We'll Bring the World His Truth," June's will be "When I Am Baptized." 

The bulk of my kids already knew all of these songs except for "My Heavenly Father Loves Me," which is good because we've been doing lots of other songs. They sang "Had I Been a Child" on Easter Sunday which went fabulously!--despite the 3 gigglers in the front row at the end, that was too bad but, could be worse--and I was so proud of them. On Mothers Day they sang the first verse of "Home" ("Home is where the heart is and warmth and love abound / Home is where warm, circling arms go all the way around"), first verse of "When We're Helping," and then all three verses of "Grandmother," but I had them substitute the word "Mother." "I wish every child in the whole wide world had a mother just like you!"

We did the tried-and-true method of simplified ASL signs for "My Heavenly Father Loves Me." For the other songs, which were reviews for most kids and some were learning them for the first time, we did various actions. I've tried a few new things this year: The Wiggle Worm Jar as inspired by Camille's Primary blog; and also the reverence butterfly which I love. (inspired by this story.) I use a pretty realistic looking fake monarch butterfly from Michael's. I tied it to a wooden BBQ skewer with thread and when we're trying to "catch a reverent feeling," walk around the room as we're singing a reverent song that they know (some good ones are "I Feel My Savior's Love," "I Am a Child of God," "I Love to See the Temple") and letting the butterfly land on kids who are singing and engaged. The idea isn't to sing quietly necessarily--just to sing and to pay attention to what we're doing.

I didn't tell the actual Friend story when I first introduced it, but used the same info about catching butterflies by being still, and how we can catch a reverent feeling by being still. The kids really like it. I use the butterfly maybe every other week. I keep it in a large Ziploc bag in the Primary closet to try to keep it from being damaged. I originally saw the idea on the Yahoo! group a few months ago; thanks to whomever posted it!

The songs they have to learn next are "Fathers" and "Daddy's Homecoming" for Fathers Day sacrament meeting. We reviewed the chorus for "Fathers" this past Sunday. I'm going to have a boy soloist for the first verse of "Fathers," then have all the kids join in on the chorus, third verse, and chorus again. Skipping the "bishop" verse this year. It's my favorite Fathers Day song so I'm pretty sure I've always made them sing it! Most of them know "Daddy's Homecoming" so we won't need to practice that much. Not a lot of time to practice this year because I'll be out of town the first week in June and we have stake conference right before Fathers Day.

Since the kids all know June's song, I think the two weeks we do have in June will be reviewing the program songs up to this point. I usually do way more review earlier in the year, but since the songs were so familiar this year, we haven't done that very consistently, at least not formally. So I'll do that with some type of game that takes minimal time from actual singing. Now to paw through my files and find a game like that.

July's song is "Families Can Be Together Forever," which is so great because although a lot of them know it, we haven't sung it in a while. They may do a pioneer song or two as well. August's song is "A Child's Prayer," which my senior Primary LOVES and always requests. Will need to bring the juniors up to speed on that one. I also really want everyone to learn "I'll Follow Him in Faith." I had the seniors sing it a few weeks ago with sheet music because I just really felt like they needed to learn it. But I'm going to teach it to everyone starting soon. I've been the chorister for 4 years now and although I keep hinting to the bishop and Primary presidency that I never want to be released for as long as I live, I know that won't happen. :) I guess I feel like this could be my year that I have to say goodbye to my favorite calling of all time! Hopefully not, but I want to be prepared and make sure that this summer I teach them this wonderful song, "I'll Follow Him in Faith." I've been singing it with my kids at home and even by myself. It has become so dear to me. I love Primary songs!

The Lord has blessed me with gospel truth.

I have learned His ways in my early youth.

I will share His light, for I know it's right

To testify of Him.

The Lord has blessed me with simple faith.

If I pray for help, He will give me strength.

I will do His work; I will gladly serve.

I'll follow Him in Faith.

The Lord has blessed me to feel His love.

I have felt His promptings and learned to trust.

So in all I do, I'll be faithful to

The things I know are true.

The Lord has blessed me in many ways.

With a thankful heart I will sing His praise.

I will raise my voice and proclaim my choice

To follow Him in faith.

He has shown the way, and through all my days

I'll follow Him in faith!

Paper Instruments

Today is our last singing time before the program, since next week we are practicing in the chapel and the week after that is our program. The songs this year were so easy for the kids that they really have them all down pretty well. So I'm going to do a "game" I did a few years ago which the kids loved. Our ward changes so often with move-ins and move-outs that I'm sure most of the kids in our current Primary either weren't there when I did it before, or won't remember it. It's from Divine Secrets of a Primary Chorister and I put the word "game" in quotes because it isn't really a game. Just sort of a funny, simple activity. Original idea here: Adventures with Paper. I'll copy the text in case she takes her site down in the future.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Adventures With Paper

This is such a simple idea, but it turned out really, really well. I was a bit worried that it would be too simple, but it turned out perfect!

I cut normal 8.5x11" paper in half. I then gave each child one of these. I handed out pencils and told them to write their favorite song on it (the little kids only had to write their name on it). Then we turned the paper into instruments.

I chose a random word from the song we were practicing. Whenever we sang that word, we would do something with the paper. For example, if we were singing "To Think About Jesus", I might choose the word 'still'. So whenever we sang the word 'still', we wouldsnap our papers (grab each end, and quickly pull out to make it 'snap'). Then I'd change it so that if we sang the word 'Jesus', we would flap our paper in the air (this makes more noise than you would think). And so on and so forth.

Somehow this kept the kids' attention and really had them concentrating on the words at the same time. It was amazing. Finally, when we had just a couple of minutes left, I told them to crumple their papers into a ball. Then I told them to throw their papers at me.

It took a second to clear the shock from their minds, and then the paper balls came flying. I hammed it up, pretending to cower and shriek as they pummeled me with their papers. It made it even more fun for them. I chose a crumpled paper at random, and whatever fun song was on their, that's what we sang (for the little kids I called out whoever's name was on their and they got to pick a fun song). This turned out fabulously!!

Side note: When I did this the first time, I kept the papers that the senior Primary threw at me with their favorite songs written on them and put them in a bag. I chose songs from that whenever I had extra time to sing during Primary.

Musical Chairs, Bowling, Balloons

And 3 months later, here I am...


A few successes I've had lately have been very simple.

Musical Chairs - about how you would imagine it. We sing until I cut the singing off. When the music stops, someone loses a chair. My favorite thing about this game is that as long as we keep it moving, everyone gets a turn. (I did 5 at a time.)

Bowling - I used a toy bowling set I got at Target several months ago. On the bottom of each pin I wrote an action, the idea being that if necessary (that is, if all pins got knocked over) the kids could do all the actions at the same time. Stand on one foot, flap arms like chicken wings, hop up and down, and I don't remember what the others were. But at one point during Senior Primary we did all of them at once (while singing of course) and it was pretty funny.

Balloons - I have done this several times and probably blogged about it before too. It's what I'm planning to do tomorrow as we review "Fathers" for Fathers Day next week. I have an enthusiastic teacher come up and blow the balloon as the kids sing. The better they sing, the bigger the balloon gets. Then we either pop it or let it loose. Either way is always a hit with the kids. I try not to use this one more than every 3 or 4 months.

Apron with Pockets - each pocket has a toy in it that symbolizes how we are going to sing the song. A toy sheep means we sing like sheep, etc. I'm sure I've posted about this. I use it a lot.

Sign Language - we have done this for almost every song I've introduced so far in 2012. I know I've posted about it already, but it has worked pretty well for me this year.

Off the top of my head, that's what I have. Super simple and easy and fun too.

Review: Chubby Bunny

Wow, I posted again! I am really going to try posting every week because I find great ideas, use them, and then have to re-invent the wheel every time because I forget everything I do.

Today's activity I found at Primary Singing Time by Matilda: Chubby Bunny.

Prep: get a bowl and a bag of s'more-sized marshmallows.

It's about as basic as it sounds: I wrote the names of the program songs on the board and told the kids we would run through them one by one. If they sang it PERFECTLY (I had very high standards for senior Primary in particular, including smiles, starting and ending at the right time, and standing up and sitting down), I would put a marshmallow in the bowl. Then at the end, I would put them all in my mouth and sing a song for them. Gross, right? The junior Primary thought it was HILARIOUS. I have never seen them laugh so hard, and my own little Sunbeam talked about it all afternoon.

The senior Primary weren't quite as visibly impressed in the beginning, probably having been to way more campouts than the junior Primary had. But they still sang their best and they even got after the kids who talked or sang the wrong words. I gave them all "second chances" if the song wasn't perfect the first time through, and they totally sang their hearts out. And they also laughed pretty hard at the end, although a few were disappointed that I was doing the marshmallows instead of them. I didn't want to deal with any kids choking or gagging, otherwise I may have let them.

I have to admit I have been feeling a little nervous lately. Our program is coming up in 3 weeks, and since next week is general conference we only have one Sunday left before the program. I had a baby in June and took 2 months off from church. I was thinking we were way behind. But we apparently made up for in it August and September because as of today, the kids have learned pretty much all the songs beautifully. I am so happy!

And totally embarrassed and grossed out that I sang "Popcorn Popping" (in its entirety, actions included) with my mouth full of marshmallows in front of all those people. But the kids loved it and they sang better than they ever have this year--so that's what matters, I guess!

Keep the Beat - simplified

For the second week of August, we reviewed the first and second verses of "Did Jesus Really Live Again?" with a technique I found on Divine Secrets of a Primary Chorister: Keep the Beat. (Good for reviewing songs and also good for introducing songs.)

It's common knowledge and scientific fact that the more parts of our brains we use while learning, the better our brains retain the learned knowledge--hence the popularity of mnemonic devices in memorization. Rhymes, music, and rhythms make it especially easy to memorize words. We already have rhymes and music on our side when learning Primary songs; adding rhythms just locks the words even tighter into our brains.

Keep the Beat is especially good for teaching more boisterous songs like "To Be a Pioneer"--in fact, when I taught that one for Pioneer Day, we did use Keep the Beat, but that's a topic for another post. Anyway, I thought it could also be useful even in more reverent songs like "Did Jesus Really Live Again?"--but instead of making it complicated (which I will detail in the "To Be a Pioneer" post, yet to be written...), I made it as simple as possible. Junior Primary was especially simple, and Senior Primary was a little more advanced.

Junior Primary:

I divided the kids into two groups and assigned a 4-count beat to each group. The group on the left had lap-clap-lap-clap ("lap" being slapping their hands on their laps); the group on the right had lap-lap-clap-clap. It sounds really basic but it was more than enough for the majority of these kids--the bulk of our Junior Primary are 3, 4, and 5 years old.

Then I did a variation on the Teachers vs. Kids theme of the previous week, by having the 2 halves of the room each sing a line in turn. Left side of the room sang 1st line, right side of the room sang 2nd line, left side sang 3rd line, etc. And of course we added the beats. The left side sang their lines with lap-clap-lap-clap (done twice for each line). The right side sang their lines with lap-lap-clap-clap. It was great and everyone got into it.

Another note: most of the lines of this song begin on the upbeat, and we didn't clap until the downbeat. So that gave us a chance to talk about upbeats and downbeats.

Once we had done that a few times, I had everyone sing every line and do the corresponding beat for that line--two 4-count beats for each line. To wit:

(lap-clap-lap-clap) Did Jesus really live again?

(lap-lap-clap-clap) Yes, when the third day came.

(lap-clap-lap-clap) He wakened and He left the tomb;

(lap-lap-clap-clap) He called Mary's name.

We did it a few more times until they really had the first 2 verses.

With the remaining time, once they had settled down from all the clapping and slapping, I explained that the third verse was an especially reverent verse because it talked about the nail prints in Jesus's hands. We reviewed the ASL sign for "Jesus" and talked about how it represents the nail prints. Then I had them touch their side as we did the line "and a spear wound in His side." Then we asked the question again: Did Jesus really live again after He had died? And the answer is not just "Yes" but "OH yes--and so shall I." We sang it a couple of times through (no beats) until they had it.

Senior Primary:

I divided the kids into two groups and picked a leader for each group. Each group then had 2 minutes to come up with a 4-count beat--and I asked that it not be too complicated. So our pianist played "...Live Again" for 2 minutes while the groups auditioned to their respective group leaders. When the 2 minutes was up, I invited the 2 group leaders to come up and demonstrate their 4-count beat to the whole room.

Then I did a variation on the Teachers vs. Kids theme of the previous week, by having the 2 halves of the room each sing a line in turn. Left side of the room sang 1st line, right side of the room sang 2nd line, left side sang 3rd line, etc. And of course we added the beats. The left side sang their lines with their particular 4-count beat (done twice for each line). The right side sang their lines with their 4-count beat.

Again, I talked about upbeats and downbeats, going a little more into detail with the older kids than I had with the younger kids and making it more of an interactive discussion.

Once we had done that a few times, I had the group leaders come up again so they could help demonstrate their beats. I had everyone sing the entire song, alternating the beats again, but this time everyone had to sing each line and do the corresponding beat, even if it was the opposing group's beat. Since I have no idea whether I explained that correctly, here's a breakdown--remember, each line has a 4-count beat done twice.

Beat 1. Did Jesus really live again?

Beat 2. Yes, when the third day came.

Beat 1. He wakened and He left the tomb;

Beat 2. He called Mary's name.

It was tricky...especially because the kids had come up with fancy beats! I knew that they would do complicated beats despite my instructions--that's why I only had them sing in 2 groups and do 2 beats, because 4 groups and 4 beats would have been a little too much. Examples of beats these kids have come up with:

Lap-clap-snap-stomp

Stomp-bam (right fist hits left side of chest)-snap-snap

Tap head-tap shoulders-snap-clap

Clap-snap-stomp-stomp

For verse 3, I did the same as I had with the junior kids, letting them calm down and then talking about the 3rd verse before learning it and singing it (without beats).

As complicated as it was to explain on a blog post just now, it was really not very complicated at all to explain in person or to do. And, no bulky visual aids to cart around church--even better!