Joseph Smith's Sing-story

Because our Stake has Stake Conference on the last Sunday of this month, yesterday was our last Sunday in Primary for learning about Joseph Smith and the Restoration!

The song I picked for April's "choice" month was "The Golden Plates" -- I love the sing-song melody! It reminds me of the pioneer songs, like "Covered Wagons." I covered a cracker box with gold shiny tagboard (sorry, I don't have a picture) and used them as a prop last week.

For yesterday's Singing Time, I realized how many songs are in the Children's Songbook about the story of the Restoration! And how many paintings are in the Gospel Art Book! So it seemed like a no-brainer type of a Singing Time -- we would sing his story!

(from the Gospel Art Book)

I made a big sign to tape up to the podium that said, "Joseph's Journey."
I try to avoid using the word "journey" in the figurative sense, because cheezy shows like "The Bachelor" and all the schmaltzy reality TV overused "journey" and now it's tainted. But for Joseph Smith, I made an exception!

Then we talked about some trivia from his life, while showing a picture in the Gospel Art Book, and then sang the corresponding song!

My plan is below!

Picture of Joseph Smith reading the Bible, pg. 89 Gospel Art Book

Joseph wondered which church was true, he found this passage in The Bible, which led him to pray and ask God which was the true church. What was the bible verse? (James 1:5)

Search Ponder and Pray, (pg. 109)

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Picture of the Sacred Grove (from the ward library!)

The Sacred Grove was located near Joseph Smith’s home. If you wanted to visit the Sacred Grove area today, what state is it in? (Palmyra, NY)

The Sacred Grove (#87)

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First Vision, pg. 90

JUNIOR         How old was Joseph Smith when he received the First Vision? (14)

SENIOR         What month and year did Joseph Smith receive the First Vision? (April 1820)

This Is My Beloved Son (#76)

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Angel Moroni in his bedroom, pg. 91 Gospel Art Book

JUNIOR         How many times did the Angel Moroni visit him that first night? (3)

SENIOR         The Angel Moroni visited Joseph Smith three times in that first night, he woke up and went out to the fields exhausted, and Moroni visited him again. Who did the Angel Moroni instruct Joseph Smith to tell about the visions and commandments he had received? (his father)

An Angel Came to Joseph Smith (#86)

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Golden Plates, pg. 86 Gospel Art Book

Who were the Three Witnesses who saw the plates? (others did too) (David Whitmer, Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery)

The Golden Plates (#86)

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Priesthood restoration, pg. 93/94 Gospel Art Book

Who visited to give the Aaronic Priesthood to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery?

The Priesthood Is Restored (#89)

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If time,  I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ, pg. 77

If the Savior Stood Beside Me poster

You know those days you spend hours putting together a visual for one of the Program songs? And you're all, "Dude, I can't believe how long this took me!"

And you kind of feel sorry for yourself and then you feel kind of proud and then you go take a nap.

If the Savior Stood Beside Me: Four Corners

Oh how I pondered and pondered and PONDERED for weeks on how to present this song.
My modus operandi is games, but this song felt too sacred and special to start it off with a game the first week.

So I used a combination of the ideas in my previous post!

First I asked the kids if it's hard to always choose the right.
I was holding that picture from the Gospel Art Kit of the Savior holding a lamb.
Do they think it would be easier to choose the right if we had someone standing next to us each time?
What if our best friend was standing next to us? Our Primary President? Our Mom or Dad?
What if Jesus was standing next to us? Would it be easier then to always choose the right? Would we be more kind to others? Would we listen to the same music, watch the same shows? Be more honest?

We do have someone very special in life that is always there for us. We may not always be able to see or hear or feel Him, but He is always there.

For the Junior kids, I then went more methodically through the first verse, singing it once through (DON'T WE LOVE SINGING SOLOS!!! HAHAHAHA)
But for the Senior kids, a lot of them remembered it! I was pretty impressed.
So I started right off with putting things on the board, as detailed below.

In going through the first verse, I pointed out that the Savior is mentioned at the beginning and at the end.
I put up two pictures of the Savior (the same one) -- on the right hand side and on the left hand side of the board, leaving room for four pieces of paper between.
We talked about how there were 4 questions, all starting with "Would"
I put up four different colors of paper, each with a question mark, between the pictures of the Savior.

We sang it through, talking about the questions.
I then handed out the same color papers, dividing the kids into 4 groups. They were numbered.
They had to tell me what their question was, we sang it, and then we played "Four Corners."
The groups each went into a corner, and we sang the verse through with just the 1st group singing the 1st question and so forth.
We switched a few more times and then we were done!

This could be done for the second verse too, although I will come up with something different.
This was a more calm Singing Time, no wild game or distracting props. It was nice to do this once in awhile, especially for a song so special as this one about the Savior.

If The Savior Stood Beside Me: Ideas

This song is so beautiful!

I didn't really want to come up with a silly-seeming game for such a spiritual song, so I've been compiling ideas from others and am sharing below. Still have to figure out what exactly I'm doing. It's Saturday. Yep, seems about right! Sigh!

Great idea for all month from the blog What These Hands Do:

Source: whatthesehandsdo.blogspot.com via Cailean on Pinterest

And this flip chart is perfect, from the blog Singing Magic:

Source: singingmagic.blogspot.com via Cailean on Pinterest

I also really liked this PDF from Sugardoodle!

Will add more if I find more that I like the best!

Commandments Challenge

On the 4th Sunday of each month, I do a review of all the Primary Program songs we've learned thus far!

So today we did a "Commandment Challenge" (I used the concept of "Truth or Consequences" that I found here.) I said that just as there are consequences for not keeping the commandments, there are consequences for not getting the question right! (the only reason I chose "Commandment" as the "theme" is because the theme for this Sunday's Sharing Time lesson was about following the commandments. This could easily be adapted to any theme!)

Here's how it worked: 

• I chose one kid from my popsicle stick jar for each round.
• They chose a teacher to challenge. Both came to the front.
• I asked the kid the question and said their Primary friends could help them!
• I then asked the teacher their question and said no one could help them, heh heh. 
• Whoever got it wrong had to do the consequence (keeping my globe beach ball up in the air as we sang the song verse after each question --- this consequence was chosen because in February we did a lot of "world" stuff because MY Heavenly Father Loves Me is all about the world etc.)

I hinted to the teachers that this "might be rigged against the teachers, a little" to give them a heads up that they shouldn't feel badly if they couldn't answer it. Because the whole point was that the kids' questions were pretty easy, about the songs, and the teachers questions were pretty hard! So the teachers would always have to do the consequence!

It was a blast to see them each trying to do it. One of the male teachers was able to keep it in the air the whole time, even employing the use of his head and feet!

Here's what I did for Junior, and Senior (question 1 = kid, question 2 = teacher)

JUNIOR

For the song “I am a Child of God”

1) In the first verse, Heavenly Father has given you an earthly home with parents ____ and ____?

2)  How many languages has this song been translated into?       Over 90

SING THE FIRST VERSE

For the song “My Heavenly Father Loves Me”

1)  In the first verse, what do we feel as it rushes by?

2) What is the fastest recorded wind speed for Seattle, and what year did it happen? 66 mph, Nov. 13, 1981

SING THE FIRST VERSE

For the song “Keep the Commandments”

1) It says in “Keep the Commandments” that “He will send _______” what?

2) We read about Moses, the Prophet who brought to pass the 10 Commandments, in the Book of Exodus. How many WORDS are in the book of Exodus?      32,685

SING "KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS" IN FULL

For the song “I am a Child of God”

1) In the second verse, we sing “I am a child of God, and so my needs are great, help me to ___________”??

2) How do you say “I am a Child of God” in Swedish?  Jag är Guds lilla barn 

SING THE SECOND VERSE

For the song “My Heavenly Father Loves Me”

1) In the second verse, it says “He gave me my eyes that I might see” _______?

2) How long does the average blink last? The average blink lasts for about 1/10th of a second.

SING THE SECOND VERSE

For the song “I am a Child of God”

1) In the third verse, we sing “I am a child of God, Rich blessings are __________”

2) Rich blessings can be found in the temple. When was the Seattle Temple announced? 11/15/75

SING THE THIRD VERSE

For the song “My Heavenly Father Loves Me”

1) In the first verse we sing, “I’m glad that I live in ____________”

2) What is exact the world’s population as of Saturday night? 6,973,738,433

SING THE FIRST VERSE

SENIOR

For the song “I am a Child of God”

1) In the first verse, Heavenly Father has given you an earthly home with parents ____ and ____?

2)  How many languages has this song been translated into?       Over 90

SING THE FIRST VERSE

For the song “My Heavenly Father Loves Me”

1) In the first verse, we sing about what type of flower and what type of flowering tree

2) At Temple Square in Salt Lake City, how many varieties of plants are in bloom there? Over 700

SING THE FIRST VERSE

For the song “Keep the Commandments”

1) It says in “Keep the Commandments” that “He will send _______” what?

2) We read about Moses, the Prophet who brought to pass the 10 Commandments, in the Book of Exodus. How many WORDS are in the book of Exodus?      32,685

SING "KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS" IN FULL

For the song “I am a Child of God”

1) In the second verse, we sing “I am a child of God, and so my needs are great, help me to ___________”??

2) How do you say “I am a Child of God” in Swedish?  Jag är Guds lilla barn 

For the song “My Heavenly Father Loves Me”

1) In the second verse we sing, “He gave me my ears that I might hear ____________”

2) How many bones are in our ear and how small are they? Three, all 3 could fit on a penny

SING THE SECOND VERSE

For the song “I am a Child of God”

1) In the third verse, we sing, “I am a child of God, rich blessings are in store, If I ____________”

2) Rich blessings can be found in the temple. When was the Seattle Temple announced? 11/15/75

SING THE THIRD VERSE

For the song “My Heavenly Father Loves Me”

1) At the end of the song we sing, “He gave me my _____, my ______, my ________”

2) What is exact the world’s population as of Saturday night? 6,973,738,433

SING THE SECOND VERSE

I Am a Child of God poster

This was fun to make and use!

It's a large and very stiff poster board with a hole cut out for a kiddo to stick their head through as they hold it.

I saw a similar thing on Pinterest and thought it would work well for this song.

Each verse is separated by the orange lines.

My Heavenly Father Loves Me, Week 3

Week Three because Week Two of February I spent on our Valentine's Day Singing Time!

Here's what I did!

I ordered a U.S. map (free because I'm a AAA member).
I also found some of those fun sticky hands at Target in the party section! A package of 8 for $2. I couldn't resist!

So in order to not be singing "My Heavenly Father Loves Me" over and over like we did the first week, I thought of a way to incorporate a lot of other songs.

On the map are 9 different taped states.
I assigned each state to a particular word from the song.
First the kids played "pass the globe" while we sang "My Heavenly Father Loves Me" and the pianist chose when to stop. Whoever was holding the globe wigot to come up and grab a sticky slapper and tried to slap one of the states.
For example, let's say they slap Colorado.
I assigned Colorado to the word "TREE" (our pianist will have the list of words and song so she can keep up) But I didn't tell the kids it's "TREE" -- instead the pianist and I started on "Popcorn Popping" and when we reached the word "TREE" I rang a little bell I have, and stopped.

The kids had to tell me/sing for me which part of "My Heavenly Father Loves Me" the word "TREE" is in.
I was so happy to see that many of them could think of it!
Then we continued with "pass the globe" and then stopped, and so on and so forth!

And so on.
Here are the words and the songs I chose:
BIRD - In the Leafy Treetops
SKY - Oh What Do You Do in the Summertime (third verse only)
RAIN - Rain is Falling All Around
TOUCH - Little Purple Pansies
TREE - Popcorn Popping
WORLD - Joy to the World
EYE - A Smile is Like the Sunshine
HEAR - Christmas Bells
HEART - The Hearts of the Children

Remember you only sing the small portion of the song with the word in it (in the interest of time) and you make sure the ring the bell. Even if they don't know the song, they'll enjoy hearing you sing it and they'll be excited to hear when the bell rings!

My Heavenly Father Loves Me, Week 1

This song is so visual! I thought it would be fun to teach it to the kids with a lot of objects!

So here's what I brought:

Stuffed animal SONG OF BIRD
Blue fabric BLUE BLUE SKY
Spray bottle (with water!) RAIN ON MY FACE
Fan (plugged in!) WIND AS IT RUSHES BY
Play flower VELVET ROSE
Drawing LILAC TREE
Globe BEAUTIFUL WORLD

Funny glasses EYES
Toy butterfly BUTTERFLY WINGS
Ear cut out of cardstock EARS
Bell MAGICAL SOUND OF THINGS
Mirror MY LIFE, MY MIND
Hands in the shape of a heart MY HEART
Arms folded in prayer I THANK HIM REV'RENTLY
Globe again FOR ALL HIS CREATIONS

It felt like I was on Minute to Win It as I had to quickly grab the objects off the table as we sang the part.
It was a lot of fun.
The Senior kids wanted to try to be able to grab them in time as we sang it, so I gave them a lot of turns.

Definitely their favorite was the spray bottle sprayed at them!
And the fan blown on them!