St. Patrick's Day!

I honestly wouldn't have had it on my radar that St. Patrick's Day was on Sunday if not for the Facebook group for Primary Music Leaders and other blogs.

So....yay!

One of our school colors happens to be green, so we have some fun green "stuff" for a leprechaun to wear including a sequined fedora. And one of our Primary teachers in the Senior group is named Patrick! So all of that got me thinking.

Here are my thoughts that I need to finalize, but I thought I'd throw it all out there in case it helps someone.
I plan to create a big rainbow visual with a "real" pot of gold at the end but the pot will be empty.
Our leprechaun will have to tell us where he hid the gold.
We'll have paper shamrocks with a song on the back and a clue from the leprechaun on how to sing:
"If you want my pot of gold, you must sing this very bold!"
We'll talk about Lucky vs. Blessed.
And sing the below songs.

The pot of gold will be a big vase of Rolos (or some other gold candy), to pass out at the end.
And behind the pot of gold will be a picture of the Savior to show that he's our real treasure!

I know we won't get through all of these, but I love that it's a fun way to review the songs we've already learned this year!

I Am A Child of God 2 / We are lucky to have a Father in Heaven who loves us

A Young Man Prepared 166 / We are lucky to have missionaries to teach us

My Heavenly Father Loves Me 228 / We are lucky to live in a beautiful world

If the Savior Stood Beside Me / We are lucky to be able to feel Jesus' love through the Holy Ghost

Families Can Be Together Forever 188 / We are lucky to have temples so that our families can be together forever 

Head, Shoulders, Knees, Toes 275 / We are lucky to have bodies

When I Am Baptized 103 / We are lucky to be able to be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost

I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ 77 / We are lucky to be members of the Church

We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet 19 / We are lucky to have a prophet

Sing It or Spray It

This was a lot of fun and got the kids pretty hyper, especially Senior, so beware!

"Sing It or Spray It" - a good review game

We started singing a song, and then I cut the kids off at a certain point.

Then I called up a class or a person (choose based on what suits your needs best) and if they knew the next line, they earned the umbrella that I brought. 

I then sprayed them with a spray bottle filled with water!

If they didn't know the next line, they got a little itty bit wet. It was a lot of fun.

Some of the Senior kids tried to use the umbrella as a sword against me and my spray bottle!

Fun to do something different once in awhile!

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

Sing or Dare

This was a pretty fun Singing Time and a fun way to review!

I saw this on another chorister blog: Sing or Dare!
Took two 12"x18" sheets of yellow paper and created a "road sign" look to them.

The kids had the choice of SING or DARE. 
SING had different ways to sing the songs we were reviewing.
DARE had a fun quick question or silly activity.
For my ease, I had the SING and DARE cues/clues/directions taped to the back of their respective signs.

It was a nice way to keep the kids engaged and participatory!

Going to the Dentist!

So hard to think of different fun ways to do reviews, right? 
I borrowed my Mom's lab coat and stethoscope and modified an idea I found on another blog. Getting the "cavities" out of the songs!

I drew a person with a big smile and LOTS of teeth on a big poster board.
On each tooth I wrote one song name...the songs we have been reviewing for our Program!

I told the kids we were going to take our songs to the dentist!

Called a kid up, let them put on the doctor coat, and gave them a stethoscope to "listen" for holes in the songs as the kids sang. I asked them to look for 4 things (which would mean four potential cavities!
1. Do they know the words?
2. Do they know the melody?
3. Are they watching me lead them?
4. Are they smiling? 
If they did really well on all four categories of the song, the kid dentist put a "star" on that tooth (with a pencil, since we have Junior and Senior Singing Time!) to show it's sparkling clean!

If they didn't, they drew a black dot on the tooth to indicate a cavity! 
So then we had to work on that cavity!
The dentist chose one of the toothpaste flavors - I had these tacked up to the board next to the smiling guy poster.
On the back of each toothpaste there was written a way to sing the song (since they get so tired of just singing normally!):
1. Stand up and sing
2. Sing to the Primary Presidency (they stood up front)
3. Open the door and sing loud enough for someone down the hallway to hear.
4. Sing softly but with every word clear
5. Sing with your arms around your neighbors
6. Sing while copying hand motions

If they did well and needed to get rid of those cavities, the dentist used the "Singing Time Toothbrush" to erase all of those out! (there was a carefully placed eraser taped to the back of the toothbrush)

It was fun, and especially fun to see how the different kid dentists responded to their peers. One older Senior Primary boy didn't think his friends did well at all and gave them all 4 cavities! Ruthless! 

Sundae School

It's so fun to make a simple visual for the kids and I find it helps me stay focused on my lesson plan!

The theme for Sharing Time was about doing things on the Sabbath that helps us stay close to Heavenly Father (this was in August). So I thought doing a play on words with "Sunday School" --> "Sundae School" would be funny.

Simple simple!
Black tagboard oriented long-ways, with a cut-out/drawn cone at the bottom.
Then all sorts of construction paper crazy food, along with ice cream scoops of course!
I had these paper clipped to the side of the tagboard.
We did a little quiz between songs about the songs with relation to the Sabbath. The kid who answered the question right got to come up and pick: ice cream scoop or crazy food!

At the end of the Senior Singing Time we had a funny tall ice cream cone. The Junior kids actually only picked ice cream! Above is a photo of the visual after the last group, the Seniors. Some of the scoops got taped up all crazy. The visual was about 3' tall. 

My quiz:

1. Visiting your neighbors is a great thing to do on the Sabbath.

Which verse of “I’m Trying to Be Like Jesus” does it mention “trying to love my neighbor”? (2^nd)

JUNIOR KIDS Stand up and face your neighbor and clap hands together while singing the second verse

SENIOR KIDS link arms and skip around the room while singing the second verse

2. Prophet Ezra Taft Benson said something we should definitely NOT do on the Sabbath and that is “wasting time.” What’s an example of how we could waste time on a Sunday!

A word that is the opposite of wasting time or being lazy is TRY.

Let’s stand up every time we sing “try” in “I’m Trying to Be Like Jesus!”

Sing the whole song

3. How many times do we sing the word “love” or a form of the word “love” (like “loving”) in our song of the month, “I’m Trying to Be Like Jesus”?  Take some guesses!

The closest person gets to pick silly food or ice cream scoop! ANSWER = THIRTEEN including both chorus’

Everyone sing the whole song and count how many versions of love we sing!

4. In the song it says “At times I am tempted to make a wrong choice, but I try to listen as the still small voice whispers….” What are ways we can make sure we can HEAR the Holy Ghost whispering to us on a Sunday, by not….? We should pray, listen to only quiet peaceful music to invite the Spirit in, speak in quiet tones in our house, etc.

Whisper that verse

5. “I try to remember the lessons he taught” is in “I’m Trying to Be Like Jesus”

What do we do on Sundays at church where we hear the words “…always remember him…” and “…eat in remembrance of the body of the thy Son…” (sacrament prayer)

Extra challenge: In what section of the doctrine & covenants do we find the Sacrament prayer? 20!

Make your remembering face (stroke chin, tape side of head, funny etc.) and sing!!

6. “I watch for the day of gladness when Jesus will come again”

What is the name of that day – that great event when Jesus will come again? (the Second Coming)

Everyone turn and watch the watch up on the wall while singing that part

Hula Hoop

Aren't we all pretty amused at the crazy props we bring to church? The Sunday we did the hula hoop review, I couldn't get over the fact that I needed a hula hoop for my calling!

This was an EASY Singing Time!
I brought a big hula hoop (tested it on all of my kids to make sure all ages could use that size of a hoop) and our dress-up fake flower lei.
I told the kids we were going to HAWAII for our review!
Called up a kid to hula hoop and started singing the second they started hula hooping.
If they dropped it, we stopped singing until they had it going again but I had the piano keep playing so the kids had to sing along in their heads to know where we were in the song when we sang again. A good way to keep their brains working and keep reviewing!
Some kids were able to hula hoop the entire song! 
The only difficulty is SO many kids wanted to go, that some songs I split up one kid per verse. And even then we couldn't get to all of them. So, I told them they could come over to my house one day and hula hoop all they wanted!

What's the Secret Word?

Found this idea on a chorister blog and it was SUCH a huge hit! Kids and teachers were talking about it days and weeks after. And what's great is it's simple to prepare and execute, the teachers are the main ones "on display" so it gives you a little break, and the kids have to SING in order for the game to work!

The sign I made to tape up onto the podium (I like signs!):

I had five teachers to come up front and sit in chairs facing the kids.
They were each given a piece of paper that I'd put together, each paper different. 
Here's an example: 

So we had five teachers sitting in chairs facing the kids.
We'd start singing one of the songs and the teachers would quickly look at their paper to know which word they were supposed to do an action for. This also tested if the teachers knew the songs! 
As you can see there are blank spots on the above example. Not every teacher had a word assigned to them for every single song because frankly it was hard to think of actions for them to do!! But it worked out; the kids couldn't necessarily remember more than a few actions/word combinations per song anyway! 

The kids did great at paying attention to what the teachers were doing, even while singing! It was a blast!

EDITED TO ADD FOUR PAGES FROM A SINGING TIME I JUST DID. You can see how each one is different, one page was given to a teacher. Four teachers total, different words and different actions. A few didn't have a word for that song since there weren't enough repeating words.

Who What How

One of the best ideas I found online was a "Who What How" type of a game. I changed it a little to work for our Primary, and it was a big hit. I've done it a few times and it's always fun! In fact sometimes reverence goes out the window, which is always a little bit of an "oops" moment for me!

And what's great for a music leader is it's super simple to put together and simple to execute...and it works for Junior and Senior Primary!

You have three containers, a WHO a WHAT and a HOW.
The "WHO" is what group of kids sing.
The "WHAT" is what verse they sing. This is great for reviewing!
The "HOW" is how they'll sing - this is where things get crazy!

Examples of Who:
Boys with brown eyes, girls with blue eyes, teachers, wearing anything red (or other colors), has ridden a horse, likes to swim, likes any green vegetable, left-handed, visited the SLC temple, likes to chew gum

Examples of What:
Various verses of the songs you want or need to sing.

Examples of How:
Hum the melody, like a robot (and dance too), like a cowboy, one big breath, with no blinking, like a cat (meow the melody), like an opera star, plug your nose

So you print out all the who, what, and how options, cut them up into strips, fold them up and put them carefully into the right container (might want to color code on different colors of paper for each container because this can get tricky!) and then you call up three kids for each round....each kid picks a container and takes one strip out, you put all three together (a who/what/how) and have fun!

Get The Bugs Out! Program Review

Aren't we all thinking about the Primary Program morning noon and night! I know I am! And soon enough the nightmares (literally) will come. This is my first program as a Music Leader, but not my first in general (I served in a Primary Presidency for a few years).

I saw a cute idea to "get the bugs out" and needed to simplify it to save time. 

Simple poster board with a grid for each song we're singing.
Printed out bug pictures.
The first week we sang as many program songs as we could, identified the "bugs" (singing too fast or too slow, not loud enough, mixing up a few words), and stuck a bug or two in each song section.
The second week, we worked on getting rid of those bugs! I had an empty spray bottle with a sign taped on that said "bug spray." After we eradicated the bugs in a song, one kid got to come up and "spray" that bug!

At the end, I passed out gummy worms!