Valentines & How Firm a Foundation, etc.

Conversational Hearts idea: (this is an adaptation of a super cute idea on Sugardoodle. I just changed a few things here and there to suit my primary. Thanks to the Sugardoodle gals who first posted their ideas!)

Cut out a bunch of simple little hearts from pastel colored paper (quarter sheet per heart if you're cheap and lazy like me). Write a cute little phrase like what is normally on conversational hearts that have to do with a primary song. For instance, "LOVED" could be "Love One Another" or "HUG" could be "Daddy's Homecoming" or something. I also added the song's page number so that life will be easier for my chorister and me.

I like to let junior primary keep whatever I've used in my lesson because they're always asleep at 8:30 (yeah, our church just moved to the early one) and they LOVE to take home stuff.

Tape the hearts with phrases and a number on each of them (the number is actually the page number, but I won’t tell them that). Have everyone check under their chairs for a special Valentine from me. Everyone will get one. I have the same phrases/page numbers on a pile of identical hearts so I can choose one from the pile. If I choose the conversational heart with “I DO” written on it, then the person with that Valentine can help me with that song. First, they can guess what song it is that could possibly have that phrase (or one similar to it) within the song. If they can think of a song other than the one I chose, - and our pianist and chorister both know it - , then we can sing either that song or the one I came up with. If they need a hint figuring out the song, the pianist can play the first few notes in “Name that Tune” fashion. Fun stuff. Good news: I can cheat and place the songs I want to do fo’ sho’ on the top of the pile I choose from so we sing those first! Hurray for “How Firm a Foundation” and “I Lived in Heaven”!

Oh, snap! I forgot that tables don't copy to Blogger. Sorry, fellow choristers, if this doesn't help at all. It is literally the 11th hour and I really don't want to reformat all this!

Page
Phrase
Special
Song
4
Choose Me
Hide the note
I Lived in Heaven
281
Wise Up
X
The Wise Man and the Foolish Man
276
Follow Me
O
Do as I’m Doing
61
Heart
X
Jesus Said Love Everyone
95
Promise
O
I Love to See the Temple
266
Happy
X
If You’re Happy
163
URA Star
O
I Am Like a Star
253
Fun
X
Fun to Do
207
I Do
O
Mother, I Love You
245
Cool
X
Oh, What Do You Do in the Summertime?
136
Loved You
O
Love One Another
H85
Excellent
Hide the Note
How Firm a Foundation
5
Loves Me
X
I Know My Father Lives
208
I Love You
O
The Dearest Names
177
Teach Me
X
Teach Me to Walk in the Light
156
Shhh!
O
The Chapel Doors
103
The Best
Word King
When I am Baptized
210
Big Kiss
Word King
Daddy’s Homecoming
188
4 Ever
Hide the Note
Families Can be Together Forever
198
Help Me
X
When We’re Helping
20
Hug Me
O
Grandmother
198
Love
X
A Happy Family
267
Smiles
O
Smiles (If You Chance to Meet a Frown)

Another Conversational Heart idea that might work better:
Put little crowns on some (word king), X’s on some (tic-tac-toe), O’s on some (tic-tac-toe), notes on some (hide the note), etc. We’ll see. That might not work.

Other cute ideas I may use tomorrow:

Sugardoodle had this cute idea. Senior will love it:
I did this a few weeks ago. Both junior and senior primary enjoyed it. I wrote a song on the board. We sang one verse. They had to think of a song using one of the title words. I wrote down that song. We sang it. As long as you keep it very verbal for pre-readers in junior primary, it works. (Found this on Sugardoodle.)

XOXO Tic-Tac-Toe idea:
Do tic-tac-toe and have the “X” or “kiss” team, and the “O” or “hug” team. Have each team come up with a song that talks about love, then after we sing it, they get to put an X or O on the board. This is my back-up’s back-up idea. I always have multiple back up plans. Nothing ever goes as expected.

How Firm a Foundation explanation

Okay, here's what I did with the quick idea I threw up on the blog the other day:

Junior: I brought "Pete the Repeat Parakeet" and we would put up one row of bricks at a time, then repeat in our best parakeet voices, then sing it. When we got bored, wiggly, confused, etc. we threw in an additional song too. To teach about what a foundation was, we sang "The Wise Man and the Foolish Man". To teach about "laid" (like a Mason lays a brick), we sang "Once there Was a Snowman" and ended up laying on the floor. We also sang "excellent word" several times because I told them it was cool that we got to stretch "excellent" over so many notes. Actually it was because they were already getting lost in the song and all the bricks. We didn't make it past that row of bricks, we were too out of it to keep going. When we needed a break, we also sang the first verse of "I Lived in Heaven", which they actually knew much better than I thought they would. Also, we sang a couple favorite wiggle songs to break up HFAF as well.

Senior: I laid the brick as if I were a Mason (and we talked a bit about foundations, sang "Wise Man & Foolish Man", talked about how my dad was a Mason when he was young and what I knew about Masonry - not much). As I laid a brick, they read out loud the word so we would have something to do while I put up all the words. Then we sang it one time through. Then I started passing around my bag full of the cards/category questions, etc. around the room. (I made them raise their right hand and vow not to hold it for longer than 2 seconds since a few kids like to be naughty). When the music stopped, they pull out a card and we do what it says.

I'll post about word king and hide the note later, but I'm late to work for now. Sugardoodle or Primusic should have those two games defined...

How Firm a Foundation

Special thanks to Arizona Girl for the awesome brick idea, I loved it and borrowed it. I think I'll use some hard core magnets to keep them on the white board. We're going to build our house up, then I'll toss a paper roof on top once our foundation is laid.

Also thanks to the idea on Primusic (the Yahoo group) (at least I think that's where I read the idea), which tossed out the idea of using Uno Attack to spit out cards to primary kids to get them all involved. I don't have Uno Attack, but I started making cards as if I was going to go buy it. Now that I think about it, I won't since we rarely even use our regular Uno game. So, I'm going to use the following cards as a game once we learn the first verse.

As you can see, I had some trivia cards (thanks to the Primusic group for the first few trivia questions - they came up with those), some "take away" cards (which comes from Arizona Girl's idea of turning around the bricks as the kids learn the words), some "Mix it up" cards, word king, hide-the-note, "music moment" (the repeat signs were another idea by Arizona girl & I thought today would be a good day to teach about those. Also can use the music leading instruction I taught last month for this category), and vocab/spelling (the vocab questions will hopefully help clarify some harder words that have multiple meanings).

1. Trivia: what kind of foundation should we have?
2. Trivia: What sentence is repeated 3 times?
3. trivia: How will Heavenly Father give us aid? (name 1 unnamed of the 3 promises)
4. trivia: how will Heavenly Father give us aid? (name 1 unnamed of the 3 promises)
5. trivia: how will heavenly father give us aid? (name 1 unnamed of 3 promises)
1. Take away 1 word
2. take away 2 words
3. take away 3 words
4. take away 4 words
5. take away 5 words
1. Mix it up!!! Mix up one line and you put it back together while we sing through it.
2. Mix it up!!! Mix up one line and you put it back together while we sing through it.
3. Mix it up!!! Mix up one line and you put it back together while we sing through it.
4. Mix it up!!! Mix up one line and you put it back together while we sing through it.
5. Mix it up!!! Mix up one line and you put it back together while we sing through it.
1. Word King
2. Word King
3. Word King
4. Word King
5. Word King
1. Hide the Note
2. Hide the Note
3. Hide the Note
4. Hide the Note
5. Hide the Note
1. Music moment: draw a repeat sign for me.
2. music moment: guess how many beats per measure?
3. music moment: Show me how to conduct one measure. I’ll draw it on the board.
4. Music moment: you or your teacher gets to lead us in singing the song one time!
5. Music moment: Let’s work on our crescendo and decrescendo. Start every other line <>
1. Vocab time: Define “refuge” as used in this song
2. Vocab time: define “laid” as used in this song
3. vocab time: define what “His excellent word” might be, as used in this song.
4. Spelling time: can you spell the fourth row, 2nd brick word correctly (not like sis. Carp spelled it)
5. Spelling time: can you spell the word used twice with a black background and a yellow number on it (the real way, as used in the song)

6. Vocab time: define "fled" as used in this song

Whew.

There's my general lesson plan. I'll refine and rerefine about a thousand times before tomorrow, but I thought I'd toss it up real quick with the general idea.

I Lived in Heaven: week 2

Junior Primary:
Got a call from the presidency member who’s in charge of sharing time tomorrow and she’d like to combine both sharing and singing this week, as we’re supposed to be doing. Hopefully singing and sharing time will be all together the whole time, so I won’t have to do much singing time by itself. During sharing time, we are to sing “I Will Follow God’s Plan” (164) and “I Lived in Heaven” (4). Also, we’re to sing a missionary song (“I Hope They Call Me on a Mission” 169), a family song (“Families Can be Together Forever” 188 or “Love is Spoken Here” 190), and a service song (“Called to Serve” 174). I’ll be getting a cheat sheet for “IWFGP” since I don’t know how well we know it. (Thanks, Jolly Jenn: http://www.jollyjenn.com/IWillFollow.pdf)
If we do have additional singing time, we can continue with verse 2 since junior sort of went over it, though I doubt they will remember any of it. We did the “play” last week, but I thought we could sing the verse a few times with some games and then do the play again, but ask the questions to the group every now and then and see if they know the next line.
Activities to review verse 2:
Pass out one line to each class and have them learn their line really well. Then hopefully each class can sing their line by themselves at least one time through. Maybe we’ll have one class stand up in front and the rest of the groups will sing all the other lines except the class’s line. So if class 6 has the line about “There was another who sought for the honor divine,” we’ll sing the first, second, and fourth lines around it while that class only sings the third.
As we sing through the verse each time and pass off the line that the class is to sing, I’ll let them place a note on a musical staff (only one measure) I’ll draw on the board. If we can get all four lines, we can have a whole measure of music for our pianist to play! Our awesome composition ought to be very interesting…

Senior Primary:
We’ll just work on memorizing verse 2 and then start on 3 if we have lots of time. So, we can use the “skit” from last week since we only got to do the first verse. We can also do the blue/black back-n-forth game with the word strips from the “skit” thing. If that’s not fun, we can try out the notes/measure activity.
Also wanted to review 6/8 time… that’s a fun one. I thought I’d have the kids listen as Sis. Lofgren plays the song (I Lived in Heaven #4) through and I’d ask how many beats they can hear in each measure. (We might want to do this after the measure/note game above so they can see what a measure is and stuff. Unfortunately, I just did two quarter notes, a half note, and a whole note, so the board’s measure will be 6/4 time instead – that’s hard to explain, so I might just skip it, I’m not sure what I’ll do.) Anyway, I’m sure someone will hear that there’s 6 beats per measure, then we can try to learn a bit about conducting 6/8 time, then some helpers who’re interested can do the leading so I can have a break every once in a while. Whew, a break sounds nice.

Resolution Tic-Tac-Toe

I called in sick last week to primary, as everyone at work decided to pass around some sort of stomach flu or something. However, I had a lesson ready to go. Sharing time went over, so they didn't need to use it, but it's still a fairly simple idea and I LOVE simple ideas after years of primary chorister-ing!

Chop up a bunch of X's and a bunch of O's and number 9 squares 1 through 9. Behind the squares goes the different page numbers to songs and one little phrase from that song that could be really great goals (or resolutions) for the new year. I wanted to do a "top ten" songs chosen by the primary kids for the year, but basically the kids just choose whatever we sang last week when I ask them their favorites, so I just wrote down several they chose from the snow ball day a few weeks ago. Here was our songs and phrases that could pass as resolutions:

1. A Child's Prayer, p. 12: "In prayer, I'm coming now to thee"
2. Sunbeam p. 60: "Shine for Him each day" or "...try to please Him"
3. Once There Was a Sonwman, p. 249: stand "tall, tall, tall"
4. Book of Mormon Stories, p. 118: "We must brother's be..."
5. My Hands, p. 273: "Just see how quet they can be"
6. I Am a Child of God, p. 2: "Learn to do His will"
7. Armies of Helaman, p. 172: "...we understand, that we must do as the Lord commands"
8. Scripture Power: "...I'm changing what I'll be..."
9. Your teacher's favorite song

When X or O chooses a number, then I read off the "resolution phrase" and if they can figure out the song they get to place their X or O in the square. If not, we move on or whatever. When they guess the right one, we sing it and then hopefully talk about the resolution/goal and how to achieve that goal of being a little bit better. Fun stuff.

I don't know if it works well, but thought I'd put it on the blog for those of us who occasionally wait until the eleventh hour to plan a lesson! Shoot, it's still the first month of the year, it's not too late to make 2009 resolutions... I am the queen of celebrating holidays/etc. after the actual holiday!

I Lived in Heaven

CS 4

Contributors to ePrimary had the cutest ideas, and I will borrow big time from this one:
http://www.eprimary.dk/index_uk.htm

This gal wrote up a little skit of sorts that asks all the questions answered in the song "I Lived in Heaven". I'm sure the kids know much of this song, but really listening to the words is probably a good idea since we don't always hear what we're singing if we sung it a thousand times! Each class that sings/is reverent will be chosen and their teachers will play "ME" and "Friend" in the little play. I think it'll be cute.

Then, as the questions are answered, I'll tape the word strips up on the whiteboard. I have them colored 2 colors, just alternating so that we can play games where we mix it up after we sing it a few times. I'll probably have the west half of the room sing the blue lines and the eastern half sing black or whatev. We'll take "intermission" breaks after each verse answered in the skit so then more teachers can act and we can sing it a couple times in between each third of the play. I'll probably stretch it out over 2 weeks unless I have a ton of time. We'll see.

Here's her (Jenny on ePrimary) cute skit thing:

ME
Did you know that " I lived in heaven" ?
Friend
You did? When?
ME
"A long time ago"
Friend
No way......really?
ME
"It is true" (I shared that this statement would be a bold one, not said with a soft tone but a firm conviction)
Friend
What did you do there?
ME
"Lived there and loved there "
Friend
With who?
ME
"With people I know, so did you!"
Friend
What happened there?
ME
Then Heavenly Father presented a beautiful plan
Friend
What about?
ME
All about earth
Friend
Anything else?
ME
and eternal salvation for man.
Friend
How could we live with God forever again?
ME
Father said he needed someone who had enough love
Friend
To do what?
ME
To give his life
Friend
Why?
ME
so we all could return there above
Friend
What a great blessing!
ME
There was another
Friend
Who? Satan?
ME
who sought for the honor divine
Friend
Oh no! What happened?
ME (nod head yes)
Jesus said, "Father, send me, and the glory be thine."
Friend
Was Jesus chosen?
ME
Jesus was chosen
Friend
Then what did he do?
ME
As the Messiah he came
Friend
What does a Messiah do?
ME
Conquering evil and death,
Friend
Wow! How did he do that?
ME
Through his glorious name
Friend
What did His sacrifice do for us?
ME
Giving us hope
Friend
Hope for what?
ME
of a wonderful life yet to be
Friend
What life is that?
ME
Home in that heaven
Friend
Is anyone we know in heaven?
ME
where Father is waiting for me.
Friend
Wow! I hope to return there someday too!

Stuffing Stockings

Thought this was super cute, we'll try it tomorrow.

Thank you, Sugardoodle:

http://www.sugardoodle.net/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1811&Itemid=405

Have a stocking filled with little tiny presents and a tag attached stating a gift that Heavenly Father and Jesus have given to us. Also have a white stocking for Jesus and when a child drew out a gift, they in turn had to write on a piece of paper something they could give Jesus for Christmas and try to do throughout the year, then they put it in the white stocking. Then the child that drew out the tiny gift, hid it and we did the hot and cold game while singing a song. Keep all the slips from that year still in Jesus' stocking and take them out the next year and see how the children did over the last year. Also passed slips out to all of them so the stocking is full of gifts for Jesus from the whole Primary.

Learning Names

Okay, I thought I'd throw this one out there too.

I was substituting at primary pianist (which is the best calling in the church, by the way) in the old ward and the chorister did the world's greatest name game. She sang "Here We are Together" and had each primary child sing their name during the "There's (name) and (name)" lines. You end up singing the "(name) and (name)" like a thousand times and the kids love it! I can hardly keep up, but they do really well.

To make it easier on the kids, I bring in a little hand puppet duck that we lovingly named "Mr. Quackers" then changed to "Brother Quackers" last Sunday. First I tell them that sometimes I get nervous singing up in front of them, so I bring a friend occasionally. I tell them it's not as intimidating if we sing our name to Mr. Quackers because he's very nice and cute. But if that's even scary for us we can just say our name when it's our turn. Even the shy kids seem to like it. Two sunbeams opted not to do it, but it worked just fine because I actually remembered their names!

I did this my first week to start to learn names months ago and last Sunday was a test to see how many I remembered. I did okay, but I've got the worst memory ever. How can I be so old at 23? I think my son's aged me several decades. Anyway... I hope to post a picture of Mr. Quackers just because he's so cute! Sometime after Thursday...

Snow Day

We all drew pictures of our favorite songs on some white recycled paper my husband was throwing away. Then we crumpled up our masterpieces into little balls and had a snowball fight! Okay, not actually a fight, but the activity turned out really well. In junior, each class stood up and aimed for my little snowball-catcher (a recycled giant can that had way too many peaches in it). Whomever made a shot or at least got the closest had their favorite song sung. It ended up being super fun, but still spiritual because some of the kids really love the classics like "I am a Child of God", "Armies of Helaman", "I Love to See the Temple", etc. Then of course we had to sing "Once There Was a Snowman" and the like.

I'm trying really hard to learn how to have lots of fun while keeping the reverence in primary. I think it's unrealistic for me to expect the kids to never have any wiggles, so I figure I can help them sing some really great music while enjoying themselves. A big thing that seems to help tame is to ask from the very first minute for their reverence and help in our fun singing time. In senior, I tend to have to even "threaten" (naughty word, I know) to take away the fun and do a less-fun activity in its place... But then if we ever have a super fun song or extra wiggly moment, we take a minute to calm down before we move on or maybe even change the rules to a song or something. If we sang "Head, Shoulders" all fast and crazy the last time, then we'll sing it one last time in the most calm and reverent way possible, ending in our chairs with our arms folded. That works, but they start to catch on after a while to my plan! Oh well, it works the first time at least!

Hope to post pictures later... It's finals week. Maybe I'll do it after Thursday!

Post-Thanksgiving Thanks

Borrowed almost exclusively from Sugardoodle.net today. "Thankful Jar" and "Thankerchief" were too cute and I am not opposed to celebrating holidays a week late. I'm usually about a week late in everything, so here's my thankful lesson one week late!

JR: 3:10-3:30

This Thanksgiving singing time was very successful in my ward. I typed up a bunch of slips that asks the children to tell about something they are thankful for. For example, "Name a food you are thankful for" and "Name something you can hear with your ears that you are thankful for" and so on. Then I attached songs to some of the ideas. "Tell something you are thankful for in your home...p. 192" I put all of the slips in a big clear plastic jar and made a label that said "Our Thankful Jar" with a little turkey below. The children pulled a slip of paper out of the jar. If a song was attached, we sang it. If there was no song, they answered the question and someone else got a turn. This made it so more children could participate. This was really easy and didn't involve much preparation. - Mindy Burns (sugardoodle)

The songs (I changed a few to what our pianist knows):
210 Daddy’s Homecoming
207 Mother I Love You
236 Give Said the Little Stream
188 Families Can Be Together Forever
275 Head, Shoulders, Knees
249 Once There Was a Snowman
192 Home
57 Tell Me the Stories
77 I Belong to the Church
146 Keep the Commandments
214 Pioneer Children Sang as They Walked
242 Popcorn Popping

Hopefully I'll post pictures later. We'll see...

Sr 3:55-4:15:
Pass a "thankerchief" around the primary room, as everyone recites this poem:THANKERCHIEF, THANKERCHIEF, AROUND YOU GO—
WHERE YOU'LL STOP, NOBODY KNOWS.BUT WHEN YOU DO, SOMEONE MUST SAY,WHAT THEY ARE THANKFUL FOR THIS DAY.The player holding the "thankerchief" when the poem ends, must say aloud, one thing for which they are thankful. This continues until everyone has had their turn. - Debbie Loveland (sugardoodle)

Whoever it lands on says what they're thankful for, then we come up with a song that has to do with that blessing.

Nursery: I might want to teach them "Roll Your Hands" because I think they'd love it.

Our program was the bomb.

We finished! The kids are amazing! They could have done it without me I swear!

No break from singing time today, we kept plugging away. Happy Turkey Day... gobble gobble.

I planned on doing "pin the hat on the turkey", but we had little time in junior and senior was too wild to do anything fun. We lasted one pinning in senior before I had to take that one away. Bummer. I got a "pin the hat on the turkey" package at Target in their sweet $1 bins. It would have worked well without a wild primary. Oh well, the one go at it was fun.


Next week we might all get a white piece of paper, write our favorite song on it, crumple it up, and have a "snowball" toss. We could have each class toss at the same time and the closest snowball to the target is the song we sing. Then, if we have extra time, we could have the teachers try one round at it or the presidency or something. The kids would love that I'm sure. Just an idea.

1 more week...

Sorry, no new and exciting things to post. We practiced the program the last two Sundays and our ward is the bomb because we don't do Saturday practice! I've always thought the Saturday practices were a bit silly and since these kids are the greatest group EVER they certainly don't need it. The practices weren't perfect, but they were pretty darn good.

The only new news:
We're singing more of "WTTOGFAP" than we originally thought, so I just cut up my huge poster of verse 2 and inserted in page protecters, followed by the words for verse 3. I use the flip chart of words as I squat on the stand behind the mic. It's great. Only half the kids can read and half of them can't see the words, but it'll all be okay. It works better than waving a giant sign.

One more week until we get to sing new songs!!!!!

Program Practice

Sorry no posts lately. We had regional conference last week. If I didn't have a 17-month-old I might have been able to hear more of it. Either way, what I did hear (since my husband and I took turns with the monkey) sounded wonderful.

For program practice today, we just ran through everything. A few awesome ideas I've incorporated into my own agenda include ideas from everyone at Yahoo group/Julie's Singing Time/Sugardoodle/etc. Here they are:

1. print all music and place in book in the right order. I also found out today that I'm in charge of running the whole thing since I sit right behind the stand to lead the music, so I added the children's parts in between all the songs so I can help out there too.

2. give the kids a 1-2-3 warning before standing. As soon as the intro starts, they must give me their eyes. Then I give them the 1-2-3, then the overexaggerated stand up sign. It works aight-we'll see if they're a little more attentive in a few weeks!

3. a few key words for IAACOG verses since we're singing v. 4 seperately from the rest of the song. I still haven't taken a pic of my signs, but oh well. Mine are pretty lame anyway.

I had a back up plan to entice the kids to sing louder since I didn't get a helium balloon for that motivation yet. I used the lips I had back for watermelon seed spitting day and cut a bigger hole. Then I was going to have a teacher blow up the balloon as the singing was strong and beautiful or whatev (kind of like the "Bubblegum Billy" or Sugardoodle/Sing a Song Journal and the like). We didn't do it today, but we'll have it for next week if we need it! Also, the helium balloon thing that everybody does seems to be a great idea too. Check out ANY of the links (especially sugardoodle) to find out what that's all about...

Well I'm sick and have a 5+ page paper to write tonight. The practice went GREAT, our kids are amazing. I'm not stressing about the program because, well, have you ever seen a bad program? No matter what I mess up, the kids are going to knock it out of the park because they are that cool.

It's official: LIFE IS CRAZY

Just wanted to write my late-Saturday-night thought real quick since this is as close to a journal as I've got.

Life is crazy...

So many aspects of life are hard. Most everything in life that is worth doing requires hard work. I'm no busy ant lifting 1,000 times my bodyweight or anything, but I do realize that the things in my own life that are worth my time and energy are very tiring. Exhibit A: my child. Exhibit B: my husband. Exhibit C: my education. Exhibit D: my calling. Exhibit E: my physical fitness. And I can't even remember what comes after E in the alphabet, so I'll stop there.

...but it is worth it.

I've had more ups and downs over the past 3 years than I know what to do with. But guess what? The downs are totally worth the awesome ups. I just need to remember that. I thank my Heavenly Father so much for both my ups and my downs. I pray for forgiveness for not thanking Him enough, but I know He loves me enough to put up with my self-inflicted downs. For instance, if I wasn't staying up until 1:18 am to finish my lesson for the following day, then I might be a little more rested when the time comes to share my lesson. Or not. Who knows?

10.26.08 - Repeat Parakeet and Sudoku

I promise one day I'll post all the pictures I've taken of my lessons. I'm sure of it. Just don't hold your breath.
EDIT: YAY I POSTED ONE! HERE'S THE EASY SUDOKU VERSION FOR JR. HOPEFULLY I'LL FIND THE SR ONE TOO TO TAKE A PIC. WE'LL SEE:
JUNIOR: We just gotta keep plugging away at really learning the program songs, so we'll hang out with "Pete the Repeat Parakeet" again. I'm pretty sure I have a picture of him several posts ago. The kids loved him and I even had a teacher compliment that one, so I think it's time he came back to say hello. EDIT: INSTEAD OF PARAKEET, I JUST DID AN EASY SUDOKU FOR JR. THEY LOVED IT, BUT WERE CRAZY, SO WE TRIED TO JUST FOCUS ON THE REVERENCE. I WAS WORRIED IT WAS EITHER TOO EASY OR TOO HARD, BUT IT WORKED OUT OKAY.

SENIOR: My dad's a primary teacher (lucky) and his chorister created a giant Sudoku game board. The kids were to figure out the covered numbers. I will probably put all 9 up on the game and we'll try to cruise through as many as possible. If it's a game, then senior is in. They're awesome with a little competition... (shh, don't tell). I'll choose one or two numbers from most of the groups of 9 to a square. Each will match up to a program song. If we sing the song well, we can uncover and move on. If we sing the song poorly, we'll recover and move on. They should love it assuming they're not too crazy. If we're out of hand, we can just continue with the scrambled song titles from last week or just simply sing praises. Whatev.

Just for my own info, here's a list of who's singing what for p-day (i originally put d-day but thought that was a little awkward):

IAACOG
1. young 5-yr-old girls
2. whole primary
3. whole primary

TMTSOJ
1. whole primary
2. not sure yet
3. whole primary

WJCWB
1. whole primary
2. whole primary

ITSSBM
1. whole primary
2. whole primary
3. whole primary

Home
1. duet
2. family? or activity day girls (8+)?
3. whole primary

WTTOGFAP
1. whole primary
2. whole primary
3. congregation with primary

ILTSTT
1. whole primary
2. whole I think - ASL?

CTS
1. whole primary
2. whole primary

IAACOG
4. whole primary - THE END

10.19.08 Lesson Overview

10.19.08 was backward day. Or crazy mixed-up day. I can't remember what I called it. Basically, we sang the program songs in the backward order.

In junior for our wiggle song(s), we sang "Head Shoulders" backwards and "Roll Your Hands" as backwards as can be. If that doesn't make sense, then I'm sorry. It was a silly singing time, but effective. The kids were rowdy if I remember right, so we had some very reverent music to wind down (I am a Child of God), then we sang that (IAACOG) several times until the rowdiness mellowed a bit. In both junior and senior we worked on IAACOG with a simple cue card I made for each verse. We're singing the 4th verse separately from the other 3 verses, so I want to be sure they know what we sing when.

verse 1: envelope with "sent" written on it
verse 2: the letters "GR" with an "8" next to them (get it, gr8=great? i was tired)
verse 3: dollar bill with "blessings" (yeah, I know that's a poor way to symbolize "rich blessings", but I'm exhausted with these program songs)
verse 4: a gold crown with "promises" written under it

The only variation in senior primary was that I had all the song titles scrambled up and I gave a chosen reverent helper to try to unscramble and figure out which song was last/second to last/etc. They LOVED unscrambling the song titles. And they sang super well today, too.

We had good singers, so I guess I can't ask for more!

10.12.08 Singing 10K Race

Boy, was that break for conference nice or what? I got to enjoy talks without thinking, "Oh snap, did I remember to pack the broom for the junior primary singing time activity?" or "I don't remember filling up the sippy cup, the baby's not going to like that," or "Wait, will senior primary really respond well to my puzzle activity or should I change it to the backup straw activity?"

And now, we're back to real life. This lesson was great in theory. Senior responded okay, junior didn't totally understand I think (but got a kick out of counting 10 "k"'s all over the room). The biggest problem was that half the primary was out of town. But oh well, it was still fun.

I told the kids that I was running a 10k race next month (then quickly changed my terminology to "finishing" rather than "running"). To finish, I had to work hard and train a little bit every day so I could do well. Similarly, they've been training for 10 months for our primary program. Around the room I had 10 K's, each with a program song written on them in the order we'll sing them in the program.

To keep our place in the activity, I made a giant shoe connected to a sock-covered broom (I actually used some old school pink leg warmers - it was awesome). Half way through JR, I told them I was tired and needed a drink, so I had one helper choose a number off my water bottle. We sang the wiggle song that was found at that number. It was a nice little "water break" in our race. We ran a 5k in junior and an 8k in senior. It was fun. Neither made their way to the 10th "K", which had a finish line that we wanted to cross, but it was still fun.

Senior really knows all the songs very well, but there aren't very many in senior primary. Our bulk is in junior. Junior knows all the first verses to songs, but then they falter a bit after verse 1. I think we'll be fine in the long run (plus when have you ever seen a primary program not go well?), but I'd like to cram some more words into their heads. I gotta keep thinking of ideas to repeat the harder songs. We'll see.

9.28.08 Tentative Primary Music Plan

JR: 3:10-3:30

We will borrow from Sugardoodle’s “Dusty songs on a washday” idea that said:

Write the names of songs being reviewed on a different piece of wallpaper (or scrapbook paper or fabric) cut in the shape of little dresses, shirts, shorts, socks, etc. Place these items in a laundry basket. Tie a small rope clothesline at the front of Primary and be sure to include some clothespins for hanging the items on the line. Explain that we've waited so long to practice some of our songs they have become dusty and dingy. We've got a whole batch of songs that we will need to wash up and hang out to dry. Have children take turns selecting an item out of the basket on the clothesline to determine which songs will be practiced.

…But will have just program songs. Each verse will have its own piece of clothing. If a song has one verse, it will be a dress. If it has 4 verses, it will have shirt/shorts/socks/hat or something. One per verse. If we don’t clean the dusty song, then it’ll go back to the hamper! They also choose one clothespin per article of clothing, which has a way to sing on it (like a capella, upd/down, legato, strong/soft, hot/cold, etc.).

Songs:
When Jesus Christ was Baptized x2 (p. 102)
Home x3 (p. 192)
I Love to See the Temple x2 (p. 95)
We thank Thee O God x1 (H19)
Called to Serve x2 (p. 174)
If the Savior Stood x3 (book)
Tell Me the Stories of Jesus x 3 (p. 57)
I Am a Child of God x4 (p.2)

TO do before primary:
Tape articles of clothing all around the room
Hang up clothesline (one side)
Prep help for 2nd verse of “tell me the stories”

SR: 3:55-4:14

Borrowed from Christy's Clipart:

APPLE BASKET TOSS: Using an apple basket with 5 plastic cups glued to the bottom, the children toss a Ping-Pong ball in hopes it will land in one of the cups. Each cup except for the center cup has a color on the bottom. The center cup is a free choice. When the ball lands in the "red cup", the player selects a "red song". Write songs on different colored pieces of paper, (4 of each). Some days it is very hard to have the ball land in a cup. This is a perfect game to learn a song with. If they miss the cups, we learn another line of the song! The children love this! -Danae Leavitt

Changed this one up a bit, but it's pretty adaptable to any primary. I couldn't find a ping pong ball (weird, I know) so I wrote each verse of each song on a strip of paper and folded them up into those mini footballs. They were just like the ones I used to do with my brothers during general conference when we were "listening" growing up. I would never do that now that I'm an adult, though...

This was the plan:

Last Sunday we reviewed a bunch again. Here's a quick overview. Pictures would help explain, maybe I'll post some.

Here was the original plan (which changed considerably):

JR: 3:10-3:30
Junior needs special help on:
Tell Me the Stories verse 2
Tell Me the Stories verse 3
When Jesus Christ was Baptized verse 2
If the Savior Stood verse 2
If the Savior Stood verse 3
We Thank Thee O God verse 1
I Love to See the Temple verse 2
Home verse 3
Home verse 2
Home verse 1
I am a Child of God verse 4
If the Savior Stood verse 1

And probably many more, but we’ll focus on these ones. I stole Julie’s Singing Time’s 2nd verse for “Tell Me the Stories” verse 2, and then we have actions we use for verse 3. “When JC was B” second verse I have some ASL signs I started teaching, but I’m not sure how much they helped.
The kite idea was a success last week, so maybe I’ll use that one again. Maybe I’ll add some flip charts since we don’t know any songs. We can do actions too. Maybe we’ll even do some hot/cold in order to repeat the verse(s) once or twice.

SR: 3:55-4:14
Senior will get some words and we’ll rearrange, take away, etc.

I’ll go ahead and make it a giant puzzle, then when we complete the verses, we’ll play word king and hot/cold. Tons of fun.

“Tell Me the Stories” questions: Thank you, “A Children’s Songbook Companion” by Graham/GourleyShipp/Stewart
v.2:
what is the word that means Jesus’ face had a special glow? (Lovelight)
what words describe Jsus’ words and deeds? (words full of kindness, deed full of grace acts of love)
what shall I imagine? (His blessings resting on me)
What do I want to hear first? (how the children stood round his knee)

v. 3:
1. what did Jesus do to the wind? (hushed the wind)
2. what did Jesus do to the billows? (chided (scolded))
3. what two words describe the Master? (ready and kind)
4. where was the boat tossing? (in a tempest on Galilee)
5. What do I want to be told in accents of wonder? (how rolled the sea) explain that accents of wonder means “words of amazement”

Note to self

As of Sunday, here's a list of the songs we really don't know:

Well, pretty much all of them, but the real challenges include...

1. Tell Me the Stories verse 2
2. Tell Me the Stories verse 3
3. When Jesus Christ was Baptized verse 2
4. If the Savior Stood verse 2
5. If the Savior Stood verse 3

and maybe even...

1. Called to Serve verse 2
2. Home verse 3
3. Home verse 2
4. Home verse 1
5. I am a Child of God verse 4
6. We Thank Thee O God verse 1 (the only one we're doing there)
7. If the Savior Stood verse 1
8. I Love to See Temple verse 2 (need to work on ASL)

Well, that's pretty much all. Oh dang, we have a lot of work to do in the next two months.

How to learn these ones quickly: JUNIOR responds to actions. They love it and movement is the only thing that captures their attentions. SENIOR responds to real ASL signs. Actions aren't so exciting. They also like to read the songs word-for-word, but that's no bueno. TEACHERS do best when I have the words straight up written on the board or on pictures or something. But that's cheating, so I don't know what to do.