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.