Follow the Prophet Fun

I am struggling SO MUCH when it comes to finding the time to sit down and share what I am doing with my primary kids.  Being a wife and a mom to 4 teenagers and a tween, a private piano teacher of 17 students, and the primary chorister, I find it a miracle that I am mostly sane!  MOSTLY :)

Rather than try to catch up on what I HAVEN' T been able to blog, I will just blog when and what I can.  So for tomorrow, the last Sunday of May, we will be playing a review game with this month's song, "Follow the Prophet".  It is a word game.  We are singing 2 verses in the program, so I have made 2 stacks of word cards; one for each verse and a 3rd stack for the chorus.  Each verse stack contains one card for each word I wrote.

Stack 1 contains the following words:  Heavn'ly Father, loves, wants, return, blesses, prophets, help, learn, Pres'dent Monson, humbly, leads, God's, church, today, heed, words, walk, righteous, way

Stack 2 contains the following words:  Now, we, world, where, people, confused, you, don't, believe, go, watch, news, can, direction, along, way, heed, prophets, follow, what, they, say

Stack 3 contains only 5 cards with the following WAYS to sing the verse:  
       Rhythm:  lap, lap, clap, snap, clap
       Sing Popcorn Style (staccato)
       High-Five your neighbor as you sing the word "Follow".
       Rhythm:  Do a rhythm pattern with your neighbor. (nothing silly or too complicated)
       March:  1 row of children will march around the room while everyone else marches in place.
                    (I may get the prophet sticks from my nursery bucket for the row of marchers to hold)

Stack 3 has only 5 cards.  We will shuffle them if we end up re-using them.  

HOW TO PLAY
Place the numbered stacks face down in their own stack.  I have a wooden dice my husband made for me.  I have written only numbers 1, 2, and 3 on it.  A child will be chosen to roll the dice and a card 
will be picked from the corresponding stack of cards.  If it is from stack 1 or 2, I will choose a child to go out into the hall.  When they are out there, I will tell the remaining kids what the word is.  They will be instructed to NOT sing that word.  When the child from the hall comes back in, they will stand up front with me and listen to everyone sing the verse, hopefully guessing correctly which word was left out.  This will require the other kids to WATCH me and hopefully be able to accomplish this task.  I'll have to pull out Snappy Bob.  That's another post I've been wanting to share with you!   If a 3 is rolled, then everyone will participate in the action of singing the chorus. Then we will continue to play as time allows.

The words to verse 1 were published in The Friend in 2010.  
Heavn'ly Father loves us and wants us to return.
He blesses us with prophets who help us all to learn.
Pres'dent Monson humbly leads God's church today.
I we heed his words, we'll walk a righteous way.

Verse 2 is just verse 9 as written in the Children's Songbook.

For Sr. Primary you could have the "guessing" child stand at the front with a headband or hat on with the word card attached for everyone else to see.  I have a fancy flowery fruit hat we could use.  The kids will love wearing it!

Have a safe Memorial Day Weekend!

Banana Split, YUM!

While I had Sr. Primary Singing Time ready for this last Sunday, I was struggling with what to do for Jr. Primary.  I came across an envelope in my Primary Box at home that was full of items I used a couple of months after I was first called as a chorister a year and a half ago.  I had made pieces of different food items out of construction paper and poster board.  I had a different food for each verse of a song the kids had yet to memorize for the program.  This was prior to me starting this blog, so there's not a post to refer you to.  But I distinctly remember taking pictures:) 

I decided to use the Banana Split for the 2nd verse of "Build An Ark".  Each part of the song (remember there are 4 distinct parts) was assigned to a portion of the Banana Split. As they learned & SANG convincingly each part, they would get to add specific items to the ice cream dish to build the Banana Split.  I used 1-2 pictures per part from a flip chart to help them along.  But other than that, they had to memorize each word!

We started with the red poster board with a VERY fancy ice cream dish drawn on it by me, obviously:)  I placed it as low as I could on the chalk board.  I had the balls of colorful ice cream and all the yummy toppings poster puttied to a wax paper covered piece of cardboard on the side.  This made it simple and quick to just pull them off & immediately have the kids place them on the dish.  I allowed 1 child per scoop, cherry, etc..  LOTS of little helpers! 

This is how I divided up the song and assigned the ice cream parts

Ice Cream Scoops: The first 2 lines of Part A- "I can be like Noah, YES! I can be prepared.  I can build my ark and I'll find safe shelter there."

Hot Fudge: Part B- "I can do the things I know are right.  I can learn and pray with all my might."

Banana: 3rd line of Part A- "And then when storm clouds come I'll be safe within my ark."

Whip Cream: Part C- "I will build my ark before it starts to rain. I will follow the prophet, for he speaks in God's name."

Cherries: Part D- "I'll prepare ev'ry needful thing. I will walk in righteous ways. When the rain starts to fall on me, I'll be ready for that day."

The Jr. Primary kids were so excited to build the Banana Split!  Several little girl Sunbeams "called" the pink ice cream:)  They earned those scoops really quick!  The Hot Fudge called for a bit more work & imagination before I let them add it.  We finally ended up ASL signing the words "do, right, learn, pray, might" before they passed.  The rest of the song went well and there were only a few kids that didn't get a chance to come up and add a piece to the Banana Split.  But it was a beautifully created Split with dripping hot fudge & melting whip cream.  Some of the Sunbeams claimed it looked good enough to eat!  I whole heartedly agreed:)  

Here are pictures of the other 2 food items I had made way back when.  Same idea: a phrase or part of the song assigned to each "topping".  Build your pizza & cheeseburgers (and Banana Split for dessert) while memorizing a program song!  Or maybe just a fun way to review a song later on down the road....

 Pizza with pepperoni, sausage, black olives, and green peppers.

Mini Cheeseburgers with bottom bun, 

meat, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, top bun.

I think I'll go find something to eat now.  

This post has made me HUNGRY:)

Ping Pong Fun

Ping Pong Fun with "As a Child of God"

We memorized all 3 verses playing this game.  A child would bounce the ping pong ball once onto the table to get it to land in the container within the box.  However many balls made it into (and stayed in!) the container represented the verse we were to sing.  For example:
1 ball= Verse 1
2 balls= Verse 2
3 balls= Verse 3
3 balls IN A ROW= Child Chooses Song
4 balls (not in a row)= One of the following songs: BOM Stories, Nephi's Courage, I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ, ...........

Before we start to sing the designated verse, another child would roll the dice to determine how many times the verse was to be sung BEFORE singing the chorus.  This dice was cut out by my husband.  I used a sharpie marker to write numbers 1, 2, & 3 TWICE on it.  (I also needed this kind of dice for the Choose the Right game we were going to play on the 5th Sunday.)

By the end of Singing Time, both Jr. & Sr. had all 3 verses & chorus totally memorized!  We no longer need to even use the flip chart.  WAHOO!!!

The ping pong container is just the lid to the apricots I bought at Costco months ago.  The box is merely to help contain the missed ping pong balls so that we didn't have to shag them from all over the Primary Room.  It help keep the chaos level to a minimum.  When I first explained what we were going to do, nearly all the kids exclaimed, "That's going to be SO EASY!"   Ha!  They quickly learned that those ping pong balls weren't as cooperative as they assumed they'd be:)  

It was a fun way to memorize the song!  AND this activity can be used for ANY song, which is even better:)

Plan Your Own Journey

Plan Your Own Journey by Jodi at Primary Music Notes is a great way to learn or review a song.  I did this last week with both Jr. & Sr. Primary.  For the Jr., we learned the 2nd verse of "As a Child of God" as well as reviewing the 1st verse.  They loved it!  For the Sr. Primary, we played this to MEMORIZE all 3 verses.  It worked!  They did so well that they got to play it 3 times.

Thanks for the idea & sharing it, Jodi!

Goblin Guts, Bats & Rats

Better late than never, right?!  At least it'll be here for you next year:)  This is a singing time I did both last year and again this year.  This year I used it as a review tactic for the Primary Program songs.  I FORGOT my camera so that I could take pictures of the set up in the primary room.  So I had to recreate it at home & it's not nearly as cool.  But it'll give you the idea, anyway.

The idea is for the kids to spray silly string at a rat or bat.  Then sing the song assigned to the number on that creature.  Another child will dig for bugs in the goblin's guts.  The type of bug they find is what "bug" you're going to work out of the primary song to make it performance ready.

On a large cork board (back of a chalk board), I place 2 kitchen garbage bags that are taped together.  This will protect the board from the silly string.  Then I thumbtack the net/web over that.  I found this fishing net last year at the dollar store during their Luau Season.  Fishing net/spider web.....all the same, right?

I found rubber rats and plastic bats around Halloween at Walmart.  With a white paint pen, I wrote numbers underneath them.  Each number/creature is assigned one of the program songs.  I wrap them into the web in a way that they won't fall, but are easily removed once they've been "killed".

To poison & kill the creatures, we use silly string.  Kids LOVE it! 

That black bat is DEAD! 

These are the "bugs" in the goblin guts.  If a snake is picked, then we work on standing still (no wiggling) during the song.  Frogs are volume.  Spiders are watching the chorister at all times (no wandering eyes) throughout the song.  Insects are pronunciation or knowing the words of the song.

I cooked a package of spaghetti noodles.  After a cool rinse, I added green food coloring to the noodles & stirred until all noodles were green.  Then I added a tablespoon or so of Olive Oil & stirred the noodles around to get them all coated.  I did this to prevent the noodles from sticking together and to make them feel more slimy. Then I placed the green "Goblin Guts" in a large clear bowl.  I added the "bugs" to the guts, hiding them randomly among the noodles.  I provided rubber gloves for anyone that wanted to dig, but not get their hands slimed.  I also had a package of baby wipes & paper towels for clean up for those who really wanted to get into it.

One child is chosen to kill the bats/rats with the poison spray.  While they are doing that, another child comes up to dig in the Goblin Guts for a bug.  The bug they pick is used to work on the song that the poison spray shoots.  We had a BLAST getting the "Bugs" out of our Program songs!  I was amazed at the one Sunbeam girl who is quiet & shy that JUMPED at the chance to dig through the Goblin Guts.  AND without a rubber glove!  She was my hero (heroine) that day:)

Marshmallows & Popcorn!

The Sunday before our scheduled Primary Program, we did a rehearsal in the primary room.  As I had browsed through blogs weeks before this, I remembered an idea that another chorister had used as incentive for her kids to sing their program songs well.       For each Program song they sang extremely well, they earned a large marshmallow that was placed in a jar.  At the end of rehearsal, I placed (shoved) every marshmallow into my mouth and without swallowing or chewing them, I attempted to sing to them one of their favorite songs, "Popcorn Popping".  Impossible, you think?  Just watch how many they earned & how much fun they had!!!

A BIG thank you to Bro. M for recording this event!  

P.S.  I have yet to consume any more marshmallows.  However, I can at least think about them now without physically gagging:)  

Valentine's Day Eve

I have been neglecting my blogging responsibilities this month!  Life seems to take priority:)

For the month of February, I taught my primary "I Will Follow God's Plan" and "Scripture Power".  I used props to teach both songs.  Because of Stake Conference this weekend, we had just 3 weeks to learn/review the 2 songs.   The kids did a FANTASTIC job!  For week 2, I just wanted to focus on "I Will Follow God's Plan" & get it down.  Week 3 we'll just do "Scripture Power" by playing Hot/Cold.

Because it was Valentine's Day Eve on the 2nd week, I laminated 10 hearts.  (They'll definitely get more use than just this once:)   I wrote on the back of them a way to sing the song, "I Will Follow God's Plan".  I place the hearts around the room (on the walls, piano, podium, closet doors) & had a child choose one.  We then sang the song accordingly.  Once it was sung, we placed the heart on a much larger heart that was posted on the chalkboard.  We wanted to see how many we could get up there.  When our time was up in Jr. Primary, various kids couldn't stand not having ALL the little hearts up there so they went & grabbed the hearts & had me place them up on the big heart to fill it up.  They were giddy with excitement just to see all the hearts up there.  Easy to please!!  Here's the list of ways I wrote on the back of the hearts:

• Paint a Picture (Jr. Only)
• Pitch Sticks
• Crescendo the Crocodile
• Hold hands and sway to the beat (Jr. Only)
• Use Girl/Boy signs
• Your Choice (Sr. Only)
• Stand/Sit on key word (My, I, will)
• Take it in (Sr. Only)
• Color Blobs
• Skip a word (My, I, will)
• Use Hum Sign
• Rhythm accompaniment

So far, the favorite review help objects for both Jr. & Sr. Primary is the Pitch Sticks and Crescendo the Croc.  But they all vote the Croc #1!  The Sr. Primary ended up doing most of the hearts.  They did a wonderful job with Taking It In.  The Primary Pianist & I were amazed at how well they did.  The Jr. Primary didn't get through as many hearts. But the one that made the biggest difference for them was the Rhythm Accompaniment.  I explained to them what a rhythm was by having them place their hand over their heart.  They had to be really, really quiet so that they could concentrate on feeling their heart beats.  Then I had them just lightly tap their fingers on their chest to their own heart beat.  When they understood what the rhythm was, we sang the song & clapped our hands or our laps to the beat.  I would change it up & they'd copy me, always staying on beat.  They loved it!

January Review Week

Tomorrow is our review day.  I had told the primary kids on week 1 that if they learned all 3 verses of January's song by the end of the 4th week, we'd have a game day on week 5.  So tomorrow's a big, big day!  I have cut out the pictures of If I Listen Verse Pics Only.  No words.  I'll place the pictures on the table & have a child come up to choose the ones that go to verse 1.  We'll place them on the chalkboard & do a quick review run through.  Then we'll have do an activity to re-enforce that verse.  We'll repeat this process for each verse, allowing a total of 6 minutes per verse.

Below, I've listed the activities for each verse.  The Pitch Sticks & Paint a Melody are ideas I found on The Children Sing Blog. The concept is similar to what we did with the Lily Pads & Frogs when learning verse 2, so it won't take much time to explain it to them.  I found colorful sticks at the dollar store to use & a 30 pack of brushes at Joanne's for $1.99.

Verse 1:  Pitch Sticks
Verse 2:  Paint the Melody
Verse 3:  Crescendo the Crocodile

If I feel the Paint the Melody will be to "babyish" for the Sr. Primary, I'll just pull out the Lily Pads & Frogs.  They loved that!  If I do, it'll be for the 1st verse and then use the Pitch Sticks for the 2nd verse.

Leaping Frog

I was looking at this wonderful blog and she mentioned something about Melody Maps and frogs and using pitch sticks.  This sparked an idea!  I've said it before, "I'm a great copy cat, not super creative".

This is the method I used to teach the kids the 2nd verse of "If I Listen with My Heart".  I found a lily pad clip art to down load for free.  I copied 18 lily pads on bright green cardstock, laminated them & placed a magnet strip on the back of each one.  Why 18?  That is how many notes are used for the first 2 phrases of the song.  I wanted to teach it phrase by phrase.  Note are exactly the same for both except for the last 3 notes of the phrases.  So for the 2nd phrase, I just moved those 3 lily pads to their correct position.

I found a free clip art frog & made 6 of them.  I laminated them & taped them to the end of little dowel sticks I found at Walmart in the craft section.  For the main part of this activity, you only need one frog.  I just made extras to hand to the sunbeams to wave as we sang so that they could be pacified:)

Before Singing Time, I set up the lily pads on the large chalkboard in a Melody Map.  This is just the position of the notes as they are sung.  When the notes go lower, your lily pad is placed lower.  When the note jumps higher, your lily pad should be placed accordingly.  As we sang the notes, I took my frog and had him hop from one lily pad to the next, simulating the pattern of the melody.  We sang really slow so that the kids could see that many of the words ended up being sung on more than one note.  This way they could sing the notes more clearly and pronounce the words correctly.  We did this for the first 2 phrases.  By then, they had the hang of it & I gave them turns to come up and do the frog.  They LOVED it!

For the 3rd phrase, I changed the lily pads by using only 8 of them.  I stacked them vertically and explained another way to conduct the pitches.  Still using the frog, we sang the 3rd phrase as I moved the frog down & up the vertical row of lily pads, showing the interval jumps clearly.  Then I had them take the frog while I just used my hand in front of me.  They had a great time!

Throughout all the teaching of the 2nd verse, I made sure to ask questions about the pictures and get their answers to flow into the song the way it is written.  Most of the time their answers were just off by a word or two than the actual song lyrics.  It keeps them engaged:)

I will be using this method again next week as we review all 3 verses.

Ways to Sing in an Egg Carton

This is another idea I read from someone else's blog or website.  I just can't remember where.  Sorry.  So anywho, I don't take any of the credit:)  Since I do buy 90% of our groceries at Costco (family of 6!), I specifically went to regular grocery store in search of a dozen count egg carton without any windows that the marble could fall out of.  Sheesh!  It took a few weeks, but I found one.

I randomly wrote numbers from 1-12 in the bottom of the carton.  I placed a large marble inside.  On the inside of the lid, I wrote a numbered list of different ways to sing a song (like a skunk, girls only, under water, and so forth).  I would choose someone to shake the marble around inside the closed carton.  Upon opening it, the number that the marble landed in would instruct us on how to sing the song.  I can easily change the numbered list of ways to sing at any time to better fit the type of songs we're working on.  It can be used over & over again!

Conducting Elephant

A few months ago, I decided to make a Conducting Elephant.  On white poster board, my oldest daughter drew a cute elephant for me.  I colored it & cut out a circular hole in place of the elephant's trunk.

I found a large piece of cardboard.  I cut it slightly larger around than the poster board.  I painted the outer edges green and about an inch wide.  I painted the "trunk" edge pink.  This trunk hole is slightly SMALLER than the elephant's actual trunk circle.  It helps keep the abused look to a minimum.  I found 6 used canning jar lids & glued them to the cardboard.

 

I placed magnets on the back of the elephant poster board, lining them up with the jar lids.  I chose to take the time for this so that I can make other posters later & just be able to switch them as needed.

 

Lastly, I made a handle out of heavy cardboard & glued it onto the back of the cardboard. I used 527 Glue.

And there you have it: Conducting Elephant!  

I have multiple old long socks for the children to choose from.  They place the sock on their conducting arm & use it as the elephant's trunk to help lead the music.  I use this prop only for the Jr. Primary.  The Sr. are just way too cool for it.  I sometimes need to help the kids hold up the elephant.  It is a bit heavy.  But they love it & sing beautifully!

If this looks familiar it's because I had this idea posted on Sugardoodle http://www.sugardoodle.net/joomla/  just a couple of months ago.  Great website!