Birthday idea

Found this idea to celebrate the Primary's Birthday.  Each candle will have a number.  As the kids pick them, either tell a Primary history fact or we'll sing a Primary song. Here's the link to the birthday candle clip art: 

http://wip.creativiteach.com/2011/09/26/why-wont-this-work/

And here are some fun Primary facts to refer to:

*Primary was first organized in 1878 by Aurelia Spencer Rogers in Farmington, Utah, she was a 44 year old mother of 12.
*Children ages 4-14 were invited to the participate in the first primary
*It was adopted church wide in 1880
*Rogers was concerned because younger Latter-day Saint children weren't being taught basic principles and values.
*Rogers felt that the younger boys in the community were becoming unruly and mischievous.
*The first primary... meeting was held on August 28, with 224 children in attendance. They decided that girls were allowed to come so the singing would sound prettier.
*At the first primary boys were specifically taught not to steal fruit from orchards and girls were taught not to hang on wagons. In addition, they were given lessons on faith, manners,obedience, and other worthy principles.
*Sister May Anderson, the second general president of the Primary Association from initiated what became Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City.
*In the 1970s the Primary Association was renamed Primary.
*There have been 12 General Primary Presidents since 1878!
*135 years later there are now over 1 million primary children all over the world!

4th of July idea

Our sweet baby boy was born last Friday so I won't be leading the music for a while.  But I saw this great idea and wanted to remember it for next year:  Make a paper flag with everything but the stars. Cut stars out of paper and write song names on them, hide the stars around the room, and have the kids find them and put them on the flag. Happy Independence Day!

Planning Ahead

Next year I'd like to do this for Father's Day: http://www.camillesprimaryideas.com/2013/06/fathers.html.

June Singing Time

I'm a week late for June.  Last week (6/2) we went over the Father's Day medley we're singing in Sacrament Meeting on the 16th (found HERE) and we also reviewed We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet by using idea #5 found on THIS PAGE at lds.org.  The kids remembered it from before and it was a fun review day for them.

Tomorrow (6/9) we'll sing the Father's Day medley once or twice.  They know it pretty well now so I won't spend much time on it.  After that we'll review the first verse of If the Savior Stood Beside Me with the idea from a blog called "What These Hands Do" found with THIS LINK.  If they remember it well enough we'll go on to the second verse.

On Father's Day (6/16) we'll be singing Families Can Be Together Forever in Jr. Primary and the Sr. Primary will review We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet and If the Savior Stood Beside Me.  I'll probably use the same silly dad picture I used last year because it's cute and I already have it. This day is also my due date for baby #6! so I don't think I'll be around to lead the singing for the rest of June and I'll have a substitute for July and August as well.  If you don't see any new posts from me, this is why.  Have a good summer!

"Hot"... Whatever

I saw this idea online today and wanted to post it to remind myself that's it's a good idea for reviewing a song.

"We play "Hot ClipBoard" like hot potato but I pass around a clip board with paper and pencil on it. When the pianist stops (at her will) the kid holding the clip board has to write the next 5 words, and so do I. It actually stumps me too and sometimes the kids win. For Junior primary I have them pass around an object and when the music stops I just have them say the next words.  Any object is fine, just call it "hot."

Thanks,  Amanda Dickerson Merrill from Primary Choristers forum on facebook.

May Singing Time

The primary children are singing "Mother, I Love You" next week in Sacrament Meeting. The Sr. Primary kids know it pretty well, but the Jr. Primary needs some help with it.  While I hold a flip chart with pictures and words for the kids to see, I'll have one child come up and hold a Popsicle stick with a big heart on it.  Every time we say the word "Love" the child will hold up the stick heart.

HERE is what I'll be doing for Mother's Day next week.  Thanks to Primary Notes 29 for the idea!

The following Sunday I'll be teaching the kids "Families Can Be Together Forever".  We'll play a memory matching game inspired by THIS LINK, but I think I'll tweak it a little to make it my own.

And for the last Sunday in May we'll review all the songs we've learned for the program to date with a review game of some kind.

April Singing Time - A Child's Prayer

The first Sunday in April was General Conference and the 3rd Sunday is our Stake Conference, leaving me with only 2 Sundays in April to teach a new song.  I chose A Child's Prayer and will be using an idea called "Fun With the Phone" I found here to introduce it.  I'm only going to teach the 1st verse to the children because I think it would be very appropriate for some parents to sing the 2nd part with them for the sacrament program this fall.

March Madness - 3/24 Singing Time

I love March Madness and was really excited to find this idea:

http://aprimarysingingtime.blogspot.com/2013/03/march-madness-324-singing-time.html

I'll have one kid shoot 4 various sized balls into a basket.  If he/she puts 1 in we'll sing I Am A Child of God, if 2 baskets are made we'll sing Did Jesus Really Live Again, 3 baskets will be My Heavenly Father Loves Me and we'll sing When He Comes Again if 4 shots go in.

Easter Sunday

I'm going to make singing time for Easter Sunday really easy this year.  I'll get some plastic Easter eggs and put names or pages of Primary songs in each egg.  They I'll hide the eggs around the room, choose a child to find an egg and then sing the song that's inside.  Easy peasy.

When He Comes Again

Because I'm having a baby in June and because our Primary already knows If the Savior Stood Beside Me pretty well,  this month I'll be teaching When He Comes Again in addition to the song our Ward Music Leader asked the Primary to sing for Easter Sunday - Did Jesus Really Live Again?

We'll use a flip chart I found HERE and an idea from Sugardoodle to learn When He Comes Again.  It'll go something like this:

In Jr. singing time I'll gave the children a piece of the flip chart (there are 12 pages for the 2 verses) - but not in order.

They'll look at their pictures (and words if they can read) and then we'll sing the first line and the person who thinks he/she has it raises a hand and I'll have him/her come and hold up the picture. Then we'll sing from the beginning including the next line and the person who has that one comes up, etc.

For the 2nd verse - I'll take away all the first verse pages and have all the 2nd verse page holders come to the front and get in the order they thought it might go. Then we'll sing the 2nd verse and see if they were right. If they weren't, they'll rearrange. Then we'll sing it again.

In Sr. singing time -  I'll give the first verse out in the wrong order to 6 children. Some others who don't have pictures will rearrange the kids holding the pictures how they think it should be - they'll have the length of time it takes to play the song on the piano. Then they'll hide their pictures from everyone and we'll sing the verse. Then they'll show the pictures again and decide whether this was their final answer.  And then we'll sing the verse with the pictures showing. We'll do the same for the 2nd verse.

Review Game with Dice

I got the idea for this game called "Doubles" here.  Thanks to Camille's Primary Ideas for always being a great place for fun ideas.

I didn't order the big dice like she did, I just used regular sized dice.  Other than that we played the game just like she described on her blog:

"For Senior Primary, I'll divide the Primary into 4 teams (we had 5 teams and didn't have colors) - red, yellow, blue and green.  Each team will get 2 dice in their color (so I'll only be using 8 of the 12 dice).  I'll divide the chalkboard into 4 sections and write the team colors on each section for score keeping.  The teams will probably want to move their chairs into a circle so the dice can be quickly passed, or you can have everyone move to the floor in a circle, or just have one child from each team come up to the front of the room and roll there - it will probably depend on the size of your Primary.  I can't decide what I want to do.

To play, we'll start singing the first song, I Am a Child of God.   One child from each team will start rolling their 2 dice.  As soon as a team gets doubles, they will shout out "DOUBLES."  The singing will immediately stop, and that team has to quickly come up with the rest of the phrase of the song.  If they get it right, their team will get a point on the chalkboard.  If they do not, we continue on with the song  with no points.  The dice will be passed to the next teammate after anyone on any team rolls "doubles." We'll continue to sing all the verses of all our songs.  Hopefully everyone will get a few chances to roll the dice.

My ideal would be to get through all 8 verses of these songs twice but we'll see how rowdy things get.

For Junior Primary I think I'll just have 4 kids come up at a time and roll their dice.  When someone gets doubles, we'll stop and the Primary has to help that child come up with the rest of the phrase.  So no teams.  Once doubles are rolled, the 4 kids will be rotated to a new group of 4.  Hopefully each child will be able to roll a few times and we'll again, get through all the verses of all the songs twice.

note:  If I'm finding doubles are not being rolled quickly enough, I'll add in the 3rd dice to each team which would obviously increase the odds of rolling doubles."

We sang  I Am a Child of God and My Heavenly Father Loves Me.  The Sr. Primary loved this game and it did get a little rowdy.  The Jr. Primary probably had fun too, but it was harder for them to understand the concept of "doubles" (especially the little kids).  It's a fun review game that I'd reserve for Sr. Primary next time.

Conversation Hearts

Last week I taught the kids the 1st verse to My Heavenly Father Loves Me by using pictures with the Jr. primary and adding scripture verses to the pictures for Sr. primary.  This week I'll teach them the 2nd verse with a flip chart and then drill the words into their little brains with a "heart attack".  I'll print out conversation hearts like the ones found here.  I'll cut out the hearts and put directions for how to sing the song on the back of each heart.  For example, on the backs I'll write "Boys Only" or "Girls Only" or "Sing Verse 1" or "Sing Verse 2", etc.  I'll have the hearts taped up around the room and use the choosing sticks to have a child pick a heart and then do what it says on the back.

Thanks to Brittney for the conversation heart printables!

Review idea

http://singingasongisfun2do.blogspot.com/2012/12/easy-end-of-year-review.html

This idea reviews songs learned throughout the year.  I'm posting it here so I don't forget about it in Nov. or Dec.