HOORAY!

Yes, that's right. The song i'm singing this week is, HIP HIP HOORAY! OUR PROGRAM WENT WELL TODAY! I was so glad when it was over-i wanted to do this:

But, as it turns out, I was so tired i could hardly eat lunch before collapsing on my bed. But what a great feeling! 9 months of teaching songs, trying to ward off boredom and complacency by being creative and finally it all paid off. Yippee!

Was it perfect? No way. Are there things i'd do differently next time? Absolutely. Was the spirit present? Without a doubt!

I love being chorister. I love the things i am learning, i love trying new ideas and i love the testimonies of the children as they sing. Watching those sweet faces singing the songs with all their heart just endeared them to me even more.

Good luck with all of your final preparations! Remember, your primary will be fantastic just because of who they are and the spirit they bring.

Will your teacher STAND for you?

My presidency gave me an idea that they've seen done in the past. I thought it was great and I'm going to use it this sunday when we have our entire primary combined to practice for the program that is the following week.

As we sing each song, the teachers should stand according to how well their class is singing. If they're loud-the teacher stands up tall; singing just ok-the teacher will 1/2 stand; not singing too great-teacher crouches even lower. The teacher should stand if even one child is singing but stand taller the more of their kids that sing. He/she can play with it and go up and down during the song if their class doesn't sing as loud in some parts. The kids will have a blast watching their teacher go up and down and hopefully they'll aim to have them stand tall! Our teachers will get quite a workout-you may want to prep them before hand. :)

Freeze Frame

I'm always looking for new twists to the standard wiggle songs. This morning, while watching a cartoon with my daughter, i thought of this: while singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" i'm going to shout "Freeze!" at which point everyone holds their current pose but the pianist keeps playing. Then i'll shout "go!" and we'll pick up singing from wherever the pianist is at in the song. I plan on having the pianist play the song through 2 times so we can stop and go several times. This activity would work with any song really, as long as you assign an action to be done during the song. I love how it requires us to pay attention and follow along in our heads with the pianist so we'll know where to start singing again when i say "go".

*i had another chorister send me a cute idea for popcorn popping. In portuguese, popcorn is pipoca (pronounced pee poka). When you use that word instead of the English translation-popcorn-it becomes quite a tongue twister! Try it!

Cantare Con Me...stile italiano!

Translation: Sing with me...Italian style!

Write the following words on the board: (the italics indicate how to lead)

Forte-very large movements

Piano-very small movements

Allegro-very fast

Largo-very slow

Staccato-sharp, robot like leading

Legato-very wavy and flowy leading

A capella-cut off motion to pianist, then lead normally.

Choose a different way to lead for each song (or several diff. ways for one song). See if the primary children can guess how they are supposed to sing simply by watching you lead. Using multiple dynamics for one song takes lots of practice and good eye contact and that's just what we want, right?? :)