Mr. Potato Head-2nd idea

Awhile back i posted an idea using Mr. Potato Head. JR. primary loved it so much, i decided to bring him back last week for an encore visit. At the last minute, i changed the plan slightly. Rather than assigning a song to go with each body part (i.e. eyes-"I love to see the temple", mouth-"Smiles", ear-"If i Listen with my Heart", etc.) I decided that when a child picked a piece to put on Mr. Potato head, we would use that body part to do something with while singing a song. For example, eyes-we sang with our eyes closed; ear-each side of the room took turns singing phrases, one side sang while the other listened. We did this back and forth for the duration of the song. Other ear-we covered our ears with our hands while we sang; nose-we wiggled our noses while singing. The primary children suggested we snort while singing but we ended up wiggling it instead (although i did hear a few snorts) :) Mouth-we did the wide mouth whisper i mentioned in a previous post. With their mouths open as wide as possible they had to whisper sing. It's great-they love this. Anyway, it was a fun activity for JR. primary and ended up being a fun way to redo a previous activity with a few minor changes. They love Mr. Potato Head. Last time they built him silly with his ear where his eyes go, etc. but this time they built him normal. Either way, they seemed to have fun.

Name that holiday tune

Many of us probably put up our Christmas trees this weekend so i decided that in primary we'll do the same thing. We are going to play "name that tune" (at least in SR. primary) Each side of the primary room will "bid" for how many notes they think they need in order to guess the song and then the person who actually guesses the correct song after hearing the notes will get to pick an ornament and help me decorate my tree. Simple. Effective. Ready to go.

Musical sticks

In my ward, the presidency has the incoming sunbeams come in for singing time beginning in November. That means not only do i have 15 sunbeams right now but i will get 7-8 "almost" sunbeams starting on sunday. Needless to say, we have a very young junior primary.

While at story time with my youngest last week, i watched the teacher do an activity with sticks. She gave each child 2 short sticks (about 6-8 inches long). She had them beat out a rhythm as she chanted a poem, read a book and then said their names. Initially i thought the kids were too young to understand her beating out the syllables in their names but they weren't! They loved it and all wanted their names to be done. The teacher would call on someone-ask them their name-then show them how many syllables. She'd beat it out first then have them all say that child's name and beat it out together. For example, "Britt-ney", "Em-ma", "Jack". On the one syllable names, she had them beat that one syllable really loudly. They loved it.

I'm sure you see where i'm going with this....as choristers, we rarely see things without wondering how it can relate to singing time, right? Anyway, since i will have "new" sunbeams on sunday, i thought this would work well to help us learn their names. I found short sticks at a craft store used for making suckers and i'll give everyone 2 sticks. I'll have the new sunbeams come up and we'll "beat out" their names so that we can all get to know them. We'll probably throw in some teacher and older kids names too. Maybe we'll even sing their names to a familiar song tune. Or sing, "here we are together" while tapping out the rhythm and adding their names.

I'll bring my toy musical instruments to add pizazz and keep them interested. We'll take turns using those as well as our sticks and have them work on beating out rhythm for different songs like "Book of Mormon Stories", "I am Like a Star", etc. Hopefully this will not only allow us to learn the new names but will keep all the children engaged.

Singing with CANDY!

So...i had this idea today. I'm not sure yet exactly how to use it but here it is:

I thought it'd be fun to do something with the candy the kids all got while trick or treating this week. I picked some candies and wrote little rhymes for each of them with ways to sing. I plan on using these as some type of "sing like a..." game.

I think i'll start by saying something like, "how many of you still have candy leftover from Halloween? I bet our candy can help us sing!" I'll display either real candy bars or pictures with the rhymes on back.

Here's the rhymes: (some of them are rough, i know-i'm still working on them)

Skittles: These colors are red, yellow, green and blue. Check the color you are wearing, we'll sing with just a few. (call out colors, whoever is wearing that color sings)

Lemon drops: Ew, it's sour! Better scrunch up your face to sing this song at a super brisk pace! (sing with a sour face and do it quick)

3 Musketeers: Pick 1 friend and a teacher and you 3 will be our starring feature. (the 3 sing either a phrase or the whole song)

Snickers:When you laugh, you sometimes wiggle, lets sing this song while we giggle!

Baby Ruth: Who has a baby in their house? Lets sing this as quiet as a mouse.

Butterfinger: Grab your friends hand and we'll sing while we stand.

Twix: Betwixt you and me, our classes will sing the best as can be! (2 classes sing at a time)

Milk duds: Chew it slow or else it'll stick. We'll sing this song anything but quick. (sing slowly)

Almond joy-What shows joy for all to see? It's a smile from you and me! (sing while smiling)

Can you think of rhymes for a Crunch bar? M&M's? Kit kat? Reeses? Licorice? I'd love to hear your creativity!

Wide Mouth Whisper

One of our primary teachers told me something she'd seen in another ward she attended. I tried it last week in junior primary-it was great.

Tell them to open their mouths as big as possible and while doing that they have to whisper. It was hard to sing in a whisper while mouths are open wide but they loved it. So fun to see their faces too...i'm sure mine looked just as comical! :) This is a great one to add to your "sing like a..." list. You could pretend you're all wide mouth frogs who can only whisper. Start by "croaking" the song, then sing (wide mouth whisper) the words.