Music resource

My presidency and I attended the General auxiliary training in SLC the other day. It was amazing. I left with many impressions and plans for future efforts. But it also made me miss being the chorister. There was a segment focused specifically on music that touched my heart in many ways. How important singing time is!!! And how powerful these songs are! I felt renewed in my testimony of the message contained in primary songs.

This training meeting can be a valuable resource for choristers! What i loved was the simplicity in teaching music. Sometimes we (or at least i did) put a huge emphasis on artsy crafty things for singing time yet this training reminded me of the power of simplicity. The methods shown were simple, non stressful, and BENEFICIAL! Here's a link to the general auxiliary training. Maybe you'll find it inspirational and helpful in your singing time preparations. Happy Singing!!!

Gone with the wind....

Here one day...gone the next. Like the wind.....I feel like i am still new to the chorister calling...and yet, i have been released. I was just starting to get the hang of it and even felt somewhat comfortable (therein lies the problem...never get comfortable!) ;) Anyway, i was called as the new primary president so i am lucky enough to still be in primary and hopefully i can post ideas on here occasionally. We have a fabulous new chorister and i am anxious to watch the children's love for singing continue to grow.

Thank you for sharing your amazing ideas!! I am in awe at the talent, the ingenuity, the wisdom and the inspiration that is out there. I have been fortified by you and I have loved being a part of the "chorister blog family!!

Actions to Nephi's Courage

"Nephi's Courage" isn't our assigned song until June but i thought i'd post this now in case anyone wants to learn the actions or you have some extra time this month since we already know "Stand for the Right". Anyway, we sing this song A LOT because the primary LOVES IT and really love doing the actions. It's nice to have another song that allows the children to move while singing.

Years ago, when our children were young, my husband made up actions to this song to teach our children one night at family night. It was an instant hit and i have since taught the children in primary. They learned it immediately and often request this song.

Here we go: i'll try to be as visual as possible...

-The Lord commanded Nephi (raise hands over your head towards heaven as if receiving instruction from Heaven)

-to go and get the plates (hold out your hands like for Book of Mormon stories)

-from the wicked laban (scrunch up your face into a mean look and place your hand over your eyebrows and then pan the room while singing)

-inside the city gates (with palms facing you, touch the tips of your nails of one hand to the tips of another to make a gate)

-Laman and Lemuel believed he should not try (open one arm to the side when you say each name.

-Nephi was courageous, this was his reply (flex muscles with arms bent at the elbow into a 90 degree angle)

-I will go, i will do (pump your left fist across your body for "I will go" and the right fist across to your left side for "I will do")

-the things the Lord commands (same as the beginning...arms up towards heaven)

-I know the Lord provides a way (take your arms down from heaven and have them form a path to one side of you)

-he wants me to obey (fold arms)

repeat chorus....

I hope this makes sense. It has been a great way for our primary to learn this song and it was nice to teach a song without printed visuals for a change.

If you're interested, I'll post actions to the 2nd verse later....

The Classic Shell Game

One chorister calls it the pom pom game. It sounds perfect for what i need tomorrow. Quick, effective, easy prep, yet engaging....here's what I'll do:

I have 3 plastic cups and an object to go under one cup. I'll bring a different object to go with each song i want to sing. This way, they not only have to guess what cup the object is under but then they have to decide what song that object represents.

-place the object under the cup and be sure to show which cup you put it under.

-make a big show about mixing up the cups. (The kids will try to follow the right cup)

-call on a reverent child to choose which cup has the object. If they're right, they get to guess what song it represents. If they guess the wrong cup, show what cup the object is under again, mix the cups and call on someone else.

-I plan on singing songs from the past 2-3 years just to get a break from learning a new song.

-I will also probably use a "wild" object occasionally and when they guess the cup it's under, they get to choose the song we sing.

After a crazy week-this seems like just the thing i need!

*update: yesterday, we played this game and it was LOTS of fun! It always amazes me how the kids LOVE the simple things i do. I can work all week on a poster or game and they still seem to love the simple things more. Good to know.... :)

Anyway, i ended up using cotton balls under the cups, not a diff. object for each song. (i was going for simple remember?) :) It worked great, they watched intently while i shuffled the cups and afterwards, they all nearly exploded out of their seats to tell me where the cotton ball was. (both junior and senior guessed it without problems except for once or twice)

-In senior, i let the kids take turns mixing up the cups and calling on someone to guess where the cotton ball was. At one point i gave them a cotton ball to put under 2 cups and they had to guess which cup didn't have the cotton and another time, which 2 cups did have the cotton under them.

-Also, i have big die that i got at the $1 store, I ended up using it to determine what song we'd sing. I called on someone to guess where the cotton ball was, if they were right, they rolled the die and whatever they rolled corresponded with a numbered list of songs i had. If they guessed wrong, we mixed the cups again and another child got to choose. Also, if they rolled a number for a song that we'd already sung, then we did a wiggle song like "give said the little stream" (a senior primary favorite) If you are using this activity to practice program songs, then you could sing the same song no matter how many times they rolled a certain number.

They seemed to really enjoy it and the lesson of the day is, simple is best! :)

Hula Hoop Fun!

About this time every month, the kids are done learning a song and just want some fun. The problem is, they aren't really "done" learning the song but they really do need something exciting to keep their attention. I saw this idea awhile ago and immediately knew it was something i'd use for one such Sunday. So.... tomorrow is the day. I am going to bring a couple hula hoops and this is what i'll do:

First, I am going to have just one child (or teacher-i love using the teachers) hula hoop at a time. We'll have to watch him/her closely because when they are hula hooping, we will sing; when/if they drop the hoop, we stop singing but the pianist keeps playing. When the hula hooper starts up the hoop again, we resume singing wherever the pianist is at. This will help us practice the words and keep track of where we are at in the song. I am hoping to get a few hula hoopers who drop their hoops and start again several times so that we can stop and start our singing several times. I will have a different hula hooper for each verse of "Choose the Right".

After we've done this a few times, I am going to invite 3 children to all come hula hoop at the same time while we sing the song. The challenge will be to see if anyone can last through the whole song or through an entire verse. When everyone gets out, i'll choose 3 more children to try.

I think this will be a fun way to sing the song repeatedly. Thanks Pattie for your idea!

Musical Scripture Chase-Part II

Our musical scripture chase went SO WELL on sunday! It is now one of my favorite activities! I had told the presidency what my plan was so they pulled out the red scripture marking pencils that they often use for sharing time and the kids were able to mark their scriptures when they found them. I was so glad they thought of that-it was perfect! And the kids ALL got so involved-it was fabulous! (i had pulled some library copies of the bible and Book of Mormon to have for those that didn't have scriptures-i wanted them all to have access)

Anyway, I started by telling them what seminary was and my experience doing scripture chases in seminary. I explained what a scripture chase was and off we went! I wrote the reference on the board, one at a time, and they looked it up. I noted who was first to raise their hand but i waited until most of the primary had found the scripture before i had the first one stand and read the scripture in their loud, booming voice. Then, i asked if anyone knew what song the scripture referenced.

Most often, there were several songs that fit the scripture. Sometimes we sang all the song options, sometimes we just sang the one i had in mind. I randomly gave them points, just for fun. No teams though, it was the primary as a whole that tried to get points in the pot. I gave points for finding the scripture, points for guessing any song that went with the scripture, and bonus points if they were psychic and guessed the song i had on my list. The points didn't really matter, it was just fun to throw them out there randomly and they didn't even care that there wasn't a prize.

Here are the scriptures/songs i used:

Ether 3:14 As a Child of God

D&C 115:4-5 The Church of Jesus Christ #77

Mosiah 2:22 Keep the Commandments #146

2 Nephi 4:15 Books in the Book of Mormon #119

Acts 20:35 Give, said the Little Stream #236

John 13:34-35 As I have Love you #136

D&C 25:13 I Pledge Myself to Love the Right #161

Alma 34:38 I am Glad for Many Things #151

John 13:15 I'll Walk with You #140

D& C 4:2-3 Called to Serve #174

*remember, that most songs have a scripture reference in the bottom right hand corner so you can use any songs you want.

*One thing i loved was listening to the teachers whisper to the children what song they thought it was. Many of the songs were songs the kids knew but some weren't, but i made sure the kids realized that their teachers had remembered songs from their primary days and how cool is that???

*I threw in Give, said the Little Stream so that we had a fun wiggle song to do in the middle of it all. They loved it and so did I!

It's a zoo out there!

I used this idea a few months ago (and the kids loved it!) I decided to use it again tomorrow in junior primary...with a few additions.

See this cool sticks pictured above? I was volunteering at the school book fair last week and they were for sale on the table that's full of silly gadgets that gets more sales then the books...you know that table? Yup, I thought so....Anyway, since i got $10 of bucks to spend just for volunteering, i decided to donate it to primary music and i bought these. I thought they'd go perfect with The Crazy Chorister's idea of primary gone wild. Here's what i think i'll do:

We'll use our puppets/stuffed animals to choose songs, here's the ones i'm using, a few of The Crazy Chorister's ideas and a few of my own...

Lion: Leonard Lion likes to be loud but is learning to sing reverently at church. Start by singing as loudly as you can. Then gradually get softer. Next, try to sing each phrase in one big breath.

Chipmunk: (Hinges) Charlie Chipmunk loves primary teachers. Have the teachers stand up and do hinges as the children sing it. Have the teachers pretend they are very old and slow. Then have the kids stand up and do it as fast as they can.

Dog: (Popcorn Popping) Donald the dog is always running fast. He likes us to sing while playing hot potato. We'll pass around a bean bag (one for each side of the room) as fast as we can while singing and try to make it all the way around before the end of song.

Owl: Oscar Owl is not used to the light. He likes the dark. Sing with the lights off.

Parrot: (As a Child of God) Polly Parrot likes to hum while we're learning the tune of a new song..we'll hum the song until Polly lands on someone's head and then we'll sing the words, then hum again when she flies away...

Tiger- Tim the Tiger loves to sneak up on people and loves the game “hide and seek". I'll give a bean bag to someone and have a child come and find it while you sing song. (play just like hot/cold-sing loud when close, soft when far away)

Giraffe- Gerald the giraffe loves to be goofy. Tell the children that Gerald loves to play “teacher guess the song”. If the teacher can guess the song in a few notes, the chorister "gets" to wear goofy's hat (my son got it at Disneyland years ago). If they guess it wrong, the teacher "gets" to wear the hat during the song.

Elephant-Eddie the Elephant likes to poke people with his long trunk. We'll sing staccato with Eddie.

Monkey-Marvin Monkey likes to climb trees. Sometimes he climbs high, sometimes low. When he is up high, we'll sing loud, and we'll sing soft when he's low. Watch out though-he likes to be tricky! *If he lands on your head, you'll have to say the next few words in the song before he'll start climbing again...

Frog-(The Church of Jesus Christ p. 77) Freddy Frog is so excited to be in primary that he just cannot sit still. He hops right out of his seat every time he hears the word “I”. (primary stands when sing “I”)

*if you don't have the same animals, just change the animals but you can still use the same actions

So....how do my animal wands fit in with all this? Good question!!! I'm not entirely sure yet but i think i'll select 5 children to use my wands...maybe with Leo the Lion and Eddie the Elephant, or maybe even Oscar the Owl....it'll be like jeopardy-not knowing which animal has double jeopardy (or the surprise) behind it....maybe i'll use the wands with all 3 animals, that way i can use 15 children and that's always a plus when i have so many who want turns!

Anyway, i'll have the 5 kids come up and either lead the music or have a parade up and down the aisle, or have them mimic me while i lead in a rainbow pattern or staccato, etc. All while singing the song.....I have the entire time for music tomorrow...i think this will keep them interested....at least i'm hoping it will!

*You'll notice i haven't chosen all the songs yet...i'm working on that part still...

*Sr. primary will be doing musical scripture chase from my earlier post...i'll post the scriptures for that soon....

Chinese New Year

So, while perusing other chorister blogs, I read this post by "I heart primary music". I wanted to post it here in case some of my readers aren't familiar with that blog....I thought her idea was great for several reasons.

#1-it engages the children. I've noticed my senior primary LOVES to learn about things, like trivia or other tidbit information and if i can find a way to relate that to singing, then it's golden. This idea is great for that...i mean, how many children are going to know much about the Chinese New Year?

#2-i like to recognize different holidays during singing time since sharing time tends to focus more on other things. Singing time facilitates itself well to doing a fun holiday activity while at the same time being able to bring in the spirit through the song. With this activity, they can not only practice our new song, but also learn that "tidbit" information they seem to crave, all while trying to recognize the spirit through singing.

#3-It's simple!!

#4-It's new and different enough to capture their attention

#5-It's easily adaptable for junior and senior primary.

That being said, here's what i plan to do:

For senior primary: we'll play that famous Chinese game, Rock, paper, scissors. We'll do it one of 3 ways. Or a mix of all 3. I'll probably play it by ear and do it depending on how reverently they respond....

First option: i'll have one child play against me, like "I heart primary music" suggests. If I win, we review "As a Child of God", it they win, they pick a coin that has a song title on the back.

Second option: (this one uses all the primary children at the same time and therefore may be less reverent so make sure you state explicit expectations of their conduct for playing it this way) Anyway, I'll have each primary child turn to their neighbor (and have the teachers make sure they all have partners) and play rock, paper, scissors. Before we start i'll tell them the rules, "no shouting when you win, hands stay down, stay in your seats, we do it together, etc". Then i'll count to 3 and say "rock, paper, scissors" so we're all doing it at the same time and it's not chaotic. Then i'll say, "if you won with paper, raise your hand", or "if you won with scissors, raise your hand". If there's exactly 8 winners for whatever i called out (8 is a lucky number for chinese), then i'll call on one of the 8 to pick their favorite song for us to sing, (or pick a coin with a song on it). If there's not 8, then we'll review "As a Child of God". (This might be tricky to get exactly 8 so be prepared to be flexible and if there's never 8 but you really want to give them the chance to pick the song, you can do like "The Price is Right" game show and say, 8 or less but not more)

*A tie voids that partnership from having a winner. No "do overs".

Third option: I have a dragon beanie baby (since it's the year of the dragon) and we'll pass it around while singing. (if senior primary can handle it, sometimes they get too out of control with this kind of thing...) Whoever ends up with it at the end of our song will be the one to play "rock, paper, scissors" with me next.

For Junior primary: My daughter made 4 dragons (as shown) Here is the link for the chinese dragon craft.

We'll play rock, paper, scissors as listed above (most likely option #1 or #3), and I'll choose 4 children at a time to have a chinese dragon parade while we sing each song. I like using 4 children so that several children get the opportunity to participate (we have a large primary) yet it's not too many to get out of hand. They'll go up and down the aisles...walking, not running. I don't want to detract from reverent songs so we'll probably sing songs like, "Wise/Foolish Man", "Fun to Do", "Book of Mormon Stories", "I hope they call me on a mission", etc.

When/if I win "rock, paper, scissors"-we'll review "As a Child of God", and i'll have them hold the dragons up front standing by me and practice waving them to the melody.

Anyway, thank you "I heart primary music" for sharing your ideas! You have certainly helped me!

Musical Scripture Chase

Remember the good ole days of seminary when we had scripture chases? Where i grew up, we had them every Friday and I loved those days...so a couple weeks ago, while watching senior primary get completely engaged in a scripture activity for sharing time, I decided there had to be a way to utilize that interest for singing time. So here it is:

Pick the songs you want to sing and look them up in the songbook. Most songs have at least one scripture listed and sometimes several-located at the bottom right had corner.

Once you have your songs and scriptures, determine how you want your scripture chase to go, here's a few ideas:

1-write the reference on the board and have them raise their hand when they find it. (Either wait several minutes for more kids to locate the scripture or choose the first hand you see). Have the child read the scripture and guess what song it applies to. Whoever guesses correctly gets to come lead the song or hold visuals or whatever.

*only write one scripture reference at a time to keep the over zealous ones from jumping ahead :)

2-Tell the primary the song you want to sing and write 2-3 different scriptures on the board (with only 1 of those relating to the song). Have them look up the scriptures and guess which one relates to your chosen song. The correct guesser can lead or pick a "how to sing" card.

3-for a really ambitious activity, tell them what song you want to sing and ask them if they know a scripture that might relate...(i have a feeling those with songbooks may catch on quick and notice the scripture references which would be great too)

4-Can you think of other ways to do a scripture chase? I'd love to hear your ideas too!

*these ideas might work best if you have a lot of time, maybe for a 5th sunday if you're given the whole time for singing on those days...

Hello flags and other files.....

I need to apologize to those of you who asked for my hello flags. (and other files) I replied to you right away but apparently, it was to a "noreply" blogger address that i just now discovered. I am relatively new to this blogger thing and even more unexperienced with computers. I'm so sorry for not paying attention to where my reply was going. If you'd still like the flags or anything else you've asked for, please email me again with your email included and i will make sure to get you the files you want. Again, i apologize......

good thing i wasn't called to be the ward computer specialist huh??? :)

Song Writing

The primary is doing great learning the words to "As a Child of God". They loved the tic tac sing today and did great. (in fact, they were only stumped once) However, I want to use one more week to learn the phrases...

I'm going to assign each class the task of writing a particular line of the song; i.e. "i came to earth with power to choose", "good choices bless me and my family too"...anyway, with all 3 verses and the chorus, there are 8 phrases and we have 8 classes so it's perfect. (if you have more classes you can combine a couple classes or for fewer classes, have them each write 2 phrases or don't do the chorus since they most likely already know that)

Anyway, i'll give each class a paper, they'll select their scribe and then write what they think the correct words are. I'll give them a few minutes to do this then have each class come up (depending on time, I may have them write it on the board) and sing (with the piano), their assigned phrase. The rest of the primary will determine if they got it right or not.

Our SR. primary loves doing things like this that challenge their memory and I'm hoping this activity will help solidify the phrases of the song.

Melt a Snowman

This idea is from here...i think it's a darling idea-especially for junior primary. I mentioned this in my last post and had a couple people ask for snowman parts...so, here is my snow guy. I think i'll bring real twigs for his arms and tape those on. I'll probably jazz up the hat too (the night's still young right?) :) I have the buttons and scarf in a word doc. if you want them....

*depending on time, i may have 2-3 children take off snowman parts to make him melt after they sing a song real "hot". I want to use as many children as possible which is why i made the mouth have so many pieces.

Tic Tac Sing

I saw an idea similar to this somewhere, only i can't remember where.....(So sorry-i'll try to be better at bookmarking ideas i see) Anyway, i am doing this for senior primary tomorrow although my daughter said i should do it for Valentine's day since they are X's and O's (hugs and kisses) but....maybe i'll just have to use it then too! :)

Last week, when i taught, "As a Child of God", i had each phrase of the song on separate poster board strips...those will come in handy again tomorrow.

I'll invite a child to come up front and choose a piece of paper from a jar. On these slips of paper i've written each phrase to the song and below it i wrote an example of the phrase with one or 2 words changed. Here's an example:

I came to earth with power to choose

(I came to church with power to love)

Good choices bless me and my family too

(Good friends bless me and my family too)

I feel so safe and happy because

(I feel so safe and happy today)

Anyway, you get the idea. I didn't want to make it too hard or change too many of the words because i really want the right words to stick in their heads and if i use too many wrong words, i think that's what they'll remember.

So....the child will pick a paper strip and decide if he/she is going to read the right phrase or the wrong one. Their team will then decide if they told the truth or not. (kind of like that game show, i think it's called Hollywood squares) After their team guesses, i'll post the picture phrase from last week that i used to teach the song and we'll see if they guessed correctly. (you can still play the game without the pictures...we've only learned the song for 1 week though so we'll use them) Anyway, if the team guesses correctly, they get an X or O in a square. If not, the play moves over to the other team. Each time a team has a turn, we'll sing that verse and the chorus as a way to "prep" them for the next round.

For junior primary, we are playing the melting snowman game found here. Happy sunday!

*I laminated the X's and O's as well as the snowman parts so they can be re-used.

*I have word files of the snowman parts, the song phrases and the X's and O's. I can email them to you if you want them.

**Another way to use this game: Draw tic tac toe board and place 9 pictures (one in each spot). Have 3 teachers sit in chairs in front of the board. Choose a reverent child, they pick a picture, ask them the question on it (the question will relate to the song that is pictured), the child asks an adult for the answer. The adult either gives a right or wrong answer and the child decides if they agree. If they’re right, they get an X or an O. Sing the song, then keep playing.