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....

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.

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.

Singing with Christmas trees!

For SR. primary: I am teaching 2 different Christmas songs tomorrow for performances coming up. We are learning "Silent Night" in German and "If i had been in Bethlehem". I know i won't have time for much of an activity so i printed several of these Christmas trees-each with a different number in the center. Before primary, I will tape them under chairs randomly. I plan on having the children look under their chairs to see who has the trees. I will have all those with trees come up front. Whoever has #1 will sing phrase 1 with their class (I will have the words to the song written on a poster and each phrase will have a number in front of it), the person with #2 will sing phrase 2 with their class and so forth. I'll probably have the children with trees swap with each other so that their classes get a turn singing other phrases too. I'm hoping this will be an organized way to help them learn these songs.

For JR. primary, I printed these Christmas singing cards posted by Brittney that she found on pinterest. I'll tell them what song we're singing, then they will pick a card to determine how we'll sing. For example:

elf-tiptoe in place like we're sneaking

Christmas tree-spread our arms like branches

angel-fly like an angel

santa claus-put our hands on our bellies and pretend we're laughing while we sing

ornament-roll our hands

reindeer-prance in place

snowflake-twirl and spin in place

gingerbread-run in place

candy cane-twist

snowman-melt to the floor

If I had been in Bethlehem

One of the counselors in primary asked me to teach this song. I'd never heard it so i was definitely curious. I immediately looked it up online....it is a beautiful song. It is by Sally DeFord and was published in the Friend in December 1989 which i think means it is approved for use in primary. :) Anyway, if you're looking for a new Christmas song this year, check out this one here. I plan on making visuals for this song. I'll try to post them when i'm done if you're interested.

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.

"Primary Colors" and more.....

Today, we learned "Primary Colors". I saw an idea somewhere on the internet (sorry-i can't remember where...) and it led me to make these...

Simple, but they worked great. I had 3 children hold the circles with the numbers facing outward, then turn them around when it was time. It was fun to learn a song from the "olden days". We also sang "This is God's House", "Dare to do Right", "Give, Said the Little Stream" and "Called to Serve".

They didn't do very well on "Called to Serve" because they were too busy being silly so i took a minute to tell them about the song and asked the teachers about singing that song on their missions and how they felt about it. Then, I put my husband on the spot and asked him to come up and sing "Called to Serve" in German while we sang it in English. The kids were so enthralled, they all stopped singing about halfway through just to hear him sing it in German. It was fun and i'm so grateful for my sweet husband who was a good sport, although now i think I'm in his debt.... :)

I also made flipcharts on Word for "This is God's House" and "Dare to do Right", but i don't know how to upload them to this site. Any tips??

Face Off! (a.k.a. Red Rover)

This is one of those simple ideas that comes while trying to sleep at night. I was grateful for the idea, but sleep would be nice too. :) This can be used to review old songs or teach a new song.

Have the teachers come stand in a line at the front of the primary, facing the children. Have them sing either one line or the whole song. The primary children then sing the same thing. Have the pianist, secretary, or other adult be the "judge". Whichever group sings the best gets to pick one person from the other team to come join "their side". (however, there's obviously no running-the chosen person is automatically on the team when they are chosen). You can make it more challenging by saying, "you can bring someone with you to the new team if you tell me what the last line in the song is, or tell me what comes after __, etc." I"m sure there are a billion ways to use this game.

The purpose is to have fun while singing any given song as many times as possible while learning the words and tune.

I Kneel to Pray

I want to teach the song, "I Pray in Faith" to Junior primary (senior already knows it). I found this idea here, which i liked. I'm just going to include a poster as a visual for my young ones. I'm going to have them "make the poster" as they build the song. I wrote the first word of each line on the poster as seen above.I'm going to tell them that i didn't have time to glue on my pictures so i need their help. The 8 clipart pictures will be jumbled up on the chalkboard for them to choose from as we learn/build each phrase.

I'm going to ask these questions for each phrase:

*What position are we in when we pray?" KNEEL

*how often do we pray? EVERYDAY

*who do you talk to when you pray? HEAVENLY FATHER

*Why do we pray? HE HEARS AND ANSWERS ME

*How do we know this is true? FAITH

As they guess the right answers for each line, i will sing it several times while a few children choose the correct pictures to put on my poster. Then we'll all sing that line together. We'll continue until all 4 lines are complete and our poster will look like this:

*I feel like i need to explain a couple of my pictures: I couldn't think of anything for "answers" so my 14 year old son suggested i use 2+2=4. It may be too abstract for the little ones but it's the best i (he) could come up with. My FAITH is in a shield because when i taught the 2nd verse of scripture power i did it this way and i like to be consistent with words that are in different songs. Hopefully the rest are self explanatory-happy singing!

Fill in the Blank

Today i just wanted to review "Search, Ponder and Pray". Our primary only sort of knows the song. I wrote the words on the board and left several blanks. We sang it through once and i told them to pay attention to words that would go in the blanks. Then, I had 4-5 children come and write in the right words. We sang it again and i had 4-5 children come up to either erase and correct a word (there were a few mistakes from the 1st round) or fill in a blank. Then we sang the song again. What i liked about this is 1)the simplicity, 2)it involved several children and 3)they learned the song great!

i know the words, do U-NO them?

Our ward knows Scripture Power but mumbles their way through the 2nd verse so i decided to spend most of our time working on that song. I decided to play UNO. I saw the idea somewhere several months ago but couldn't remember where i saw it so i just came up with my own version. This works GREAT for learning (or refreshing) a verse or new song. Basically, the idea is you sing whatever phrase is on the poster color that matches the card played. I laminated the colored squares on the poster so that i could easily interchange song phrases without ripping the poster. In senior primary, i gave each row (whether there was a teacher on that row or not) 7 cards. We played just like the game. Each row took a turn placing a card on the board. If red was played, we sang the phrase on red. If a green was played, we sang the phrase on the green. I had them sing fast, slow, just boys, just girls, etc. just to shake it up. When the "specialty" cards were played, this is what we did: DRAW TWO: the class that played this card chooses 2 classes to sing that phrase with the matching color. SKIP: Sing the phrase skipping every other word (this was HARD!!) WILD: the class that plays this card gets to pick what color to sing and also chooses a "sing like A..." card to determine how we sing it. (eyes closes, holding tongue, etc) DRAW FOUR: Choose the color and begin singing the song (from any point in the song) and when you cut off in the middle of the song, the next class has to sing the following 4 words. REVERSE: Sing the line previous to the one that matches the color played OR start singing and cut them off and the next class sings the previous phrase from where you cut them off.

I prepared several word strips for different songs so that we could switch up the songs we were working on. You can just use words but i used pictures since i already had the pics for junior primary.

For junior primary, i had taped colored squares of paper under each chair. They found their papers and we did diff. activities for each color. Ex. those with blue papers sing the words on the blue line, while those with red papers hum. Or those with yellow papers sing words on yellow line while those with green papers clap. I tried to involve all the children so they wouldn't get bored. We have a VERY young junior primary and keeping their attention is difficult. You could even have them swap colors with their neighbor. We also sang songs like head shoulders knees and toes and they could only use their hand that was holding the paper to touch the diff. body parts. Anyway, there's so much you could do with this for junior primary!

I was impressed with how quickly they learned the 2nd verse of scripture power using this method. And they seemed to have fun. I will use this method again to teach other less known verses. Although, next time i'll probably "stack the deck" better for senior primary and put all the specialty cards in the stacks i give each row. It made it more fun to have those cards played yet we never seemed to have enough of them played. Anyway, have fun!!!

Pass the Buck

Have 4-5 children come up to the front. Give them a dollar bill to pass back and forth between them. The entire primary sings the song, watching you carefully for cut off. When you cut them off, whoever is left holding the dollar bill sings the next word. (or phrase) You can do it like the singing bee game and put the dashes on the chalkboard representing how many words they have to sing. I let them use their class for help if they want. Simple, fun. Good way to review and sing a song repeatedly.

Praise to the Man posters

Ok, so i have taught this song the past couple weeks without a poster but junior primary was struggling a bit so I finally decided to make one. Besides, the president told me she liked posters because then we can just pull them out anytime to sing, either with a substitute or a couple years down the road. So...i made a simple poster. I like to be able to cover up different portions as we learn the song and it helps the young ones have a solid visual to stick in their heads. I used these today and i was amazed at how much it helped junior-especially with the big words! (i put "ascended" going up to remind them that it means "going up" and "vain" is in stair steps down to remind them to sing 4 steps on that word-i'm going to go back and put a fermata on "tyrants" too)

Praise to the Man

Ok, so i am behind. Really behind. We've had general conference, stake conference, I was gone on vacation last week, and today our ward had all the women attend R.S. I feel like i haven't been in primary in a long time and I MISS IT!!! Anyway, with all of this and learning our mothers day songs, I haven't had a chance to teach Praise to the Man yet. But i am ready now. And excited.

I attended a stake leadership meeting last month and decided then to start by teaching the chorus. At least to junior primary. Which i'll do next week. I will bring rhythm instruments to learn the rhythm first and then hopefully add the words. I don't plan on even making it through the whole chorus this first sunday teaching it. I don't want to overwhelm them and we have a VERY young jr. primary so i plan on easing them into it. I will eventually teach the verses to junior primary too but, in the end, if all they know is the chorus, i'll be happy.

For senior primary. I want them to use hymn books the first time we sing it. I want them to feel the power of this song from the very first time they hear it and sing it with their own voices. I'm going to have them stand and sing. Then i'll briefly tell them the history of the song and have them play this matching game to help them understand the meaning of the harder words/phrases. I think the 2nd week i teach this i will use this idea from Brittney. (i love having so many great resources out there-thanks everyone!) I am excited to finally be able to teach this song! It is so powerful and what a great song to allow us to testify of Joseph Smith and the cause he died for. I love it!

Mother's Day

Since April is general conference and also stake conference for us, I knew i needed to start teaching our Mother's day songs that we will be singing in sacrament meeting. We're singing the 1st verse of Love is Spoken Here (p. 190) followed by verses 1 and 3 of Mother Dear (p. 206a) I thought of several different ways to teach the songs but ended up choosing the poster method. I REALLY want the children to learn the songs well and posters seem to do the trick for our primary. The good thing about posters is that it helps junior primary learn the words while visualizing and we can use the blobs to cover up different portions of the poster as we practice. Most of all, this way of teaching a song is easiest for me. :) Are you singing in sacrament meeting? I'd love to hear what songs you chose to sing......

Headband Hero

This activity is a great way to review a song. I saw it here and just changed it a bit. I bought a few headbands at the dollar store and printed out some key words from the song we're working on. I attached a paper clip to each word so that it would be easy to attach it to the headband. (you could use adhesive velcro too) Invite a child to wear the headband "nephite" style. Then attach a word to the headband without showing them what the word is. Then the primary sings the song and while singing, we omit the word that is on the headband. After we finish singing the song, the child wearing the headband has to guess what word is on his forehead. To make it more challenging, use several children at a time. This is a little trickier for the chorister but i found it helpful to arrange the children according to the order their word came up in the song and then I would just touch them on the shoulders when their word was coming so they would know when to listen for their word (or their omitted word actually). Make sense? We had fun with it-i hope you will too!

Sing like a Bird

I got this idea from a comment by "walking on sunshine" posted on Brittney's blog. I printed and laminated pictures of a hummingbird, canary, owl, and parrot. Tell your primary children you are bird watching today. Then, depending on which bird you hold up, the children either hum, sing, oohh, or speak the words. I think this is a great idea to use when teaching a new song. It will help everyone become familiar with the music and learn the words. You could have 1/2 the primary sing the words while the other side bird watches and visa versa. Thanks for all the great ideas out there!

Chalkboard erase addition....Stand for the Right

Like I said in my earlier post, today in senior primary we did the chalkboard erase game to learn Stand for the Right. They did great but the fun part was when a few girls suggested an idea for a way to make the game more challenging. After we had erased 10 or so words, one side of the primary sang all the words that were remaining on the board. Then we sang it again with the other 1/2 of primary singing only the words that had been erased. Then, the third time through, we combined the two groups. Not only did they have to pay attention to when it was their word(s) to sing, but I had to really pay attention on who was supposed to sing so i could point to the right side when it was their turn. They did great and it was lots of fun!

Stand for the Right-SR.

I've been thinking about this all week and finally decided that I would take the simple road. The song is short and i think it will be easily learned. So, i'm going to use an oldie but goodie teaching idea. I will write the words on the chalkboard/whiteboard and then have a few children erase a few words at a time each time we sing it until we are comfortable with the song. After we've done this a few times, i will ask the WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN questions from the Children's Songbook Companion to help them internalize the meaning of the song. WHO has some words for us? (Our prophet) WHAT are the words? (Be true) WHERE shall we be true? (At work or at play) WHEN should we be true? (In darkness or light)

Primary Tag

Scatter your song visuals on the board. Explain the rules to tag, i.e. no running, only soft "tagging", etc. Invite a child to go first. Their task is to find the first picture in the song and put it in the 1st position, then tag another child to find the 2nd picture and so on until all the pictures are in order. The rest of the primary sings the song over and over until all the pictures are in place.