Back-to-School Review for Singing Time

As the primary children have started or will very soon be starting school again after summer break, and considering August was the last month with a song for the program, this Back-To-School review for singing time is the perfect way to 1) get them excited for school, 2) get them excited during singing time, and 3) give you (the chorister) an initial review of the 8 program songs you've been learning since january and gauge what needs more work or if fun reviews are all you need to do as the Primary Program quickly approaches.

Here's what I did:
I got a backpack and put the following school supply items inside. I've included which song I used with each item and what each item represented we do while we sang.

Sharpener: As A Child of God (sep pg)
  --"sharpen skills", periodically stop and have children tell or sing you the next word or phrase;
      print sheet music with predetermined stops

Eraser: Choose the Right HYMNBOOK pg239
 --"erase" the words choose/choice and right while you sing the song

Box of Crayons/Markers: Stand for the Right pg159
 --during song, hold up different colors, children wearing those colors stand up

Scissors: Choose the Right Way pg160
 --sing staccato because we "cut" the words short, try to have them enunciate too

Notebook: When I Am Baptized pg103
 --name that tune by listening to the "notes", then sing once guessed correctly

Gluestick: Nephi's Courage pg120
 --get "stuck" on notes while singing. Hold out note for extra beats, have pianist watch for cues

(Mini) White/Chalk-board: The Wise Man and the Foolish Man pg281
 --pictionary: child will draw hint to what the song is, sing after guess correctly

Calculator: I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus pg78
 --count how many times I or I'm is in the song while we sing (6x for vs 1)


To note: there are several blogs on blogspot with this back-to-school review idea (which is where I originally found my inspiration)... In The Leafy Treetops blog (i like her idea of grading each song), and Camilles Primary Ideas blog (she has the kids find the hidden supplies and help her find them to prepare for school) are two such examples you can check out, as well as this post on Sugardoodle.net where I think I originally saw the idea.

...and there are many other items or alternate ways to use the items that have been posted.
Erasers, pencils, pens, a textbook, a compass, a protractor, flash cards, ect. Look around for what you have at home and you're sure to come up with clever and fun ideas.

The Complete Book of Mormon Stories Actions!

Over the last 3 years I've been primary chorister, I've had a desire to teach every verse of Book of Mormon Stories and Follow the Prophet to my primary. It was helped actually set in motion at my first stake primary meeting where the stake primary chorister taught us motions she'd come up with for the 2000 Strippling Warriors verse 6. And today, I FINALLY put together actions for the Alma verse, which now completes all the verses of BoM Stories for our primary! Believe me, the kiddos love the stories all the much more now too. And it goes perfectly with the theme this year of Choose The Right!

Once I record them, I'll be posting up some videos of the actions I and my stake primary chorister at the time came up with, feel free to learn them and teach your own primary about Alma, Abinadi, Ammon, the 2000 Strippling Warriors, Samuel, and Jesus Christ's resurrection in addition to the traditional verse 1 and 2.

(video 1) <--coming
(video 2) <--coming
(video3) <--coming


I encourage you to go out of your way to teach your primary the other verses to Book of Mormon Stories and to share it with other choristers you meet along the way!

All In The Hands

I just copied/pasted this from sugardoodle.net because I didn't want to forget this wonderful idea! I've been chorister now for almost three years and haven't come up with anything to help the children pay attention/understand any better until this lovely Aili came along! Thanks for sharing! I look forward to raiding my house for gloves and implementing this in my primary soon!


"Aili writes, "I wanted a way to help the children be aware that my hands were telling them how to sing the song (soft, loud, etc.) on short notice since I got called right before the program.I decided to raid my winter closet and my children's dress-up and came up with four pairs of gloves:
Pink=sweetly
Black=strong
White Fuzzy=listen for the Holy Ghost
Zebra=enthusiastic

I change gloves depending on what I think the song needs.The children have been really responsive to this. I think some of them didn't notice my hands at all before, only focusing on my face (and mouth singing the words). The contrast of the colored glove to my skin and dress really makes my hands stand out visually. Lots of the sunbeams are mimicking my hand movements now, but I think it's just because it's new. And it's way easier to get them to adjust dynamics now!

big hands=LOUD
small hands=soft

I love how responsive they were to pink=sweetly, "I'm trying to be like Jesus" used to be a bit too strong for the message of the song but was really nice last week." "

Fortune Cookie Fun!

A friend of mine linked to a cute t-shirt upcycle DIY to another friend of mine on fb today. By following the link and then browsing the site a bit, I ran across several tutorials on how to make fortune cookies out of paper or felt. The tutorials all used Valentine's Day as a theme, but I thought "What a GREAT idea for singing time!"

Here's a link to one of the tutorials I found. I like this one because you can actually open and close the cookie to get the fortune out. ^^
http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/felt-fortune-cookies-2
And maybe I can go to the craft store or a dollar store and buy one of those large chinese take out boxes people use for gifts to put all the cookies...

Of course, I would be putting the names of songs to sing in place of a fortune. Though, I'm trying to figure out how I could put a "fortune" in the cookie and make it like a clue to the song we'll sing??? Like, "Love thy neighbor as thy brother" for "Love One Another" or "He has given you an earthly home with parents kind and dear" for "I Am A Child of God" or "As you search the scriptures, you will hear His words of peace" for "If I Listen With My Heart"... so yeah, something like that. ^^ Either way, I know the kids will love it.

"Hello" Song

My primary LOVES languages. They want to learn and their passion inspires me to continually indulge their love of learning. So, I introduced singing the Hello Song as "Bonjour" or "Hola" instead of "Hello". They loved it so much that's the only song they wanted to sing.

As happenstance would have it, another chorister who's blog I follow posted a bunch of other languages and ways to sing "Hello" and wrote them on popsicle sticks (which I like and might do too) Check it out!
Here: http://primarysingingintherain.blogspot.com/2011/02/welcome-song-idea.html#comment-form

EDIT:
P.S. I used this idea for my "wiggle/wake-up" songs before openning prayer and also at the beginning of singing time. They LOVED it. Especially "konnichiwa" and "ciao". I also had the pianst speed up more than our normal relaxed tempo, which I've always thought was a bit too slow anyhow. I didn't use all the 11 or so popsicle sticks I made, but it gives them something to look forward to!

Apple Pie

My coworker was recently called as primary chorister so we swap ideas and share our successes and whatnot. Today, she told me that last week her primary made "Apple Pie".

Supplies:
-Apple shaped cutouts
-Posterboard tree (or maybe a mini-tree where you could hang the cutouts?)
-Wooden spoon
-Chef hat
-Apron
-Pie pan

Make or buy a bunch of apple shaped cutouts and on the back write the names of songs you want to sing/review. My coworker bought a posterboard and cutout a big tree, though if you have a mini-tree you could use that. When it was singing time, she informed the children that they were going to make apple pie! Doning a chef hat and apron (and once she got into it, she started using a silly french accent to), she called on a child to come up and pick an apple off the tree. They then sung the song on the back with the child who picked the apple using a big wooden spoon to lead the song. Afterwards the apple was placed in a pie pan and another child was chosen.

I thought this sounded like such a FUN idea! I may try it for a review week sometime! Now, she didn't mention what they did at the end of it, but I imagine the kids just felt rewarded by picking all the apples. Maybe you could make a handout for them as a reward? I personally wouldn't bring apple pie or a treat, but that's me i guess.

Picture A Christmas / Little Jesus

We all have christmas programs coming up, so I have been trying to teach a few different CS christmas songs to the primary kids instead of always singing the same three songs. Picture a Christmas and Little Jesus is the goal for this sunday.


Here: http://primarysingingtimeideas.blogspot.com/2010/11/picture-christmas.html is a very helpful link. I used many of the pictures provided here and substitued a few different ones. I took a 5 x 7 picture frame from home and plan to teach the song how she suggested at the linked blog. Which is, basically, having the children take turns framing each picture in the appropriate order and mixing it up each time.

However, I'm also adding some hand motions. For example, every time we sing "picture a" we'll make a rectangle in the air with both hands. And "baby Jesus" we swing our arms like coddling a baby. I'm hoping by adding motions they will help the words stick a bit more as I know for a fact I taught this song last year but the children claim they don't know it (which means it didn't stick).