I am so excited at how well Singing Time went today, in both Junior and Senior primary. I loved this new activity.
I mentioned in my previous post that I was debating on how to approach the "What Song Am I?" game this week. What I ended up doing today would be great for other activities besides introducing a new song. It would be great for song reviews and for other clue games.
My inspiration was from the Melissa and Doug latch board (a popular educational toy brand), which looks like this:
My version looks like this: (I was not looking at the latch board at the time I drew this, otherwise I guess I could have just copied it. It's a cute board. Or, if you own the latch board, you could always just bring that to Primary.)
This was easy to make. It took about an hour, tops, and if you are not comfortable free-hand drawing a few houses, you could easily do a Google search for large images of homes, and just cut them out and paste them to a poster board instead. I was trying to save on ink, so I just used a pencil and some markers.
Each window and door opens. I used a razor blade to cut the openings and fold back the windows and doors. (Be sure to put some cardboard beneath your poster so you don't cut into your table.) I then taped pictures of gospel principles behind the doors so that the children could look forward to opening the window or door and seeing the image behind it. I only taped the tops and bottoms of each picture, so there was room to easily slide a clue between the closed door/window and the picture.
I used a tiny piece of tape, which I folded back on itself so that it made a bit of a latch, to hold the windows and doors shut until the child pulled the piece of tape up.
The child would open the window or door, pull out the clue (as described in the previous post), then read it (or I read it it if they were too young). I asked children to raise their hand as they thought they knew the answer to the clue.
We had four new Sunbeams that joined the primary today, so I started by giving each Sunbeam a turn. They loved it! I then used the Helping Hands jar to call up the rest of the kids that participated.
This was so much fun. The children were so excited to take turns, and so reverent. The clues ended up being an excellent set, where some kids guessed the song right away, but all guessed the song by the end of the game. I then called on someone to share the answer. I can see using the windows and doors to house what song we sing next on a song review day, or a fun way to sing a song.
I also want to share that the Sunbeams (and the rest of the Junior Primary) loved holding up giant sun pictures and waving them back and forth with the song. I was really pleased that the opening lesson for Singing Time 2013 went off so beautifully.
I had a tiny bit of extra time in Senior Primary after we played "What Song Am?" and did the other stuff I planned last week, so I also taught them a little about leading in 4/4 time. It was a fun way to use up the extra time and sing "I Am a Child of God" one more time. They know the song too well for me to want to do in-depth flip charts, but I am excited to start teaching them sign language for this song, next week.
I mentioned in my previous post that I was debating on how to approach the "What Song Am I?" game this week. What I ended up doing today would be great for other activities besides introducing a new song. It would be great for song reviews and for other clue games.
My inspiration was from the Melissa and Doug latch board (a popular educational toy brand), which looks like this:
This was easy to make. It took about an hour, tops, and if you are not comfortable free-hand drawing a few houses, you could easily do a Google search for large images of homes, and just cut them out and paste them to a poster board instead. I was trying to save on ink, so I just used a pencil and some markers.
Each window and door opens. I used a razor blade to cut the openings and fold back the windows and doors. (Be sure to put some cardboard beneath your poster so you don't cut into your table.) I then taped pictures of gospel principles behind the doors so that the children could look forward to opening the window or door and seeing the image behind it. I only taped the tops and bottoms of each picture, so there was room to easily slide a clue between the closed door/window and the picture.
I used a tiny piece of tape, which I folded back on itself so that it made a bit of a latch, to hold the windows and doors shut until the child pulled the piece of tape up.
The child would open the window or door, pull out the clue (as described in the previous post), then read it (or I read it it if they were too young). I asked children to raise their hand as they thought they knew the answer to the clue.
We had four new Sunbeams that joined the primary today, so I started by giving each Sunbeam a turn. They loved it! I then used the Helping Hands jar to call up the rest of the kids that participated.
This was so much fun. The children were so excited to take turns, and so reverent. The clues ended up being an excellent set, where some kids guessed the song right away, but all guessed the song by the end of the game. I then called on someone to share the answer. I can see using the windows and doors to house what song we sing next on a song review day, or a fun way to sing a song.
I also want to share that the Sunbeams (and the rest of the Junior Primary) loved holding up giant sun pictures and waving them back and forth with the song. I was really pleased that the opening lesson for Singing Time 2013 went off so beautifully.
I had a tiny bit of extra time in Senior Primary after we played "What Song Am?" and did the other stuff I planned last week, so I also taught them a little about leading in 4/4 time. It was a fun way to use up the extra time and sing "I Am a Child of God" one more time. They know the song too well for me to want to do in-depth flip charts, but I am excited to start teaching them sign language for this song, next week.
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