Mother's Day Song Review

Last chance to practice for Mother's Day next week!

We have been learning two songs: "I Think the World is Glorious" and "Mother Dear." We have not had much time to learn these songs so the children know them, but not confidently and well. You can apply this activity to your Mother' Day songs that you need to review, but of course, I've tailored my lesson to these two songs.

Junior Primary

Learning "Mother Dear" (Practicing Lyrics)
In Junior Primary, we actually need to finish re-learning "Mother Dear" so I'm going to put all the fun pictures on the wall (deliberately big, bright colors), and just have the children take the pictures down one by one to learn the lines just as I have taught this song in the past, but skipping any extras I had added on before.

Update after church: The Junior Primary LOVED "Shy Samuel." I have a CTR 4 that struggles with primary in general, and even he was entranced. The children sang loudly and with enthusiasm when I introduced Shy Samuel. (In this pic, my arm is going through the bottom of the box into the puppet.)

Pop up Puppet (Practicing Volume)

If we have any time left, I'll have the Junior Primary practice each song for volume. I'll tell them I have a shy friend who wants to hear us sing but he'll only come out if we're nice and loud. And then I'll have head start to poke up out of a box until his whole body is out if they sing loud enough. I can even wave his arms around and make him dance for joy :) I saw a primary chorister in my ward do this years ago.

For mine, I found a puppet (one I owned already), then a box that it fit inside. I then wrapped the box so it had a nice home. I am going to introduce him as Shy Samuel. Shy Samuel is very ... well, shy! But ... he loves music, and the louder you sing, the more he wants to come out and hear all of your beautiful voices. If you sing loud enough, he might even come out and dance. (As the primary sings, he'll slowly start to come out of the box and begin dancing. If the children don't sing loudly enough, then he'll just stay in his box.)

Echo Chamber (More on Lyrics)

If we still have some time left, I will have them sing in Echo Chamber style, which is that I divide the class into four sections. I sing a line, then each corner takes turns echoing the line back to me. The repetition helps ingrain the song in their head.

Senior Primary

Echo Chamber (Lyrics)

We're going to start with Echo Chamber as above. I will tell them to listen carefully and pay attention to the words because they are going to need it for Tic Tac Toe!

Tic Tac Toe (Lyrics)

Senior Primary has had time to learn and re-learn both songs, but they are a little bit fuzzy on the "Mother Dear" song because they had about five minutes to-relearn it. 

For them, I will play Singing Time Tic Tac Toe, which is what I consider to be a traditional Singing Time Song Review Game for all the songs, but I am modifying to be for just the two Mother's Day songs that we will be singing next week. So, rather than having them identify the name of the song for which the line is from, or answer trivia questions about the song, I'm going to have them identify the next line of the song.

Basically, it goes like this:

Choose a reverent child or choose a child from the name jar, making sure they are from the correct side of the room because you are playing one side of the room against the other. They get to choose where they want to put a circle or a square. There is a line of a song behind each square. They can ask kids in their class only - no other kids on their side of the room - and then they have to tell me correctly the next line of the song. But they only have 15 seconds to answer. If they are right, they get to put their circle or x in the square. If they are wrong, the other side gets a chance to "steal" that space. 

Or, have them play against you! If the person in the class can't answer the question correctly in 30 seconds, you get to put up an X against their Os. I like this version because then we could sing the song in between turns, and even if I win the first time, they should eventually catch up and win, too!

My questions:

In the first line of the song, fill in the blank, "Mother Dear, I love you so, your (happy, smiling face) is such a joy to look at,"

In the first line of the song, finish the sentence, "Mother Dear, I love you so, your happy, smiling face, is such a joy to look at; it (makes homes a lovely place).

What is the second line of the song, "Mother Dear." Hint, it starts: "Mother Dear, I love you so. Your (lovely, shining eyes)" and make a comparison to stars.

In the second line of the song, "Mother Dear," complete the sentence, "Mother Dear, I love you so. Your lovely shining eyes, are just (like stars that twinkle. way up in the bright blue skies).

In the third line of the song, "Mother Dear," complete this sentence, "Mother Dear, I love you so. I'll try the whole day through (To please our Heav'nly Father. I'm so glad he gave me you.")

In "I think the World is Glorious," the second verse of the song only has one line different from the first verse of the song. Fill in the sentence that is different, "For I have t(eachers kind and true and parents who love me."

etc. ...

If There is Any Time Remaining in Senior ...

Helmet Hero

I will bring out Helmet Hero, which I have planned as a back-up activity several times and still not done in quite some time. This is one of my most popular activities so if you don't want to do Tic Tac Toe, do Helmet Hero. My most stubborn boys will play this game!

Balloon (Volume)
I'll have a teacher blow up a balloon while they are singing. Then, we'll let it go and watch it zip around the room, maybe with a goal to hit something ... or something ... okay still trying to think of a fun Volume game for Senior that I haven't already done, that takes 10 seconds to prepare :)

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2018 Update

Hi everyone,
I hope you have been enjoying my blog. I still receive and respond to requests even though I was released as a chorister 4.5 years ago. I still serve in the Primary though! After years of serving in Primary, I've written a book that is available at Deseret Book and Costco during the Christmas season. Or year round, you can find it online. It's called "My Nativity ABCs." I have a second Primary-oriented children's book coming out this fall. You can pre-order "My Nativity 1-2-3s" on Amazon!

I also recently began sharing my General Conference cards that I make for my Primary kids on Etsy. You can download your own digital copy for $4 and then print as many copies as you want to make for your Primary kids!