Song Review Game - Mrs. Potato Head (a new twist)

My primary kids don't have "A Child's Prayer" down pat yet, but I never want them to feel like they are just drilling and drilling on one song over and over, PLUS I had stake conference coming up and didn't want them to forget more than they learned when they take a two-week hiatus from singing time ... so it was time to take a fun break and review the songs already in their repertoire. We'll get back to Week 3 of "A Child's Prayer" later ... and if you missed it, here's Week 1 and Week 2.

I re-used the Mrs. Potato Head I made for a song review over a year ago, with a new twist.

Here's how I did it the first time, and below is the variation I did last Sunday.

First, the objects:
I drew Mrs. Potato Head and her parts free-hand and then colored them in. It was a bit of a pain, but totally worth it. If choristers are interested, I'll scan the colored drawings for you to print and cut out to use with your primary kids. Just leave a comment and let me know if there's some interest in printing out these parts! If choristers find this helpful, I'll try to post them to print out by Saturday afternoon.

You can let children use tape or magnets to attach the pieces to Mrs. Potato Head. I used Velcro stickers since I went to the trouble of laminating. If you want to make something yourself, another variation is to use a 3D object: I did something similar to this last year, with letting children decorate a real, live pumpkin for Halloween but you could even tell them that you have a box and it's pretty boring - and then have them decorate the box ... or decorate a cake (but they'll want to eat it) ... etc.

Second, how I played:
The object of the activity was to complete Mrs. Potato Head before Singing Time ended. Neither Senior or Junior primary was able to accomplish this task, but they sure had fun trying. I think this is one of my primary kids' favorite activities in Junior and Senior primary because it is very participatory.

I put a diagram on the wall showing what each body part or accessory represented:

Hair - 2-3 - I am a Child of God
Hat - 142 - Every Star is Different
Eyes - 228 - My Heavenly Father Loves Me
Nose - 103 - When I am Baptized
Mouth - 86 - An Angel Came to Joseph Smith
Hands - If the Savior Stood Beside Me
Clothes - Families Can Be Together Forever

If after we sang the song, a child drew the same type of item out of the bag, we sang the song again, but in a different way. I drew another name out of the name jar to decide in what way we sang a song. If I felt the song was too reverent for the way they chose, I just told them that and had them draw again.

Options included:

• Staccato (good for pronouncing enunciation)
• Volley (each side of the room switches off singing a different line of the song)
• Sway (sway while you sing)
• I love the options that the Crazy Chorister suggests for ways to sing a song here.
• Backwards (face the back of the room)
• Flamingo style (one leg up)
• Teachers only
• Children only
• Hum
• Girls only / Boys only
• Clap (I have them clap to the rhythm. Incidentally, they love this one.)
• In the dark (turn off the lights)
• Every other word (this one was hilarious because it's SO hard to do but it was fun for the kids to try, and it made them think about the words)
• Hot (pretend you're really hot and sing like you are sweltering)
• Cold (pretend you're really cold and sing like you're freezing
• Mouth Open (sing with your mouth wide open - I used this as a teaching moment to explain that if they don't enunciate, that's how they sound when they sing during the sacrament program)
• Sport (I did this for the Olympics and made up a bunch of different sports that had different ways of singing, like pretending you're ROWING, or LIFTING WEIGHTS, or SWIMMING, etc.)

I love making different ways for children to sing how to sing a song, whether it's choosing an object, playing a game like spin-the-wheel (see upcoming post!) or plinko, or turning over a piece of paper. This time, I did the last item and just put items on paper, because I did not want the kids to deliberate too long over different objects to choose.

We sang several songs and had a lot of fun - and then, to make sure the children were ready for the teacher (a member of the stake primary presidency this time), we ended with a reverent song. The teachers really appreciate this :)