Book signing and Reading at Barnes & Noble in Orem, Utah!

Hey Everyone,

I will be hosting a storytime and activity at Barnes & Noble at 1 p.m. this Saturday, followed by a book signing from 2-4 p.m.!

Win a free book!

My publisher, Cedar Fort, is giving away ten free copies of my new children's book through Goodreads. Enter to win! The drawing runs through October 10, 2017.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

My Nativity ABCs

by Esther Yu Sumner

Giveaway ends October 10, 2017.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Visit "My Nativity ABCs" on Goodreads to enter now!

And, if you're in Salt Lake City this weekend, you can visit the artist for this book, Alex Worthen, at his booth in Artist Alley.

Christmas Singing Time with a Nativity Cut Out.

I found this great nativity cut-out in the LDS Media library.

Scavenger hunt, anyone?

** 12/16/13 update in red below. :) More ideas.



A few ideas for this one (first, cut out the four pictures).

Option #1. Hide the pictures around the room, but so that they are visible. Sing a Christmas song that talks about the nativity, and have the children point around the room as they sing the song. For example, if you were to sing, "Sleep, Little Jesus," then you would have the children look for and point to the baby Jesus for "Sleep, Little Jesus, Lord of the earth," then point to the shepherds for "Shepherds will come to thee ..." etc.
Update: My new chorister did a version of this activity on Sunday, but instead of having them point, she had them stand up and turn toward the picture. It was so fun to see all their bodies turn, and because the pictures were on all four walls, they turned all the way left, all the way right, all the way back - it was great participation; loved the idea!

Option #1. Hide the pieces around the room and play the hot/cold game with Christmas songs until all four pieces are found. Obviously, this is a slightly different take on the hot/cold game, so once the child has left the room, you'd have to tell the rest of the class where the item was hidden. You could always have another child hide the item after the first child leaves the room, but wrap the picture to add to the mystery of what they are actually looking for when they play this game.

Option #2. Play a matching game with these four pictures and four scriptures. This is a great way to make them think about the scriptures. When they find a match, sing a Christmas song you have associated with the picture.

Option #4. This week's lesson is about how we can prepare to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus again. To tie this into the Christmas-themed nativity, cut out the four pictures above, as well as four blank sheets of paper. The object of the activity is to build a nativity. Children choose from eight envelopes. They will either end up with a piece of the nativity, which they get to put up on the board, or they will end up with one of the four sheets of paper. If they choose a nativity piece, the class sings a Christmas song. If the class is working on a song for the Christmas program, then they sing the Christmas program song, but maybe in a fun different way (staccato, legato, etc.). If they choose one of the pieces of paper without a picture on it, then if they are working a program song, they have to answer a question about the next line of the song. If the class is not working on a program song, then if they choose the piece of paper, they have to name one thing they can do to prepare to live with Heavenly Father again. If they don't understand the question, give them an example, like, "Be kind to others."

Option #5. This week's lesson actually specifically calls out a number of songs in the primary book and is a particularly easy week to combine singing time and sharing time. You could do the same thing as #4 except behind every sheet of paper that is not a nativity, list the song from the lesson plan - I Will Follow God's Plan 164-5; Keep the Commandments, 146-7: Kindness Begins with Me, 145; 103 - When I Am Baptized. Then, ask the children after each song to explain how the song reminds us of things we can do to prepare to live with Heavenly Father again.

Christmas Singing Time

Idea #1 - Prophet Matching. This week's theme is around how the prophets foretold of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. To tie that into singing time, use pictures of the six prophets that foretold of Jesus' birth. As children turn over a new prophet, talk about that prophet and what they foretold. This is what the sharing time lesson is about so you either need to coordinate with who is teaching that day, or just have them identify the prophet and don't talk too much about each picture. I've collected pictures for the matching game on the other tab of this blog. When children make a match, sing a Christmas song in the songbook, though "Follow the Prophet" would also be a good one to add in.

Idea #2 - Unwrap the Nativity. I think I do something along this line every year but I just love this one so much. Wrap each nativity piece along with the number for a song. Children have fun unwrapping presents, and it is a good reminder to them about the real gift of Christmas. In order to make sure they unwrap Baby Jesus before Singing Time is over, don't wrap too many of the extra pieces. Or, at the end, just call several children up to unwrap what remains to manage the time. To add some spice to this activity, you could also have children pretend to be certain pieces that they unwrap, but you have to be careful to be appropriate. For example, if a child unwraps Mary, have the children sing very, very softly. If a child unwraps a lamb, have them drag out the words like a lamb or even do a soft staccato like an animal walking.

Free Time: The Two Months of Sundays Between the Singing Time Program and the New Year

We had our primary program last week, and it was beautiful, amazing, and wonderful. I am so grateful to an amazing primary presidency, her wonderful and supportive counselors, two talented and supportive primary pianists, the teachers, and the parents and siblings who have all been a part of helping to teach these thoughtful, loving children. I absolutely love all of them.

I've had so many ideas brewing about the next two months.

I have an annual Thanksgiving Singing Time that the children LOVE and that is probably my personal favorite, and some other holiday-themed singing times planned. I also want to teach the children two songs to sing in the Christmas program so that means that I need to plan wisely so that I'm not trying to teach two songs at the last minute.

I have already discussed the Christmas Program with our amazing Ward Music Leader. She asked me what songs I had in mind, then was pleased to tell me that one of the songs I had picked in particular fit perfectly into the narration and spot in the program that she had been considering! Wahoo!

To decide, I went through every song in the Children's Songbook, reviewing both the tune and the lyrics. There are way too many excellent Christmas songs in there to even consider looking elsewhere. I narrowed it down to six, eliminating ones I have done in the past because once again, there are way too many amazing songs to become fixated on the same song.

The next day, one of the songs that had been fourth on my list kept coming into my mind all day. I chose that as one of my two songs, and I'm so excited to teach it!!

The two songs I have tentatively selected:

Sleep Little Jesus

Lyrics

1. 1. Sleep, little Jesus, Lord of the earth.
   Angels are telling the news of thy birth.
   Shepherds will come to thee, bringing thee love.
   Bright shines the star in heaven above.
2. 2. "Sleep, little Jesus," softly we sing.
   Earth long has waited her Savior and King.
   Heavenly hosts sing, "Alleluia,
   Peace to all men, Alleluia!"
3. Words: Mabel Jones Gabbott, 1910-2004. (c) 1981 IRI
   Music: Michael Finlinson Moody, b. 1941. (c) 1981 IRI

I expect this one may be a little to teach because it's not as intuitive. Too many similar words in a row. Challenged accepted ... ha ha. More to come.

Stars Were Gleaming

Lyrics

1. 1. Stars were gleaming, shepherds dreaming;
   And the night was dark and chill.
   Angels' story rang with glory;
   Shepherds heard it on the hill.
   Ah, that singing! Hear it ringing,
   Earthward winging, Christmas bringing!
   Hearken! We can hear it still!
2. 2. See the clearness and the nearness
   Of the blessed Christmas star,
   Leading, guiding; wise men riding
   Through the desert dark and far.
   Lovely showing, shining, growing,
   Onward going, gleaming, glowing,
   Leading still, our Christmas star!
3. Words: Nancy Byrd Turner, 1880-1971
   Music: Polish carol; arr. by Darwin Wolford, b. 1936
   Words (c) 1930 by Presbyterian Board of Christian Education; renewed 1958; from Hymns for Primary Worship. Used by permission of Westminster/John Knox Press. Arr. (c) 1989 IRI
   
   

I am working on a flip chart for "Sleep, Little Jesus," coming soon.

Christmas Mad Gab and Choose the Right Cup Singing Time!

Update: This went really well and was super fun for both the senior and junior primary activities. I highly recommend! The senior activity is not my most quiet activity since the children have to sound the words out to hear the titles, but it's a lot of fun and can still be done in a reverent manner. I mentioned previously that I was debating how to choose the child and song for the Senior Primary Mad Gab game. I decided to just use a jar to pick a name and call a child up. The child then chose from a stack of papers, each with a different song on it. I then let everyone try to figure it out and raise their hands as they guessed the song title. It was fun to see how well the children participated in both the singing, and the activity to pick the next song. I think it really motivated them.

I have a different activity for Senior vs. Junior primary this Sunday, since the Christmas program will be running into Junior primary time, and since Junior primary children aren't as advanced with their reading skills.

Senior Primary - Mini Mad Gab

This game is loosely based on Mad Gab, where players try to identify the "real" phrase, for example, the Mad Gab example I found on Wikipedia was figuring out that "These if Hill Wore" is really "The Civil War." (Say the first phrase aloud if you're confused, and I think it will start to make sense to you.) I have seen some funny commercials about people mishearing the lyrics of songs, too, so it will be great to start this activity by giving an example and explaining that the reason we focus on enunciation is that a line in a song that sounds familiar to us will sound very different to the people listening if we slur the words.

The premise for this game is simple: once children correctly interpret a song title, they sing it.

I am debating on different ways to uncover the songs right now. I might turn over a few at a time and let children raise their hand as they recognize a song. Or, I might let children choose an image to turn over the missing word. Or, I might let each class turn a song over, then confer together to figure out the song title. There are so many fun ways to do this ...

Here are the "Mad Gab" versions I came up with for each song (with help from my clever husband, on whom I tested each version). I would love your suggestions if you have any other ideas too - some of these song titles went through four or five different versions.

Away in a Manger (#42)
A weigh inn uh main jeer

Christmas Bells (#54)
Chris muss bails

Have a Very Merry Christmas! (#51)
Half a varied Mary Chris Must

He Sent His Son (#34)
Eave scent hiss sun

Little Jesus (#39)
Lid doll Jesus

Once within a Lowly Stable (#41)

Won swift thin hello least able

Picture a Christmas (#50)
Pick sure a crisp muss

Samuel Tells of the Baby Jesus (#36)
Saw mule tails dove dub bay bee Jesus

Sleep, Little Jesus (#47)
Sleep lid doll Jesus

Stars Were Gleaming (#37)
Stares war glee mean

The Nativity Song (#52)
Thud nave it tees gong

The Shepherd's Carol (Round) (#40)
Thud share pearls care 'ole

When Joseph Went to Bethlehem (#38)
Window soft wind tuba the hem

Thank you to Primary Singing Time, a "retired" primary chorister who posted the below "Mad Gab" Christmas song titles in 2009. I made up all of the above Children's Song Book versions but she covered the bases for me (and inspired this Sunday's Singing Time) with her 2009 hymnal versions, below:

201 - Joint Tooth a Whirled - Joy to the World
202 - Oak Hum Haul Leaf Eighth Full - Oh, Come, All Ye Faithful
203 - Aim Jail Sweet Half Her Dawn Eye - Angels We Have Heard on High
204 - Sigh Lent Knight - Silent Night
204 - One Sinner Oiled Hay Fit Sit Tea - Once in Royal David's City
206 - A Weigh Yin Hum Age Her - Away in a Manger
207 - Hit Cane a Pawn Thumb Hid Mike Leer - It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
208 - Ho Lit Tall Down Dove Bed Luck Hem - Oh Little Town of Bethlehem
209 - Heart Duh Hair Old Day Gels Seen - Hark! The Harold Angels Sing
210 - Whisk One Drink Caw - With Wondering Awe
211 - Wild Shape Heard Swatch Sheriff Locks - While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks
213 - The Fir Snow Well - The First Noel
214 - Eye Herd Thud Elf Song Crisp Messed Hay - I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

Junior Primary - Your Favorite Christmas Song

I am expecting to have about 10 minutes in junior primary at the most, since the Sacrament Christmas program will go long so I am going to keep it simple by modifying a game I have done before:

I will have three cups and three different colored pieces of paper, wadded up. One color represents that I pick the Christmas song that we will sing next. One color represents that the child's teacher will pick the Christmas song that we will sing next. One color will represent that the child will pick the Christmas song that we will sing next. I will call a child up to the front of the room, remind them of what each color represents, then cover each color with a cup. I will then move the cups around very quickly and then ask the child to choose a cup. Then, based on what color he selects, either the child, one of the teachers in that child's class, or I will choose a Christmas song to sing. That's it!

Unwrapping the REAL Gifts of Christmas

This Sunday will be a review of our songs for the Christmas program, including practicing the songs with the musicians that will be playing along with us. I will introduce this activity by sharing that I love Christmas including wrapping presents and putting up Christmas lights, but that I never want to forget about the real gifts of Christmas, and why all the symbols of Christmas bring me joy. I will share that I have wrapped up some of these real gifts to remember today. These are just some of the gifts that we can give to our Heavenly Father and some of the gifts that he has given to us.

If I had more time during singing time, I could have simply used scriptures and had the children look them up, but instead I will wrap up the following quotes that I researched and found on LDS.org (below) (so I can focus more on preparing for our Christmas program).

Update: This was an amazing, spiritual lesson and singing time. I could have heard a pin drop! I called children up that were singing reverently to pick another present to unwrap, and simply used the "presents" to motivate them to sing well, but to also help teach them to pay attention to and appreciate the beauty of the music they were singing.

To keep it simple with preparation, I just cut out the below quotes, rolled them up, tied a ribbon around them, and put them under a little Christmas tree. We read the first quote, and then I likened it to "He Sent His Son" and asked them to think about what that song really meant - how it was about gift our Heavenly Father gave us, while we sang. Normally, I would have attached a song and even a special way to sing the song to the present they selected. This time, I just called out what I wanted them to do, and likened the quote to the selection. This worked amazingly well and allowed me to focus our songs on preparing for the program next week.

Intro

The Christmas season is a time to reflect and act upon the blessings and opportunities we have because of the birth, life, Atonement, and Resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. As our Heavenly Father “so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16), we express our love toward one another and toward God and his precious Son by giving of ourselves.
http://www.lds.org/topics/christmas

Gifts we give to our Heavenly Father

We can give our Heavenly Father joy by repenting and making sacred covenants with him.
How to Gift Gifts to Christ by President Henry B. Eyring 2010 First Presidency Message
http://www.lds.org/new-era/2012/12/how-to-give-gifts-to-christ?lang=eng&query=gift

Gifts we give to our Heavenly Father

We can give our Heavenly Father the gift of doing for others what He would do for them. For example, we can feed the hungry, visit the sick or more simply, help our parents do the dishes without being asked, write a letter to a missionary … (Matthew 25:37 – 40)

How to Gift Gifts to Christ by President Henry B. Eyring 2010 First Presidency Message
http://www.lds.org/new-era/2012/12/how-to-give-gifts-to-christ?lang=eng&query=gift

Gifts from our Heavenly Father
He sent his son to be a perfect example for us, so we could learn about “how to reach out to those in trouble or distress, wherever they may be.”
(President Thomas S. Monson, 2011 First Presidency Christmas Devotional)
http://www.lds.org/topics/christmas

Gifts from our Heavenly Father
“Because He came, death has lost its sting, the grave its victory. We will live again because He came.
(President Thomas S. Monson, 2011 First Presidency Christmas Devotional)

http://www.lds.org/topics/christmas

Gifts from our Heavenly Father
He has restored the Church of Jesus Christ in the latter days.
The Gifts of Christmas by Henry B. Eyring, Christmas 2011 devotional
http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/christmas-devotional/2011/12/the-gifts-of-christmas?lang=eng

Gifts from our Heavenly Father
He has called prophets and apostles to guide us to safety in this life and eternal life in the world to come.
The Gifts of Christmas by Henry B. Eyring, Christmas 2011 devotional
http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/christmas-devotional/2011/12/the-gifts-of-christmas?lang=eng

Gifts from our Heavenly Father
“Because He came and paid for our sins, we have the opportunity to gain eternal life.”
(President Thomas S. Monson, 2011 First Presidency Christmas Devotional)
http://www.lds.org/topics/christmas

Three Options for a Christmas Singing Time Activity

Update: I posted pictures for a combo of the first two activities below, here.

I am debating a few different options that will combine a Christmas-themed game with reviewing some songs for the Christmas program, as well as singing other Christmas songs in general.


Find the Nativity game
Put a grid up on the board with a picture of a Christmas bells (or some other Christmas illustration)  in each square. Children choose a bell. The object of the game is to find all the pieces of the nativity.

As children find the pictures depicting the nativity, they can put it on the board and try to assemble the full picture on the board.

I am designing my own nativity but you can find some free ones online to cut out to use for this game. I found two good options here and here.

If children choose a bell with a nativity piece, they get to put it on the board to build it. Otherwise, the bell will have two other possible options behind it: a fun way to sing the primary Christmas program song, or just a different song from the primary singing book, related to Christmas.

I am considering having the nativity pieces also have an activity, whether it is answering a question about the birth of Christ, looking up a scripture related to the nativity story, matching a phrase related to the review song to one on the board, or answering a question about the review song that we are singing on Christmas Sunday.


What's Behind Each Christmas Bell game?
Put a grid up on the board with a picture of a Christmas bells (or some other Christmas illustration)  in each square. Children choose a bell. They will find one of three things on the flip side of the bell:

1) Questions asking them about the song that we have been working on for the Christmas program.
2) A fun way to practice the Christmas program song:
---- a) four corners echo review game
---- b) echo game from one side of the room to the other
---- c) since I am reviewing "He Sent His Son," I'll have the teachers and primary presidency sing the question, and the children sing the answer
3) A picture that depicts one of the songs in the primary music book

Christmas Tic Tac Toe
I've never played Tic Tac Toe with my primary kids before so I thought this would be a good way to review the songs for the Christmas program, but also incorporate other Christmas music.

Instead of Xs and Os, I'll use Christmas Trees and Bells.

When a child chooses a spot in which to take a turn, they have to answer a question about the song "He Sent His Son" in order to earn the spot on the tic tac toe board. If I was not reviewing a song, I would have the questions be about the birth of the Savior. This way, I can instead focus on the meaning of this lovely song that we will be singing during the Christmas program.

If the child gets the question right, they earn the spot, and we will sing a Christmas song that is attached to the song. If they get the question wrong, we will ...

Incorporating Cookie Cutters (or Ornaments) into a Christmas Singing Time Activity

This Sunday I want to spend a little bit of time on three songs (two of which are in the upcoming Christmas program) ... if time I have other Christmas songs in mind but three is probably ambitious, at least in junior primary. To keep it interesting, and because I have a bunch of cookie cutters that I have been trying to incorporate into an activity, this will be a cookie cutter Sunday.

Ideas for ways to incorporate cookie cutters into a Sunday activity. A little bit of brainstorming:
You can substitute this with ornaments or something else you have in a decent quantity - seasonal preferred.

• Option #1 -- Children will reach reach their hand into a sack and pull out a cookie cutter. The shape of the cookie cutter that they pull out will determine the song that we sing so we will go back and forth with different songs. I will have different activities planned for each song in advance.
• Option #2 -- Fishing for cookie cutters. I realized a bunch of my cookie cutters are not magnetic so I can't do this one (unless I tape magnets to each cookie cutter), but I would have loved to have the children fish for cookie cutters. Each cookie cutter would represent a fun way to sing the song. 
• Option #3 --  Look under your chairs! I will have someone come up and choose a cookie cutter without looking. Then, I'll ask everyone to look under their chairs, where I will have attached a shape that matches the cookie cutters. If their shape matches that of the cookie cutter (and there will be multiples of each shape so more than one child should have the matching shape), then I will have an extra activity for them. I'm trying to do what that extra activity will be - one option could be that there's an extra drawing for the extra activity. Another option could be that that if they have the matching cookie cutter, they have to recite a line of the song to show how well they have memorized it, or something.
• Option #4 -- When I was a piano student as a child, my piano teacher gave everyone a cookie cutter ornament as a present. She attached a ribbon to the cookie cutter and wrote on it "cut out for greatness." I still have my ornament. I could incorporate this into the lesson and talk about what it means to be great ... then add in one of the activities from the other options.
• Option #5 -- Find the cookie cutter. I will hid cookie cutters throughout the room. Each time we finish singing through one song, a child will be called up to point out one of the cookie cutters. We will take the cookie cutter down that the child selects, then ...
• Option #6 -- (This is what I ended up doing.) I drew the cookie cutter patterns onto sheets of paper, and gave each child a pattern. I then had children come up and draw cookie cutters out of a bag. If their cookie cutter matched the pattern, they were asked to participate in a special activity for that pattern.

The main songs and ways that I want to work on singing them:


Samuel Tells the Story of Baby Jesus
I'll keep this one simple and throw up the flip chart I used last year just to review the song with the children.

Joy to the World
Practice the verses we learned last week and see how well we learned them. I had the children help me make up motions to the song last week so I'll ask them to help me to remember the motions.

He Sent His Son
Since this is a question and answer song, I want the kids to go back and forth this week, asking one side to sing the question, and one side to sing the answer. I think I will do this, and then have the children swap turns so that the other side sings the question and answer.

I will also sing this song with them in different "fun" ways ...

Welcoming Christmas with "Joy to the World" - A Gift Wrapped Song

Our primary has been asked to sing two songs during the Christmas program. We started learning "He Sent His Son" last month. This Sunday, I want to introduce the second song- the first verse of "Joy to the World." The children will sing the first verse, and then the choir will sing the additional verses, so I want to teach the children all four verses, but only the first one is critical.

I expect the children will be very familiar with verse one of this song so it's almost more of a song review than learning a new song.

I plan to "gift wrap" the song to introduce it and to introduce the season when we remember the birth of our Savior. I won't tell the children what song I am introducing but will have them unwrap the pictures to try to see if they can identify the song initially. Some of the objects include:

Joy to the World
Joy to the world, the Lord is come;
[1. star over a globe] , [2. the nativity piece for baby Jesus]

Let earth receive her King!
[3. a crown]

Let ev-'ery heart prepare him room,
[4. a heart]

And Saints and an-gels sing,
[5. picture of the early saints + picture of the angels trumpeting]

And Saints and an-gels sing,
[6. the musical "repeat" symbol, which looks like this:   :||  ]

And Saints, and Saints, and an-gels sing,
[7. the musical "repeat" symbol, which looks like this:   :||  ]

The children that I call to the front to pick a package will unwrap the package, and then place it in the order that the number indicates for the item. After each present is opened, I will ask the children to raise their hands if they think they know what song we are singing. I will do this each time until all the presents are opened. Then, I will ask children to keep their hands raised if they want to guess the song.

I will then review what each item represents, then sing the song with the children.

I will then ask the children if they know the song well enough to sing it without all the objects. If they don't, I will only remove a few objects at a time to continue practicing the first verse.

As an interesting FYI about the song, I will also tell the children that the song was written about 300 years ago and that it was not intended to be sung only at Christmas time!

Once the children show me they know verse 1 very well, we will move to verse 2. To learn verse 2, I will ask the children to help me invent motions for each line of the song. I don't expect to have time to work on any lines past verse 2.

Samuel Tells the Story of Baby Jesus
If I do have time though, I will put up the flip chart I made last year for "Samuel Tells the Story of Baby Jesus,"  a song we worked on last year that I love. This song lends itself so well to flipcharts that there are several really great ones on the Internet, like this one or this one.

Memorizing "He Sent His Son" - Singing Time Bells

The first counselor in the bishopric taught Senior Singing Time for me last week so that I could attend the annual special Relief Society Visiting Teaching conference. He said the children knew "He Sent His Son" (the song that I wanted them to work on) quite well, so I debated about what to do this Sunday, since I wanted to spend two weeks on this song, without boring the children. We are singing the song during the Christmas program. I wanted to make sure they knew it very well by early November so that we would have plenty of time to sing other Christmas songs for fun.

So, this is what I am going to do:

In Junior Primary:
I will play the game where children pick which words and pictures on the board to cover, until they are singing the entire song from memory. This is a long song, but it should go by fairly quickly, since the children already worked on the song last week. If we have time, we will then move onto using the bells.

In Senior Primary:
In Senior Primary, I am going straight to the bells. I looked at the song, and it has a nice, easy range that I was able to write onto packing paper that came with something I ordered.

I have used bells twice before in Singing Time, once I used the bells for a Father's Day song, and one previous time, though I can't remember the song for my first attempt at using bells.

Here's what I've learned about using the bells in a way that the children can follow. This may seem obvious but there are a lot of subtle things I had to learn the hard way, in front of the whole primary. Fortunately, the children offered helpful advice as they were trying to figure it out:

1. Write out the words of the song that correspond to the bells so that children can see their bell AND the words of the song. Use a different color for each bell, or some other distinguishing things for children that may be less advanced with reading, or are dyslexic.

2. When you are singing the song with the class, make sure to point to the bell symbol as you sing, so that the child holding the bell knows when to make their ringing tone. Don't assume they can follow the words and music and keep up. Obviously, you need to sing with them, too.

3. Put the words high up, and use a stick to point.

4. Make sure to remind children that if they play with their bells when it's not their turn, they will have their bell taken away. They need to play only when it is their turn to play.

I have had the children come up each time I do this, but I think I will try passing the bells out to the children in their seats. After one try, the children will pass the bell the someone that has not had the opportunity.

5. If I have notes in the song for which I don't have corresponding bells (which happened a few times during this song), I just draw a dash beneath the lyrics.

6. I have the piano play with the bells. It helps the children to know when to sing and to ring the bells, and does not take away from the bells.

Learning "He Sent His Son" (Christmas Program preparation)

We are singing "He Sent His Song" for the Christmas program this year, so I am going to start teaching the song today. My original idea was to put pictures that correspond with the lines of the song on the board and to have children identify which pictures went to which lines of the song, but apparently, I did that idea last year, ha-ha. I guess certain songs lend themselves to certain ideas.

I want to do something different this year, so here's this year's version for learning this song. First, you need a flipchart for this song. If you send me your email address, I'll send you my flip chart, but there are several really great ones online already (this song lends itself to great flip charts). Just do a search for "He Sent His Son flipchart" and you will find a good flipchart within your first five search results.

1. First, play "guess that song." To minimize on prep work this time, I will just have the pianist play the first few notes of the song and ask hands to go up as they recognize the song, until every hand in the room is up. Then, I will ask children to raise both their hands if they want me to call on them to name the song. (Update: I added more "guess that song" clues in a 2013 blog post.)

2. Next, tell the children we are going to play a little game with the pictures for this song, so they need to pay careful attention to how each line of the song is shown in pictures. Put up the song again, but this time show the words for the teachers. Sing it one time through.

3. Before primary, cut out several copies of each picture that correspond to the lines of the song. The quickest way to do this is by opening your flipchart, and then in  printer settings selecting to print 4 pages per sheet so that you can print multiple versions at a consistent miniature size.

It will print out one page like this, with each pic area about a 4 x 6 in size (these are the first four pics from my flipchart).

4. Tape each picture under a chair so that different children in each class receive different pictures. This makes it fun for them because they get to look for a little surprise.

5. Ask children to listen carefully so they know when to hold up the picture that corresponds to the line of the song.

The idea here is that children will listen closely and participate because they want to hear their part of the song and hold up their papers. I tried this with holding up the CTR shield when we learned "Choose the Right," and the kids really paid attention, so I am expecting this to work, from past experience.

6. If there is time, have the children trade pictures with someone nearby them, so that they are now listening for a different line of the song to hold up.

Another, easier alternative to the same activity is to give each class the same picture, and teach them their line. This way, the rest of the class hears the line and is "accidentally" learning it, and we'll learn the whole song! I learned the trick about teaching each class one line at a time from my neighbor, Melanie, who has been a primary music teacher.

In the following weeks, I will detail this out more, but I plan to continue to include this song in the music/lesson plan and implement:

• The standard, cover up a picture as you go game, which I have not done in a long time, and works great.
• Discussing the lyrics of the song, including looking up scriptures that go with each line. I want to find stories about our Savior that have pictures that I can talk to, to help the children remember the significance of the words they are singing. I will tie that into being thankful for Thanksgiving.

December - Week 3 - Practice for Christmas Program and JOY

Our ward primary kids are going to sing "Silent Night" and "Samuel Tells the Story of Baby Jesus" to the congregation beautifully next week, on Christmas Sunday. I have to admit that I felt a little teary when the senior primary was singing "Silent Night." I really felt they were singing the words with their hearts, and hope that I am not wrong. I tried to convey this feeling to them after they sang and remind them about how this song really welcomes Christmas. They will sound so beautiful next week. I really think children can bring the spirit into the room faster than most adults. They were with their Father in Heaven so much more recently than us. They have such deep levels of sincerity.

I have a book that chronicles the history and meaning of all the songs in the LDS hymnbook so I looked up "Silent Night" and shared some interesting facts with them. One, the song is about 200 years old. Two, the song was written in one day, and yet it is one of our most beloved songs. 

We had string instruments come into primary to practice "Silent Night," as well as sang "Samuel ..." with the pianist that will be playing next Sunday. By the time we did the "wiggle" songs for junior primary and practiced the two songs, we were out of time. The junior primary was really wiggly today so I let them sing the songs several times to get all their wiggles out.

For Senior Primary, I had time to use this wonderful idea that Colette shared on SugarDoodle in 2008:

For a Christmas singing time I wanted the children to learn just how fun it is to give. I went to the store and bought 6 small little gifts: gum, candy bar, pad of paper, pen, etc. Then I bought 6 of the small gift boxes. On the bottom of each gift box I wrote a song. On Sunday, they got to pick a present out of my bag and then put the present in one of the gift boxes (they now know the gift and they have wrapped it). Another child then goes into the hall and picks ANYONE to come in. It was so fun because none of us knew who was coming in. 

Colette goes on to give some additional details but in short, I let three children bring in three different adults, we sang a Christmas to them, and then we gave them a gift that a reverent child had helped select and put into a gift box. 

It was perfect because in sacrament the counselor talked about JOY this Christmas season and how it stands for Jesus, Others, and Yourself - the order in which you should be thinking about things. So, I asked for hands to see who remembered what JOY stood for, talked about it a little bit, then went into the activity. I think the children really loved it, and it was fun for the three very surprised adults. 

December - Week 2 - Practice for Christmas Program

The primary has been invited to sing the first verse of "Silent Night" in sacrament, as well as "Samuel Tells the Story of Baby Jesus." They know both songs very well so I worked a bit on dynamics with them. I used a puppet in junior primary to remind them about singing more loudly and softly, and also talked to them about the words in the song and how singing them a certain way would make them more meaningful. That was all it took to run out of time in junior primary.

In Senior Primary, I also added a flip chart of "When Joseph Went to Bethlehem," and also had kids bring up nativity pieces for "Picture a Christmas."

December - Week 1 - Unwrapping a Nativity

In an effort to incorporate Christmas (Christ's birth), the lesson, and songs that needed to be practiced to be sung in sacrament on Sunday, the lesson on the first week of December offered:

1. An overall Nativity theme.
2. "Silent Night" melody game, inspired by http://primarysingingtimeideas.blogspot.com/search/label/Seasonal
3. A "He Sent His Son" "guess the picture" game inspired by all the wonderful flip charts out there (I made my own but it used many of the same pictures as other flip charts ... they were just the best fit for the song.)
4. "Samuel Tells the Story of Baby Jesus," sung in several different ways to teach them some basic music formats as well as help them practice this song further.

This was a lot to cram into one lesson so I wasn't able to do everything in junior and senior primary. This is the highly condensed summary of what I taught. There was way too much material here but it's hard to resist all the beautiful Christmas songs that we only sing for one month of the year.

Nativity Theme
I wrapped the individual pieces of a nativity set. I wrote on most of the pieces of wrapping paper with either the name of a song, or the name of a song and a special way to sing it. This gave the children an ongoing theme to work toward. I also made a big deal of telling them I was looking specifically to call on reverent children and asked the teachers to help me choose the children that would come up to unwrap the nativity pieces. I wanted to do this early on so that I could use the Nativity for other activities later in the month, but start with the unwrapping activity. I did not spend too much time talking about the individual pieces because I wanted to save that for later.

Silent Night
Using this recommendation for "Joy to the World," I "drew" the melody lines for "Silent Night," as a series of curves and dots. I then asked the children if they could identify the mystery song. This was a fun introduction to the song. The children knew it really well so I had someone come up and trace the melody lines for me while we sang the song again. I only tried this in senior primary but I want to try it with junior primary next week.

He Sent His Son
I made another flip chart for this beautiful song about how our Father in Heaven sent Jesus Christ to earth to teach us. However, since this song is a series of questions and answers, I put question marks about each question (which was in the form of a picture) and a happy face above each answer (which was also in the form of a picture). In junior primary, I put all the pictures up on the board, then read/sang each line one at a time, and asked children to raise their hand and identify which picture went to that line. For senior primary, I handed out all the pictures and had the kids come up and put them on the board as I read or sang that line for them. I also stopped inbetween for both songs to have the children sing parts or say parts back to me. I did this one a little too fast because we were short on time.

Samuel Tells the Story of Baby Jesus
We will be singing this song on Christmas Sunday, so I wanted to make sure the children had the song well memorized and also sang it well. In junior primary, we practiced singing the song loudly and quietly by crescendo and decrescendo. In senior primary, we practiced singing the song staccato style and allegro (fast) and largo (slow) style. I held pictures up to remind the children how to sing when we varied between allegro/largo and loud/quiet. I was impressed by how well the children did. I plan to practice this with them again next week, this time putting the dynamics where they make the most sense, and maybe talking to the children about dynamics a bit first. 

November - Week 4 - "I'll Walk with You" and "Picture A Christmas"

I wanted to do something that took minimal planning, since this was the Sunday after a very busy Thanksgiving weekend.

I ended up making my own flip charts for two songs. One was "I'll Walk with You," which I had read in the lesson manual and knew that the teacher would be having the children sing to discuss, but which I also knew was a song they didn't know. So, I planned to teach them that song right before their lesson about it.

The second was "Picture a Christmas." I actually planned to play "Name that Tune" to get an idea of how well the students knew the various Christmas songs. However, it because very clear to me very fast that they knew the songs, but didn't remember them very well from the previous Christmas. I'm glad I had made a "Picture a Christmas" flip chart "just in case."

I used this idea from Primary Singing Ideas because the blogger was so kind as to let her readers know that it was a big hit. She was sooooo right. The children LOVED it. We sang it over and over because they were so eager to get a turn with holding the frame and positioning it over the picture. The first child struggled a little bit (I helped by pointing to the correct picture). The second child struggled a little less. The third child framed every picture perfectly. This wasn't a reflection on the children's individual abilities, so much as a confirmation that they were learning the words better and better each time. It was so great! I used a mixture of whatever pictures I could find that were relevant. I found some off a Google Images search and some in a primary picture packet that I had purchased at the distribution center. You can see the frame I used on the left.

I made "I'll Walk With You" a very interactive experience for the children. First, I held up each piece while I said the words of the song to them. Then, I brought up volunteers. In junior primary, I just had the most senior class in the group come up because I was worried it would be too difficult for a younger class to follow. In senior primary, I brought up a mix of reverent volunteers, then had them hand their pieces to all new kids. This worked out really well because everyone that was too shy or didn't have an opportunity to go up the first time really wanted to go up the second time.

Most of these pieces have a back side with a different but related picture. Also, many of the words in this song get sung more than once throughout the verse. So, children had to pay attention to know when to hold up their piece, or flip their paper to the other side.

For example, these are the first lines of the song:

"If you don’t walk as most people do,
Some people walk away from you,
But I won’t! I won’t!
If you don’t talk as most people do,
Some people talk and laugh at you,
But I won’t! I won’t!"

So, two children holding the pictures of the children walking would pretend to walk the "walkers" away from each other. Then, the child holding the "I won't" sign had to remember to hold it up every time we reached an "I won't" part of the song. 

I was worried that this would be too complicated for the children but it turned out to be a lot of fun. It worked better in senior primary where the children caught on faster, but it was a success in junior primary too. Well, I think it was anyway. I don't think the children entirely memorized the song this time, but they could at least keep up with it pretty well. There was a lot of rustling while I gave the children their pieces and organized the song so there was also more prep time than usual. However, I think this was a good post-Thanksgiving activity because the children were definitely more wiggly than usual. It is better for senior primary as well ... but worked okay in junior primary.