Happy Halloween!

I hope you had a lovely Halloween. Now that I no longer serve in Primary in church with all the kids under age 12, I'm especially grateful to answer the door to all the children in the neighborhood. I love when they ask me, "Do you remember teaching me?" and "Hey, I know you!"

Drawing all of my little visitors helps me to commemorate the day and chuckle a little at their antics. I love when a set of twins (age 4) ran from my door yelling, "I got Play-Doh! I got Play-Doh!" I had a bunch of fun things in my basket - giant candy bars for the big kids and cute toys for the little kids, though of course, sometimes the little kids wanted the giant candy bars and the big kids wanted the toys. I had surprisingly lengthy conversations with many of the children, who know and are comfortable around me, debating which item they should take. "Well, that's a nose flute, I think that might be more fun for a big kid." One child, (age 6) asked about the Dark Chocolate Kit Kats in my basket. "Well," I said, "That's dark chocolate. It's not as sweet as regular Kit Kats. I'm not sure if you would like it as much." She nodded. "Yes, I wouldn't." And then chose the Play-Doh.

Body Parts Candy for Singing Time Fun!

I was just at Harmon's Grocery store in the candy aisle and I found this awesome bag of Halloween candy:

Normally, I discourage bringing candy to church but I think for the Sunday before Halloween, when the candy is shaped like body parts, it's way too tempting to use in a bunch of different scenarios. Use the wrapped candy for choosing songs, then give each child a piece at the end of Primary! 

The bag says there are five shapes: feet, thumb, brain, ear, and eyeball

Some ideas for how to use this bag of body parts in Singing Time this Sunday:

IDEA #1

Tell the children that they are going to reach into a bag with pretend body parts. Maybe leave out "pretend" for senior primary, but don't scare the Sunbeams!

For each body part they lift out, they have to pick a song that uses or describes that body part. You can make a menu for them if they have trouble deciding. In fact, I'd say you should go ahead and associate each body part with a song for Junior, otherwise they will keep choosing the same songs that have nothing to do with the game. In Senior, you can challenge them to think of a song that uses that body part and explain why they think it it's a fit. Then, if they struggle, also point them to the menu where they can pick a song that has to do with the body part.

To make singing the song fun, each candy body part topic should have a motion that carries to the next song. So, for instance, if you are singing, "He gave me my EYES that I might SEE" every time you sing a word that has to do with sight, maybe everyone has to point straight up and turn once. 

Menu could be:

Body Part	Song Option
Eyeball	95 – I Love to See the Temple (“SEE the temple”) 268 – Two Little Eyes 228 – My Heavenly Father Loves Me (“He gave me my eyes that I might SEE”)
Ear	107 – Listen, Listen (“LISTEN to the still small voice, LISTEN, LISTEN”) 268 – I Have Two Ears 228 – My Heavenly Father Loves Me (“He gave me my EARS that I might hear the magical sounds of things”)
Thumb	122 – The First Article of Faith (Because it’s the first digit of your hand) 136 – Love One Another (Because you have ONE thumb on each hand) 253 – Fun to Do (Sing “Giving a thumbs up is fun to do, fun to do, fun to do …”) 271 – I Wiggle (“my fingers”) 272 – I Have Two Little Hands 274 – Roll Your Hands
Brain	31 – Reverence is Love (“It’s THINKING of Father above”) 228 – My Heavenly Father Loves Me (“He gave me my life, my MIND, my heart”) 109 – Search, Ponder, and Prayer (“PONDER”)
Foot	202 – I Often Go Walking (use feet to walk) 271 – I Wiggle (“my toes”) 270 – Two Happy Feet 275 – Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes (Could change words of songs to “Brain, Ears, Eyes, Thumbs, and Foot”)

IDEA #2

Another idea would be to buy some pumpkins and have the children decorate a pumpkin with the body parts and maybe some other options that you have around.

I did this many years ago but now with body part candy!

IDEA #3
You could actually use the candy to learn a song, like "I Wiggle My Fingers"

IDEAS #4
You can use the candy not to choose songs to reviews, but to choose how to sing the song. For instance, if they get a ear maybe they have to show how well they can sing the song without your help. Or, maybe if they choose an eyeball they have to sing the song with their eyes closes. Or if the choose a foot, they have to sing it while standing on one foot.

About me:

For those of you that have been following me at @iliketocreatestuff, I just wanted to share that my new Christmas children's book that I wrote for my Primary kids is now available at Deseret Book!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

My Nativity ABCs

by Esther Yu Sumner

Giveaway ends November 20, 2017.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads. 

Enter Giveaway

October - Miscellaneous

I drew these to hold up if the children were mumbling or if their singing seemed a bit lackluster. I actually think the teachers got a bigger kick out of the picture than the kids. This was during my very first time conducting with them.

October - Week 4 - Pumpkin Tree

The last week of October was my first real lesson, since the weeks before that, we were perfecting some beautiful songs to share with the congregation during a special Primary-themed program.

I wanted to start out with something simple and fun to involve the children and thank them for what an excellent job they did singing for all the "grown-ups" in the congregration.

I was going to make a tree but realized I had the perfect tree in my Halloween decorations. Instead, I drew little pictures of pumpkins and leaves, numbered the backs, and then hole-punched them, before placing them on the tree.

During the lesson, I asked teachers to help me choose children to come up and pick a pumpkin. Depending on the pumpkin they selected, they were also invited to choose a leaf off the tree. The pumpkin indicated the song we would sing next, and the leaf indicated a special way that we would sing the song. I asked the teachers to help me choose children because they have a better opportunity to see which children are not being called on frequently to come up to the front of the room. I know this because in a prior calling, I was one of those teachers. It's impossible to see all the hands that shoot up when you're in the front of the room calling on people, but when you're sitting right next to the children, you have a closer view.

Overall, I think this went quite well. Some songs didn't have an associated leaf because the song was too reverent for some of the sillier options a child could choose. The children responded very well to singing in "staccato," and "crescendo" and "decrescendo." Some of the pumpkins and leaves said, "teacher's choice" or "child's choice," and in one case, the teacher chose, "marching." That was a very fun way to sing the song. Alternating by boy/girl or eye color, on the other hand, were my least effective "leaves" so I won't be trying those options for some time.