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 :)

++

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!

Preparing for Mother's Day (I'll teach it now, then only need to lightly touch on it for upcoming weeks.)

I will spend this Sunday working on Mother's Day song, before moving back into my regular monthly song plans for the remainder of the month.

As I mentioned before, I chose:

• I Think the World is Glorious - This song is not only appropriate to honor our Fathers and Mothers but it fits in very well with the message from "My Heavenly Father Loves Me," and Spring in general.

• Mother Dear  - I wanted to sing one blatantly obvious Mother's Day song, and this is among my top three favorites.

We already started learning the first song the last few weeks, and the second song is more of a review. So, this Sunday's focus is:

1. Review verse 1 of "I Think the World is Glorious."
2. Learn verse 2 of "I Think the World is Glorious."
3. Review "Mother Dear."

I Think the World is Glorious

1. Put up my poster from last week and sing the song one time through - no fancy tricks. Just sing it one time through. It's a short verse. Review any problem areas briefly.

2. Introduce second verse. I'll play "What's different with this poster?" and have added the additional items that represent the new line in the second verse. There is only ONE new line in the second verse so that will be the very simple addition to learn verse 2. Once the children identify the pictures, I'll tell them the line - or I'll sing the line and then have them identify the pictures.

3. To review the entire song a few times I will put objects in a bag that represent objects in the song. Whatever a child draws out of the bag is how we have to sing the song:

Blossoms - sing like a blossom blowing in the wind. Discuss how that would sound - smooth. Have them move their bodies like bodies in the wind.

Bees - sing in a silly buzzing voice

Birds - have them sing back and forth like birds chattering to one another

Teachers - sing with their arms folded, very reverently

Parents - pat each other on the back as you sing

Mother Dear
I will review Mother Day with the big, colorful cut-outs I made for a previous Mother's Day and attached to magnets. I usually go for something more elaborate but the kids loved the big, bright colors, especially junior primary of course.

I will take advantage of the magnets on the back and just put these all over the room and maybe even underneath chairs. The children will be asked to look for the parts of the song and put them up as we sing them a few times.




Up next: I just finished a flip chart for "An Angel Came to Joseph Smith" and will be posting it in the next few days.

Teaching "I Think the World is Glorious"

I am planning to introduce "I Think the World is Glorious" on Easter Sunday, ultimately to sing in sacrament as part of the Mother's Day program.

I chose this song for a number of reasons. Mainly, it was so fitting with this year's theme, and what I have been teaching the children about how our Heavenly Father loves us and created this world for us. However, I also love that it is a very Spring-oriented song, and appropriate for Easter.

I will have the whole hour for Easter, and have an overall Easter theme that I am working out right now, which will include some time spent on learning this song. 

Image from: http://www.123rf.com/photo_6580958_animal-planet.html

We will hear and sing this song three or four times on Easter Sunday:

1. Sing the song for the children. (Invite anyone that already knows it to sing it with you. Give teachers the page number so they can look it up on their phones! Or write it up on the board for them and specifically ask them to help, if you are worried about singing alone. I have gotten over being worried about singing solos after so much time in this calling.) Ask them to raise their hand if they know the song. Ask them to listen carefully to what word is sung the most. This exercise makes them listen carefully to the lyrics of the song.

2. Put an illustration on the chalkboard (see above), either one drawn in advance, a collage cut out from magazine pictures or printed off the Internet, or even just a doodle on the chalkboard. I may just do the latter, and will have the drawing up before class comes in. I will use the free-standing chalkboard that we have in the room, so I can wait until Singing Time begins to flip the drawing around.

I found the image above though, and think it would be fun to try for something similar. Even if I don't have the time to draw this myself, I could easily cut out pictures and place them around the world in a similar presentation.

Sing the song again. (Invite anyone that already knows it to sing it with you.) Ask the children to look at the picture and see how many of the words in the song are illustrated in the picture. This exercise makes them listen carefully to the lyrics of the song again.

(I wouldn't want to have quite as many pictures because I want to keep it simple enough for the children that the children are learning the song, not being distracted by the items that AREN'T in the song!)

I was thinking if I hand-drew the image right before class started, I could do something easy and fast like this:

3. Have the children help sing the song. This time, have the children take turns, one row at a time, standing up and singing "I sing!" so that by the end, all the rows are standing. (Assign the rows beforehand.)

4. Do the same as #3 except this time have the children hold the notes out until the end of the song.

Lyrics:

1. I think the world is glorious and lovely as can be.
The birds and bees and blossoms bring sweet messages to me.

I sing, and sing, and sing, and sing
A song of joy and love.
I sing, and sing, and sing, and sing
My thanks to God above.

2. I think the world is glorious and lovely as can be,
For I have teachers kind and true, and parents who love me.

Words: Anna Johnson, 1892–1979. © 1962 IRI

Music: Alexander Schreiner, 1901–1987. © 1962 IRI

“I Think the World Is Glorious,” Children’s Songbook of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 230