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.

Learning "Mother Dear" for Mother's Day

My focus last week, this week, and the week after ward conference will be Mother's Day songs, although I will also spend some time on some other songs for this month's theme.

I want the primary to sing two songs for Mother's Day. The children memorized, "I Often Go Walking" probably two months ago when I was able to squeeze it into the singing time schedule, but I had not had time to work in a second song until last week. We also have a ward conference coming up so I knew I only had three Sundays left to learn a second song, as well as to continue to work on other new songs and song that fit the month's theme. Therefore, I decided that the second would be "Mother Dear." This song is more well-known, is lovely, and would be easier to memorize than some of the other songs, since there are some repeating lines.

I decided to attach pictures to magnets so that I could have the children pull them off the board as we memorized the song and just to make the pictures seem different to them than other flip charts I've used. So far, to mix up flip charts (which are too effective to stop using) I have tried:

• Standard flip charts (sometimes children hold them up, sometimes placed on the board) with images collected from Internet
• Pictures I have drawn
• Poster board flip charts
• Objects instead of flip charts
• New this time: Large blocks of colored paper

The change this time was the last bullet point- to use big, bold blocks of color that I thought might be especially appealing to the younger children. I wanted to use big geometric shapes but there were a few that just didn't look right so I just drew them out, like the eyes. Also, I couldn't think of a good image to represent "joy" so I just used a butterfly cut-out that looked happy. Otherwise, these shapes were fun and easy to use for memorizing, and only required seven sheets of colored paper, a glue stick, some magnets, and a marker.

Last week - How I used the images

I attached the pictures to magnets and put them on the chalkboard, one verse at a time. I explained what each image represented as I put it up. I then had the children sing the line with me. Then, I drew names after each verse to have the children come up and remove a picture, then sing the song again, without the help of that image. I put my hand behind my ear and stop singing whenever we sang a part of the song where we had just removed the image. It was fun for me to see how well they did without any help from me. They are such bright children; they tend to pick this stuff up very quickly if they are enjoying the activity.

In Senior Primary, I also drew a second name and had a child tell me the line for the picture we removed, after we sang it once without the picture. If the child didn't know it, we sang the line again, while the child listened carefully. Also in Senior Primary, I had the children guess the song just by looking at the pictures I put up. They guessed the song in just three tries.

I am often taken by surprise by which activities I do that are the most fun for the children. I felt like both the senior and the junior primary were very engaged in this activity and had a good time. In fact, our primary president had to remind me that I was going wayyy over my time, to my embarrassment. I feel so bad when I realize I haven't been watching the clock closely enough. Sometimes I think I should set out a kitchen timer so it will buzz and remind me when I'm out of time. I like adding that second part where children are called on to show me how well they have learned a line too, because I think it helps them pay attention and to participate.

This week - How I will use the images this week

In junior primary we only made it through two verses so I will continue the same game, for all three verses. To mix it up a little, I will hide a few fun pictures behind some of the other pictures. If the child picks one of those pictures, I'll add some fun way to sing to that verse or some other reward. I will make sure NOT to add the fun pictures behind verse three, since that will be a new verse for them.

I may also play a scramble game, and have the children come up to hold the pictures in front of them. I will have them sing the song in order, then scramble the pictures and see if the children can get themselves unscrambled before the song is done. I may do this one verse at a time, especially in junior primary.

I may also play some sort of game where we stop the song at various points, and a child has to fill in the missing line. I don't like to put kids on the spot that are shy so I like to partner them with the children on either side of them if they get stuck.

April 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!