The Sunday Before Halloween - Choose one of THREE activities!

Oct 29 Update:
I took some pictures after Singing Time on Sunday to share what we did:

Before I Talk about Tomorrow's Activity ...

I was so thrilled about how the primary program went last Sunday. Our primary president did an amazing job of incorporating all of the talks, children's lines, the placement of the kids and teachers, and with some very limited input from me, the placement of the songs. The program went very smoothly. The children were so reverent and wonderful. I am so impressed with these children and their beautiful hearts and testimonies.

I want to share three special things I did that I think went very well. I never paid attention to all the special thinking that went into this for the primary chorister, before this was my own calling.

• "As a Child of God" - I had the girls sing the first verse before the boys joined in for the choir, and then did the opposite for the second verse. Everyone sang the third verse.
• "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus" - I had eight girls (6 and 7) come up to the podium to sing the second verse of the song before the primary joined in for the chorus. This had a beautiful effect and enhanced the words of the song.
• "Choose the Right" - The children signed all three verses of the song with me, then the congregation joined in for the last verse of the song, and we made this the closing song of the program. It was perfect. 

Singing Time Activity ... so many Halloween ideas ...

Idea #1 - Costume Clothing
I was tempted to work on the Christmas program songs with the children this Sunday, but they have been working so hard on learning new songs all year, that I went to my favorite singing time blog, The Crazy Chorister, for inspiration. The Crazy Chorister is retired, but I looked for her past October activities, and found one that I loved, where depending on how children sang, either their teacher or the chorister would end up wearing a bunch of costume clothes. What a cute idea. She did not reference Halloween but I like the subtle tie-in.

Idea #2 - Decorate the Pumpkin

Draw a pumpkin and bring in various pre-cut pumpkin parts (eyes, ears, mouths, noses). Children get to come up and help decorate the pumpkin. Each piece they choose will determine what song we sing. I was thinking it could also be a blooper, where some parts will say, "Oh, no song, but your teacher has to wear a ..." and then pick something from the dress-ups pile. This was inspired by notion of making people dress up from the Crazy Chorister above, but is a way that I would be more comfortable playing the game. I'm not as crazy as the Crazy Chorister!

- OR - 

Decorate a real pumpkin with the same principles. Use toothpick holes already inserted into the pumpkin and pre-cut vegetables. The fun part about this is that you could then put the pumpkin on your doorstep for children to recognize when they come by to go trick-or-treating!

Idea #3 - Trick or Treat?

My stake primary chorister shared this one with me. You have little pumpkins stuffed with pieces of paper, that are either a trick or a treat. (Can be substituted easily with pieces of paper if you don't have little pumpkins, which I don't.) If it is a trick, it will say something like, "Trick! Only your class sings this song!" The real trick, is to make all the pumpkins tricks! Then, at the end, you can tell them that you tricked them, and give them all a treat. 

This can be combined with one of the above activities - if you choose the "wrong" pumpkin it's a trick and your class has to sing the song a certain way, etc.

Snow Storm! Easy, fun singing time activity.

Last week was our annual primary program. I kept the primary activity afterward pretty simple. This is not an original idea; I had about three other parents from other wards share it with me about a year ago, except I think they called it a snowball fight.

The beauty of this activity is that it's fun and takes very little preparation time.



1. Give each child a piece of paper (I had the librarian cut the sheets in half to save on waste) and pen/pencil, unless they are too young to know how to write. In that case, help the teacher that has children too little to write.
2. Have each child write down their favorite primary song and their name on that paper. Tell them to sit reverently and wait once they are done.
3. After a few minutes, get everyone's attention - fold your arms, etc., until the room is quiet. Then, tell each child to crumple their paper into a ball.
4. Tell them to throw their crumpled balls to the front of the room:

We had our first snow storm of the week a few days ago, but when I did this activity, it had not snowed yet, so I said something about how it usually snows before Halloween, but it hadn't snowed yet, so we were going to make our own snowstorm. On the count of three, everyone throw your snowball to the front of the room. "1, 2, 3!"

I then explained that I was going to pick up a snowball at random, read the song and who wrote it down, and that we would then sing the song. That's it! I had a back-up plan to add fun ways to sing the song if the children lost interest, but they loved it.

Junior primary was a little bit rowdy, but this activity was surprisingly easy, and surprisingly fun. The time went quickly. Even my less interested senior boys got into it, because they wanted me to pick their snowball.

Just make sure your pianist is prepared to play anything!!

The Sunday Before the Program

We did a mock walk-through the Sunday before our Primary Program, which is this Sunday, so I did not have time to do an actual activity.

However, I brought out my Halloween Singing Time Prompts to help inspire the children to sing better.

                            

I drew some of these last year, but I added the werewolf and pumpkin this year. These are my original doodles - you are welcome to right-click to print them up yourself! Your version would be smaller than mine, but you can cut them out and attached them to sticks to hold up.

I said stuff like, "This is Mumbling Mummy. I can't hear what he is saying very well because his mouth is covered. If [a counselor I asked to hold up the pics] holds up Mumbling Mummy, that means you sound like him. You don't want to see Mumbling Mummy come up."

Bored Bat says "gusto" next to him because when I drew this bat last year, we had just had a singing time activity about singing with more gusto.

"Say What?" Werewolf needs you to sing more loudly because he can't hear you, because you are singing too quietly.

Proud Pumpkin is very pleased because you are singing with volume, saying your lyrics clearly, singing with energy, and watching the chorister.

Identify that Song! Primary Song Review for Program

The children "ooooh'd" and "awwwwww'd" when I flipped the board around on Sunday and showed them these pictures I had put together. Each group of pictures represents a song that we have been working on in primary.

In Junior primary, I chose a name out of the Helping Hands jar and had a child come up and identify a song. Then, we sang it.

In Senior primary, I gave each class a scripture about the song. The class had to identify the song based on the scriptures, then, identify the pictures that went with the song.

With both classes, I then spent a brief amount of time reminding the children about the meaning of the song and why we sing the song.

This was a lot of fun, but I had to watch the time very carefully. In addition, I am glad I went into the primary room early to set the pictures up because it took more time than I had expected.

You can easily go to Google Images to find most of these pictures.

Fun Song Review: A short activity (20 mins) or a long activity (40+ mins) - You choose!

I said a few posts back that I had a fun singing time coming up the Sunday after General Conference. Well, plans changed so I scaled way back.

I have two options below:
- a memory game with a fun twist - better for a longer sharing time (40+ minutes) but can do the bare bones version in 20 minutes
- a matching game that challenges children to really understand their lyrics - i plan to do this one in 20 minutes but I know that means that I will really have to watch the time in junior primary.

I will be playing the matching game with my primary children this Sunday (option #2).

Option #1 - Pick-a-Song: Memory
I have not yet played the classic Memory game with my primary children but I have prepared the pieces. To play this game, I glued two identical pictures to represent each song, card stock. I used the same card stock for every picture so that when the pictures were turned around, people would not know where to find the match.

I will use the "Singing Time" jar to fairly choose a child to guess which two pictures to turn over, or I will go back and forth across the room, from class to class, and have the teacher choose a reverent child. Once a child correctly finds a match, we sing that song.

To add a bit of fun to this, and also to help the children improve how they sing each song, time pending, I will introduce a fun way to sing each song, that I will have pre-selected for each song. I'll put a little symbol on each matching picture to add some mystery, because they'll be trying to guess what "fun" way to sing the song that the symbol represents.

For instance, here are some fun ways I might sing each of the following songs:

• I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus - Have them sing crescendo and decrescendo (get slowly more loud, then slowly more quiet)
• Stand for the Right - Have everyone stand and take a step to the right when they sing "right." Then, have everyone turn and face the back of the room and sing the song again with the same rules, to get back to their seat.
• Choose the Right - I am doing this song in sign language so for me, I will have them alternate between singing the aloud and thinking it in their head while they sign a few lines silently. Another option to make them listen to the words carefully is have them stand up every time they hear "choose," spin around once and sit back down every time they hear "right," and stand on one foot every time they hear the word "light."
• As a Child of God - Have different sides of the room sing different lines, or boys vs. girls sing different lines. This helps them listen to each other and to the words. I may also have boys sing one verse during the program, and girls sing another verse, so I'll want to try just to see how they sound.
• Nephi's Courage - Sing staccato.
• When I Am Baptized - Echo chamber game, as described when I did this to review for the Mother's Day program. This one is great because it needs no advanced preparation. 
• I Think When I Read that Sweet Story - How loud can you sing? game, also described when I did this to review for the Mother's Day program. This one also needs very little advanced prep - just a piece a paper and some tape so that children can see how far down the hallway their voices reached when they sang. 
• The Wise Man and the Foolish Man - Follow the Leader game - ask them to watch you and deliberately have them sing loudly, softly, quietly, etc. This is good practice for teaching them to watch you, and to remind them that we don't actually use the motions when we sing this song in sacrament.

Option #2 - Pick-a-Song: Matching the Meanings
I will tell the children that one thing that will help them to sound amazing when they are singing these beautiful songs in church on Sunday is to really think about the words that they are singing, and what they mean. I will then have children match up pictures and/or scriptures on the board. We will sing the song when the children successfully make a match.

I haven't quite finished fine-tuning this part yet, but I want to use both scriptures and pictures (which I found all over Google Images and on the LDS.org GAK image database). The tricky part is that many of these pictures can go with more than one song, so I plan to explain some of the pictures a bit beforehand. Also, I will modify this to be easier for junior primary vs. senior primary.

Another option is to cluster the pictures together for each song. Then have children match the scripture to the cluster of pictures. This makes it easier to find the match and puts even more focus on the doctrine on which the music is based ...

These are the scriptures I plan to use, so far:

• I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus -
  

  1 John 3:23

  23 And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
• Stand for the Right -
  

  Alma 30:41

  41 But, behold, I have all things as a testimony that these things aretrue; and ye also have all things as a testimony unto you that they aretrue; and will ye deny them? Believest thou that these things are true?
• Choose the Right -
  Joshua 24:15 - And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom he will serve; whether the gods which your father served that [were] on the other side of the fllod, or the gods of the Amorite, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
• As a Child of God -
  D&C 93:40 - But I have commanded you to bring up your children in light and truth.
• Nephi's Courage -
  1 Nephi 3:7 - And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord had commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.
• When I Am Baptized -
  Alma 7:15 - Yea, I say unto you come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth beset you, which doth bind you down to destruction, yeah, come and go forth, and show unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sings and enter into a covenant with him to keep his commandements, and witness it until him this day by going into the waters of baptism.
• I Think When I Read that Sweet Story -
  Luke 18:16 - But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for such is the kingdom of God.
• The Wise Man and the Foolish Man -
  
  24 ¶Therefore whosoever ^aheareth these sayings of mine, and^bdoeth them, ^cI will liken him unto a ^dwise man, which ^ebuilt his house upon ^fa rock:
   25 And the ^arain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and ^bbeat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a ^crock.
   26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a ^afoolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
   27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that ^ahouse; and it ^bfell: and great was the fall of it.

Helamen 5: 12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the^arock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your ^bfoundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty ^cstorm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

And here are some examples of some of the pictures:

As a Child of God, for instance, might focus on a picture that represents "light" and one that represents listening to the Holy Spirit: (I found these all over the Internet, just Google terms like "child light" and "child listening")

found this picture here

Nephi's Courage I wanted to show pictures of youth being courageous, which was a difficult term to search on Google, so I finally landed here, along with the obvious pictures of Nephi:

David and Goliath

Nephi

We sing the song once the children have correctly matched two or more items (time pending) for one song. I might have a child talk about each picture and why it goes with the song ... you get the picture.

Follow the Leader!

This week is our Stake Conference so I am taking a little vacation from preparing a Singing Time lesson.

However, I have a fun singing time planned for an upcoming Sunday where I will have both Senior and Junior primaries together for BOTH hours! It will involve a number of activities to keep the children interested and attentive.

Here's an easy one you can use for this Sunday that I've been "inventing" over the last few weeks as I've been pondering how to use my last few Sundays before the program:

Follow the Leader
Tell the children you want to see how well they can follow the leader - you! The purpose of this easy activity is to encourage children to WATCH YOU while you are conducting.

Show them the motions and ask them if they can guess what each one means. Have them raise their hand and call on them.

Proceed to conduct, going back and forth with the different motions during a song to make it a game, but also to remind them to watch you carefully. I imagine every chorister has a different set of motions that they use, but this is what I do when I lead:

"I can't hear you!" - I put my hand behind my ear and lean forward a little to remind them that I can't hear them and that they need to sing louder.

"Louder!" - I also wave my conducting arm in a bigger pattern to remind children to sing louder.

"Shhhh!" - I draw my non-leading hand downward and even purse my lips to remind them to sing more quietly.

"Quieter!" - I also wave my conducting hand in a quieter motion to remind children to sing more quietly.

"Stop!" - I put both my pointer fingers over my lips to indicate the should not be singing.

"Stand up!" - I hold my hands palms up, and lift them upward. I use this during the program to remind them to stand up to sing the song.

"Sit down!" - I hold my hands palms down, and push them downard. I use this during the program to remind them to sit down to sing the song.

"Staccato!" - Okay, I've never used this motion in the program but I have use it during practice. I hold my pointer and thumb together and bounce them in the air in a staccato beat.

Alligator mouth - I have also used my hands like an alligator mouth, getting bigger and bigger to indicate a crescendo (singing louder and louder) and getting smaller and smaller to indicate a decrescendo (getting quieter and quieter).

"Hold it!" - Remind children to hold a note when I hold my hand out.

"Start .... NOW!" - Remind children to all come in at the exact same time in the song by watching me as I indicate when to start.

I think I will throw in a few fun ones just to keep it interesting. I don't want to overdo this because of timing but I am also thinking of using subtle movements to indicate:

"Spin one time around." - Move finger in a spinning motion.

You get the picture ...
Parting shot:

I just got around to posting my Conducting Elephant pic from two weeks ago though, so I thought I'd repost it again, and wish you all a happy singing time review. I have just two more practices left before our primary program, so I am already planning my last two lessons. Stay posted! I am super excited about my lesson in two weeks. I may post that one first :) I think the children and presidency are both going to love it.

Song Review - Secret Word

I want to focus on the best way possible to sing every song and force the children to really think about the words, and I think this activity will help me to accomplish that goal.

The concept is simple, but I specifically wanted to share what secret words I will use and why, as well as how I want to incorporate origami for presentation.

First, the concept:

Assign each class a secret word. As the class sings all the primary songs, each class has a special action for their secret word, which they will make whenever the word comes up, no matter the song. At the end of the class, we'll try to see if children can guess each classes' secret word. That's it! So simple, but I think it will really make the children think about the words and be interested in singing.

These are the words I selected based on the frequency in which they occur in songs, as well as where I can recall they appear in songs (I have about six classes per sharing time so this gives me a spare). Each of the words I selected appears in at least two songs that we will be singing in our primary program. In addition, each of the songs will have at least two words in it for which a class will be participating.

The secret word and the action that I will be using (unless I change my mind about the action before Sunday, ha ha):

• Choose or Choice - Stand up and sit down (I have the children sign this song so I didn't want to pick something that made it so that they couldn't continue to sign, too.)
• Right - Stand, spin around once, and sit down (I have the children sign this song so I didn't want to pick something that made it so that they couldn't continue to sign, too.)
• Jesus, Lord, or God -  Clap three times
• Light - Do the wave
• Rain - Stomp your feet a few times
• Holy Ghost/ Holy Spirit - Hold your hand to your ear as if you are listening to the Holy Ghost
• Man or Men - Change seats with someone in your class
• Try - Hop on one foot three times
• Wise or Wisdom - Clap your hands, then snap your fingers. Do this twice. (So you clap, snap, clap, snap.)
• Child or Children - Shake someone's hand. (Hint: If there are an uneven number of children in your class, you may need to shake two people's hands.)

Where I noted the word appears in the songs that we are singing in our Primary Program
(and hence, why I selected that word):

As a Child of God - Light, God, Choose, Holy Ghost, Child
When I Am Baptized - God, Rain
Choose the Right - Light, Right, Holy Spirit, Choose, Wisdom, God
Stand for the Right - Light, Right
I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus, vs.1 - Jesus, Choice, Try
The Wise Man and the Foolish Man - Wise, Rain, Man
Nephi's Courage - Lord, Try
I Think When I Read that Sweet Story - Jesus, Men, Children

Origami:
When I was in fifth grade, we passed each other notes in class by folding the paper in a fun way that had a little tab at the top. I'll upload a picture once I've done it but having used origami for several previous sharing time activities, I know there are plenty of origami sites if you want to add a little extra fun here. This way, I can get them excited about the came and pass to their teachers their secret words.

Making the songs mean something:
I feel it is really important to make sure the children understand and are thinking about the meaning behind the words they sing, so this is something I always try to emphasize.

This week, I saw a beautiful rainbow, so I am going to ask the children to raise their hand if they saw a rainbow this week (since I saw it in our neighborhood). Then, I will ask them if it reminded any of them of the covenants they have made or will make with their Father in Heaven, and use it as refresher reminder about the beauty and meaning of the lovely song, "When I Am Baptized."