5 Little Pumpkins...

Yes.... fall is almost here.  Last year, I taught the kids this song and they LOVED it.  I will be resurrecting it soon as autumn is on its way.

I LOOKED OUT THE WINDOW AND WHAT DID I SEE? (use hands like glasses)
5 LITTLE PUMPKINS STARING BACK AT ME (hold up 5 fingers and point to yourself)
FALL HAS BROUGHT ME SUCH A NICE SURPRISE (hands out in surprise)
A PUMPKIN PATCH RIGHT BEFORE MY EYES (hold up 5 fingers and point to eyes)
I CAN TAKE A PUMPKIN AND CARVE IT OUT (mold arms in a circle and pretend to carve)
GIVE IT 2 EYES (hold up 2 fingers and point to eyes)
A NOSE (point to nose)
A MOUTH (point to mouth)
IT WASN'T REALLY SO BUT IT SEEMED TO ME (shake finger)
5 LITTLE PUMPKINS STARING BACK AT ME (hold up 5 fingers and point to yourself)

I love a spin on an oldie but goodie!

RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

I am thinking of ways to jazz up review time.  Really...it can get so boring and tiresome.  I myself get bored of singing the same songs over and over.

Saw this on a blog and morphed it as I didn't want to bring in brownies for all 150 of my primary kids.  Not to mention, I think that would be a big NO NO with the presidency.  However, I did get permission to bring in small treats.  So what to replace brownies?  UM STARBURSTS.

How do you become a primary singing super star?  Well there is a recipe of course.  So you have an apron, and a table with ingredients.  You can have the kids add things like sugar, glitter, words of scritpures, volume, ect...  The ingredients could be real or fake or a combination of real and fake.  Each ingredient is a song and it will have a component they need to work on for that one.  Like for volume, choose the program song they need a little more umph in, or for sugar, the song that needs to sound sweet, ect!  At the end, you pull out your cookie sheet of bright star burst. They each get a piece of candy at the end. 

THE VOICE

Another spoof off a TV show.  Bring a swivel chair from home, or borrow one from one of the bishop's offices.  Invite a guest judge into primary.  You may have them dress up like a celebrity...or something different or special, to get their attention.  The goal is to get the judge to swivel around.  They will not be facing the audience.  We sing each primary song and until the judge swivels, we have to keep singing it.  So it motivates the kids to sing their best so they can move on to the next song.

Are You Smarter Than The Chorister

This can be played similarly to stump the chorister.  Or, you could have the pianist play and then stop.  Can you sing the entire next phrase?  If they can, they are smarter than the chorister.  But if they need help.  Then the chorister is smarter.

Ex:  Choose the Right, when a choice is placed for you (pianist stops)  The helper then has to say, IN IT'S LIGHT THE HOLY SPIRIT guides.  ECT...

At the end, each child gets a SMARTIE for singing their brains out!  :-)

Stump the Chorister

I saw this idea somewhere and thought it was very cute and SIMPLE.  We are in review mode...how to jazz that up.  Well get your primary song book.  Call on a helper.  Have the helper flip to any song in the book.  If the chorister knows it and can sing a little of it, she/he wins and gets to choose what the kiddos sing, if the chorister can't sing it, the helper gets to choose.

Primary Grammys

So this is one of my favorite ideas of my sister's.  This can be used over and over.  In fact, my sister said she did this often because the kids begged for it.  So I have these award envelopes.  The inside is something that is just taped inside, can be torn out and replaced with new songs. 

Here is how this works.  At the beginning of singing time, you hand one envelope or two out to each class with a pencil.  Together as a class, they read the inside and vote and seal it and give it back.  I then collect the envelopes when the voting is done.  Then the pianist gives a fake drum roll and we annouce the winners.  We have to sing the winning song.  Now the winner of the categories could end up being the same song or different.  Just depends how the voting goes.  Here are the categories:

Most OVERSUNG program song:  list primary program songs, class circles. 
Favorite program song:  Again, this could be the same as the most oversung song
Least Favorite Song:  Can I vote...I have a few.  HA HA!
The Song We Sing The Best
The Song we Know the Least and sing the Worst
****  Bonus Category:  Favorite Silly Song...I gave them a list of silly songs to choose from like POPCORN, WISE MAN, ect...

Back Pack, Back Pack!

Back to School.  Well...I have seen this idea posted several places.  This cute drawing is my sister's design.  Most of the posts show a real backpack, but there is something about thse fun poster props that I just love.  The front pocket of this thing opens to shove the items in or pull them out?

This obviously can be done a variety of ways.  The items could just have songs on the back.  Some could have questions, like who is your favorite teacher, your favorite thing about school, ect...  I like to include FUN TO DO and IT'S AUTUMN TIME, LEAVES ARE FALLING ALL AROUND.  But it could have program songs on it.  Skies the limit.

I did just see how the item represent certain things which is clever.  This is handy when reviewing for a program.  For instance:

An Eraser:  Erase a word from a program song, like CHOOSE in the CHOOSE THE RIGHT
A Calculator:  Calculate how many times you sing JESUS in, I'M TRYING TO BE LIKE JESUS
Ruler:  Who "rules" in singing this, divide the group into two sides and have them compete
Glue:  Glue legs together, arms to the side and sing super reverently
Markers:  Hold up different colors at a time, they have to stand if they are wearing that particular color (use with a less reverent type of song)
Pencils:  WRITE your favorite program song...could use pencil to lead the children in singing
Scissors:  CHOPPY = staccato 
Sharpener:  Sharpen the words of a song that needs practice

I love back to school!

Back To School

Well....the presidency wanted to do some serious review on Sunday and so I had little time to really do anything fun.  School starts this week and I have to honor things like this, I am very seasonally oriented.  So I prepared something as a "wiggle" activity to do in the midst of singing the songs that sadly we are all tiring of quickly.

This is a simple jar full of "emotions".  This goes with HAPPY AND YOU KNOW IT.  We change it up... IF YOU ARE SAD SCHOOL IS STARTING....  IF YOU ARE GLAD SCHOOL IS STARTING...

The kids got to choose their emotions...what are they feeling about summer being over and school starting.

Blah...if you are sad school is starting, then say BLAHHHHH!
Boo Hoo...if you are sad school is starting, say BOO HOO
YAWN....if you are sad school is starting, then yawn
Jump For Joy...if you are glad school is starting, jump for joy
Shout Yipee (opera style)...if you are glad school is starting, sing yippe opera style
Twirl...if you are glad school is starting, then TWIRL (spin)

They were totally into this.  It was totally silly but even the seniors got into it.  Oh did I mention, I was just called as the senior leader in addition to juniors.  So I am trying to figure out how to entertain the big kids. I have realized, they can be enticed to be silly here and there!

Last Summer Hurrah

Well, it is always amazing how fast summer zooms by.  There have been such few numbers in primary, it's hardly worth even teaching anything.  I was getting a little lazy and did a bag full of "beach" items and I had the kids help me get ready for the beach.  The props were on the ridiculous side, which is the point.  The kids thought it was really funny.

ITEMS:
1)  sun screen...yes, I put goopey sunscreen on my face
2) big crazy wig...beach hair
3) grass skirt...every outing to the beach needs one of those
4) a flower necklace.... very Hawaiian
5) a big straw hat.... chic!
6) shades...because it's cool

A member of the bishopric saw me in my get-up and actually took a picture of me on his phone.  GAH.  I hope that isn't posted as a MOST WANTED photo!

I picked fun/summer songs to go with this activity, but it could be used as a song review as well.