Eggs & Props

I have decided to postpone my conference singing time until the week after conference so that I can do spring/Easter activities over the next two week.  It's hard to find ideas that are purely religious when it comes to Easter which is kinda frustrating as it is a tricky balance when you are a chorister trying to 'entertain' the kids but also teach them to have reverence for the songs we sing and understand that they are mostly about our Savior and the gospel.  So I am still pondering what I want to do on Easter Sunday and how to make it fun yet really focus on Christ.  This week however, I suppose we will do spring things in singing time.

I am bringing back my little bucket of eggs that I used last year, but putting a new twist on it.  There are 7 eggs in my bucket.  I am going to have the kids try to get a bean bag in the bucket in a TOSS game.  Whether they accomplish this on their TURN as helper or not, they will chose and egg.  Inside the egg are little clues as to what songs we are going to sing. I just got these images off the net for free, printed them on card stock and put them in my eggs.  Once the helper opens the egg, they will try to decide which song we are going to sing.  Then each song has a PROP they can hold while we sing it.

First we will spend some time reviewing all the verses of IF THE SAVIOR STOOD BESIDE ME, then we will play

BUNNY-  Have You Ever Seen a Bunny (Sung to Here We Are Together) pg 259 - prop- bunny ears
DUCK IN A POND- Happy Song pg 264 - prop- duck finger puppet
ONCE THERE WAS A TULIP (sung to Once There Was A Snowman) pg 249 - prop- silk tulip flower
MY HANDS- pg 273 -prop- pair of wacky gloves
RAIN IS FALLING (we've been having rain & snow for our spring weather- gotta love Idaho) - prop- an umbrella
POPCORN POPPING- pg 242- prop- goofy glasses
I AM TRYING TO BE LIKE JESUS- pg 78 - prop- picture of Christ

*My sister made this cute duck felt puppet and since I had it, I am going to use them.  But you could use a rubber ducky as a prop or anything you have around the house that reminds you of the HAPPY SONG.

Shamrocks & Rainbows

How funny that St. Patrick's day falls on a Sunday this year.  We have to celebrate!  I have been doing loads of blog searches and have combined and morphed a few ideas I have seen out there on the net.  Last week I did my crazy leprechaun hats and it was a huge success.  So I am using on of my hats from last week.  Inside the hat, I will place 10 cards that I just made using free clip art off the net.  Some cards have a shamrock on it and some have a rainbow on it.  I am going to have a helper choose a card out of my crazy hat.  If they get a shamrock, they have to answer a question.  If they get a rainbow card, they get to come forward and mix a color potion.  Once the potion is mixed, it will fizz up (hopefully they will think this is COOL) and that color will indicate who sings our song.  Let's say the helper mixes the cup with RED in it, then those wearing red have to stand and sing.  We should get the main colors of the rainbow if we get to all the rainbow cards.  The question cards do not have a song attached and so hopefully those will go quickly enabling you to get through all 10 cards.

Here are the questions:

1.  Name a symbol we see at church that is green and has 3 letters on it?  CTR
2.  What does it mean to be green with envy?  JEALOUS
3.  True Or False, green is a primary color?  FALSE
4.  What is a new missionary out in the field called?  A GREENE
5.  What is your favorite thing that is green?  trees, clovers, eyes, broccoli, etc..
6.  Do you feel lucky?  Name a blessing you enjoy...
7.  Sing if you hate green beans (have those people stand up) then continue and ask...sing if you have ever drank green milk...if you like Lucky Charms cereal...if you choose the right.  You should hopefully have the entire primary standing by the time you list them all off and then sing a song, maybe let the helper choose his/her favorite!

For the Rainbow part of this...bring a cookie sheet to primary and place 4 clear cups on it.  Fill will a small about of white vinegar.  Have the spoons resting on the cookie sheet with drops of food coloring on them and a small amount of Baking Soda on them.  Have the helper stick the spoon carefully in one of the cups.  It should turn a color and fizz immediately.  You may want to experiment with this and find out the best and cleanest way to do it. I plan to have it all ready to go so there is no scooping or pinching in colors.  I did read some blogs where they had some cups not fizz and some that did but we all know the kids want to have the cups fizz, which is why I am doing them all this way and adding questions to spice it up.  Once the color is made, have those people wearing that color stand and sing.

Here are the 4 songs I chose to go with color cups:

PINCHING MY CHEEKS IS FUN TO DO - FUN TO DO
Once There Was A Tulip (see previous posts for new lyrics to Once There Was A Snowman)
In The Leafy Treetops
Popcorn Popping

All these are fun songs and springy.  We will review If the Savior Stood Beside Me prior to our little games so that will be the spiritual portion of singing time.