Minute to Win It Program Review

What to do for the endless reviewing of primary program songs (especially with the seniors)????

Well I saw this one post on MINUTE TO WIN IT.  I think kids like challenges.  I think it can be morphed into a review.  And here is how: (you will need a stop watch)

So you have 5-6 challenges.  Have a bucket with slips of paper in it that have the class names.  Choose a reverent child to select a slip.  Whatever class they pick, get to come and do the challenge.  Some challenges can involve the whole class, but if it does not, then the class will select a representative to do the challenge for their class.  IF, IF, IF,  their class does the challenge in a MINUTE, then they can choose which program song and who sings it...and if they don't, then their class has to sing it. 

You can design your challenges to be specific to the needs of your primary.  But here is what I came up with.

1)  cup stacking (stack the tallest tower you can in a minute without it falling over)
2)  bubble gum blowing (blow at least 10 bubbles in a minute- you can use multiple people for this)
3)  Hula Hooping (keep the hula hoop going around your hips for at least a minute - you can involve multiple people on this)
4)  Hold your Breath (how long can you hold your breath...a minute or longer????
5) Write out the chorus of I AM A CHILD OF GOD on the chalk board
6) Read the lyrics to Latter-Day Prophets backwards (I will have a sheet to read) at least twice!

You can get creative here. I may think of a few more, too.  Could be fun (& wild!)

The games are a foot

So my husband's work always does this elaborately themed summer company picnic.  This year the theme was Sherlock Holmes and my children all got mini messenger bags filled with bizarre hats, mustaches, side burns (yes, I said sideburns) and a magnifying glass and so on.  I couldn't help but turn this into a MYSTERY SINGING TIME.  It's just too cute.  This stuff all came from Oriental Trading if any of you are interested in actually ordering...or perhaps you have a pipe and some mustaches laying around.  Of course you do.  HA HA.  But maybe in our eclectic dress up box (doesn't everyone have one) you may have something that would work as a detective or perhaps the party store would have something cheap to make up a cute disguise!???

This can be used a few different ways.  Like with the game of Hot and Cold, you pick someone to hide an envelope.  And then someone is Sherlock.  And Sherlock has to get dressed up to find it, singing hot and cold, Sherlock looks for the envelope.  When he finds it, he opens it up and it either leads to another clue or it can have a song inside that you have to sing. 

OR

You can create a mystery and in order to obtain each clue, they have to solve the song puzzle and sing it.  At the end of the hunt, they find something desirous...like a gum ball for each child or a Smarty or sucker.  I will leave the PRIZE up to you.

The clues to the songs will have to do with program songs.  EX:

This song has 3 verses, it was written by Naomi Randall.  It's our primary favorite program song.  It talks about our Heavenly Father.  It tells us how to get home to our Heavenly Father.  What song is it?  (finders clue- look under the on the side of the piano)

I AM A CHILD OF GOD -

This song has 3 verses.  It is about our Savior.  It tells us to be aware of what we are doing as if our Savoir was near us at all times.  It reminds us to be a good example and missionary.  What song is it?  (finders clue- look behind the pulpit)

IF THE SAVIOR STOOD BESIDE ME

Trees, birds, butterflies, flowers.  This song talks about nature and all of Heavenly Father's creations.  It's talks about the world we live in and how it is a gift from our Heavenly Father.  What song is it? 
(finder's clue - look behind under the 'scripture' chair.

And so on...you make up clues for all the program songs you want to review. You can make the clues as hard or simple as you want.  And you can call out one clue at a time so that it prolongs the MYSTERY.

MY HEAVENLY FATHER LOVES ME


Print these clues on slips on paper and have the first out to start and the subsequent one in their hiding spots as they lead to the final destination. 

OR

You could have envelopes filled with one puzzle piece at a time, and each piece has a song on the back, you can assemble the pieces one by one as you find them and see what the picture is at the end.  You can either make the puzzle up or use a simple child's puzzle with 5-10 pieces!

The funny part of any of these options will be of course getting the kids dressed up and having them look like Sherlock.  There were also mustaches on sticks which were pretty funny...those could be used as well.  And if you have a cape or anything would be fun.  Someone could play "Watson"...there is just a lot of possibilities with this. 

 

 

Spin on I Spy- review

Last week I did a review with the kids using my I-spy glass.  You can make an I-spy out of anything, a paper towel roll, you can use a magnifying glass or a toy telescope...whatever. I used what I have which is a toy kaleidoscope. 

Instead of spying for pictures around the room that match songs, I spied helpers.  And most of my helpers were teachers.  This was kinda fun.  I would put my scope to my eye and say:

I spy with my primary eye someone who has yellow hair...who is very caring...she knows most of the primary songs...she can be heard but rarely seen...she know what notes to follow...ect...who is she?

THE PRIMARY PIANIST

Then I described a few teachers and some of the presidency.  You can describe some of the children, too.  This just mixes up how we pick helpers.  Whomever guesses who we are 'spying' choses a card from my basket.  The cards just had a picture on it and what song.  They can rummage through the basket and pick which song it is rather than have it be a surprise...they way it is truly winner's choice. 

This was fun and simple!

Time for Review- SING OR DARE

I do a lot of blog stalking.  Sometimes it's fun to go into the archives of these amazing blogs, blogs that are no longer active.  There are some GOOD things in there if you dig.  I am always looking for games to play for review that aren't killers to produce.  Sometimes the games I see are really involved and require a lot of props and prep.  I love to do fun things but not spend week preparing for it.  So I thought this was a super fun and easy idea and I made it my own by tailoring it to my primary.

It is a spoof off of TRUTH OR DARE rather SING OR DARE

So again, this involves cards.  The kids can choose a dare card of a sing card.  Disclaimer, I might warn the kids that if they choose a DARE card, to be prepared as they are silly and may entail embarrassment!  The SING cards have to do with all the songs we have learned so far and ways to sing them so we can review.

SING CARDS:
1)  Everyone Stand & Balance on one foot- if you put your foot down before the song is up, sit down.  Let's see who is the last person standing (this would be the helpers choice of song)
2)  Play STOP & GO - Sing Latter-day Prophets (insert a program song you want to review)
3)  Rub your belly & pat your head - Sing WHEN HE COMES AGAIN (insert a program song you want to review)
4)  Play LOUD & Soft (these are signs you rotate)- sing HOLDING HANDS (insert your choice of program song)
5)  Clap the rhythm of the song Golden Plates - insert songs of your choice
6)  Use rotating flash cards (ooo, buz, lulu, tweet)- sing If the Savior Stood Beside Me

DARE CARDS:

1)  Give the Primary Presidency 'high-5's'
2)  Name at least 6 Latter-Day Prophets
3)  Act out your favorite wiggle song & let the audience guess what it is
4)  Recite the 13th Article of Faith
5)  Stand on your chair and say, I LOVE PRIMARY
6)  Try to name everyone in your primary

Now you can make these sings/dares easier and harder depending on your group.  But overall, I felt this was a super easy yet FUN way to review.  You get a lot of variety in this singing time.  Have fun!

Primary Props

I always bring things in my 'Mary Poppins' bag (not a lamp post mind you), just in case time lags or singing a song over and over gets tiresome.  Here are some simple primary props that you can having in your bag of tricks each week.  I made these just using free clip art from the web, printing it out and putting it on construction paper, and taping a dowel/stick to it.  They are two sided.  You can use just one side or if you want them to be really attentive, you can flip the signs around while you are singing.

1)  Front- Stand Up/Back- Sit Down
2)  Front- Sing Reverently/Back - mouth words(silent singing)
3)  Front- Sing Loud/Back Sing Soft
4)  Front- Sing Like Primary Angels/Back- OOOO instead of words
5)  Front- Sing Opera Style/Back- Sing with a country twang

The final picture are of 3 sticks I made while we are doing a new song.  If they are singing strong, you hold up the strong sign so they know if they are doing well...if they aren't doing so well, hold up the WEAK sign so they are encouraged to sing stronger.  The KEEP GOING sign is for when they are singing pretty good but can do better.  The goal is to have the STRONG SIGN up through the whole song. 

Let It Snow...

So it's time to bring back SNOWFLAKES FALLING RIGHT UP TO MY KNEE.  If you liked 5 Little Pumpkins, you will like this one.  Look back into the January posts to get the lyrics.  They are cute!  I sing this with the kids all through winter.

Snowball fight... This is for the seniors.  Hand out half sheets of white paper and and a pencil for each class.  Have them write their favorite song.  Have them crumple it and on the count of 3 they throw their 'snowball' at you.  This gets a little crazy but they like it. I only do this a couple of time and then we move on.  But you can pick up as many balls as you want and sing the songs listed.

Jeopardy Review

So this game can be used at any time.  But I thought it was a cute and clever idea for program review.  There are 6 categories.  Divide the primary into 2 halves. 

Here are the categories

OTHER WISE KNOWN AS (50 pts)
NAME THAT TUNE (20 pts)
NEXT LINE PLEASE (5 pts)
ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS (1pt)
SCRAMBLED TITLES (40 pts)
PICTURE THIS (10 pts)
FILL IN BLANK (30 pts)

So the songs go in the categories.  These things are magentic and so they are up so the kids can chose. They can go easy or hard.

Otherwise Know As (describe the song like a riddle and have them guess it)
Scrambled Title (mix up letter and have them guess the title)
Next Line (either say and line and as for the following line or sing, have pianist stop and have the helper say the next line)
Actions Speak Louder Than Words (describe a popular wiggle song with actions, guess and sing it)
Picture This (gospel art picture of main idea of a song, have them guess what song the picture represents)
Fill In The Blank (take a line from the song, and have a blank in it that has to be filled)

Primary Singing Stars

I thought I would reward the kids this week. They are working so hard at knowing the program songs.  It can get really stale week after week of singing the same 8 songs (to death).  So I told them if they sang the songs great, they'd get a few STAR BURSTS for being singing stars.

I made several signs on sticks this week to spice it.  I love the STOP AND GO, one side stop the other go, a helper holds it and flips it.  But I did LOUD/SOFT.  I did opera/country twang.  I did mouth the words/sing like angels.  Stand up/sit down.  Each song was different and it kept things a little more lively than just singing it straight!

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...

Primary Dice

So this idea is as old as primary is most likely.  But I didn't own primary dice, so I made on out a box I had, covered it with paper and just printed out clip art pages to decorate it.  I think this will come in handy when I have down time or we want to jazz singing time up and not sing songs just straight!

Going Fishing - Returning to a classic!

Well going fishing has been used a million times.  I decided to use this because I have this goofy kids game that made it so easy.  It is a FISHER PRICE fish game.  In this game there are 3 fish that have bum things on them:  an anchor, an old tire, and an old boot.  You don't want to fish those out but I think the kids will find it amusing if they fish one of these things out instead of a song.  On the rest of the fish, I put songs.  I just attached a sign to the front so you can see that I actually help the kids fish something out.  The pole has a little suction.  I am using this to review.  There are different ways to sing some of our program songs annd such. I hope the kids find this fun.  This was super easy to prepare...no coloring this week.  AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

The Pizza Wheel

This is another one of my sister, Kirstin's, brilliant ideas.  This is made by using two poster boards.  Cut into two graduating circles and fasten with a brad.  The top circle spins and the open slice reveals how the song is sung.  This is just another prop to bring out if the natives are restless and you need to jazz up a song in a hurry.  The options on the pizza are:

Teachers Only

Stand and Face the back of the Room

Hum Only

Girls Sing

Boys Sing

Clap the beat

Ect...

You can choose any options you want to go on your pizza.  This is a fun one!

Happy New Year Tic Tac Toe

A month late, but I will post it anyway...

I found this idea on another blog, forgive me as I don't recall which one it was.  Not my idea but I made it my own.  I had this tic tac toe board already and I just put a header on it. It is removeable and so we can play tic tac toe on any old day.  But this one was for New Years.  New Years fell on a Sunday this year.  Crazy!  But I had to do something relating to RESOLUTIONS or GOALS.

So I divided the room into two groups....GROUP "X' and GROUP "O"

They picked a marker and place it on the board when it was their turn, of course trying to get THREE in a row.

On the back of the markers were resolutions having to do with songs

RESOLUTION:

BE KIND TO YOUR PRIMARY TEACHER

have the chosen child ask their teacher their favorite primary song

RESOLUTION:

"LEARN TO DO HIS WILL, TO LIVE WITH HIM SOMEDAY"

What's the song?  I AM A CHILD OF GOD - sing it

RESOLUTION:

"I'M CHANIGN HOW I LIVE, I AM CHANGING WHAT I'LL BE!"

What's the song?  Scripture Power - sing it

RESOLUTION:

"TO SHINE FOR HIM EACH DAY"

What's the song?  Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam - sing it

RESOLUTION:

TO STAND "TALL, TALL, TALL"

What's the song?  Once There Was A Snowman - sing it

RESOLUTION:

To make at least one snowman

What's the song?  My version of Popcorn Popping (snowflakes up to my knee) - sing it

RESOLUTION:

TO LISTEN TO THOMAS S. MONSON, in other words....

What's the song?  Follow The Prophet - sing it

RESOLUTION:

BE HAPPY

What's the song?  If You're Happy and you know it - sing it

RESOLUTION:

To LOVE SINGING IN PRIMRAY

What's the song?  Singing a song is fun to do, to do do do - sing it

RESOLUTION:

I TRY TO SHOW I LOVE THE LOVE IN ALL I SAY AND DO

What's the song?  One In A Million - sing it

This particular day, we sang so many songs.  It was so fun. I really get bored just hammering the song of the month every Sunday.  Usually it is a song we will retire once the program is over and we hardly ever sing that song again.  It is so tragic, but true.  I want the children to be familiar with ALL the songs in the book and this is a way to really get them familiar with all the GOOD stuff in this primary book rather than just singing AS A CHILD OF GOD 100 times.  BORING!  I think that song has a great message but so do all of them.  So I really try to sneak in songs we wouldn't sing otherwise.  I think one day, kids will remember the songs from primary, and it won't be the NEW song they learned for a program.  It will be the old standards like I AM A CHILD OF GOD AND POPCORN POPPING AND I HOPE THEY CALL ME ON A MISSION.  So I think it is really important to do some of these songs even if you have an agenda to teach the new song all month long.

My two cents!  Sorry!

Playing I-SPY in primary

I SPY WITH MY PRIMARY EYE

Again I saw something like this on a blog and had to make my own version of it. I found this funny toy at the $1-section at Wal Mart.  I had to buy it.  I use it as my SPY glass even though you really can't see anything through it.  It's all for visual effect!  I did this a few weeks ago as my singing time.  I had pictures hung all over the room, like of the prophet, the temple, of nature, of a happy family, ect.  And I would look through my spy glass and call out clues.  The chosen helper had to identify what picture I was talking about by listening to the clues.  Then they would find the picture and bring it to me and on the back would be a song that coordinated with the picture.  It was fun!

I figure I could use this spy glass to find a reverent child though...so I keep this spy glass in my "Mary Poppins" bag and I may  just bring it out to help me look for a specific helper!  Could be fun!

Wiggle Worm Jar

WIGGLE WORM JAR

Kirstin's cute idea!

Again, my sister is amazing.  She showed me this cute wiggle worm jar she made and I had to copy it.  No template, just us gals who like to color and draw.  The jar is a poster with a pocket and inside the pocket are the WORMS.  You could just make the worms and put them in a REAL jar if you don't want to go to the trouble of making a jar.  There is alot of intricate drawing involved in the wiggle jar poster so I just posted a pix of how you could simplify this if need be.    The worms just have WIGGLE songs on them:

DO AS I AM DOING

HAPPY AND YOU KNOW IT

SUNBEAM

WISEMAN FOOLISH MAN

BOOK OF MORMON STORIES

POPCORN POPPING

ect...

The worms are a beanie worm, gummy worm, singing worm, book worm, bird with a worm in its mouth and a worm eating its way out of an apple

Super cute.  Thanks Kirstin. I have had this jar for 10 years and it has come in handy so many times when the kids are restless and need to do a fun song!

Reverence Shuffle Cards

Reverence Ideas

When the kids start coming into the primary room after sacrament meeting, they come with alot of energy and NOISE.  It is very disruptive and it's hard to settle them down to start primary.  So I always go in early so I am there and I have reverence songs going, which helps the kids AND the teachers remember they just need to be quiet and reverent while we wait for primary to start.

I again cannot take credit for this cute idea.  My sister Kirstin is a master chorister and she gave me these posters a decade ago when I was first called to this calling and freaking out a little about how to get the kids engaged.  They are signs that tell the kids how to sing.  They work best if you just shuffle them while you sing a song.  So let's say, we are singing  I AM A CHILD OF GOD for reverence...I have the pianist play that song over and over and I just shuffle the cards, they have to watch me closely so they know what to sing.  They love it and it keep them focused and not chatting while we wait for everyone to come into the room and sit down.

One of my favorite songs to do these cards with is...I AM LIKE A STAR.

I have no template for these.  This is the art work of my sister but I assume they could be made with clip art or by your own ingenuity. I always have this in my "Mary Poppins" bag on Sundays and I bring them out often when I want to engage them in a reverence activity of do something different with a song they know well.

Lion = LOUD

Mouse = Soft

Girl = Lulu  (sing the sound Lou Lou Lou)

Bird = tweet

Bee = Hum

Owl = OOOOOO

You can also use these individually, if you want the kids to sing louder, hold up the LION or softer, hold up the mouse...ect.  There are lots of ways to use these signs. They are SOOOO handy!