Happy New Year!

I love tweaking a song...

I sang this with the kids yesterday and I will do it again on the first Sunday of the new year.  I had this ridiculous party hat that I wore, asking them how they were going to celebrate the new year.

To the tune of Happy & You Know It:

Happy, Happy New Year To You
Happy, Happy New Year To You

The year has come to an end
We give thanks to our dear primary friends

So we sing Happy New Year To You
Echo (to you! - giving a sort of a cheer with your hand/arm)

The Best of 2012

So how do we spend the last Sunday of the year?  I have been thinking for a few weeks, wondering if we should just continue Christmas stuff since we only get on month a year to do it.  But then I thought of having the BEST of 2012.  We have learned alot this year and why not celebrate it one last time before we start the new regime of learning all the stuff for 2013.  This singing time is simple.  I made 6 labels for 6 bags, numbering the bags 1-6.  Then I have a dice.  They roll the dice and whatever number they roll coordinates with the number on the bags.  Inside the bags, there are strips with all the songs we have sung and learned through the year.  We will never get through them all as they are like over 50 songs between all the bags, but they should get a taste of what we've sung over the past 365 days.

Here are my categories:

The best of program songs (our ward had 13 program songs)
Sneak Peek of 2013 program songs (there are 13 of these as well)
The best of the 4 seasons (5 little Pumpkins, Have you Ever Seen a Turkey, Pioneers songs, patriotic... anything you we have sung coordinating with a holiday or a season)
Temple Spotlight songs (we did a temple spotlight in opening exercises and learned all the songs in the book having to do with temples - 4 songs)
Fun Songs we have learned (like the Books of the Book of Mormon, latter-day prophets, ect...anything random I threw in the mix over the year for fun)
Article Of Faith Songs- We learned all 13

We will be singing a marathon on Sunday.  If they get restless, I have my jar of sticks that spice up how we can sing songs, like HUM, OOO, STAND FACE BACK OF ROOM, ect...!

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!