A Few Of Their Favorite Things

So here's an update on the snow ball fight I had a few weeks ago with the senior primary in my ward.  I had the kids write their favorite songs on the papers before crumpling them up to throw them at me. I made a CTR shield to protect myself as they I got pelted.  The kids were in shock that I brought that which I found seriously amusing.  I told them I promised them a snowball fight...I said nothing about being unprotected while they did it.  I figure I can use this shield again.

I tallied the songs. It's interesting to hear what kids love.  I want to sing what they love.  Singing time is dedicated to learning program songs and seasonal things and articles of faith...but there is time to squeeze in favorites, too. Turns out the kids have favorites.  So my plan is...all year long, I will have this jar out. I chose this plastic mug (see picture) as it seemed really durable and it just needs to sit in my bag of tricks week after week so I didn't want something glass or bulky.  Each Sunday, we are going to choose a 'favorites' song and sing it.  And when we are done with the songs, I will put all the slips of paper back in the jar and we will start over...so all year long, the kids will get a taste of the best of the best.

So this was kinda ironic.  Out of 62 pieces of paper, there was a WINNER as far as most votes.  Can you guess what it was?  I AM A CHILD OF GOD.  I am tickled to think the song the kids want to hear most is the theme of primary this year.  And close runner ups were Child's Prayer and When I Am Baptized...both program songs.  Score!  There were alot of good songs submitted however.  I had a several requests for a song that isn't even in the book...Children Around The World. I have never sung this with my kids and I plan to teach it to them if they want it.  Popcorn Popping was in there and Scripture Power.  The kids asked me if they could include Christmas songs (I said YES) and I got several requests for Silent Night and Angels We Have Heard On High.  I think this is funny and I am not against singing Christmas songs, even if it's July. I think they will be amazed each week at the random things that come out of this jar. I hope it will be a fun weekly ritual.

It's possible to do this without the snowball fight.  You could just give the kids 1/4 sheets of paper and have them write down their favorite songs, collect them, tally them and create your own Jar of favorite things.  I just printed the songs on the computer.  I did include the 10 ten favorites, and so on the slip if it is a 10 ten fav, meaning it had multiple votes, it will say so so the kids will know if a song was particular beloved by the group or not!

If the kids can graduate from primary holding dear their favorite songs, I will feel my I did my job well.  That's the whole point of being chorister!

My Heavenly Father Loves Me Song

So February starts this week.  I have decided to teach the juniors the song, MY HEAVENLY FATHER LOVES ME WITH THE ACTIONS.  But what to do with the seniors?  Sometimes they fight me on songs with actions because they are trying to maintain their COOL reputation.  So... I decided to print out the pictures to go with this song and play a game with them in hopes to teach them the lyrics which is what the actions will do for the little kids.

I found my visuals here:

www.jollyjenn.com

The Words are attached to this flip chart, so I cut those off and just backed the pictures with construction paper.  My primary kiddos kinda know the first verse but to my knowledge none of them even know there is a second verse.  So we will be learning both verses this Sunday.  I think it's an easy song to pick up.

With my pictures, I will stick them to the walls on either side of the chalk board, so they are front and center but NOT on the chalk board.  And then I will have the pianist play the songs in bits.  For example we will start out the song with the first stanza - Whenever I hear the song of a bird- no vocals- the pianist will stop and someone will have to hunt for the picture to matches that stanza.  Then the helper will put it on the chalk board and we will sing just that part with the words.  Then we will go on to the next stanza- Whenever I feel the rain on my face- no vocals- the pianist will stop and someone will have to hunt for the picture that has the RAIN on it.  The trick is that there are no hints.  They can help each other but I want them to sing the song in their head so they can come up with the lyrics by themselves.  I have used this song as an opening and closing song for the past two month so they have had a taste of how it goes.

After we have assembled all the pictures in order on the chalk board, we will sing it from start to finish.

This activity can be used to teach any song with good visuals.  It makes a FUN review as well.  You could use this at the end of the month when you have taught the song.  I will be busy doing VALENTINE things all month long that I have previously posted under the VALENTINES label so I am going to use this on Sunday with the big kids to introduce the song of the month!

Cotton Ball Collection - Review for I Am A Child Of God

So I have yet to have the annual 'snowball' fight in primary, where the kids are given a half sheet of paper and asked to crumple it and throw it at the chorister.  I am thinking they need to earn it.  And here is how...

We have been learning all 4 verses to I AM A CHILD OF GOD.  They have it down pretty good, but it needs some fine tuning on lyrics and volume and confidence.  With the juniors I am going to use the snow man melt that I posted earlier.  But the seniors.? They find stuff like that kinda babyish.  So...

I have written the lyrics to the song on my newsprint tablet.  And I got my cup of markers out. I am going to ask a helper to come up and cross out 3-4 words, scribble them out good so you can see them.  Then the group is going to sing it, over and over while we continue to mark off every work so they have to know the words by heart (which I think they already do).  We will not be singing the chorus of this song (lead me guide me) because the kids know that by heart and need little practice on that part of each verse.  So we will be just concentrating on the new verses, the one they are no familiar with, which excludes #1 as they know that by heart as well.

Each helper has to judge how well the group sang the song. They are judging whether the group got all the words correct, whether they sang it strongly and confidently.  And then the helper gets to decide how many cotton balls go in the bucket.  If by the end of the 4 verses the bucket is full...they will have earned their snow ball fight.  You can chose to do the fight then and there or save it for a 'treat' next time.

I Am A Child Of God - Love One Another

Our primary is doing something really fun in February but I have to get the kids ready to do it this month.  They will be asking different people in the ward to come in for a "I Am A Child Of God" spotlight.  I don't know who they are choosing.  It could be the bishop or the nursery leader of whomever.  When they come in, they will tell the children a little bit about themselves and why they are a child of God.  Then we will be singing Love One Another to them.  I am going to teach the sign language to them.  The kids already know this song (which is a bonus) but I think the sign language will make it really special for the guests who come in and get sung to.  Also, it is February, Valentines Month, the perfect time to be singing about LOVE.

My Heavenly Father Loves Me

I have been thinking of all the new songs and I am already stewing about February, the song being My Heavenly Father Loves Me.  This is my favorite primary song of all time.  It reads like poetry.  Last year I did actions to Nephi's Courage and it was a huge success.  I think I will do actions again with the little kids. I think it will help them learn this song as my kids don't know it.  It's an older song, one that is often not used Sundays.

Whenever I hear (put hand up to ear)
The song of a bird (put hands to form wings of a bird)
Or look at the blue, blue sky (look heavenward with arms outstretched)
Whenever I feel (hold out hands in front of you, putting hands up and then down to feel)
The rain on my face (rain motions from the sky and then pat your face)
Or the wind as it rushes by (use arms to make swishing motions of wind)
Whenever I touch (use index finger to touch the opposite index finger)
A velvet rose (left hand in ball and then it have spring out like a bloom)
Or by our lilac tree (put arms above head to form tree shape)
I'm glad that I live in this beautiful world (put arms around you in hugging position-hug yourself)
Heavenly Father created (hands up to heaven)
For me (point to yourself)

He gave me my eyes (point to eyes)
That I might see (hands on forehand to look out)
The color of butterfly wings (form fluttery butterfly with hands and fingers)
He gave me my ears (both hands behind each ear)
That I might hear (keep hands on ears and move head side to side)
The magical sounds of things (keep moving side to side)
He gave me life (point to yourself, tapping your chest twice)
My mind (point to head brain)
My heart (use hands to form a heart over the breast)
I thank him rev'rently (bow head and fold arms)
For all his creations (extend arms out as if you were showing the audience everything)
Of which I am part (point to self)
Yes, I know Heavenly Father loves me (nod head in YES position, cross arms on chest for the actual sign language sign for LOVE and then point to self again)

Jolly Jen has alot of good clip art for this song as well so I know this will be an easy and fun one to teach as it has some really vivid visuals that are key reminders to the lyrics.  I LOVE this song.  Kamie Bolen is working on an amazing arrangement of this song. I keep waiting for her to post it.  It has a key change in the second verse and a tag ending.  So beautiful.  I am definitely going to do a special version of this for the program as I think it will be super touching!

Melt The Snowman- review for I Am A Child Of God

So I was blog stalking and found something similar to this and made it my own.  I think I will do this the last week of January as a review with I Am Child God.  Instead of putting the snowman together, we will melt him apart.  And how we do this:  the kids have to sing LOUD/STRONG (aka HOT) for the pieces to come off.  If they sing weak (COLD), the old snowman stays in tact.  I think I will have helpers do this.  I think it will be more fun if their friends are in charge of determining how well they are singing.  If they know the lyrics well enough.  There is one surprise and that is I put a birds nest under the hat, so when the hat is removed, there will be something goofy under it.  So I will have 4 helpers, one for each verse, they will come up and pull things off...with the guidelines that they can't just rip everything off immediately...the goal is to get good singing out of the group.

I Am A Child Of God Spotlight

http://forums.mormonshare.com/lds-clipart/i-am-a-child-of-god-logo-2-black-and-white

So starts a new year, new theme, new (old) song.  The kids are really familiar with the song, I AM A Child Of God.  While they may not know the multiple verses, I think they will pick them up easily as there is alot of repetition in each verse.  I figure there are 6 new lines they have to learn if you teach them all 4 verses.  And there are rhyming words in each.  So I am going to teach the verses by drilling in the rhymes of each verse using these sings.

2nd verse- Late/Great
3rd verse- Store/More
4th verse- Sure/Endure

The rest of the song are lyrics they are all well familar with with.

I thought I'd do a spotlight this week, showing that we are all children of God.  We will do a little teaching and then as we sing the multiple verses, we will use this spotlight.  I found this clip are on Momonshare (the link is above).  I copied, manipulating the image into a circle rather than an oval.  I laminated it and attached it to a flash light.  So I will start by spotlighting myself. I will stand with the flashlight under my chin so that the light shines up to my face.  After a few moments, I will go shine the light on someone else and they will come up for a few moments and then go fine another child of God to spotlight.  The children will be encouraged to only stand in the spotlight for a moment so we can get through as many children as possible.  They will alos be encouraged NOT to shine the light in people's eyes when they are picking someone, but rather aim it at their chest/heart.  I think we will do this all month long as we sing this song, getting through all the kids hopefully (mind you I have over 100 kids in my primary so I have a tast in front of me, but I will try). 

The spotlight is a standard flashlight, the sign is just taped to the front and I covered the handle to match.  The button is on the back so you can turn it on.  The light shines up.