Flower Bouqet

I found these cute little flower picks on Easter clearance.  Dollar Tree has stuff like this as well.  Anyway, I just filled a little tin pot with dirt and stuck them into it.  Pretty cute.  I figure the kids can either plant the flowers or pick them.  The flowers can have anything attached to them, different songs, lyrics to songs you are learning (have them guess what verse it comes from) or it can also just have suggested way to sing a song (like loud, soft, hum, oooo, ect).  I think this will be useful to me over the spring.

I also found these sparkly foam shapes on clearance.  Currently I am using them on my entry table in a candy jar for spring decoration, but I thought they'd make super cute magnets and somehow I could use them in primary...they could have songs behind them or clues to a game.  They could be hidden and we could make a design on them on the chalk board.  Could be useful.  I highly suggest shopping Easter clearance this month at Dollar Tree/Wal Mart!

Think Spring - quarterly song program song review

I had a fun little excursion to The Dollar Tree this week.  They just have the most random, cute and CHEAP things.  A lot of their merchandise is FLOWERS right now.  So I bought some of everything knowing I could morph it into singing times.  Here's idea one!  April is a very bizarre month for me with General Conference and Stake Conference looming.  I therefore only have Sundays this month with the kiddos.  UGH.  Anyway, I thought I'd do a review of the first 3 songs we have learned for part of one of those Sundays.  These flowers came from the Dollar Tree.  I just glued the base to a poster.  We will sing and if they sing well, the flower will grow.  We will see if we can make our primary-garden bloom. I did something similar in January with melting the snowman and I was astounded how much the juniors got into this...singing their hearts out to make Frosty melt.  I have hopes they will do the same to make the flowers grow.  I have just taped the songs on the center of the flower so I can interchange them and use this again if I so chose.  Behind the flower is taped as well but there is a plastic loop on the top.  So I will hold the poster and dislodge the bloom and hold it by the loop as the kids sing and just pull it up if they do well or leave it where it is if they don't.  Once the song is done, I will stick to whatever height they got it to.  Hopefully it will be to the top!

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.

Stealing more ideas... getting ready for conference!

So March approaches, so does General Conference...and Easter!  Wow!  Time is flying.  I have been blog stalking again and came across two very cute conference ideas.  The ironic thing is that I am plan to teach Latter-Day Prophets in May as part of our program line up. I was so excited to find these cute actions to it.  Thanks Camille!  You are the best!  I think I will just put all the picutures of the the prophets on the chalk board with their names at the bottom and do that until we can take away all the pictures and know it from memory. 

Also, I found the cutest version of the THE BOOKS OF MORMON that list all the 12 apostles...I just taught this song to the kiddos and they love it and so I know they will pick this up easily with different names in it.  It is super cute!

http://www.scribd.com/doc/85291342/Living-Prophets-Song-First-Presidency-12-Apostles-Nalani

ACTIONS TO LATTER-DAY PROPHETS

Joseph Smith - #1 with right hand

Brigham Young - #2 with right hand

John Taylor - #3 with right hand

Wilford Woodruff - sign language "w" right hand then left hand for each work

Lorenzo Snow - hands showing snow coming down

Joseph F. Smith - pointing to temple on head (to "remember the F")

Heber J. Grant - pretend to hit a baseball (he was determined to play baseball and through hard work he made the team)

George Albert Smith - pretend to shake a lot of hands (he made a promise "not to be an enemy to any living soul)

David O. McKay - use both hands to make "O" when saying O.

Joseph Fielding Smith - blow a kiss after you say his name (he loved children)

Harold B. Lee - pretend to play the piano (he loved playing the piano and was good

Spencer W. Kimball - milk a cow (worked hard on a farm)

Ezra Taft Benson - make the scout sign (he loved scouts and was a great scout leader)

Howard W. Hunter - draw a big pretend heart with your hands (he was sweet and wanted everyone to treat each other better)

Gordon B. Hinckley - arms out for an airplane (he flew all over the world to meet with members and build temples)

Thomas s. Monson - have your hand up and out like holding a tray being a server (he is always talking about service)

I think it would be super fun to talk a little about the latter-day prophets.  There are websites out there with interesting facts about the prophets...like what they were best known for.  Like President Kimball famous quote: lengthen your stride and do it now.  That President Hinckley made the cane very fashionable...ect.  I think we will sing all the songs about prophets that day.

We Thank Thee O God for A Prophet
Praise To The Man
Follow The Prophet
Latter-Day Prophets
The Apostle Songs
Nephi's Courage

Are you "Board "

http://afprimarysingingtime.blogspot.com/2010/09/fun-ways-to-sing.html

While engaged in my infinite blog stalking hobby, I have come across another Brittany (Brittney)...who does just neat things.    I use a lot of her ideas as she is gifted with the computer and makes fun and CUTE props.  She had this post on cards she makes that suggest different ways to sing a song.  I have already made something similar but suffice it say, hers are way cuter graphically.  They are all in these square shapes, which  make them uniform and easy to cut out.  See link above if you aren't already addicted to this lady's blog!

Anyway, I had this thought of using all the squares on a board instead of having them as cards to pick.  So I printed them and put them on a poster board.  Then I got out a bean bag.  I thought for February's last hurrah of reviewing both I Am A Child Of God all verses, and My Heavenly Father Loves Me, we could spice it up a bit.  I will tweak this for the two different groups.  For the little kids, I will just call a helper up.  They will stand away from the board and toss the bean bag and it should land on a square, which will tell us how we are going to sing that particular verse.  With reviewing both songs, that is 6 verses, we should get 6 tries in that translates to 6 goofy ways to review.  This board could be used for any song though.  I know I will bring this out for just as it is just a spin on picking a singing-cards.

For the seniors, I am combining this with another idea I just saw posted that had to do with rolling doubles with dice.  So I will split the seniors into two groups.  I will hand a box with 3 dice in it to a person on each of the teams, and so that one person will be representing their team.  We will start singing the song we are reviewing and they will start rolling the dice.  Whomever gets doubles first, I put 3 dice in to add to the probability of rolling doubles faster, gets to chose a square off this board and the opposing side, the ones who didn't get doubles, has to finish the verse using the action that the other team chooses.

Hopefully it will be fun!

I Am Like A Star

We are learning all about Heavenly Father this year.  So the song, I AM LIKE A STAR, came to my mind immediately.  I love this song.  So simple, so sweet...the accompaniment is just cute.  I thought the juniors would love to learn this and possibly sing it in the program alone, or perhaps one of the junior classes could perform this alone for the program.  I made these stars on sticks for them.  Last year, I made CTR signs on sticks to learn the hymn, CHOOSE THE RIGHT, and the junior just loved it.  So I thought this would be a fun one.  Of course this song is just super short and simple and so I think they will pick up easily.  I will sing it through TWICE to make it a little longer.  I decided some actions might be fun to accompany the sticks, so they aren't just raising in the air or poking their neighbors with them.  Here goes...

I am like a Star - tap star stick to chest as if you are pointing to yourself
Shining brightly - hold stick in the air and with the wrist, shimmer it back and forth
Shining for the whole world to see - with the stick still in the air, wave it from side to side
I can do and say - use stick and point it out like you are tapping a wand on something for "do" and then hold the stick up to your mouth for the "say" part of the lyric
Happy things each day - use stick to draw an imaginary big old smiley face by your own face
For I know Heavenly Father Loves Me- Wave sticks in the air again and then tap heart with stick at the end.