There are quite a few great ideas on http://www.sugardoodle.net/ for back-to-school activities. I picked my favorite and tweaked it just a little. I think this would work great in both Junior and Senior and could be used for a full review of program songs or just a review/repeat activity with the song you have chosen for August.
All you need is a backpack filled with objects that the children either see at school or take with them. Here is a list of items and ways to use them:
Eraser: There are quite a few ways to use this. You could "erase" some words/letters from a prepared posterboard, "erase" some of the picture cues or pages to your flipchart, or have the kids "erase" a word or two from the song as they are singing it. You could even play "Word King" with this one and have the kids erase the word on the crown.
Crayons: You can have kids with certain colors on take turns singing. Have three different colored papers and each time you hold up a different color the kids wearing it have to sing. Another idea, probably more for Junior, is to have the kids take their imaginary crayon and draw different shapes as they sing the song. (When I did this with Junior they loved it!)
Ruler: You can measure the kids singing. You can have special judges, use the teachers, use the presidency. I always like to have the judges wear some fun rabbit ears or sunglasses to make it a little more fun. They can judge a variety of things or focus on whatever you feel is most important for that song.
Gluestick: Have the children glue their legs together and their arms/hands to their sides as they stand up to sing. This is a great practice for program singing and would probably work best for a more reverent song.
Calculator: Ask the kids to calculate how many times a particular word is said while singing a song. "The Church of Jesus Christ" is a great one for this activity. ("I" or "I'll" is a tricky one) You could even have the classes make their guess and then you count with your hands as they sing so they focus more on the singing then counting in their heads.
Sharpener: Sharpen your skills by enunciating the words to a song they may have difficulty with. You can also add a game where you stop the song periodically and ask someone to tell you the next word in the phrase.
Scissors: You can cut your words short (staccato) in a song to help the kids really focus on the words.
Water: You can use the water to fill a container as the children sing a song. Their goal is to fill the container by the end of the song. Of course, you fill it based on how well they are singing. My Juniors really liked it when I added a duck to the container and we tried to get it to the top.
Paper: You can have the key words to a song on different pieces of paper and challenge a child or two to put them in the correct order as the primary sings the words. This one could be played a couple different times and is great for song you really want them to sing a few times.
I am sure there are even more things you could put in the backpack. If you think of any leave them in a comment for me and others...if I think of any more I will be sure to come back and add them.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
My Apologies
I know it has been awhile since my last post and this is even the month I was trying for one post per day. All I can say is "I'm sorry!" Long story short is I have not felt so great the last few weeks and life has gotten away from me. I am back to posting, though!
Monday, August 2, 2010
Motivator: Helper Hands and their friends
These little guys are my Primary Helper Hands and they have worked wonders for me in Junior Primary. I have to admit that I have not tried them out in Senior Primary because, well....you can probably guess why. :)
To Make: I bought a pair of gloves at the dollar store and then added the googly eyes (don't have to be the same size), balls on each of the fingers (these are the ears) and for the nose, and a sticker mouth. I chose to have one hand with a smile mouth and one hand with an "unsure" mouth.
To Use: I explain to the children that I have brought some friends with me to Primary and then I pull them out from behind the podium. They always get some great laughs from the teachers and big smiles from the kids. (BTW, you have to go all out when talking about, to, and with these guys for it to work so I realize this is not for everyone.) I explain to the kids that these are my "helper hands" and ask them to look closely at them. I explain that they have small mouths because they don't speak much and only whisper when they do. I explain that they have 5 ears because they really like to listen.
I have used them in a variety of ways:
1. I explain to the children that the great thing is that everyone has helper hands and then invite the children to raise their "helper hands" in the air. I then explain that today we will use our helper hands to learn actions and words to our new song. I keep the gloves on while I teach the actions.
2. I use the "helper hands" to help me pick helpers. I will look at the "helper hands" and talk to them as I ask them for help in finding someone to help me. I then turn the "hh" to the kids and walk around. Finally one of my "hh" will point to someone. This has been the single-most useful tool in creating reverence quickly. The only downside to this is that all the kids get really reverent and not everyone can be picked. You could also ask the "hh" to nod when they can see and hear that the kids are ready and reverent to move on and then the "hh" can pick the next helper from the sticks or whatever your ward may use to choose helpers.
3. I let the "hh" gauge how well the kids are singing. I will hold them out for the kids to see as they are singing and I will walk around. At the end of the singing, I point the "hh" to me and ask them how they think the kids did. Since I have two "hh" with different mouths, the "hh" with the correct emotion will wave to signify if the kids did fabulous, or if they need to try again. I have never had to use the "try again" "hh".
There are a couple things to remember about these "hh". The most important is that you must leave your dignity at the door if you plan to use them because you will get laughs and smirks from the teachers. (I gave up worrying about the teachers' reaction a long time ago.) If this isn't your personality, that's ok. The other thing to remember is it doesn't have to be "hh" that you use. I have learned that the little kids love just about anything that you introduce as a guest and is a little different. I have also used a spider puppet, an alligator stuffed animal, and a wooden mini-spatula that I name Sally to achieve similar goals with my kids. I do have to say, though, that these "hh" are the favorite and most successful of my "friends" that visit the Primary.
I know there are lots of things to use to motivate the Junior Primary. I challenge you to look around the house and see what you may have that you can turn into your special Primary friend!
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Lesson Learned: Keep It Simple (Sing By Letters Game)
Today I had the opportunity to sub for our ward's chorister and teach the kids "Tell Me the Stories of Jesus". I used the plans I outlined in my previous post. Junior Primary was fantastic and I was able to teach them the full first verse. Senior Primary, on the other hand, did not go as well and I was reminded of the importance of following the Spirit.
I had about 12 min with the Senior Primary (I had about 25 min in JP....usually these numbers are switched.) While I was listening to the sharing time presentation by the counselor I started feeling that I needed to condense or change my plans somehow, but I wasn't sure how I could do that. The first half of the song presentation was tweaked a bit and it went really well. After singing through the 2nd verse with the kids, I held up the GAK picture of Christ and the children and explained that the verse was talking about this, and similar situations, in Jesus life. I emphasized Jesus' love for children and then invited the children to close their eyes and imagine, as it suggests in the verse, that Jesus was blessing them. The Spirit was very strong at this point.
Unfortunately I chose to stick with my puzzle and scripture plans for the last 5-8 min and this activity is just much too-involved for a short singing time. In fact, it would probably be better-suited for an integrated sharing and singing time. The kids did get to sing through the verse 4 times throughout the singing time and we did talk about 2 scripture stories of Jesus so I don't feel it was a complete loss. I do think for an "introduction" Sunday this was not the greatest lesson plan. I was reminded through this experience that keeping it simple is usually the best policy unless you have the full 40 min to teach, sing, and "play" with the kids. I will not soon forget this and hopefully reading about my experience (mistake) will help someone from making it in the future.
Of course I have not been able to stop thinking about the woulda, shoulda, couldas with this Senior Primary singing time. Here is one idea I had thought about doing while planning last week and now realize I probably should have done to help the kids really learn the words. I call it "Sing by Letters" and it is based on the memorization technique that involves writing the first letter of each word to trigger your mind to remember, and eventually memorize, the words. Here is what it looks like:
So I would have put the letters on the board and challenged the kids to sing the song, without explaining what they were looking at or what song it was. After giving them a few seconds, I explain the memorization technique and run through the entire song introducting the words and tune. Once the kids have sung through the song once, I invite a child to come up and pull a letter out of a bag. We then erase that letter from our letter board and either sing through the song or sing through the song while completing an activity that begins with the selected letter. You don't even have to have letters for the kids to pull out of the bag, yesterday I could have had the kids pull the shapes and used the first letter of the shape they pulled. You can also pick objects that apply to the song, time of year, sharing time or monthly theme, etc. You continue doing this until all the letters are gone or the time is up. Here are some ideas for activities:
"T": teachers sing
"C": close eyes or circle lead (draw circles in the air as you sing the song)
"S": sing slowly or "slinky singing" (more on that in a later post!)
"R": raise and lower arms as you sing (follow the leader)
Those are just a few letters, you get the picture. There is another similar idea with this game here: http://primarysingingtimeideas.blogspot.com/2009/01/crack-code.html . There really is a ton of stuff you can do with it!
So....moral of this story is that you should always follow those thoughts or feelings that you get as you are sitting in Primary and it is probably best not to plan too much to begin with (this has always been a downfall for me). The other lesson learned is that even if you think your singing time was horrible, as long as you helped the kids feel the Spirit, it was a success!!!! There is always next week.
Happy Singing!!!!!
I had about 12 min with the Senior Primary (I had about 25 min in JP....usually these numbers are switched.) While I was listening to the sharing time presentation by the counselor I started feeling that I needed to condense or change my plans somehow, but I wasn't sure how I could do that. The first half of the song presentation was tweaked a bit and it went really well. After singing through the 2nd verse with the kids, I held up the GAK picture of Christ and the children and explained that the verse was talking about this, and similar situations, in Jesus life. I emphasized Jesus' love for children and then invited the children to close their eyes and imagine, as it suggests in the verse, that Jesus was blessing them. The Spirit was very strong at this point.
Unfortunately I chose to stick with my puzzle and scripture plans for the last 5-8 min and this activity is just much too-involved for a short singing time. In fact, it would probably be better-suited for an integrated sharing and singing time. The kids did get to sing through the verse 4 times throughout the singing time and we did talk about 2 scripture stories of Jesus so I don't feel it was a complete loss. I do think for an "introduction" Sunday this was not the greatest lesson plan. I was reminded through this experience that keeping it simple is usually the best policy unless you have the full 40 min to teach, sing, and "play" with the kids. I will not soon forget this and hopefully reading about my experience (mistake) will help someone from making it in the future.
Of course I have not been able to stop thinking about the woulda, shoulda, couldas with this Senior Primary singing time. Here is one idea I had thought about doing while planning last week and now realize I probably should have done to help the kids really learn the words. I call it "Sing by Letters" and it is based on the memorization technique that involves writing the first letter of each word to trigger your mind to remember, and eventually memorize, the words. Here is what it looks like:
So I would have put the letters on the board and challenged the kids to sing the song, without explaining what they were looking at or what song it was. After giving them a few seconds, I explain the memorization technique and run through the entire song introducting the words and tune. Once the kids have sung through the song once, I invite a child to come up and pull a letter out of a bag. We then erase that letter from our letter board and either sing through the song or sing through the song while completing an activity that begins with the selected letter. You don't even have to have letters for the kids to pull out of the bag, yesterday I could have had the kids pull the shapes and used the first letter of the shape they pulled. You can also pick objects that apply to the song, time of year, sharing time or monthly theme, etc. You continue doing this until all the letters are gone or the time is up. Here are some ideas for activities:
"T": teachers sing
"C": close eyes or circle lead (draw circles in the air as you sing the song)
"S": sing slowly or "slinky singing" (more on that in a later post!)
"R": raise and lower arms as you sing (follow the leader)
Those are just a few letters, you get the picture. There is another similar idea with this game here: http://primarysingingtimeideas.blogspot.com/2009/01/crack-code.html . There really is a ton of stuff you can do with it!
So....moral of this story is that you should always follow those thoughts or feelings that you get as you are sitting in Primary and it is probably best not to plan too much to begin with (this has always been a downfall for me). The other lesson learned is that even if you think your singing time was horrible, as long as you helped the kids feel the Spirit, it was a success!!!! There is always next week.
Happy Singing!!!!!
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