Review or Repeat: Back To School

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.