Choose and Review: Spell It Out

Assigning songs to specific letters of a particular word is a great way to incorporate a variety of songs in your singing time and create a complimentary singing lesson to the sharing time and theme of the month. In April the theme is: Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer. Of course theme lends itself to words like "Jesus", "Savior", "Redeemer", and "Christ". I took a look at the different weekly themes and found that in Week 2, sharing time focused on "Jesus Christ is the perfect example for me". I decided to go with that idea and chose to use the word "PERFECT". Of course you can use any type of letters you want. I have some magnetic letters pictured, but you can also use larger letters made out of paper, posterboard, or even fabric....whatever you have at home. Here is how this singing time might look:

1. Place your letters around the room before the children enter the room in whatever fashion you wish.


2. Use an attention-getter to introduce the theme for the day. In my case I might go with the idea given in the 2011 Outline for Week #2. It suggests singing "Do As I'm Doing" to introduce the idea of following Jesus because he is the only perfect person that ever lived.


3. Invite the children to look around the room and search for the letters you have left out and explain that each letter represents one way we can follow Jesus' example.


4. Invite a child to select a letter. Once selected, reveal the word it stands for. Briefly discuss this word and then sing an applicable song. This is where you have the freedom to choose songs you want the children to work on or songs you feel they don't sing as often. It's up to you!

• P = Prayer, "A Child's Prayer/If I Listen With My Heart/I Kneel To Pray


• E = Example (to others), "Dare To Do Right"


• R = Read (read the scriptures), "Scripture Power"/"Book of Mormon Stories"


• F = Faith, "Faith"


• E = Everyone ( love everyone), "Jesus Said Love Everyone"/"Love One Another"


• C = Caring, "I'm Trying To Be Like Jesus"/"I'll Walk With You"


• T = Teacher, "Called to Serve"/any of the Articles of Faith

5. Once all the letters have been selected you have two options. For Junior Primary you can either challenge them to figure the word out or spell the word for them and then discuss its relevance to Jesus. In Senior Primary I would challenge them to spell the word and then tell you that it has to do with Jesus.

6. Close with a scripture and your testimony

Modifications/Tips/Tricks:

• As always, you can try to involve more children (especially in JP) by challenging them to find a particular letter. They can use their "helper hands" to point to the letter once they find it and then you can go get it. If you use a different color for each letter, you can help the little ones by challenging them to find the "Red E" since they may not know their letters just yet.


• You can give the Senior Primary a little more freedom with the songs if you choose. Once the letter is found and selected invite the children to think of a song that applies to the word you discuss for that letter. You can also challenge them to come up with a word for each letter. This method also encourages understanding.


• To encourage application, invite the children to think of one way they can follow Jesus for each word you discuss.


• If you need to extend this singing time, you can assign a scripture to each word to help explain and discuss the concept further.


• You can use a variety of motivational tools for each song the children sing. This can help to keep their attention and excitement. Tools can include: slinky, glowing bulb, singing signs designating who sings, stop/go. Keep in mind that the tools should not distract from the message and spirit of the song.