Misc Ideas: Week-By-Week Singing

There are many ways to organize your singing times and I have learned it is best to do what works best for you. Here is one idea you can try out:

Week #1: Teaching
-Devote this week to introducing and teaching the song for the month

Week #2: Repitition and Motivation
-Devote this week to finding fun and creative ways to motivate the kids as they repeat what they learned last week. You can even throw in a few other related songs to mix it up. This is also a great week to teach and additional verse.

Week #3: Monthly Theme
-Devote this week to variety. A great way to select additional songs to sing with your monthly song is to plan your singing time and game/activity around the month's theme and the sharing time outlined in the Primary Outline. This could also be a great week to try a combined sharing/singing time with the presidency member.

Week #4: Games
-Devote this week to a game. Sing through 6-8 songs, moving quickly from one to the other. You can include the moth's song if you feel the kids could use the practice, but this is not a necessity. This is a great week to play a game as your choosing technique. You can also do a CSMP review, songs specific to an applicable holiday/season, a list of "forgotten songs" (those songs the kids don't sing very often, but learned once-upon-a-time), or a list of past program songs.

Week#5: Choose Your Own Adventure
-This is a great week to do whatever you feel would most benefit the kids...sometimes they many need some more CSMP practice and other times they may just need a break from those songs. Happy Singing!!

Teaching: Pick It

This is another "classic" teaching technique that I love to use because it helps keep the children interested and involved throughout the teaching process.

Step-by-Step Process:

1. Select objects and/or pictures to match with the phrases and key words in the song. An example from "Search, Ponder, and Pray" could be a heart and scriptures for "I love to read the holy scriptures". You could also use a GAK picture for that phrase.


2. Place the objects/pictures around the room before the children enter.


3. Introduce the song with an attention-getter


4. Sing through the entire song so they are at least a little familiar with it. Guide their listening by challenging them to look around the room as you sing to determine what object/picture matches different words in the song.


5. Sing through each line seperately and invite the children to pick the object/picture that matches


6. Once the correct item is chosen, the children can sing through that particular line. This is also a great time to talk about what each line means and highlight any difficult words or melody lines.


7. Place all the items in order at the front of the room as they are chosen so the children can build the song as the time progresses. You could also have different children hold the items, though I find this is sometimes a distraction.


8. Challenge the children to sing through the entire song using the items. This is another great opportunity to use a motivation tool to measure their success.


9. Bear testimony of the gospel principle the children have just sung about.

Modifications/Tips/Tricks:

• Instead of placing the objects/pictures around the room give one to each class. Ask the children to stand when they think their class' item belongs with the words you sing. You can even have that particular class sing the phrase with you once before the entire primary sing it.


• When it is time for the item to be found, invite all the children to create "magnifying goggles" around their eyes with their hands. This works best in Junior Primary and gives these little ones something to do with their hands. It will also keep them focused.


• In Junior Primary ask the children to use their "helper hands" to point to the correct item once they have found it with their "magnifying goggles". This ensures they are all working on the task and they can all get satisfaction when they are correct. Once they are pointing to the item, you can go pick it up and talk about the words.


• Number the items around the room for the Senior Primary so they can be chosen by the whole group instead of one child. Simply ask them to use their fingers to indicate which numbered item matches the particular phrase.


• If you do decide to choose one child to find an item, invite the rest of the primary to help him/her out by pointing to the correct item.

Teaching: Switcheroo

At its core, this technique consists of writing all the words, or the key words, on the board or a poster for the children to view. Assign each row of children to a phrase in the song and after singing through the song once or twice, the children will switch rows. This will continue until each child has sung each phrase of the song.

A more detailed plan for this idea is as follows:

1. Introduce the gospel principle associated with the selected song through scriptures, a quote, an attention activity, or other interesting method.


2. Sing through the song directing the children's listening to key words, ideas, phrases


3. Display the prepared phrases


4. Assign each row of children to a particular phrase.There are a couple ways you can designate which row sings which phrase: Assign each phrase a number, Write each phrase in a different color, Assign each phrase a shape


5. Each time you switch rows and phrases, take the time to highlight one particular phrase and briefly explain


6. Conclude the singing time by challenging the children to sing all the phrases. This is also a great time to introduce some tool of motivation, such as the slinky, to measure their success.


7. Bear testimony of the gospel principle addressed in the song

Obviously, this idea would work best with Senior Primary since they can read the words. I have attempted it with Junior Primary using objects, but it didn't go quite as planned and I didn't feel it was very effective. If you have a large primary, you can also break the phrases down if needed to allow for more rows of children.

Extension Activity: If you write the words/key words on a posterboard for this activity you can bring that poster back in the following weeks to use for repeats and reviews. You can start covering up certain words as you challenge the children to memorize the words.

Tools: Primary 5

I would be surprised if there is any Primary in the Church that does not struggle with reverence. The reality is that these little children have bodies that want to and need to move and be active. Learning and mastering reverence is, therefore, a marathon and not a sprint!

I have seen a lot of ideas, tips, and tricks used in the various primaries I have had the pleasure of working with over the last 14 years. I have only seen one thing that consistently works: Primary 5.

The basic idea is that when the children are getting loud and forgetting to be reverent, whoever is up front will say "Primary 5" and slowly begin counting down from "5". The children will know that this means it is time to settle down, relax their bodies, and quiet their mouths. The key to this technique is making sure the children understand it. Here is what each number of the "5" mean:

1- Quiet hands in our laps

2- Mouths are closed

3- Feet/Legs are still

4- Ears are listening

5- Eyes are looking at whoever is teaching/talking

To introduce and teach the idea to the children you could use:

• a posterboard with the outline of a hand and pictures representing each body part on the different fingers


• a glove with minituare representations of each body part on each finger (Mr. Potato Head parts work great for this)


• Brother Potato Head (Junior Primary always loves when he comes to visit!)


• Helper Hand (pictured above)

Surprisingly, the children respond really well to this technique and do not require any reward to be attached to their obedience. I have seen primaries reward the children by putting a handful of candy into a jar each time they followed the "Primary 5". When the jar was full, the candy was distributed. Although the children loved this, they did not respond any differently to the call of "Primary 5" when the incentive was discontinued. My conclusion is that the children can respond to the expectations made for them without an external reward.

Ramblings on Lessons Learned

I had another opportunity to step in for a chorister this last Sunday and was reminded, yet again, that there is always more to learn in this calling. I was asked to review the 2nd and 3rd verses of "If I Listen With My Heart" with the children to help solidify the words. (Anybody else noticing how difficult this song can be for some of the kids?) I won't go into exactly what I did. Instead I want to list a few things I thought of as I planned and was reminded of as I taught.

*Sometimes it is best, especially in JP, to only focus on 1 verse of a review song. This helps the kids to really solidify the words and also allows for some additional songs that add the variety those little minds can benefit from.

*KISS: Keep It Simple Silly! I am guilty of planning elaborate singing times only to discover that something much simpler could have accomplished the same goal....and most times would have done so in a better way.

*I need to work harder at giving the kids a specific goal or directive when they repeat a song we are reviewing. Instead of just telling them I couldn't completely understand the words or hear them, I should challenge them to sing one particular work a little louder than the others (ie. "prophet"), or to complete some other task that will keep their focus and limit the chance things are getting monotonous.

*It is always a good idea to invite the teachers to take a break from singing so I can hear how well the children really know the words.

*There should never be a Sunday that is devoted to just singing "fun songs". We should always have a gospel theme associated with our plans. Each and every song in Primary is inspired and can help teach these children gospel truths that will strengthen their testimonies.

*It is always a good idea to get the little bodies in JP moving. This can be as simple as having everyone use their "pointer finger" to help you find a requested picture or object. It is amazing the attention and participation that you can get when you invite all the kids to help from their chairs, instead of just one.

*SP loves to be challenged. These kids are smart and we should not underestimate their musical ability and gospel understanding.

2011 Challenge: Spiritually Prepare

**My challenge this year to all the choristers in the stake is to make an effort to invite the Spirit into Primary each Sunday. This post is the second in a series of thoughts on how we can accomplish this.**

As I considered how we can successfully invite the Spirit into our Primaries, my mind was drawn to the recent Regional Training. I feel it is important to remember that before we can help the children in Primary feel and recognize the Spirit on Sunday, we must be prepared and worthy of it ourselves.

In the Regional Training in January both Jim L. Wright of the Seventy and Sister Wixom, the General Primary President, spoke about the importance of living the gospel principles we teach the children each week. As we do this, we are inviting the Spirit into our lives and preparing ourselves for Sunday. Regarding this topic, Brother Wright reminded us that we need to work daily to develop our personal commitment and testimony to follow Jesus and love Him. Sister Wixom followed up with some thoughts on how we can spiritually prepare ourselves to teach the Primary children. Her ideas were not new: we should pray and read the scriptures each day. These simple actions, though, will reap great rewards in our lives and, in turn, in the lives of the children we serve. We will have a greater outpouring of the Spirit in our daily lives and thus be worthy to invite that Spirit into our lessons.

One of the purposes of Primary (found in the Handbook) is to "help the children feel and recognize the influence of the Holy Ghost". We cannot teach what we ourselves do not know. We cannot teach the children of the Spirit, if we are not familiar with the Spirit. When we have prepared ourselves spiritually throughout the week, we will be able to invite the Spirit into our lessons and allow the children to begin to feel and recognize the Holy Ghost in their own lives.

MIA

I have been missing-in-action. I had a baby about 3 weeks ago and now have 4 kids under the age of 5. I love it! Of course, this also means it is a bit crazy right now. I decided to take the month of March off.

I will be back at it in April....

Happy Singing!!!