Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Discovery Week- "Tour Guide"

May's song is 'Baptism'. In my opinion, it is one of the most beautiful songs ever written. It tells of one of the most amazing acts of obedience and humility in the world's history. My goal through this activity will be to help the children really know and feel the importance and power of this piece of music.

Prep:

A Name Tag that says "Tour Guide-Primary Tours"

1 picture of Jesus Christ being baptised by John the Baptist

1 Picture of the River Jordan (I haven't found the one I want just yet, but when I do I will try and post it here)

A Globe

Colored chalk--I may or may not use this to write down answers to my questions on the board.

Picture Prompts


Presentation:

Tell the children that today is going to be so much fun because we are going to take a pretend trip to a very special place and we get to learn our new song for the month of May. Have everyone stand up. Tell them to grab their pretend suitcase in their hands. Have the pianist play a few wiggle songs right in a row. As the music plays in the back ground, have the children move their feet to the rhythm. Tell them that your late for your plane so you'll have to reverently jog in place....oh no you dropped your suit case (sing hinges to pick it up) make it fun and get those wiggles out so they can concentrate on the next part of the activity..finally tell them they made the plane just in time and have them sit down.

Spend a few min telling them that they are now flying over a huge ocean and perhaps what they can see now and then. You could use the globe at this point to show them where they are going. Tell them they are now off the plane. Have them close their eyes as you describe them walking over some rocky paths in a place that they've never been. Tell them its hotter than here and as you come around a corner you can hear something....at this point have the pianist play just the bottom hand to the song. It has the rhythm of a river and ask them what the rhythm of the song reminds them of. Have them open their eyes.

Show them the picture of the Jordan River and tell them this is the special place that they traveled so long to get to. Show your picture prompts for the first verse and tell them that you want them to listen to the song and see if they can hear where they are. Continue to sing the song as the children answer Who was there, what happened, why it was important, and what should we do now that we know this story. Put up the picture of the Savior being baptised after the first verse has been learned and reference it for the next verses.

The first part of this activity should only take maybe 3-4 min. The rest of the time will be spent singing the song, understanding the words and story, and getting the rhythm down.

I hope that all makes sense...its been a long day.

*the crazy chorister

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Review Week--MusicShip Hit and Sing

It has been a crazy month for me. Besides General Conference and Stake Conference, I cannot seem to keep my family well. I hope May is better.

Anyhow, here is my plan for Sunday. We will be reviewing "Beautiful Savior" and our mother's day songs: "Love is Spoken Here" (First verse), "Mother Dear", and "Mother I Love you (Sung to the tune of "Teach me to walk in the Light").

A while back, I saw a suggestion for a review game using the game Battleship. Unfortunately, I could not recall where that was, so here is my version.

Prep:


1 blue poster board (Create a Grid with numbers on the vertical side and letters on the horizontal side. Put the words "Musicship" at the top. Make sure and include enough spaces so you could fit different size ships on the board. My ships will have 1 hit possible per verse of the song.)

Enough Dots or Music Notes to place in the spaces when a Ship has been Hit.

A smaller version of the board on paper to allow you to know where you have placed the ships.


Presentation:

Tell the children that today they get to play "MusicShip-Hit and Sing". Allow a child to give you a number and letter from the board. If they make a "Hit" have them sing that verse of that song in a fun way (Slow, fast, boys, girls..etc) and place a marker where they made the hit. If they miss, you get to pic the verse and the song that they sing and they get to do it very reverently. When they "sing" (sink) the ship...have them sing the whole song once through to earn a point on the board.

Don't worry if you don't get to all the verses of each song. This will help you to notice the particular verses that perhaps need a bit more work.

I hope you have a great week.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Easter idea/Beautiful Savior

Between having the flu and spring break with the kids, I have really neglected to post on the blog lately. But, I'm back and excited to contribute. If you have left me a comment asking for help on a particular song, I am sorry that I haven't gotten back to you. I will try and get to those asap.

With that said, I've changed my mind again. I went back to my original idea to teach "Beautiful Savior". I know that is the song I am suppose to teach the kids even though we will only have two weeks to do it. So here goes...

This idea is purely the genius of another primary chorister, Tammy. She posted this idea on the Yahoo Primusic site a few days back, and I knew it was a perfect way to convey the message of the song and bring the spirit in for our Easter Primary experience. I have changed a few things because I always do, but it is essentially the same. I am not sure if this is the exact media presentation she used, but I found it was very touching and beautiful.

Prep:

1 Easter egg
1 picture of Jesus Christ
Laptop and projector (or burn the presentation on cd)
picture prompts
some flower in a vase or another beautiful thing from nature

Presentation:

Tell the children some of the things that you find beautiful. Show them the vase of flowers and tell how its beauty has the power to lift someones spirits. Pass the egg around to various children. Ask them to share what they find to be beautiful. Then tell them that there was One who's sacrifice and life was more beautiful and powerful then all of those mentioned, He made All beautiful things possible. Then show the following presentation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsqJFFyHFFQ

After, have the children sing the song with you using the picture prompts.

Happy Easter!