Friday, May 29, 2009

New Song Sunday-I'll Seek the Lord Early

The fifth Sunday is upon us, and I have the whole time. I was actually sick the Sunday that I planned on doing my Primary Peril Game..and so that is what I am going to do this Sunday. You can find that idea if you check the April section of this blog.

So, I decided to post my introduction idea for the upcoming song in June, I'll Seek the Lord Early. I posted a similar version of this idea way back when I started this blog. I entitled it "Solve the Music Mystery"....but of course, I had to tweak it just a bit.

Prep:

Trench Coat
Brimmed Hat for you and another for your pianist (like Sherlock Holmes and Watson)
Dark Sunglasses
Magnifying Glass
Scriptures
Picture Prompts--(I happened to make up my own for this and will try and find a way to post them)
6-7 question marks you an put up around the room with different objects that go along with the song.



Presentation:

I am going to enter from the back of the room with my trench coat, hat, and sunglasses on. In my pocket will be the magnifying glass. I will act very mysterious like I am looking around the room for something, under chairs, behind kids...just to make sure all eyes are on me. I then will pretend like I am noticing them for the first time. "Oh, hello...have you seen it?" I'll ask. "Have you seen the new song in town....I heard it's a real good one.....I heard it's just waiting for us to find it. My boss told me I need to find out what that song is all about..I need to know what the message of the song is, what the melody is, and the words. Will you help me?" I plan on hamming this up a bit..maybe even faking an old time detective accent for the part.

At this point, I'll pull out my magnifying glass. I'll explain that this will help us find the clues. I'll had the magnifying glass to one of the kids and ask them to go find one of the clues. We'll discuss the clues as they are brought back. They don't have to be in any order. This part should really only take about 3 min. After all the clues are back, explain that you now need to get them in the right order so you can solve the mystery. Have the pianist play the song and show the first Picture Prompt. Say and sing the words. Have the children decide what object goes with what picture and get them in order.

After you have sung the entire song and put all the objects in order....tell them that they are awesome detectives and that they not only solved the mystery and found the song, but they now know how to "Seek the Lord Early"

*the crazy chorister

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Review Activity-Singing Science Experiment

My primary kids learned the song for the month super fast and so I decided to do a review of all the songs for the program. I found an idea for "magic potion" and decided to change it just a bit. The link for the original idea is http://primarysingingtimeideas.blogspot.com/search/label/Review. Scroll down a bit, and you'll find it.

Prep:

Food Coloring
5 Glasses
5 Spoons
Baking Soda
White Vinegar
Water
Cookie tray with sides
Paper towels
Safety Goggles
5 different colors of paper with one song title on each paper/and direction on the back
5 Magnets or pieces of tape to hang the papers on the board

Fill your five glasses with 1/4 cup water and 1/2 cup vinegar. Place one drop of food coloring on each spoon. Cover food coloring with a heaping spoonful of baking soda. Place cups and spoons on tray because it will make a mess. Have paper towels handy. Make sure and bring extra of all ingredients so you can re set this up for Sr. Primary.

Before singing time display your different colored paper with titles at the front of the room where everyone can clearly see them. Make sure and write a little activity they can do for each of the different songs on the back of the paper. For example, these are the activities I did for each one of the songs...

I lived in Heaven: The child who was called on became the chorister for that song and I sat in their seat.

How Firm a Foundation: I had all the children turn around and face the doors of the primary room and sing as powerful as they could to see if they could get someone to wave at them or give them a thumbs up sign. It worked out really great.

My Eternal Family: I had the children follow my every move through the song..like I waved or put my arms up or flapped my arms...etc

Beautiful Savior: We sang this Acapella

Baptism: I had the children stand on one foot as we sang the song.


Presentation:

I explained to the children that today we were going to do singing science experiments. I had the children sing through the song for the month, "Baptism", and I watched for children that were paying attention, singing out, and doing their best. I then invited a one child at a time to come up and pick a spoon to stir into my "water solution". I put on my safety goggles and brought an extra pair for the child...saying that we should always remember "safety first". The child then would pick a spoon, stir it in, and watch the foam reaction. The kids loved this. As the bubbles settle, the color appears. Whatever color appeared we would sing and do the activity on the piece of colored paper that had that song title.

It worked great. The kids sang out and payed attention. We were easily able to complete this in the 20 min allowed...I even had three min left to review one of our Father's Day presentation songs.

Thanks to the originator of this idea, it was totally crazy...just like I like it.

*originator: Primary Singing Ideas Blog
**Adapted by the crazy chorister

Monday, May 18, 2009

Program Review Week -Primary Kerplunk

I loved this idea so much the moment I read it on http://primarysingingtimeideas.blogspot.com/search/label/Review. Thank you to that blog site for such a great activity.

The way I used it was slightly different. I wrote down all the songs we have learned for the program so far on little pieces of paper and put them into a box. I had one child draw the song from the box. Then they could pull a stick from game. If no marbles fell, they could choose how many verses to the song we sang or if they wanted to sing a different song completely they could choose to do that. If marbles fell, we sang one verse for every marble. If more marbles fell than were verses in the song we just sang through the song, all verses, and stopped to improve different parts of it. We were able to review all five songs in the given time just great.

Pretty simple, and the kids just loved it.

Thanks again for the great idea primarysinging timeideas!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Repeat Week-"All flowers remind me of you"

We will be continuing to learn our May song Baptism this coming Sunday. Last Sunday went so well with our introduction activity. The spirit really helped the children in learning the song and feeling the beauty of its simple message.

Since this Sunday is Mother's Day, I decided to create a Repeat Activity that would let the children also celebrate the joy of the day.

Prep:

A Large Vase (or in my case a pot with some foam in it covered by a bit of peat moss)

1 Flower for every woman that will be in the Primary Room (You can make them paper flowers, silk flowers, real flowers...in my case...I am making some sugar cookie flowers on sticks.

A small tag around each flower stem that indicates a different way to sing the song.

Picture Prompts


Presentation:

Bring your vase (pot) of flowers to the front of the room. Tell the children how well they did in Sacrament singing to their mothers and how pleased you are with their efforts. Tell them that today is repeat week, and to review our baptism song we will be picking flowers for the women in our primary to honor them on this day. In order to be able to pick a flower, classes will have to sit reverently and sing their very best. Have a child come to the front and pick a flower. Have the children sing the verse of the song in the way the paper states (fast, slow, staccato, acapella..etc). Tell the class that the child came from that this flower is for their teacher and to sing their very, very best for Her. If they do a great job, have the child give the flower to their teacher. If their teacher is a man, have the child give it to one of the presidency or the pianist. Continue to repeat the song as many times as possible as the children continue to give the flowers to the women in the primary.


Happy Mother's Day Mom! I will be forever grateful to you for teaching me the primary Hymns and this beautiful Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love you.

*the crazy chorister