Monday, October 18, 2010

Primary Program Helpful Hints

For all those who haven't had their program yet, this might be helpful to you. I have a few suggestions that might help your little primary kids sing their best and make a rehearsal go smoother.

A. Bring three different colored flags, pieces of paper, or something you can have some hold up at the back of the chapel. I had a red flag, a yellow flag, and a blue flag. I had a sister sit at the back of the chapel for our rehearsal. I told the children that during the songs, Sister Loomis will hold up the Red flag if you need to be louder, The Yellow flag if you need to be softer, and the blue flag if you're singing perfect. This worked SO WELL. The children not only followed my direction, but the sound was fantastic.

B. To help all the children stand together, I did a little exercise with them. We practiced standing up and sitting down. I made a motion with my hands directing them to come to the edge of their seats. I then swept my arms down and up to have them stand. I told them I didn't want a bunch of pop corn on the stage.....so I had them sing Pop Corn Popping and had them "pop" up out of their chair each time we sang the words "popcorn" in the song. They loved that, and it helped them understand the difference in that and what I wanted them to do. They did amazing after that...and all eyes were on me.

C. So, rehearsal can sometimes get crazy trying to get everyone to listen and be reverent during it...especially the little children. So, a great teacher let me have a huge bag of stickers. I gave a bunch to each teacher and asked them to give the stickers to children who are sitting reverently and paying attention. I then announced (after I got permission from the PP) that if the children worked hard, listened, and were reverent...they would receive a sticker. And those who had stickers...would get a cookie from me at the end. UM....you would have thought I was giving out $100 dollar bills. It was absolutely amazing. Each child earned their sticker and got their cookie...it WAS AWESOME! Please, get permission before doing this in your primary.


Have a fun and spiritually amazing program!

-thecrazychorister

2 comments:

Lindsey Cortes said...

I wish I had had your popcorn popping idea! I am using that next year. Thanks so much!

Marsha said...

Here I am a year later gearing up for the primary program. Thanks so much for these practice suggestions!