Tag Team

In our primary, we decided to take November and December to experiment with combining sharing and singing time as the new program guide for 2010 suggests. I am super excited about the possibilities. For those of you who already do this, I hope to be able to help you out more. For those of you who still will be separate I want to assure you that my monthly method will remain pretty much the same with a few tweaks here and there..and there will still be many ideas to help teach the program songs. I will not be including the sharing time portion (I just don't have time in my life for that). My hope is that the combining of sharing and singing time at least twice a month will help us unit in the lessons we are teaching and actually allow for singing more songs throughout the year than just the program songs.

We do plan on handing out Cds of all the program music to the children for a Christmas present. There will be an attached letter for the families. I know this will help us be able to learn the songs faster and we can focus on the message more then the technical aspects of learning the song.

Okay...enough chit chat...here's what's up for this week...

Theme: I am thankful for my families and I can serve them

Opening song: " Where Love is"

First time up (I plan on only taking 4-5 min)

Prep:

1 poster board with the words to the 4th verse of "A Family is of God" written out with 4 key words missing.

8 word strips (4 of them will be the correct words..others will be silly words.)

Your poster board could read:

I'll Love and ______ my Family, and be

A Good ______ to each Family member

And when I am a Mom or ______, so glad

I'll help my family ________....

Word choices would be: Serve, Example, Dad, Remember, Smile, Dance, Fish, jumprope.

Presentation:

Bring your poster board to the front of the room. Have your word strips visible on the board. Quickly have the children fill in the blanks with the correct words. Sing the song correctly. Express the gratitude you feel when your family works together to serve each other. (note: if a silly word is picked, you can have the kids sing that line to hear the silly word sung once...but then quickly move on..)

Second Time up (10 min)

Prep:

Learn how to do the simple signs to "Love one Another" on the church web site. http://www.lds.org/cm/display/0,17631,7231-1,00.html.

Presentation:

Display a picture of Jesus Christ. Have the pianist play the music once through while you sing to your primary kids. If that makes you uncomfortable to do it alone, invite the teachers to sing with you. Explain that their are lots of ways to sing and song, and for those who have a difficult time hearing or cannot hear...they sing with their hands. Proceed to teach the children the song in sign. Do not concern yourself if they are not perfect at it right away. Just use your entire 10 min to go through the signs as many times as possible.

Third Time up (5 min or remaining time)

Presentation:

Go through "Love one Another" another time to review what they learned. Have them stand up and combine the spoken words with the signs. Explain that service is the using your hands to help others. You show love for your family when you serve them, and just as they are singing a song with their hands....they can express love through service as well. Share your testimony that they will feel happy in their lives and more peace in their homes if they serve their families. Challenge the children to share "Love one Another" in sign language with their families.

I hope that made sense. When I am not up, the presidency member will have an introduction, a story, and then an activity to also teach this principle to the children. I am so excited to see how this goes.