Test Sunday-- Odd Ball Out

Okay, So my kids know this month's song really, really well...and I know they will pass it off first time through, so I'm going to quickly have them pass off their song by singing it through "program perfect" (standing, all eyes following me, no picture prompts, smiling, singing out, following chorister dynamics). Then we'll move on to the fun stuff. I realized last week after singing the "Hello" song for the 20 billionth time (a different way to keep in interesting) that there are so many great songs to sing that they don't know and that I never have time to teach them...as well as birthday songs...so this week seemed like a perfect opportunity to fill our song buckets.

Prep:

4 different shaped balls with a small tag on it with song title and pg # (tennis ball, baseball, football, wacky ball...whatever you have available)

1 Large, empty bucket with a sign that says "Song Bucket" (25 gallon preferred)

Pick 4 songs out of the children's Hymn book in the "welcome" and/or "birthday" section that your primary has never sung.


Presentation:

Have the children pass off the monthly song. Tell them they did so well learning the song this month, that we get to move on to other great songs. Bring out the bucket and place it at the head of the room. Bring out your bag (or basket or whatever) of odd balls. Tell them that there are some songs that we sing over and over again because we just haven't had time to learn other songs. Sometimes new songs sound odd to us because we've never heard them, and we tend to stick with things we know becasue they are more comforatable. Tell them that today, were going to take some of these "odd balls" (songs we've never heard) and put them into our song bucket (our rapporteur) so we can use them in opening exercises.

Have a child come forward and pick one of the balls. Give the tag to the pianist. Have her play the melody of the song once through. Sing the words line by line to the children, having them repeat the line back to you after each one. Sing the song all the way through with them. Ask the children if they think they have it. Have the children sing through the song, and have the child with the ball try to make the ball into the bucket before the end of the song.

Don't bother with picture prompts. These songs are fast and simple and can be easily learned just by singing the line and having them sing it back too you. If you choose a song that is longer, you could use picture prompts to help...or any other technique that you have found is most effective with your kids.

Have a great day!

*thecrazychorister