Mother's Day - Blow Dryer Box, Guess Who? 3/12

After much thought and debate, I've decided on my Mother's Day plan!  I was really tempted to use the "weeping mother" idea here, but maybe next year . . .

I want something that honors Mothers, but also gives the kids a bit of fun and a break after their sure-to-be-spectacular performance in Sacrament meeting.  So, I think I will pull out my Blow Dryer Box - can you believe I haven't used it yet!?

 

 

Since Mothers often receive FLOWERS near Mother's Day, I used artificial ROSE PETALS with numbers and a few WILD/WIGGLE petals written on them (I love using numbers instead of song names, so that I can change my reference sheet as needed without throwing out/writing over my props!).

 

 

The kids (picked by their teachers for reverence) will take turns coming up and "catching" a rose petal with a number on it.  Each number will correspond to a "GUESS WHO" for the mother of one of the Primary kids.  The kids will try to guess whose Mom we are talking about with clues such as how many children the mom has, hobbies, hair color, funny stories, etc.  I will keep it brief and will give lots of hints if they don't get it quickly.

 

To make sure there are plenty of petals blowing around, I'll make several sets.  If the same number is pulled more than once, that child will either say something they know or like about the person who has already been guessed, or something they love about their own mother.

 

 

Once the Mom is guessed, we will sing that Mom's favorite Primary song (I will ask them to try to pick common ones that the kids will know).

  

This does take a little preparation! TOMORROW I will send out an email to about 15 moms asking them to participate.  If they haven't responded by NEXT WEEK with the survey and a PICTURE, I'll start calling.  I think they will enjoy being included, and I think the kids will enjoy their moms having a moment of fame in Primary.

 

Hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day!



President Monson and our Prophets - 5/5 Singing Time

The first Sunday in May will be all about PROPHETS.  After all, the theme for the week IS "The living prophet leads the church under the direction of Jesus Christ".  Here is what I have planned:

At either the very beginning or the very end, we will sing "Follow the Prophet".   The previous chorister, Liz (the same one who came up with the original blow dryer box) has Pat Graham's "Follow the Prophet" faces that you can find HERE, so those are all ready for me. She even added a crazy-haired news lady/rock star face for people of today.  If you don't have them yet, just download the JPEGs, print them out large format, color, and cut out the middle so the kids can put their faces in.  I would recommend laminating and attaching a popsicle stick for the kids to hold on to.  If you have links to anything similar for President Monson, let me know - I haven't found anything yet!

I'm going to introduce the song in a way similar to Pat Graham in the music workshop - without telling them what the song IS, I'm going to ask them to step right, left foot behind right foot, step right, then feet together while SNAPPING your fingers - then go the opposite direction.  Once they have the rhythm, I will have the pianist jump in and we will start singing and dancing at the same time.  I remember cracking up when Pat did this, and think it would be fun to re-create.  Check out Camille's blog (link on the right) for video.

I will also use Pat Graham's version of the President Monson verse:

Thomas Spencer Monson

gave his Christmas toy

to a poor and lonely

little neighbor boy

Now he is our prophet

loyal, kind and true

If we serve as he does

We'll be happy too.

Since I sometimes wonder how much the young ones, especially, know about him, I want to focus on PRESIDENT MONSON.  I found THIS wonderful link (thanks to all who do so much work for the rest of us!!) to some pre-made fact cards about President Monson, complete with pictures!  I plan to print several and assign a song to them.  I will tape them under chairs, so that the kids can look for a clue about President Monson's life so far.  Then we will post the cards on the board (in order, when we can).  Some of the songs/stories I plan to include are:

2013 Program Songs Trivia

For next week (and, just in general) I wanted to put together a list of trivia questions for this year's program songs.  Many are taken from the Children's Songbook Companion.  Please feel free to add more in the comments and I will try to incorporate them here.

Obviously, the choice songs our Presidency picked might not line up with yours, but hopefully the others will be helpful.

 

2013 Primary Program Songs Trivia

I Am a Child of God 2

1. What does “His promises are sure” mean?

It means we can be SURE that he will keep his promises – he will always be true to His word

2. This song originally said “teach me all that I must know”, but was changed at President Kimball’s suggestion.  What did he ask that the song say instead?

Teach me all that I must DO.

Mother, Do You Love Me Prompts

For those of you teaching the "Mother Do You Love Me/Teach Me to Walk in the Light" arrangement by Amberly Helm for Mother's Day, here are the pictures that I am using as prompts to teach the "Mother, Do You Love Me" portion of the song.  I plan to print them two to a page, and then laminate them and put them on Popsicle Sticks.  Enjoy!!

Pictures: HERE
Music: HERE

Flip Charts for Spring-Time Primary Songs

Reviewing my songs for Sunday, (I'm doing the April Showers activity HERE, the only supplies you need are an umbrella, some ribbon or thread, and a printer), I think my kids will need help on some of the Springtime songs.  Since we won't be singing them often, I won't spend a LOT of time teaching them, but I did make some Flip Charts. 

Don't get too excited, these are basic with Microsoft Word or free online clipart, nothing custom, but you are welcome to use them!  The formatting goes off when you download the Word version from Google, so if you want to print them as-is I recommend the PDF.  Or, if you have troubles, leave a comment and I can email you the Word file directly.

Because it's Spring (Word): HERE
Because it's Spring (PDF): HERE
Happy Song (Word): HERE
Happy Song (PDF): HERE
Little Purple Pansies (Word): HERE
Little Purple Pansies (PDF): HERE

- Adrienne

Song Bowling - 4/28

When I was first called as the Primary Music Leader, I picked up a bowling set at DI . . . but tonight remembered we have an INFLATABLE large bowling set that will be much easier for the kids to see.  Must use!

 

I wanted to do more than just line them up in  a straight line and have the kids aim for one (with a song on the bottom), so here is what I came up with:

- EARN steps forward by

Go Fish/Bug Catching - 4/21

Everyone has seen the Primary fishing idea - you write songs on the back of laminated fish, attach a paperclip, and have the kids try to catch the fish.

Mine will be a little bit different because of this sweet Melissa & Doug wooden magnetic puzzle set I got for my daughter last Christmas:

 

I have a blue glass bowl for the sea creatures, and a clear one for the bugs.  Depending on which bug/fish is caught, we will have a motion or way to sing to go with the song written on the back (I'll write the songs/instructions on removable stickers so that afterwards my daughter can have her puzzles back!).  You could easily print cliparts of these animals too, and do the good ol' laminating with paperclips.  For Jr. Primary, we will only use the WAY to sing as we work on our song for the month and the Mother's Day Song.  For Sr., I will have them work on these songs for 5 or 10 minutes, and then the rest of the time let them draw songs (printed on strips) that either need work or that relate to the topic for the week (the restoration)

 

Some examples:

 

- SEA TURTLE - sing SLOW (I'll pick a short song for this one)

- WHALE - sing LOUD/BIG

- BUTTERFLY - sing BEAUTIFULLY

- SPIDER - wiggly fingers

- OCTOPUS - Wave arms like an octopus

- GRASSHOPPER - Hop while singing

- CRAB - Snap fingers or clap hands (making them look like pincers)

- SHARK - With arms straight in front of you, clap them together with the beat as if you are opening and closing the shark's mouth to eat your lunch

- CATERPILLAR - Pick a WIGGLE song since caterpillars are such great wigglers

- BEE - Bzzz the melody of the chorus

 

For those of you who want to PRINT these, I put some clipart into a PDF for you HERE.  If you want the Word doc, just leave a comment with your email address and I'll send it to you!