- Judges Then I had two presidency members and one teacher (the third presidency member had to cancel on me last minute!!!) sit in the front and be my judges! I told the children what they were being judged on (and had it posted on the blackboard) (volume, melody, words, reverence during songs, reverence in between songs, how well they stand up together, if they are watching me) and divided the things being judged (volume etc) among the judges. so they each had about 3 or 4 things they were judging.
I made the judges each a big flipbook of the numbers 1-10 and they used those to rate the kids!
I told the kids that if they got to a certain number of points in these two weeks that we would do some sort of treat.
The kids haven't sung this well in a VERY long time!! They were great! They were all watching me and singing loud and even the kids who never sing were singing!! (even my troublemakers!!) The presidency was right up front and kept the kids in line.
When they gave the kids a score for the song...they explained why they got the score (i.e. I gave you a 8 because some of you were not singing...) the judges were good and hard on them but it made the kids sing really well!!
So I will do this next week and give them the treat...and then I will tell them that during the program I will be judging the same things! And if the earn so many points during the program then they will get another treat! I am thinking about making temple cookies!! And then instead of singing time I will just let them eat cookies and socialize.
- Name that tune, I had a poster with fall leaves on it and different songs listed on the back. But anything like that would work. When they choose a leaf, the pianist play just the top hand. She played four notes. If they could not guess it, then she played 5 notes. She played from any where in the song so it made it harder.
163.I have done this a few different ways. Sometimes I have them throw a Koosh ball into a bucket and they can stand from a really close line good for 1 note, a medium distance line for 2 notes and a further away line good for 3 notes. I let them have 2 tries so they could get as many as 6 notes.
I have also given them a clue with a phrase from the song or info. about the song and then let them bid on how many notes they thought they could guess it – if they got it right good, if they didn’t than the rest of the kids could hear the song until they could guess it
- Another fun way to do a tune guessing game is to have them wear a headband or hat then have names of songs with velcro (it will stick to one of those terry headbands)on the backs of the song cards. You put a card on their forehead/hat and the primary kids give them clues or you can do it like 20 questions where the person with the hat asks yes or no questions and tries to figure out what song he's wearing.
- I would have a short description of what the song was about, or a trivia question about the song (I'd already given them the information in an earlier Singing Time), or an historical description of the song (again, I'd have already told them the answers in previous Singing Times). The kids would be able to tell me how many note they would need to guess, and the pianist would play that many notes. After they guessed the song we would sing it.
- I did this at Christmas time, and I had a big poster of a christmas tree, and whoever guessed the right answer got to put a decoration on the tree. The class that guessed the most correct answers got to put
the star on the tree. Because we were doing just Christmas songs, I used the book "Our Latter-Day Hymns: the Stories and the Messages" for most of my clues, and we stuck with the Christmas songs in the
hymnal or in the Children's Songbook. - I have also done it with the songs we were learning for the Primary Presentation. That time I had easy doctrinal statements about what the song was teaching us. I knew the kids were really tired of the songs (this was the month before the presentation), so I had a drawing of ME on posterboard, and as the kids guessed right, they put pieces of a cloth to cover up my mouth (on the picture). My primary president
giggled over it too much to tell me I shouldn't have used a picture of me, but it releived a lot of tension in the kids to be able to a grown-up Primary worker to hush up about the songs they were tired of. - "Top ten" countdown. I don't know when your program is because this idea requires a little prep time. What I did was go through the Children's Songbook and make a list of all the songs the kids know. Then I photocopied the page and had each child go through and choose their top ten songs, with a star by the top three. Then I tallied the votes and on the day of the program we did a countdown, from the 10th most popular to the 1st.
- Quick draw
- Count Your Blessings!
Cut out several sets of numbers 0-9 as needed. Color them the Primary colors. Laminate if desired. Place these numbers onto a flannelboard in different combinations, ie: 321, 84,6,1, 5086, 67, 38, 47, 17, 9,23, 602,etc...
Prepare a song title poster for each of the 6 songs you choose to sing from the suggestions below. to begin the singing time activity, tell the children that you are thinking of a special hymn that will be the last song you sing during singing time. Tell them that you will give them clues to help them guess which hymn you are thinking of. Tell them you do not want them to say their guesses out loud but you will tell them when you want them to raise their hands if they think they know what hymn is the correct answer. Place the flannel board where all the children can see it and tell them that this is their first clue. Then post each song title on the flannelboard as the children sing it. Remind the kids you are looking for one hymn that has to do with numbers and with the songs you are singing. If necessary give more verbal clues. When all of the songs have been sung, ask the children what hymn all of these clues have led to. The answer is:
COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS HB 241.
Song suggestions:
My Heavenly Father Loves Me CS 228
All Things Bright & Beautiful CS 231
Jesus Once was a Little Child CS 55
I Feel My Savior's Love CS 74
A Happy Family CS 198 or Families Can Be Together Forever CS 188
For Health & Strength CS 21
I Want to Live the Gospel CS 148 or The Church of Jesus Christ CS 77
Our Primary Colors CS 258
- Christmas in July. Helps keep the songs in their minds. I come in wearing a scarf, mittens, cap and the kids love it.
- Roller box to teach a song. I took pictures from old primary lesson manuals of the things mentioned in the song and glued them on a long sheet of butcher paper with the words beside or below the picture. Then the kids or myself crank the dowel to turn the picture. It's great. I took the time to make a nice box and have used it for several other songs. They love the moving pictures.
- Make a book. Cut posterboards in half and join the pages with metal rings. Use pictures or flannel board figures with the words or key words. You could also put the first verse on 1/2 a piece of posterboard and then connect it to the top of a whole posterboard that has the second verse on the top 1/2 and the chorus on the bottom 1/2 that way if you connect the two you can see the chorus for the first verse and then flip the first verse over so that the second verse and chorus are visible. I did this for when I taught 'Families Can Be Together Forever'it worked great. I connected the two boards with 2 metal rings.
174.Primary Squares with my kids. I did it like Hollywood Squares- I ask the children a question and if they answered correctly they could place an X or O on the board( I used pilgrims and turkeys instead of X's and O's but you can substitute anything). If they got the question wrong, the other team got a chance to answer and place their piece. Hope this helps.
175.Gratitude word game
G =Give said the little stream (I'm small I know but wherever I go)
R = choose the Right way (I am learning the teachings of Jesus)
A = dAre to do right (you have a work that no other can do)
T = my counTry (it's here where my home and my loved ones are found)
I = nephI's Courage (laughing and mocking they said he shouln't try)
T = i Think the world is glorious (the birds and bees and blossoms...)
U = the church of jesUs christ (I'll follow him in faith)
D = holD to the rod ('tis strong and bright and true)
E = childrEn all over the world (he understands each tongue)
Have your pianist play a song and for thanksgiving I’m going to have the kids listen
to the song and figure the thing the song talks about that we should be thankful for. So for instance if she plays Book of Mormon Stories – then the answer would be Book of Mormon or if she played Head Shoulders Knees and Toes – Our Bodies, or if she played Latter-day Prophets – Pres. Hinckley, or if she played I love to See the Temple – temples, or Daddy’s Homecoming – dads. etc. I think it sounds like fun. It also is a different way of doing name that tune only I guess you could call it name that thing to be thankful for.
- Mr. Slinky is a little slinky that you use and the kids have to watch you. As you make the slinky longer, they sing louder, as your make it shorter, they sing softer.
- Happy Singing Pills (Skittles) in a bowl and halfway through when they started to get restless, I had a member of the presidency pass them around and let each child who was singing well take two "pills." They got excited, it wasn't messy, and it was a nice break.
- HUGE board game out of different colored pieces of paper. I made one long stretch of the game down the center isle and at the end the game board split and went in two different directions. On each of the game pieces I had mostly songs to review. but on some of them I put "roll again" "go back 1 space" and on one I even put "practice standing up!"
I made one large die (singular for dice??) and only put 1, 2, and 3 on it(so they wouldn't get too far too fast!!) (I had about 38 game pieces in all...but if they were getting all 6's and 5's they would have been done with the game in two turns!!!)
- Pin the Note on the Song (a big target looking thing, divided by colors and numbers--found the idea on a website--where they pinned notes on it while blind folded to pick what song to
sing).
- Wiggle Worm Songs I then went through the CSB and chose songs that would be great to sing when the children get the wiggles. I typed those up and copied them onto 4 different colors of bright cardstock--each song is only in the jar once, though. I then cut the song names into strips, rounded the ends, drew smiley faces on one end and then crinkle folded them and put them in the jar. It turned out really cute. I will give my pianist a list of the songs in the jar so that she can be prepared to play them whenever we need it.
- Ice cream sundaes: keeping the Sabbath day holy. Add things that don't go on a "Sundae" (i.e.. pickles, mustard, ketchup). And then things that do go on a "Sundae" (hot fudge, whip cream, etc). We will have already prepared some small sundaes for the kids for the end of the sharing time. This way, we can share a treat with the kids for doing well on the program as well as take care of a sharing time message.
- If you can hear put your hand on….. game to get them ready for closing Exercises, but I used these actions, saying no words, playing no music, just singing in my mind and doing the actions, They caught on a eventually had them all doing the actions as the seniors didn’t know them then, then they caught on and started to sing the words.
- Missionary game. I brought various items, including name tags, clothing and scriptures to primary. I picked one child from each side of the room and made 2 teams. Each child represented their team. Then we would sing various songs for both the program and some fun ones like "I hope they call me on a mission". The team that sang the best got to 'dress' their missionary then the team that had their missionary dressed the most when time was out won. I didn't do anything for the winning team just said congrats. Throughout the entire time we talked a bit about things missionaries can do to prepare and most of the songs related to missionaries, ie Latterday prophets, Spirit of God, ummm not sure what else and I threw my list away.
- Special Singing Tie We had the bishop come in to hear Jr. Primary sing all 9 songs. I had him sit in the front facing the children and put a very ugly tie on him which we cut as we sang. The children really enjoyed it and we ended up with a good assessment of each song (the Primary Pres. kept a scoreboard) and a tie in ribbons!
- Also, we were trying to get them to sing louder, so I made previous arrangements the 2nd counselor in the bishopric and I bought a tie from the DI for $1 and gave it to him before primary started. He then came in as sharing time started. After they sang the first song, I brought out my scissors and said I was going to do something I had wanted to do for a long time. I am going to cut someone's tie. A kid quickly took his off and hid it, scared I was going to cut his tie. But I went to the back and cut the counselor's tie. Then I had him come up to the front and he hammed it up good. If they didn't sing as loud or if they didn't all sing, I did not cut the tie. He wiped his forehead and said thanks. After that, the kids all sang very well. They wanted to see his tie cut. I had the whole sharing time when I did this. We went over all the program songs and they made a lot of progress.
- Get the bugs out idea with the gummy worms for the past two weeks as we had our final rehearsals. The children all loved eating the gummy worms at the end of rehearsal. I put several large paper insects on the bulletin board. Each insect had the name of a program song on the back. I asked the kids if they knew what it meant to "get the bugs out" of something. They understood that this meant we were going to fix any little things that were wrong with something. Then I told them that although we know all the program songs, today we were going to "get the bugs out". I told them of four areas that we would be working on:
1. words (fix any word problems)
2. sing (make sure everyone was singing in their best voices)
3. watch and follow...I told them they must glue their eyes to me as soon as they heard the piano intro. We practiced doing this a few times. We also practiced standing up and sitting down.
4. Reverence (no talking...arms folded...feet quiet) The children chose a bug and we sang the song on the back. I reminded them of the four things I was looking for. If they did the song correctly then we got to put that "bug" into a big jar. If not, we left it on the bulletin board to work on some more. The junior boys especially liked this.
- get the bugs out - only I used worms. I made a poster that had a tree on it. Then I die-cut apples and I glued 2 together except for the top and I filled the apples with a couple of gummi worms. If they sang the song that was on the apple program perfect we took the worms out and at the end of singing time I gave them each a worm. I then told them that if they sang really super duper spectacularly then I would eat a real worm.
Today, I brought all of my children’s ample supply of plastic insects and told the children that now that we had all of the bugs out, we were going to play with them for a while. I got the idea from a birthday party type booklet to have the children take turns standing on a chair and dropping insects down into a small tin or wide mouth canning jar.
I gave the child 5 bugs to drop and for each bug that made it into the tin, I counted that many more children along the row to determine which child would come up to choose our next song.
I had made up a poster size maze with bugs placed liberally around in the labrynth. At each point in the maze where a choice of direction had to be made, I placed a large number. I had also previously prepared a list of all of their favorite songs and assigned each one to a particular choice point and option along the way. Example: Choice point #1 had the possibility of going right or left. Choice point 2 had the choice of going right, down, or back where they came from, etc.
For the Junior Primary, the selected child came up and chose the direction that we would take from each choice point. We then sang the song associated with that choice. For the Senior Primary, I made it much harder. They got to a choice point and then I gave them the list of songs [for that particular choice point] to choose from but did not tell them which direction their choice would take them. … We had such a blast. The Senior Primary particularly got into the dropping of the bugs.
