Thursday, November 20, 2008

"Thanks"-giving Singing Time Activity

This last Sunday I did my “thankfulness” Thanksgiving activity for Singing time.
The way the activity would work is the children would tell me something they are thankful for and then tell me a song that goes along with what they are thankful for.
Making the Turkey:
The body of he turkey is 4 pieces of brown construction paper with just a one corner rounded off, all at the same time. Connect the four corners opposite from the rounded side, matching up the founded sides. Cut a long piece for the neck, and a large oval piece for the head (the more oval like the better it will look). You don’t want to make the beak a perfect triangle, make one side more wide for the bottom of the beak. And just a 2 inch piece with a rounded bottom for the hanging piece. I used a black marker for the eye and wing.
The Feathers:
I cut lots of feathers. I wish I had cut more of the orange and red, the children really liked to pick those two colors and I ran out during Jr primary. I used the paper length wise and cute them the length with one rounded side. I could get 5 out of each piece of construction paper.
The activity:
As the child said what they were grateful for, they picked the color of feather, and I wrote their name and what they were grateful for on the feather. Then it was placed on the turkey, so the more songs we sang the fuller the turkey’s tail became. The concept of finding a song that related to what they were grateful for was harder for the JR primary- we sang “I am a Child of God” 3 times, and one child said he was grateful for his dog and choose “Popcorn Popping” for the song. On the other hand the SR primary really got the idea, they got it so well they started picking songs they wanted to sing and then trying to think of something that related to it to be grateful for. It was a good activity. We had fun and sang a lot of songs.
I didn’t do this activity the Sunday prior to Thanksgiving because I want to start next week teaching Christmas Songs.

So I've been tagged- Oh joy, can you feel the sarcasm

So this you’ve been tagged thing….. I have no desire to do it and I refuse to tag any afterwards.

To anyone who actually cares.

To be tagged means that you blog about the 7 little known facts about you.

1-I love Rubber Ducks. They are so cute. I collect them too. You could say I have a thing for rubber ducks. I use to say I have a faddish for rubber ducks, but there are too many people who define faddish as a sexual thing – too disturbing.

2-I now live with a cat, and for those of you who know my feelings on cats might of thought that would never happen- I thought that would never happen. The things we do for love.

3-I have the Perry Mason Theme song as my cell phone ringer.

4-I’m due the end of April to the beginning of May.

5-My favorite scripture is D&C 128:22 “Brethren shall we not go on in so great a cause, go forward, and not backward, courage brethren, and on, on to victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. Let the earth break forth into singing. Let the dead speak forth anthems of eternal praise to the King Immanuel, who hath ordained, before the world was, that which would enable us to redeem them out of their prison; for the prisoners shall go free.”

6-I am a VIP member of the Disney Movie Club. That means I own way too many Disney Movies- and I recently purchased more.

7-My last calling in my previous ward was the Family History consultant. That was in my single’s ward because I’ve only been married for 6 ½ months.

So now you know 7 things about me. Oh well.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

This Week for the Primary


Well this week I am going to be out of town, so I made my visual early and took it to my sub. I wanted it to be an activity so that sub could keep their attention. The idea I came up with was a maze. That way the children could pick their path and then pick their song.

At first my idea was to make the boarders of the maze to be corn lined up. But then I realized that the maze can be used many times at different times of year. So instead I made it of a solid back (turquoise) with bright contrast lines (yellow). Then I made leaves in fall colors to put in the maze. I still haven’t decided what should be used to go through the maze, one idea is a toy car with a magnate on the back, or I just might make something out of construction paper (since that seems to be my favorite thing).

The maze is 3 papers wide and 2 tall. I took it to be laminated and apparently at the sign making place the absolute width is 26 inches (which is just a little more than 2 papers tall). The walls of the maze are about a ½ inch wide. I wanted there to be multiple “right” ways. I thought this would give more options to the children.

I made the leaves by using the “A Children’s Songbook Companion” book. Page 263 “It’s Autumntime” lesson has ~2 inch tall leaves. I traced the two larger leaves and then traced it onto the construction paper. I could have tried to make them myself, but I found them in the book and thought that it would be easier. I tried to pick songs that are somewhat traditional, since my sub hasn’t been in primary since he was in primary. I used a number of songs from the primary program and then the good old fun ones. I hope the children enjoy the activity, and enjoy having a male sub. I thought that mixing it up would be something the children enjoy.