Preparing for the Program

In preparing for a sub (especially a sub who might not know all the songs we’re learning this year), I went back to the idea I had for “I Lived in Heaven” and a suggestion that another chorister on a blog had- to make a binder with all the songs for the year in it. I figure if I use the same pictures that I used to teach them with that when it comes time to review they will be quicker to their memories. Last year I was so stressed with re-teaching songs because it was as though they had forgotten all the songs they learned at the beginning of the year (I was put in this calling in Aug). This way I can pull it out throughout the year and remind them, and then use it to quickly re-teach when it comes time to review. I hope that having a game plan will make it less stressful. So while preparing for a sub while I’m out for maternity reasons, I’ve also been spending a great deal of time recollecting and printing all the pictures I have used to teach songs to put into this binder. I still have to not completed “My Eternal Family”, but I’ve put together my pages for April’s song- “My Redeemer Lives”. For “How Firm a Foundations” I gave up trying to find my own pictures since I hardly had any pictures anyway, but instead printed another chorister’s flip chart from her blog. So far the pages look really good. I kept this in mind also while I was making the pages for May’s song “Baptism”. I foresee this book being really handy to hand a sub, and throughout the year for relearning when needed. Also I copied/printed all the songs for the year out and placed in sleeves, into the front of the binder. I use them rather them rather than the primary book to learn the songs myself while preparing, and for leading the music in front of the children.

4th Sunday Activity: Game for Song Review

For the Free week I created a game for just the three songs that we have already learned. Since the youngest children are still having struggling with the first two songs we've learned. I wanted to find a way to focus on just the songs we've learned so far. Keep the songs fresh in their mind.

Preparation:

1. Make a sign for each song: 'I Lived in Heaven', 'How Firm a Foundation', and 'My Eternal Family'
2. Print out random the lines from the 3 songs, I did about 7 from each song and focused mostly on non 1st verses
3. paste lines onto construction paper

How to play the game:

1. Place the songs up on the board (up high), and the lines somewhere visible but not right under the the song titles.
2. Sing through all three sings, all verses.
   
3. Have a child come up and pick a line.
   
4. Then have the children decide what song does that line belong to.
   
5. If its not apparent for the children, have the piano play the line, and then all sing with the piano.
6. Once the line has been identified, then sing the verse that the line belongs to. (Depending on the time you have)

Update: Tested Game

• In Primary today we did this game. I had no idea how well it would go but I figured that JR primary would have a hard time with the concept but still have fun playing and that SR primary would thing it was all way too easy and go through them super fast.
• JR-- They did really well. Most of the time they had to think about it, and I had the pianist play the line. They'd figure it out. We numbered the songs on the board. I found this helped because the really little children wouldn't say the name of the song out loud for me, but they would say a number or raise their fingers, and that was with very little coaching. I think they enjoyed the game a lot. In fact more so than the SR. We were able to complete about half of the lines I had prepared.
• SR-- We ended up with extra time, so not only did we go through them faster than with JR primary, the extra time aloud us to complete all the lines prepared. But it was just about perfect. There were even some of the lines the threw them a little.
• What was different than planned?? -- Well instead of singing the whole verse we just sang the line on the paper plus the next line. I think that worked out well. Overall I think it helped the children recognize which song was which much more. They did great.
  

Focused Activity: How Firm a Foundation

Focused Activity: How Firm a Foundation
On Sunday I used a form of the “Keyword” activity that I found on this blog. I had to put it together quickly so I didn’t actually make keys. I took two colors of construction paper. I used one color for the 1st verse and another for the 3rd verse. Then I wrote words from the verse on the paper. I’d have one child come up and pick a word- not seeing it. The child would then stand with their back to the primary, plug their ears, and hum to themselves, during this time I told the rest of the primary what the word was. Then we’d sing the verse and cover our mouths and hum when we came to the keyword. When we were done with the verse the child would say what the word we didn’t sing was.
It went really well. I only did it with my Senior primary. In Junior we were still working on learning the second verse. The SR primary, for the most part, got the concept well. But the younger children in the SR primary had the hardest time with the concept. So I don’t know if I would do it at some point with the JR primary. Maybe on a song that the JR primary already knows well. I would defiantly try it again with the SR primary.

How Firm a Foundation -Tested, and Funny Pregnacy Story

So just a few quick things:

1- Primary went really well. I was worried about using SO MANY words (see my post about ‘How Firm a Foundation) with the little children. But they picked up on the song so quickly. Much more quickly than they did for ‘I Lived in Heaven’. Because I was more worried about the words I wanted to first make sure they had a firm grip on the tune. I hadn’t spent much time in the past learning the tune first. I had always had them listen to it once through with just the piano, but then we’d try singing it. This time we listened, then we hummed it, and then we la la laaed our way through it. I think this helped. Even if it didn’t help they learn it, I would still call it a success because the children seemed to really enjoying trying to la the song.

2- The only also really went well with the activity around the first verse. We didn’t do this part with the JR primary because we ran out of time, (I took a lot of time reviewing ‘I Lived in Heaven’ before we started learning ‘How Firm a Foundation’). With SR primary, after we had learned all the words, we started turning over the bricks to hide some of the words (this is where we’ll start with JR primary after a quick review). I had 4 children come up at a time, pick a brick, flip it over, and then return to their seat. Since there are a lot of words and there are only a word or two on each brick there were a lot to flip over. We sing the verse trying to remember those words and then I’d have 4 more children come up and then we’d sing it again. It made for a good 4 more times singing the song. WARNING: I love getting children involved. I think they enjoy it more and I think they behave more. But since there were so many bricks to flip, there were only a few children who never got a turn to come up. This is bad because those who didn’t get to come up felt left out and I even had one brake down and cry (remember this was my SR Primary). Just keep that in mind if you are going to do this activity, it can be done as an activity to learn the verse or as an activity for the activity Sunday

3- This was just funny pregnancy stuff: I try to do a wiggle song to transition over to Sharing Time. The song we decided on was ‘Do as I’m Doing’, the action chosen by the child who came up to be the leader was ‘head shoulders knees and toes’. I thought this was going to be fun (although at first it confused my pianist, she wasn’t sure which song we were going to sing). Well, as many of you know I am 25 weeks pregnant, and defiantly showing. As we began singing and doing the motions of head shoulders knees and oh my goodness I can’t really do toes anymore. Each time I went down was something special. Next time we sing either ‘Do as I’m Doing’ or ‘Head Shoulders Kneed and Toes’ I will have to only sing. I’m too pregnant for that anymore.

Have a great week everyone. We had lots of fun today with ‘How Firm a Foundation’, I think it will be one of the memorable ones of the year.

Teaching: How Firm A Foundation

Update:
I mentioned this in my 'Activity: I Lived in Heaven' blog, but I wanted to mention it here also. I am going to work this song a little different then just tell them the line, we sing that line, and then sing it again (maybe a few times) before learning the next line.
Since this song will be different for the children, I am going to start by having them humm and then la la la the melody. After that will will say together all the lines a few times before we sing them. Then I will start into my normal routine. We'll see how it all works. I am going to start teaching it next Sunday (Jan 25th).

How Firm a Foundation:

I wanted to make sure I finished this plenty early before Feb. For a few reasons 1- I wanted to be able to share my idea before hand. 2- I will be out of town for two Sunday’s in Feb 3- I hope to use some of the Sunday’s in Jan to start teaching this song.

My idea consisted of trying to build a foundation. So each of the words are on what I wanted to look like a brick. I am debating making something to be mortar between each layer. With words I could think of something to help the children (especially the little ones that can’t read), I tried to add pictures for those words. Each brick is half a piece of construction paper tall, and most are a construction paper wide.

As we learn the verses, I plan on flipping over the bricks and hiding the words and pictures. I was considering taking away the bricks, however I decided that taking the bricks away would make it an “unfirm foundation”. So that was fixed by only flipping over the bricks.

I plan on using the magnets to hold the bricks to the chalkboard.

I am worried that the few pictures I did use, are too small. Also I really wanted more pictures but I either couldn’t find pictures small enough to fit on the brick, or I couldn’t think of a picture to go with the particular words. I hope all ya’ll can find better pictures to use.

I am also debating having the words go up instead of the traditional down. That way I build the foundation up. I think the children can handle the non traditionalism, but I haven’t ever tried it so I don’t know. Has anyone else ever tried this method?