Get out the Bugs- Reveiw

One of the ladies who was the chorister before me in this area always did this activity for the end of the year- program reviews. She had large plastic bugs she had bought at the dollar store and would either put them in a large garbage bag or would put them on the board and use the garbage bag like a sheet. I got back from visiting my sister late Saturday and was trying to think of something to do the next morning. I even debated running to Walmart (being the only place open) and seeing if I could find large plastic bugs. My husband assured me that construction paper laminated would work just as well. They did. I found bug silhouettes on the internet. Enlarged them and printed them as large as I could and traced the outline onto the construction paper and cut it out. I then laminated them so that I can write the titles of the songs. 

I grabbed a sheet to use to cover the bugs. Then the children have to search under the sheet to find a bug  (song). Since it was a sheet (and this came to me while I was standing in front of children), we were "getting the bugs out of our bed" because we don't want bugs in our bed.
The children were all about this. I had my Junior primary singing better than they have in months and singing songs that I wasn't even sure if they knew at all because they wouldn't sing it for be before. They were also so worried about the bugs still in the bed when our time was up. I promised them that we would finish getting the bugs out next week. I made a note of which songs were left (we got 4 of the 8 out). Senior primary were less enthusiastic about actually getting the bugs out. But they sang well to pass off the song, they all wanted to be picked to find a bug, and they enjoyed identifying the various types of bugs pulled out. The completed 6 of 8 songs.

I would call this one a success. If it works this well every time then no wonder my friend used this activity for her review EVERY year (and she was the chorister for 7 years in her ward). 

instructions: have enough bugs for each song. if you have more or smaller bugs make some of them specific verses of the songs.

Tell the children we are getting the bugs out of their songs so that the songs are Program ready. Warn them that if they don't sing the song well enough then the bug is going to go back into our bed and will have to be found again. I gave them singing the song twice through before I placed the bug back under the sheet. If it was *just* one verse they were having problems with I would give them the chance to redeem themselves by re-singing that one verse before the bug went back. 

I placed the bugs into my primary folder when they were passed off, but you could put them in a jar, a box, display them, or put them away.

Singing Fish Review

Singing Fish was one we did a few Sundays ago as a review.

The idea is to have "mama" fish and "baby" fish and have the children return the baby fish to their mama. Our children really enjoyed it, especially JR primary. When you match a baby to the mama you sing the verse that is written on the baby fish. Our JR primary were so upset when Singing Time was over and they were so worried about the babies that didn't get back to their mamas.

Here is the instructions and songs we used. I know that not everyone picked the same songs we did. But that means you only have 2 songs to pick lines from those verses. 

Here are some sihloettes of fish that you can use as a guide to cut them out. I just free handed mine out of construction paper (oval with a triangle tail) then I drew on eyes and mouths.

Here is a picture of what my fish looked like.

Have fun reviewing and playing with singing fish.

*It doesn't have to be fish. It could be any animal or even people. It is just really easy to cut out fish.

Review activity "I HEAR with my little EAR"

I have a sub this Sunday. I have created a guessing game for her to practice the songs with the children.

Each song has a set of clues. Each clue was written to be given in the form "I hear with my little ear... a song that we........."
Here are the clues that I used. I know that many of you didn't pick the same two "you choose" songs as our ward did, but that means you only have two songs to make your own questions for. Use my questions as a guide. Ignore the (notes) those are for my sub.

Feel free to "Save Image As" my notes and use them for your Singing Times. Or make up your own specific to your primary. I hope this idea helps at least one Chorister out there.

Teaching "A Child's Prayer"

I created visuals, the song by itself is hard for the younger kids. About half of our Senior Primary already knew and remembered the song. I guess that tells you when the last time our ward did this song for the program was. I'm out of town this Sunday so I taught the song last Sunday. Our SR primary is learning both verses and we are only teaching (mostly due to time) the first verse to JR primary.
This is my favorite primary song and in all my years of primary I have never had the opportunity to teach this song. Maybe that has been for the better because this song was *really* hard for me to teach.
tips from my mistakes-
1. Have them hum the melody to each song first, then learn each verse with ONLY that melody. Our pianist kept playing everything while they were learning it and it was really making it hard on the younger children.
2. Start introducing the song by having another adult come and sing the two parts with you. I tried to sing it by myself and it didn't go so well and then I couldn't do two parts at once. (or have two of the older children sing it for the primary).
3. Focus and the melody and then the words. If I had to do it over again I would encourage the children to hum each note if they weren't sure of the word yet.

I love this song, I just feel that it is a hard song to have as the last of the year. We have only this month to focus on reviewing because our program is the 22nd and all the Sundays in September are going to be used to practice for the program. We need to have the song Program Ready by then.
Here is a link to download my visuals as a zip file or you can "Save image as" each of the following.

I had a request for a copy with "no words" for use in other languages.

link to download no words version

I hope my visuals help someone. I do them in black and white to make it easy on your printers. (I can only print in b&w) and you can color them yourself your have children in your primary color them for you. Note: most of my clip art are from the Church's webside coloring pages for Primary children. I do not have the copyrights to those pages. The rest of the image I found on the internet under public domain clip art or I made them myself. You may not use my visuals for any purpose other than personal or church use. Any uses that result in you making money is prohibited. 

Teaching "Families Can be Together Forever"

I made up some quick visuals using MOSTLY coloring pages from the church website.

You can download them by right click and saving as

OR

download as a zip file {here} at box.net

Teaching "When I am Baptized" Singing Time

The kids knew the song really well because they learned it last year.

I reminded them that the verses' notes go up slowing and then go down slowly (scales) and the notes can be visualized like a rainbow, hence we're talking about a rainbow. And then the chorus' notes jump up and down, like falling rain.

Here are the visuals I used. You can download them by right clicking on them and saving as to your computer. they should download to a printer paper size.

again my visuals are only black and white for printing and coloring yourself. Save your ink.

Verse 1

I like to look for rainbows

whenever there is rain

and ponder on the beauty

of an Earth made clean again.

Chorus

I want my life to be as clean

as Earth right after Rain

I want to be the best I can

and live with God again.

2nd verse

I know when I am baptized
my wrongs are washed away.

and I can be forgiven

and improve myself each day.  

re-use or print twice the chorus visuals. 

 Hope these help someone.

thanks for dropping by.

Teaching: If the Savior Stood Beside Me in Singing time

I'm subbing again this week. The children are starting on Sunday to learn "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" by Sally DeFord.
When I was the chorister the first year of my calling this was one of the songs for the program. They had already *learned* it when I came in, but come the end of the year and they didn't know it. As a new chorister I was so frustrated. I was having to go back and teach the song and spend tons of time re-learning it. In the end I finally made discrete visuals to show the children during the program.
they said
1-Do, Follow, Live
2-Say, Words, Share, Speak
3- HE, Loves
It was effective but I felt a cop out.
So when the Chorister asked me to sub and to start teaching this song I thought long and hard about doing more than a flip-chart, something that would make an impression on them.
"Too bad I can't have a life-size Jesus standing there next to them" I thought, and then it hit me, maybe not LIFE SIZE but I wonder how big I could make it out of the roll of butcher paper I own.
I found a coloring page of Christ to trace onto the butch paper. I liked this one. To me being able to find something to trace was important because when I try to draw Christ, my drawing always ends up looking like a scruffy, happy, hippie. I like the non-scary version of this Christ.

Then measured out to go with the box I have. My butcher paper is 1 yard tall and to use with my box I made them 28 inches wide. I cut the face hole in the center at a measured height for a kneeling child. After the first child I measured (age 6 almost 7) I tried a variety of other children (luckily I had a good number of different ages at my house by chance today) all were able to knee to the height just fine. A *really* small sunbeam might now be able to reach while kneeling. From floor to "chin" mine measures 24.5 inches and the forehead is 30 inches (by default then my face is 5.5 inches tall.
My drawn people are pathetic, but they will do the job. I am going to write the words on colored paper separate from the pictures and tape them on, that way I can remove them for memorizing.
There are 5 pictures of each verse. I have only completed the 1st verse. For the photos, I used a photo of me as a baby. Its the only photo I have where the head is anywhere near big enough to almost be life size.

If the Savior Stood Beside Me

Would I do the things I do?

Would I think of His commandments and try harder to be true

Would I follow His example
Would I live more Righteously? 

If I could see the Savior standing Neigh watching over me.

 I thought about doing them on one long sheet of butcher paper and then you could roll it to get it out of the way, but our primary room is small and I didn't think that many in a row would fit in one space.

When I finish I will post the rest
Here is how I plan on splitting the panels for the other verses:
2- If I the savior stood beside me (same picture as the first verse)
 -Would I say the things I say (girl with word bubble with a cloud of scribbles in it)
 -Would my words be true and kind if He were never Far away (picture patting a smaller child's head with word bubble with Hearts in it)
 -Would I try share the gospel?
    Would I speak more reverently (child handing a book of Mormon to another child with a small picture of Christ in word bubble)
-If I could see the savior standing neigh watching over me (same panel as the last for the first verse.
3-He is always near me, though I do not see Him (same as with the first two verse except Christ is so lightly traced, or get a piece of paper to hold over that part of the panel where Christ is)
  -Because he loves me dearly I am in is watchful care (boy with hears all around and faint trace of Christ)
  -So I'll be the kind of person I know I'd like to be (reverent child with hearts and nice words ie kind, loving, righteous, Christ-like, surrounding the child
 -If I could see the Savior standing neigh watching over me (same panel as with the other two verses, nothing changed)

That's the plan. I hope something inspires you from what I'm doing.

Christmas Puzzles (possible Singing Time)

When I was asked to sub the other Sunday I had an idea and thought it would be fun to make the Christmas songs into brain teasers. I didn't have it ready and I did find some on the internet

http://jokelibrary.net/xOtherAtoM/b_to_e/c4-puzzle/puzzles.html

But they weren't in a format ready for Primary. So I did something else with the children.
But it was still on my mind. I played on my photoshop and came up with the following.
Yes some are almost exactly from the above website. However many are not and there are a number of primary songs. Can you figure them out?

Even if you're not a Primary teach I hope you can enjoy these.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10

11.

12.

13

14.

15.

1. Angels We have Heard on High

2. Away in a Manger

3. Christmas Bells

4. Far Far Away

5. The First Noel

6. Joy to the World

7. Oh Little Town of Bethlehem

8. Oh Come All Ye Faithful

9. Once Within a Lowly Stable

10. Picture a Christmas

11. Samuel Tells of Baby Jesus

12. Shepherd's Carol

13. Silent Night

14. Stars Where Gleaming

15. When Joseph Went to Bethlehem

If you're going to use them in Primary, you don't have to use all of them. Just use which ones you want. I also thought they might be fun to put on a wall for a ward party and let people guess.

Download each one by Saving the image onto your computer 

OR

click

HERE TO DOWNLOAD AS A ZIP

for all the pictures at once.

IF anyone has issues with the zip file PLEASE let me know
This is the first time I've done a zip for others to download.