Singing Time without Voices

Being pregnant has the consequence for me of loosing my voice. It happened last time for about 3 weeks. And I have spent the last few weeks doing everything I could to keep myself from loosing my voice. But on Sunday it was gone and I had no idea where to find it. I thought of getting a sub since there was no way possible I could sing, let alone teach the song I needed to. But inspiration came and I had a whole lesson without my voice or the children's voices.
I started by reading (using the microphone and the children were actually listening very well).
D&C 25:12
Then compared praying to singing.
Where are we commanded to pray? 
What are the different ways we pray?
Do we pray without saying words out loud?
Is it possible to sing without saying words?
Then we talked about ways we could sing without singing out loud.
Here are the ways we came up with, and with the ones I note we used that song to express that song:

• humming: we hummed to "I Will Follow God's Plan" with the piano
• whistle
• clap
• listen, sing in your mind: we sat and listened quietly. I told the children that they show that they are listening and thinking about the words by showing me what the song is about. We listened to "Reverently Quietly" I don't think I had ever seen them so reverent.
• Play or listen to an instrument play: wanted to do something with this one, but I was putting it together at last minute. Idea have an instrument for the children to play along with a primary song, or arrange for someone from the ward to come in and play their instrument for the children.
• ASL: we have learned ASL to do along with a number of our songs we did a few of them, "Come Follow Me", "Follow the Prophet", and "Jesus Said Love Everyone".
• Actions: Songs like "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes" and "Popcorn Popping" are not ASL but anyone who sees what you are doing know what you are with out hearing the words sung.

It all went so well. I don't know if it was the children felt sorry for me, having no voice, or if they were really understanding that singing doesn't always have to include your voice. I concluded by reminding the children of the lesson we did about "Music Soothing the Soul", and how there will be times in their life when they will want the comfort that music can give them but will not feel they can sing out loud at that moment. I then testified of the power music can have in their lives they have use that power either with their voices or without.

Teaching: Stand for the Right CSB 159

Stand for the right CSB 159
This is a short and easy song. It will be a nice change from what we've done so far.
To start I am going to talk to the children about President Hinckely's 6 B's. (be grateful, be smart, be clean, be true, be humble). I know that this song was written because another prophet asked use to "Be true". But I think the children will relate better to President Hinckely since most can remember him. Its not like the other prophet (I'm sorry I can't remember and a google search brought up Hinckely) was the first to give the council to "be true" nor will Hinckely be the last.
I got this idea from Tifany and her Precious Primary blog post on The Army of Heleman
When I first saw the post I automatically thought that it was for this song, then I read it and realized it wasn't but still thought that using shields for the visuals for this song would be a great idea.
I had also come up with a simple ASL that I'm considering using with the JR Primary. My camera that had the video capability is dead, I dropped it. So I don't have the ASL for this or for the chorus of "If I Listen with my Heart" but as soon as I can get a camera that records I will post both.
Now Tifany used poster board for her shields. I used black construction paper. 2 papers for each shield. I also didn't put straps on the back of mine. You can do them in any color. After I did it I thought that maybe for this song, green like the CTR rings would have been a better choice. Oh well. The duck tape is a cool touch but it took a ton of time. If you don't have duck take or the time, just take a marker and edge it, that's just as good and will still look good. I used pictures from the FRIEND, either downloaded off the church site (coloring pages are great) or cut out of the FRIEND (I went to DI and bought a stack of old FRIENDS).

Really simple visual, for a simple song. Good Luck everyone.