Pick-Up-Sticks

I found these wood Pick-Up Sticks at Target over a year ago. I've been trying to decide HOW to use them during a singing time. Although I am not entirely thrilled with my concept- in all this time I haven't thought of anything else. Anyone out there- What would you do for a Singing Time with Pick-Up Sticks?

Here is what I am planing on doing tomorrow with SR primary. (I don't plan on doing with with JR primary because there are way too many sunbeams who do not have the coordination to play Pick-Up Sticks.) I might later do it with JR primary and just have them draw the sticks blindly, instead of actually playing pick-up sticks with them.

I took out the green and the black, only leaving the pick, orange (looks like yellow), and blue sticks. Various boxes come with different colors but they should all contain the same number of sticks (10 of each except black there is only one). That way there are 30 sticks that we are playing with, after all there is noway we are going to go through 30 songs.

• Pink- They get to pick a song to sing of their choice
• Yellow- Draw a song from the song jar, since there are 30 yellow sticks we need 30 songs slips in the song jar, I plan on putting multiples of "I Know That My Savior Loves Me", since that is the song we need to practice singing right now.
• Blue- There will be a second jar to draw from, this is a mystery jar. They won't know what they are getting. It could be any of the following: a gospel trivia question, a name that tune, a pianist's choice, their teacher's choice, Primary President's choice (or Presidency's choice), they get to choose another child to pick their favorite song, anything can go here think about your primary and see what you come up with.

As state previously, I am going to have the SR primary actually play Pick-Up Sticks. For any of you out there that haven't played or don't remember how to play here is a brief description: First you will place the sticks on the table (I know for the kids in the back it will be really hard to see, but that is the nature of the sticks), a child will come forward, they get to choose a stick and try to pick it up without making any of the other sticks move. If a stick moves then they have to put the stick back and return to their seat. If the successfully pull the stick out of the pile, then they get to do whatever the color they pulled out allows.

This could be done with the Jenga/Tumbling Tower blocks (or a wannabe). Instead of the color code you could just have a mystery jar, and if the child pulls it out successfully then they would get to draw from the jar. I'm sure there are lots of other games out there that could use this concept ( a basketball hoop, ring toss, Operation). So we'll see how well SR primary does this activity tomorrow.

The SR primary got really into playing this game. But I was (and I think the children were too) surprised just how hard it actually was. In some ways this made them get more into it because it was even more of a challenge, but it also made it a little less reverent. We then ended up singing less songs than normal because it took about 4 children to come forward before one of them successfully pulled out a stick. If I was to do this again I would put the sticks down with more outlying and easier to pull off.

Check Out My Artical on Another Blog

I submitted a person story to The Cloth Diaper Whisper, and they published it. Check out my story, "He Was the One..."

Simply Memzelle

These are so darling. They make me wish I had a little girl to put them on.They do have adult sizes I could ware too. My sister and her sister-in-law started this business. I think the name they chose is too cute too, Simply Memzelle. Memzelle means 'fashionable young girl'.

To get some publicity they are having a raffle to WIN A FREE headband of your choice-- TO ENTER- to to their website and store, take a look around. Then leave a comment of which headband is your favorite. Entries close Feburary 28th. Their website is simplymemzelle.com

Don't forget to become a fan of Simply Memzelle on Facebook

Cloth Diapers and Baby Legs

We've been doing cloth diapers since Baby Al was born. I was amazed at the selection of types of cloth diapers out there. I have also been amazed at how little care they take compared to what I thought they would be. Once you get into all the types of cloth diapers it can be very addictive.

We've recently started using Baby Legs. They are baby leg warmers. Just too cute. They keep his little legs warm while still giving you easy access to change their diapers.

Focused Activity: I Know That My Savior Loves Me

Sorry I didn't post this sooner, it only came to me until last night. I used the labels from this Primary Singing Ideas blog. I liked the idea, but I wasn't sure I wanted to do it with this song. Then the idea came of using the tags to put the lines in order. I made up some numbers. Then taped them to a large piece of cardboard. I placed tacks on the cardboard on each number. I cut out the tags and tied ribbon (cheap ribbon that is used to wrap presents).How will we do it?First, we will review the song. Sing it through a few times. Second, a child will choose one of the tags. If the child doesn't know right away we will sing the song through. I will hold my fingers up as we sing, numbering as we go. When we are done singing

I will ask the children what number was the line we just sang. Then we will place the tag, hanging it on the tack of the number it belongs to. Repeat until all the tags are on the board with their number.

Today (24 Jan), I plan on doing this with the SR primary. With JR primary we are going to work on the melody, reviewing the 1st verse, and learn the 2nd verse.

2nd & 3rd Weeks of Weight Watchers.

Week 2-

As I wrote before I made the goal to eat as many of my points everyday, without going over. I know there is no requirement that I eat all my points everyday. However, I made this goal for two reasons 1- I noticed my milk levels decrease on days when I did not eat at least 3/4 of my daily points 2- It was suggested that I gained weight because I was not eating all my points. I achieved this goal. In fact, once you get eating its hard to stop yourself from going over your points. But maybe it helped. I lost the pound that I gained the first week.

Week 3-

I was very lucky while I was expecting. Already being over weight, I had worried about gaining excess weight. I gained mostly only what I needed, and was basically "pre-baby" weight. Although there was this 5 lbs I fluxuated to the "pre-baby" weight and back up, over the past few months. I couldn't seem to get my weight to go back below that "pre-baby" weight. On top of that none of my pre-baby cloths fit me. For week 3 I lost 3 lbs, finally making my weight go just below that "pre-baby" mark for the first time. Still don't fit into any of my cloths, but seeing that weight again makes me feel like I've made progress. Since I've NEVER had success on any weight program I've been on-this makes me smile.

Rain Drops Falling on My Head

Rain Rain you came today (and yesterday and the day before that and the day before that). I normally love it when you come, but not this week. I know we need you Rain, but my roof is no leaking, oh rain rain what am I to do with you.

The house had some water damage when we purchased the house, the bank fixed the ceiling prior to us getting the keys, and the house inspector said that the roof had had some problems, but that they had been repaired. Grrrr

Grandma

We live only a few miles from my in-laws. I am so grateful we live so close to them (family and living close to them is important to me), and that they get to spend time with Baby Al (and I'm not just talking about babysitting). But my parents live up in Mesa. We only get to see them once a month or so. My mom is always talking about how she never gets to spend time with her grandbaby. So every time we go up to Mesa I try to make sure she gets her Grandma time.

'Welcome to Primary' Singing Time

As I mentioned in a previous post, we have a lot of Sunbeams. These little Sunbeams have been singing with me over the past few months in nursery. Although they have been doing wonderful and trying so hard for me, they seem a little lost. We haven't been singing the songs we use to sing. To make them feel more comfortable, we are going to have a fun day where we are going to sing all the songs we use to sing in nursery. This is also a great activity for my sub to do while I am out of town this coming Sunday. The songs I've chosen are: 'I Am A Child of God', 'Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam', 'Popcorn Popping', 'I Love to See the Temple', 'My Hands', 'Quickly I'll Obey', 'Once There Was A Snowman', 'In the Leafy Tree Tops', 'Do As I'm Doing', 'Follow the Prophet', 'Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes'. These are all songs we sang in nursery. I might of considered doing a couple of the secular songs if I had sheet music for the pianist. I wrote the songs on the back of my "Sunbeam" Suns.