big eyes and ears

The class who is watching me really good gets to put the big glasses on their teacher. The class who is listening and singing really well gets to put the big ears on their teacher. You can trade these around while teaching the song when you notice that another class is doing great. Help all children/classes to feel rewarded!

*I found these items at the dollar store.

"My Eternal Family" (week 2)

REMEMBER HATS: Sing the first 4 lines of “My Eternal Family that they learned last week and see how well they learned it. The class who seems to have learned it the very best and sang really well their teacher gets to wear a hat out of the suitcase.

STRONG STRING/STRONG FAMILY: Using a string with lots of smaller strands, have a child try to break a single strand. Then have the child try to break the string with all of the strands together. When are family is all working together, we can all be strong and cannot be broken. Talk about how each strand could represent “kindness”, “speaking kind words”, “serving one another”

BIG GLASSES & BIG EARS & THE REST OF THE SONG: Learn the remainder of the song by using the flipchart. The class who is watching me really good gets to put the big glasses on their teacher. The class who is listening and singing really well gets to put the big ears on their teacher. You can trade these around while teaching the song when you notice that another class is doing great. Help all children/classes to feel rewarded!

HOT & COLD WITH BLOCK OF HOUSE: Using the house made of large wooden blocks that have pictures on the front, have a child choose a block and play hot and cold hiding the block somewhere in the room.

JENGA: Play jenga with 2 children and talk about how when we build our family if we take things away then our family isn’t as strong and can fall. Sing the song over and over until the building of wooden jenga blocks falls down. Then build it again and choose two more children to play.

"My Eternal Family" (week 1)

Focus Song: “My Eternal Family”
Using a house made of large wooden blocks that have pictures on the front build a house that shows how we build our eternal family.

Wear a construction hat and tool belt with a few tools and have another construction hat for the child who is your helper. Explain that today you are going to build something that doesn’t require a hammer and nails but requires other kinds of tools.

Listen as I sing the first line of our new song and see if you can discover what we are building. SING FIRST LINE “I am a builder working each day to build my family.”
Call on a helper to choose the picture block that shows an eternal family(the family in white clothes).
SING THE FIRST LINE TOGETHER.

Listen as I sing the second line and see if you can discover what we can do in our family to build our eternal family. SING THE SECOND LINE “And I will do the best I can to serve then lovingly”
Choose another helper(s) to choose a couple of blocks that show how we serve lovingly.

Listen as I sing the third line and see if you can discover how we are kind and how we help at work and play in our family to build our eternal family. SING THE THIRD LINE “I am a builder growing so tall and learning everyday”
Choose another helper(s) to choose a couple of blocks that show how we are kind and helpful.

Listen as I sing the fourth line and see if you can discover how we are kind and how we help at work and play in our family to build our eternal family. SING THE FOURTH LINE “To speak with kindness in my home, to help at work and play”.
Choose another helper(s) to choose a couple of blocks that show how we are growing and learning.

Listen as I sing the fifth line and see if you can discover who sent us here to build our eternal family. SING THE FIFTH LINE “My Heavenly Father sent me here and He knows I can be”.
Choose another helper(s) to choose a couple of blocks that show how we are building our eternal family(any of the blocks that are left).

Listen as I sing the last line and see if you can discover the two words that tell how we act when we are building our eternal family. SING THE LAST LINE “Strong and righteous as I build my eternal family.”
Choose another helper(s) to choose a couple of blocks that show how we are growing and learning.

goal: to build the house that show the things eternal families do.

• If you need to take a break from “learning” the song and play jenga. Sing the song through over and over until the building of wooden jenga blocks falls down.

coloring sheet for "My Eternal Family"

This is the little coloring sheet that I've made up to give to the Junior Primary on Sunday. If the teachers want to, they can talk about it in class and have the children color them. Then the children take them home and (cross your fingers) hopefully the parents will read it and discuss it with their children. Maybe they will even download and listen to the song that I sent to all of them in email.(I'm sending out a link at the beginning of the month with the song for that month)

mini flipcharts...

After getting some feedback from the teachers and thinking they might actually use these in the classroom, I made mini flipcharts for each class. I just made miniature copies of the charts I'm using for the song of the month.

I've gotten some good response so far so I'm hopeful that they are going to use them and it will further reinforce the songs for the children.

Along with the charts, I gave each teacher a short "letter" with some ideas of how to use the chart and in bold letters and highlighted I asked the teachers to NOT let the children have these during singing and sharing time. I also made a CD of all the songs so they could use that with it if they wanted to.

song round-up...

I was in need of an idea for Sunday to review a song when I sat down with my kiddos to watch "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" and they were doing a Number Round-Up. Ah-ha! I'll do a "Song Round-Up". Then later I went to Target and just happen to find these little horses(you press a button and it neighs) and barns in the Dollar Spot. Perfect! There are lots of kids in our primary that are bonkers for horses...including one of my daughters. This should get there attention.

{Another thought....before I found the little horses and barns and Target I was thinking I would just do clipart of horses, laminate them, magnets on the back, make a big barn and do all of this on the chalkboard.}

A horse is sitting in front of each barn and there is a sign above the barn with a phrase of the song. We'll talk for just a second about how when you ride a horse they LOVE to get back to the barn, the horse will take off if you're not careful just trying to get back. So we want to help each horse get back in the barn by showing that we know all the words to the phrase.

I'm going to have one of the teachers be the Cowboy/girl(depending on the teacher obviously). We'll start by singing the song all the way through(one verse at a time though). After we are done singing, the cowboy/girl will push the button for the horses that get to go back in the barn and put them in their barns.

Then we will start going over the other phrases one at a time. When they cowboy/girl is satisfied that we know all the words, he will push the horses neighing button and put them in the barn.

The goal: Know all the words and let all the horses go back to their barns!!

I'm also planning on using this later in other ways.

For example,
Above each barn I'm going to put things like, "clear words", "blended sound", "everyone singing", etc. to help review more of the songs as it gets closer to the program.

How Firm A Foundation vs. 2

Sing (“The Wise Man and The Foolish Man” (281)
This song says that the wise man built his house upon the rock. What does that mean? Who is our rock and our foundation in our life?(show picture of Christ)
Who remembers the name of the new song we learned last week that also has?
Sing the first verse of How Firm A Foundation (hymn 85) covering up the words
which ever class seems to have remembered it the best, their teacher gets to wear a hat our of the suit case.

The next verse that we are going to learn is a little different than the first. The words sung are as if Christ is speaking TO YOU. (Turn off the lights) Close your eyes and imagine the words that I am going to sing to you. Imagine Christ being with you. Imagine him standing next to you. Imagine what he looks like, how he might put his arm around you.
Sing the third verse alone and let the children listen and imagine.

Have the four pages of the flipcharts taped to big hearts around the room. Number them 1-4. Senior primary children get to take the hearts and go put them on the bishops door.
Ask a child to go get heart #1. Show them the picture.
The first phrase says, “Fear not I am with thee”. In the scriptures it says the phrase “fear not” 97 times. The Lord does not want us to fear. He wants us to be courageous.
What does “dismayed” mean? confused. “oh be NOT dismayed”
Sing the first phrase all together.

Ask a child to go get heart #2. Show them the picture.
Jesus wants to help us out in our lives. Think about the picture you imagined in your head when I sang this song. Can you imagine Christ being there to help you.
“For I Am Thy God and will still give thee aid”
Add the second phrase all together.

Ask a child to go get heart #3. Show them the picture.
Briefly tell the story of Jairus daughter. Christ raised her to her feet and caused her to stand when everyone thought she was dead.
“I’ll strengthen thee, help thee and cause thee to stand.”
Add the third phrase all together.

Ask a child to go get heart #4. Show them the picture.
Again in this verse we repeat a very important phrase 3 times.
“Upheld by my righteous”
Omnipotent hand
What does Omnipotent mean? All powerful.
Add the fourth phrase all together.
Use the rhythm blocks to sing the song again. Choosing those children who have been very reverent.
Meter the song with Billy who likes to blow up balloons. (use a heart balloon for valentines day.)

How Firm A Foundation vs. 1

Sing (“The Wise Man and The Foolish Man” (281) while using the visuals of the houses, wise man, foolish man, sand and rocks in the pie tins. The houses are attached to paint sticks and they are in the sand or the rocks in the pie tins. When you sing "the rain came down...." begin pouring the water onto the rocks or the sand. The sand will wash away and make the house fall. (THE KIDS LOVE THIS)

Why did the house built on the rock stand firm when the floods came?

Why did the house built on the sand fall when the floods came?

Read Helaman 5:12 "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

Who should be the foundation in our lives? Christ (picture of Christ)

Sing the first phrase, “how firm a foundation ye saints of the Lord”

We are going to learn a song about building our foundation on Christ our Lord.

Share picture from wedding of you and Todd standing on the rock and the lesson that was taught and scripture that was read about us building our lives and marriage on Christ. So that has always been a favorite scripture and lesson.

Using the bricks, answer the questions attached to them and have them start to build a very small square out of the bricks. Answer the questions in order of the song and sing each phrase as you go.

1. What is a firm foundation? (a strong and immovable base that something can be built on)
2. Where do you lay the foundation? (on the bottom)
3. Sing the 1^st line.
4. Where do we find his excellent word? (scriptures, prophets)
5. How do we show faith in His excellent word? (by reading the scriptures, obeying the prophet)
6. Sing the 2^nd line.
7. How do we talk with our Heavenly Father? (prayer)
8. Listen while I sing the last two lines. How many times do we sing “Savior”?
9. What is a refuge? (a place you go for safety)
10. Who does the song say we go to for refuge?

After you have sang the song several times through, have someone come up and try to stand on the foundation (make sure it is built safely :) maybe just two layers or something like that). Bear your testimony of how the Savior is our sure foundation!"

Use the sand blocks to sing the song again.

milly the church mouse....

How cute is this little mouse. I found him in the clearance bin at Pottery Barn Kids and couldn't pass her up for being our church mouse in singing time. I'm sure some very talented seamstresses could sew one of these pretty easy. But it was worth $4.00 to me. :)

Here are a couple of ideas that I'm going to use her for...
1. Hot and Cold game... Choose a child to go out of the room. Hide the mouse. When the child comes back in, begin singing whatever song you are doing. As the child moves closer to finding Milly, sing louder and softer as the child moves further away from Milly. This game never gets old with children and is a great way to continue to review a song.

2. Introduce the {Junior primary}children to Milly and tell them that Milly really likes to come and listen to the children sing during primary. Milly really likes to hear the sweet sound of music but doesn't like it when the children become loud and irreverent. Milly will get to go to class with a class that is very reverent during singing time.

snowball...

This is my Arizona snowball for singing time. It's a mesh sponge that I picked up in the Dollar spot at target. I'm sure there are lots of fun things you can do with it. I used it last week {I'm going to use it again this Sunday} to help call on children who are being reverent to either participate, say the next word of a song, or answer a question. Anyway that you use it, it may be best if you are sure to keep the reverence in the primary room by first saying a child's name{someone that is being reverent}, look at them, and then throw the ball to them. Of course, always thank them for being reverent. This helps to make sure you don't have children jumping all over to catch the snowball.

lesson plan, 3rd verse, "I Lived In Heaven"{4}

This is my lesson plan for this Sunday.

Show the children the “Remember Hats” in the suitcase. One of your teachers is going to get to wear one of these hats.

We’ve learned the 1^st and 2nd verses to “I Lived In Heaven”. We are going to sing that right now and see how well you remember it. The class that seems to have remembered it the best will get to choose a hat from the suitcase for their teacher to wear. So if you want your teacher to wear one of these funny hats, sing really great.

Sing 1^st and 2^nd verse.

INTRODUCE SONG:

JUNIOR:

Show the first picture for the first verse: the first verse talks about where we lived before we came to earth.

Show the first picture of the second verse: The second verse tells the plan that Heavenly Father presented.

Show the first picture of the third verse: The third verse tells about Jesus coming to the earth and that one day we will live a wonderful life with Heavenly Father again.

SENIOR:

Assign each class a verse to discuss during their class time(just a few minutes of their leftover time). Have a representative from each class come up and tell what their assigned verse talks about. Go in order…1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd verses.

Post the words to the 3^rd verse on a poster with some words missing. Do the Volcanoes activity(at the bottom of this post) to find the words then figure out where they go in the song. Choose reverent children (using the snowball) to come up and put the vinegar in the cups. Get the word from the volcano and have the child write it in on the poster where it goes. They can choose another child to come up and help them if they need help finding where the word belongs.

JUNIOR AND SENIOR:

VOLCANOES, SINGING & QUESTIONS:

Use the volcanoes to find the question for each line. Again, use the snowball to choose reverent children to come up and pour the vinegar in the cup. Put numbers on the questions and the cups so that the questions will go in order of the song. Sing each line after finding the question and answering it.

Sing the first line of the third verse. What does Messiah mean? another word of Jesus.

Sing the second line. What is another word for glorious? wonderful, good…Jesus is wonderful for come to the earth for us.

Sing the third line. This life is wonderful but in that line it says that one day we will have a more wonderful life with someone. When will we live an even better life? after we die(leave this life)

Sing the fourth line. Who is waiting for us in Heaven? Father.

Sing the entire 3^rd verse together.

JUNIOR:

STREAMERS:

This song is very reverent and simple. So lets use our streamers to feel how the song has a nice smooth rhythm.

Post the streamer cards on the chalkboard.

JUNIOR AND SENIOR:

If more time allows, use the water fountain(I'll take a picture and explain this later...I left it at church last week) to meter the song or time the song. OR use the church mouse for the hot and cold game.

If you have more time to sing other songs: (Do the hot and cold game with the little church mouse)

Children All Over The World(16)

The Chapel Doors (156)

WORD VOLCANOES ACTIVITY:

Place 2-3 tbsp of baking soda in a cup. Pour about a cup of vinegar in the cup to create the explosion. Either put the food coloring in the vinegar or with the baking soda. I have found though that the food coloring clumps up in the baking soda and you end up not seeing that much color come out of the volcano. Cut up a Styrofoam plate and write the words{or questions} on the Styrofoam with a permanent marker. The Styrofoam is light enough that it will “explode” out of the cup easily.

teaching the 2nd verse "I Lived In Heaven"

JUNIOR:
Choose two children to come up and put the pictures in order while they listen you sing the words. I’ll keep singing and I’ll give them 1 minute to get the pictures in the right order. If they don’t get the pictures in the right order in 1 minute then we’ll stop and choose two more children to come and put them in the right order while they listen to me sing the song. And so on...

After getting the pictures in the right order explain the pictures and what some of the bigger words mean.

Then have the children sing it with you adding the hand motion clues. This helps them remember the words better. And whenever you can keep their hands doing something it seems to hold their attention more.
“love”- put hands crossed over heart
“give”- hands out forward from heart
“above”-point up
“Jesus” sign for Jesus (touching both palms)
“Father” sign for Father in Heaven (right palm upwards towards Heaven)

{I tried to do things that had to do with snow since it's January. Because we live in Arizona and the children aren't terribly familiar with snow, we talked about how in lots of other places they are getting snow right now and how we just have to pretend.}

Snowball(a white mesh sponge...I picked one up a the Target dollar spot) - Stop the music, look at a child, say their name and throw the snowball to them to give you the next word. If they can’t give the next word have them throw it back to you. Remember to thank the children who are being reverent during this activity.

Singing Meter- Use Skier Steve to meter the song as they sing it one more time.

Sing "Once There Was A Snowman" {249} with the visual.

SENIOR:
Have the teachers read cards that you have prepared with “real lines” and “pretend lines” to the song. Use the snowball to choose children to give the correct answer. Look at a child, say their name and throw the snowball to them. Remember to thank the children who are being reverent during this activity. After playing this game, do all of the other things just like Junior Primary.

"Real lines" and "Pretend Lines" for 2nd verse of "I Lived In Heaven". There are 4 lines in the song. Each line has three options{A, B, C} for the children to choose the correct answer from.
{This idea came from "The Crazy Chorister"}

Line 1:
A. Father said he needed someone who had enough love. {correct answer}
B. Father said he needed someone to say a quick prayer.
C. Brother said someone just say that you'll get me a snack.

Line 2:
A. To go to school so we all could learn long division.
B. To give his life so we all could return there above. {correct answer}
C. To give his life so we all could come to the earth.

Line 3:
A. There was another who wanted to come to the earth.
B. There was another who wanted a cheeseburger for lunch.
C. There was another who sought for the honor divine. {correct answer}

Line 4:
A. Jesus said, "Children send me and the glory be thine".
B. Jesus said, "Father send me and the glory be thine". {correct answer}
C. Sister said "Come ride our bikes and we'll go to the park".

{You can see how this could easily be adapted for any song that you are teaching.}

"once there was a snowman" {249}

This is just a little something fun for "Once There Was A Snowman". You start with just a big snowball. As you sing the song, the snow man gets "tall, tall, tall". Then he gets smaller as you sing "small, small, small". Cut three circles using poster board and white cardstock. Add the buttons, hat, scarf, eyes, carrot nose, and mouth. Laminate everything. Put a wooden paint stick on the back to hold the top two pieces of the snowman together. Then using fishing line and tape attach the top two pieces to the bottom piece.

skier steve...

Here is a "singing meter". The better they sing the more Skier Steve is able to go down the mountain. Steve has a heavy duty magnet on his back. Put him on the poster and then have another magnet behind the poster that helps the child move Steve down the poster.

I'm not an artist but I'm pretty good at drawing somthing that I see drawn. So I bought a cheapo book that I found on sale that is called "100 funny people to draw". It walks you through step by step on how to draw all of these funny people....that's where Steve came from!

remember the song hats...

This little suitcase full of hats is suppose to help the kids show you how much they remember... with enthusiasm.

Just collect lots of different hats and put them all in a suitcase. I had some around the house and then went to goodwill to pick up a couple of extra.

Last week I taught the children the first verse of "I Lived In Heaven". So at the beginning of singing time I pulled out the suitcase and explained that I would watch and see which class sings the best and shows me how well they remember the song we learned last week. They sang with tons of enthusiasm!

Then I picked one class that sang really great and choose two children to come up and each pick a hat because there were two teachers for that class. I gave all of the children a minute to look at the teachers and get a little laugh and then got their attention again and moved on to teaching them the next verse. I told them we would do it again next week so they were even more anxious to learn the new verse so their teacher would get to wear the hat next week.

attention getters...

These are some ideas for getting the children's attention when they are getting restless or irreverent.

“1,2,3 Look at me”

“I see ______ eyes.”

“I see ______ eyes.”

“I see ______ eyes.”

and so on until you have their attention.

If you can hear me…

touch your ears.

touch your nose.

touch your shoulders.

touch you knees.

fold your arms.

Begin to sing an activity song such as “Sing A Song” (253), “Popcorn Popping”, “Roll Your Hands” (274)

Then sing a quiet song such as “Reverently Quietly” or “To Think About Jesus”

being a primary music leader...

I love, love, love being the primary music leader. Although, I must admit, it is kind of hard. It doesn't come totally natural to me. I feel like each week I have to really work and prepare for Sunday. I (try) to completely rely on the Lord for inspiration. Each week I just hope that He guides me. Otherwise, I know it won't work.
Most of all I really like being so immersed in the music everyday. We(my kiddos and I) listen to the primary songs all of the time! Not that we didn't listen to them before but now....it's ALL the time! It brings a wonderful spirit into our home!
When I was asked to serve in this calling, I sat back and thought of what my goals were for this calling. And here is what I hope to do:
1) Teach the songs so that the children internalize them. I want them to be able to recall these songs throughout their lives to be able to help them feel the spirit.
2) There really isn't a number 2. That pretty much sums it up!