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.)