Have a little St. Patrick's day garland over the board.
Show a four leaf clover.--stands for "LUCK!" Talk about how some people
think that it is all “luck” to be happy…we know that it is because of our
knowledge of Heavenly Father and Jesus that we are so happy. Have four
leaves of a four leaf clover— Each leaf of the clover has a song on the back.
Let a child pick a leaf. Sing the song well and we will put the leaf up on
the St. Patty board—if we get all four up there, we can open the “pot” and see
if there is any “gold”
inside!!
Leaf #1—Follow Him in Faith (both verses—older group)
Leaf #2—Beautiful Savior #62-learning for EAster
Leaf #3—This is my Beloved Son
Leaf #4—Listen, Listen—round (bells in older group) #107
Stem (if time)—Your teacher’s favorite song
I have a plastic pot (I use it as a witches caldron at Halloween) but with a
green ribbon around the top, it looks festive. Inside, I have little handouts
that say, "We are so LUCKY to sing together each week!" I have attached a "ROLO"
candy (wrapped in gold paper) to each handout.
(Idea by Erika Soelberg)
I have a green pinwheel. I have taped numbers onto all the
corners of the pinwheel. I will let them blow the pinwheel to pick the number.
When the pinwheel stops whichever number is pointing to the stick will be the
song we will sing. Then to get them to sing loudly...I have this funny St.
Patrick's day hat. The class that sings the best gets to have their teacher wear
the hat. (Idea by Kaye
Rizzuto /
ga03112007)
(by Luana Willis)
This is what I did last year for St. Patrick's Day. I found
different ways to use the word "pinch", and on green pieces paper I wrote on one
side the pinch, and on the back what it means and a song to go with it. I would
read the card and have the children guess what it meant, then we would sing the
song.
A PINCH OF THIS AND A PINCH OF THAT (A little
of this and a little of that.)
Pinch yourself all over while singing "Do As I'm Doing", p.
276
PINCH ME, I MUST BE DREAMING (Something is so
good you can't believe it.)
What do you need to sleep? (Quiet, warm, nice, a lullaby.)
Sway and go slow singing like a lullaby "The Chapel Doors",
p. 156
At the end everyone pretend to have fallen asleep.
IN A PINCH (In a great difficulty, in a tight
spot.)
We can all help people out when they are in a pinch.
Sing "When We're Helping", p. 198.
JACK-AT-A-PINCH (Someone who lends a hand in
an emergency.)
There are lots of people who do this. Missionaries help
people by doing service when they are on a mission.
Sing "I Hope They Call Me On a Mission", p. 169.
A PINCH OF SALT (As much as will fit between
your thumb and one finger.)
Sing "I Wiggle", 271.
PINCH POINTS (Dangerous places.)
For example: An alligators mouth with your hand or with
others who are making big mistakes.
Sing "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus", p. 78.
DON'T "PINCH" IT (Don't steal.)
Do the right thing. Do what Heavenly Father wants you to
do, if you are tempted listen to the Holy Ghost. Sing "I Know My Father Lives".
Buy some of those chocolate gold coins and tape a number to
each one (each coin represents a song...so buy enough coins for however many
songs you want to review). Before the children arrive, make some silly
changes in the room like putting a few things out of place, hiding things,
leaving your gold coins, etc. Leave green (paper) footprints here and there.
Blame it on the leprechaun when they come in. A child is chosen to find
the first coin. The number on the coin represents a song you have chosen
to review. Continue until all coins have been found. (Credit Unknown)
Here are my ideas for St. Patrick's Day. I am
going to focus on promises through our prophets – mainly Noah and the promise
with the rainbow. My songs will focus on rainbows, rain, and gold. I will put
shamrocks around the room. I am going to start by talking about promises and tell them that I will be
looking for some super singers to help me with a little bit of magic at the
end of singing time.
I have created a large "Holy Scriptures" box. Basically I took a large
priority box from the post office and cut the top to it opens like a book. I
then took black poster board and cut it to fit around the box like a book
cover. I cut out gold letters that spelled out "Holy Scriptures" and glued
those onto the black cover. I then laminated the poster board cover and put it
around the box. I put white paper around the box where pages would be in a
book and used markers to create the illusion of pages. Now when I hold it up
it looks like a book and I can put things or pictures inside and then
take them out. My kids love this and I use it all the time for different
things.
Inside my "Holy Scriptures" I will place large plastic zip-lock bags with
pictures inside. Each picture will represent a song or portion of a song we
will be singing and will have paper streamers in a different color. (one will
have red, one will have blue, etc – colors of the rainbow). I am using
the zip-lock bags to keep the streamers from becoming tangled or ruined.
As each picture is brought out we will discuss the picture and then sing the
song associated with it. We will be learning the Noah verse of Follow the
Prophet that day so several pictures will represent Noah.
These are the songs I am planning to use:
The Wise Man and the Foolish CS 281
Search, Ponder, and Pray CS 109
When I am Baptized CS 103
Follow the Prophet CS 110
At the very end I will talk about God's promise to the world that he would
never cover it in water again and he created the rainbow to remind us of that
promise. As I am talking about the promise, I will rearrange the pictures on
the board so the color of the streamers creates a rainbow. Then I am
going to create some "Magic" and produce a rainbow in the room. To do this I
will invite my super singers to help me. I will have the first helper place a
CD in a small Rubbermaid bin. The second helper will pour water over the top
of the CD until it is covered by about a half inch of water. The third helper
will then be invited to turn off the lights, and the fourth helper will be
invited to shine a flashlight on the CD. This will create a rainbow on the
ceiling. I will then turn the flashlight onto a picture of Christ. I will then
reverently bare my testimony about prophets and their promises to us and then
tell them that our pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is really eternal
life with Jesus. (Idea by Kim Roylance)
Another fun thing might be to hide the songs on the back
of "gold" (gold cardstock/poster board or plastic gold coins or geld (choc.
gold.) Tell the kids that mischievous leprechauns hid your gold all over the
room and let them find it. One story our family found is that
leprechauns don't like to share their gold. If you leave a special container
in the moonlight the night before, then they are obligated. However, they have
the right to hide your container anywhere they like. If you find it with the
gold on St. Patrick's Day, then it is yours to keep. But if not, they can take
it back. (This type of lore might motivate them to sing well & to find every
song.) If you REALLY wanted to go all out, you could produce a
small pot of gold (geld, plastic gold coins, or gold stickers) to hand out at
the end. I usually don't do that much for this holiday unless it falls
on Sunday, except for use 4 leaf clovers & clover stickers in the Nursery.
Sometimes, I'll also use the stickers in Primary, and talk all day about how
"lucky" we are to be here, to have beautiful singing voices, etc.
(Credit Unknown)
I'm thinking you could talk about how a 4 leaf
clover is supposed to bring luck, but then explain how we don't need "luck"
because we have been so blessed by our Heavenly Father. So how about having
a basket full of clovers. Some have songs written on the back, others say
"share a blessing". Pass the basket around let each child grab a
clover. Then go down the row one by one and see what each child has on
their clover. If it is a song sing it, if not have the child share a
blessing with everyone. For Seniors you could have a scripture reference
for them to look up about or maybe a specific story like "how was Noah's
family blessed when they obeyed the Lord?" or "how have we been
blessed because of Nephi's willingness to get the plates when the lord
commanded him to?" (Idea by Cindee)
What I did last year was very easy and took little
time to prepare. I went to my local craft store and bought and assortment of
sizes of Shamrocks. Then on the backs I put the first line of the
song. I made sure that the first line of the song wasn't actually the song
title so it made it a little more challenging and they had to guess the
correct song title. So for example I used "Heavenly Father, are you
really there" and they had to guess "A child's prayer". Something quick
and easy that doesn't detract from the spirit and also incorporates the
holiday. (Idea by B. Walbeck)
Get a pot (you could use a Dutch oven) and put saw
dust (or sand) in it. Paint some rocks gold and put numbers on
them. Hide the rocks in the pot. First talk about a shamrock and how it
has three leaves. Tell them that anytime they see a shamrock it could
remind them of 3 important people we believe in. Of course this is Heavenly
Father, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost. Have them sing the 1st Article of Faith.
Look for a good singer to come up and find the first rock. Talk to the
children about our prophets being "golden" like the rocks they would find in
the pot. Talk about prophets and how important they are. The numbers on the
rocks corresponded to a Follow the Prophet or Book of Mormon verse. The extra
verses of Book of Mormon stories talk about a lot of great prophets and could
be another fun song to work on. (Idea by Nicole)
