Idea: I have found a great way to have the children enjoy reviewing and
learning a song. I call it "Musical Measles." Ahead of time find some red circle
stickers (usually with the stationary) and cut them out so there are 3-4 on each
sheet. At the beginning of singing time, pick a leader or teacher to be the
person that is "infected." While singing, pass out the dots to the children who
are doing their best and singing the loudest. At the end of the song, those who
have received dots get to come up to the front and put their "measles" on the
adult. The kids (and adults) find this game very fun.
Idea: To get the kids to
sing louder we came up with a pulley that had a balloon tied to a rope on it and
as the kids sang louder the balloon got higher until it got to a needle that
popped it.
Idea: For our "Follow the
Prophet" theme, we are singing "Latter-day Prophets." Afterwards, the teachers
talk about their favorite latter-day prophet. Later we sing "Follow the
Prophet" listing all of the different prophets in the past, then we will have a
few of the older children talk about their favorite prophet story in the
scriptures. -- Dawnean
Idea: Play "name that tune"
during primary singing time. The children love it and it helps reinforce the
songs they've practiced. (Pam from Norcross, Georgia)
Idea: Teaching the Song:
"When Jesus Christ was Baptized" -- For fun this week I told the kids I had just
got a job as a reporter for a television station. I had a play phone there and
pretended to receive my first assignment. I was to interview someone and do a
story on their baptism. A child volunteered to come up and with a microphone I
asked her these questions:
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Where were you baptized?
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Who came to your baptism?
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What was the mood of those present (angry or loving)?
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Who spoke at your baptism?
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Anything special to add?
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Then I pretended to get another call and was told to
sing my report.
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I had the pianist start playing
CS 102 as I sang
"When
Bethany was baptized in a font in Marietta, Her family and her friends were
present there in love. Her father spoke to others when Bethany was baptized, and
then they had refreshments and everyone went home". Another pretend phone
call and I received another job, a promotion, to cover a bigger event, the story
of Christ's baptism. Since this was such a big event my boss wanted all the
children to join in the singing. We used the same questions to insert the
correct information from the song and they quickly learned that first verse and
stood up and sang it to our pretend television camera. It was fun and the kids
learned the song quickly. by Dana Hardy
Idea: My favorite Primary
chorister used two techniques that helped the words of the song that we were
learning that day to stay with me! For a lengthy song she used a picture that
she had drawn that depicted the contents of the entire phrase. Some were more
detailed than others, but I could always visualize the picture which then helped
me remember the words. The song that only had four phrases was easily remembered
as she assigned one phrase to each class. When the song was sung each class only
sang their assigned phrase! You might think the children would only remember
their own line, but competition is great and they want to make sure everyone
remembers their own line correctly! The next week she would rotate the phrases
to ensure each class in fact knew the entire song!
Idea: For the song "I Like
My Birthdays" the Primary President and I are going to get some helium balloons
blown up with a song in each one, one being "I Like My Birthdays". Then the kids
will pop them and sing the song. We are also doing a birthday cake with the #8
on it for them and talk about baptism.
Idea: In addition to
learning our songs for the primary program last year, we learned a different
article of faith song each month. Now our primary children know all the articles
of faith. The music makes it so much easier to remember the words. -- Becky
Woolf
Idea: I made a simple chart
that had ff, f, mf, mp, p, and pp written on it, with ff at the top and pp at
the bottom. After explaining what each term means, I used a dowel to point to
the dynamics that I wanted them to sing. The children picked up on this very
quickly and we were able to try different dynamics on some of the songs we were
learning. -- Becky Woolf
Idea: I spray painted some
simple wooden dowels gold and glued some gold glitter on the ends. Each child
got to use one as I taught the children to beat 3/4 and 4/4 time. Even the
junior primary enjoyed doing this. -- Becky Woolf
Idea: Once I was asked at the last minute to lead the music for singing time. I
didn't have visual aids or anything else prepared, so I improvised. I went into
the kitchen and got several different kinds of kitchen utensils to use as rhythm
instruments (nothing sharp or dangerous). I brought them into the primary room,
and each child got to choose his or her own "instrument". The kids loved it and
we had a great time beating out the rhythms as we sang some of the children's
favorite songs. -- Becky Woolf
Idea: I often talk to the
children about different levels of singing. I got this idea from an old Ensign
article called, "Singing Hymns With New Power". (I don't remember the date, it
was around 1975 or '76)
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Level One: Sing the words and music correctly.
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Level Two: Think about the meaning of the words. It's
surprising how often we sing familiar songs rather mindlessly, just thinking
about the words changes everything!
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Level Three: Bear your testimony as you sing. Put
your whole heart into it! The Lord delights in the "song of the heart".
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Level Four: If our hearts are right, the Holy Ghost
will testify that what we are singing about is true.
When
adults and children apply these principles, it brings a beautiful spirit into
our singing time! Becky Woolf, Globe Arizona
Idea: For singing time, I used a
large helium-filled Mylar balloon. I attached two extra long pieces of string to
it (the height of our children's meeting room) with a weight on the end of one
string. The other string was wound onto an empty cardboard roll. I used this to
motivate the children to sing their best. As the children sang in their best
voices, I unwound the string to make the balloon rise. They were all excited and
tried very hard to make the balloon go all the way up to the ceiling. --
Becky Woolf
Idea(s) from Wendy Pray:
1) I used to have a boat (Lehi's) that traveled from Jerusalem to the Promised
Land.
2) Also, I crouch down on the floor as small as possible and have the kids
sing to make me taller. I grow up to tippie toes standing on the top of a
chair.
3) I have a sun that rises out of the clouds (I made the cloud out of cotton
balls glued to a piece of poster board.)
4) I have a puppet thing I call Bashful Billy. I'll try to describe it: I
used an old Salt container & cut the ends off so it's just a large tube. Then
I put a sock on one end with a Styrofoam ball in it & stuck a dowel in the
ball so I can raise & lower the sock in and out of the tube. Then I decorated
the sock around the ball to look like a little boy head (with a little
baseball cap, yarn hair, googly eyes & a drew on a nose and a mouth.) Bashful
Billy is VERY shy, but if children sing really well, he knows they're
friendly & feels safe enough to come out -- a little. You can really ham it up
with him peeking out of the top of the container and looking around. Then he
can even sway back & forth if the children are singing really well. (Sorry for
such a pathetic description.)
5) This one has to be used judiciously, but it's the funnest! I have two
teachers come up & I give one a roll of toilet paper. Then, they start to wrap
the TP around the other teacher. The better the kids sing, the faster the
teacher w/ the TP runs around the other one. If you have the right teachers,
this is a HUGE HIT, but you'd better have something good to wind down with
when you're done.
