Valentines Day

I thought that because it was Valentines Day, we should do a valentines activity. 

But first, I had them sing My Heavenly Father Loves Me, a couple times for practice. 

Then I told them how excited I was for Valentines Day, and that there is someone in our ward who does so much for all of us.  Of course they all guessed the bishop.  I explained that we were going to make a giant valentine for the bishop today.  I passed out construction paper hearts to each child.  I gave them 5 minutes to write on their heart, their favourite primary song, and their name, and then had them each glue their heart to the valentine.  This part was a bit chaotic!  Once all the hearts were glued on, I closed my eyes and pointed to a heart, and we sang the kids favorite songs. 

After singing time, I snuck down to the bishops office, and taped our Valentine to his door.



I got the idea here:  http://primarysingingtimewithmatilda.blogspot.ca/2010/02/valentine-for-bishop.html

Science Experiment Review

Tomorrow for Singing Time, I thought we would do something fun.  The kids know My Heavenly Father Loves Me, pretty good.  So I thought we would review it, I am a Child of God, and When I am Baptised (because they all know that song from last yr.) 

This is what were doing, I got the idea here:  http://primarysingingtimeideas.blogspot.ca/search?q=coloring#

How it works:

1) Fill several clear containers (I used plastic drinking cups) with about 3/4 cup water and 1/3 cup vinegar. (the ratio can be varied, but more vinegar= more fizz= more fun! PLACE CONTAINERS on a BAKING SHEET, as this WILL MAKE A MESS!!!!

2) place one small drop of food coloring on a metal spoon (don't use clear, since you can see the color on the other side), then place a heaping teaspoon of baking soda on top, or enough to make sure the food coloring is covered.



3) Have a child come up and pick a spoon to stir in a cup of "water".   It will fizz like crazy!  Once the fizz has settled down, the color will show up.  I'll make a chart showing what we will do when certain colours are discovered.

 eg. 
Red - Sing I am a Child of God  
Blue - Sing My Heavenly Father Loves Me  
Green - When I am Baptised  
Yellow - Pick a favorite song. 
I might do a couple more colours, so more favorites can be picked. 



I'm sure that the kids will LOVE this fun experiment!!

Word Strip Review

This was our last week of January, which means our last week to review I am a Child of God.  Really, they don't need the review, they all know the song great!  So I thought I'd try and have some fun with them!

What I did was got 4 word strips for each verse.  On each strip I wrote one of the phrases in the verse.  eg. #1. I am a Child of God  #2. And He has sent me here  #3.  Has given me an earthly home  ect.  Then I had kids, one at a time come and choose a strip, and decide where it went in the song - which verse, and in what spot of that verse.  The one trick was that they couldn't get any help.  And if it got put in the wrong spot, it had to stay there. 

Once all the word strips were placed, we sang the song like that- mistakes and all! The seniors thought this was pretty funny to do.  With the seniors, I also put 4 extra word strips in, to really try and trick them.  It was really simple, and fun for the kids.  Once we sang it, we made any corrections, and then sang it the "right" way again. 

Nerf Gun Singing

This year, I made a list of all the songs that the kids know, and what I want them to know.  There are probably 50-60 songs on the list.   So today, I picked 4 of those songs, ones that they dont know 100%, and that is what we practiced. 

We started by singing through I am a Child of God a couple times.  Just to review it.  Then we moved on to our activity.

I brought in a magnet board, with a target drawn on it.  The outer 2 rings were divided into 4 sections each.  In the outer ring, I had written the numbers 1-4, and the 2nd ring was numbered 5-8.  Does that make sense??  The middle I left without a number.  If you have a white board in your primary room, you could just draw the target on that.


I also brought a small nerf gun, with 3 bullets - the kind of bullets that stick to my board.  As soon as I pulled out the gun, everyone got excited - especially the boys!

 I picked a kid, and had him stand back from the target - age approperate - and had them shoot.  If they hit one of the numbers, we sang that song.  Like I said, I had picked 4 songs, and those are the ones that we sang.  If they hit the bulls eye, they got to pick their favorite song.

This is always a fun activity.  But not super reverant...

I Am a Child of God

I'm so happy that the new year is here, and singing time can get back to normal!

Because it was the first Sunday, I wanted to review I am a Child of God, but I also wanted to make sure that I did something fun for the new Sunbeams - esp. because my son was one of them!!
So this is what I came up with.

First I wanted to show the Mormon Message video "I Am a Child of God".  Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to work, so I skipped that!  So we sang the first 2 verses, just to make sure that the kids knew them.  Of course they did!  Then, we sang them again, and every time we sang the words "me", "I", or "my" the kids had to stand up and sit down.  It was really fun.  A good way to have fun singing a reverent song over and over!  (I did get this idea off another blog, but I don't remember who's - sorry!!)

After, we sang a few activity songs that I knew the Sunbeams would know.  They had a lot of fun!

I'm kind of a lazy singing time person, and don't like doing 2 different activities for Jr. and Sr., so we did the same thing in Sr. singing time - but with a twist!  For 2 of the activity songs, I mixed things up a bit!

Popcorn Popping - Instead of singing it "pop"corn, we used a different action word.  "twist"corn, "hop"corn, "clap"corn.  I'm sure you get the idea. 

Head Shoulders Knees and Toes - I love this song! Of course we do it, fast, slow, slower, faster.  But we also do it backwards - toes, knees, shoulders, head...  So this week I found another idea on a blog, with new words...  ankles, elbows, feet and seat.  hair, hips, lips and cheeks.

The kids all had fun!

Presentation Review

Its official. 
I'm really getting sick of these songs!!
Our presentation is October 21!  Thank goodness!!

Next week I'm out of town.  Then General Conference.  Then just one more practice week!  I'm so excited to stop singing these songs for a while!!

This week we just had an easy review.

I put a bunch of items into a bag.  Kids took turns coming up and picking an item, then guessing which song it represented.  Pretty easy.  Here's a list of the items that I used, and what songs they went with.

Sword - Nephis Courage
Umbrella - Baptism song
Picture of kids with Jesus - I know my Saviour Loves Me
Light Bulb - As a Child of God
Picture of Jesus - I'm Trying to be Like Jesus
CTR Ring - Choose the Right
Rock - Wiseman
Bee - Stand for the Right

Review, and Birthday Songs

There are a couple songs that I want to review this week, just to make sure the kids have all the words down.

So we sang over Nephi's Courage - the 3rd verse, and I Know My Savior Loves Me - the 2nd verse. We sang through them a couple times.  Then we had a competition to see what side of the room could sing it best.  A little competition always gets the kids going, but they are always surprised when they tied, again...

I knew that wouldn't take the whole time, so I stole these ideas from another blog (sorry I don't remember where it was!).  I feel like our B-day songs are getting a little boring, so I thought that this would spice things up a bit.  The kids loved it!  I only taught the Jr's the first one because we ran out of time.  But the Sr's loved the chicken dance!

Happy Happy Birthday Children Dear  (Hand Jive)

Happy Happy - slap legs 2 times
Birthday - clap 2 times
Children Dear - wave hands in front of you - one on top of each other 2 times (does this make sense?)

Happy days - slap legs 2 times
will come - clap 2 times
you all year -  wave hands in front of you - one on top of each other 2 times

If I had a  - slap legs 2 times
wish then - clap 2 times
it would be - wave hands in front of you - one on top of each other 2 times

a happy happy - slap legs 2 times
birthday - clap 2 times
to you from me - wave hands in front of you - one on top of each other 2 times


Your Happy Birthday p.283 (Chicken Dance)

(This is the song that starts:  This month is such a special one...)

This one you do the chicken dance actions 4 times for each action. 

I think these are hilarious actions, and I can not wait for our next birthday so we can do one of these songs.

Jr. - 10
Sr. - 10