Spring Singing!! Easter Singing Ideas

Spring is in the air here in AZ and I wanted to post a few singing time ideas for the season before I head out of town here in the next couple of days!! I can't believe it will be  April when I get back!! Where is the time going? I just can't keep up anymore!!
I just love SPRING! The season of new life, and beauty! I have found some cute ideas on the internet that could definitely be turned into singing time fun and I wanted to share my thoughts and ideas with all of you! Please take a peek and share your thoughts as well!! I love the feedback and to see how others are using and creating their own ideas to make Singing a JOY for the primary children! I believe we have a very important calling and I am grateful for the opportunity to teach these sweet spirits the gospel through music. 
That being said, I would like to share this wonderful message with you given by  Dallin H. Oaks in a 1994 conference talk click HERE 


Now, down to business!!! I have found TONS and TONS of ideas on the internet that can be turned into singing time activities!! You don't even have to be creative anymore... It is everywhere you look! I am going to share a few links and my ideas on how you can use these games for singing time. If you have any other ideas please share with me as well!!! 

1.) This is an Easter Egg hunt like no other!! With this one you just follow the easy steps on the link, put your songs inside and hide the eggs for the kids to find. Once they find them, they crack it open and the song to sing is inside. Follow the link and scroll down  HERE  for an easy, fun, egg filled singing time!!

2.) This is a version of the Plinko game but used with plastic Easter Eggs. It seems pretty simple to make using this method. I think you could drop a plastic Easter egg from the top and either have different songs in the slots below or using the point method as shown in the link. If you do points you could have them drop the plastic egg to determine the amount of points they can earn and then maybe pop a balloon to determine the song they have to sing to get the points. Check out the link HERE

3.) This one is another way you could do an Easter Egg hunt using plastic eggs with the songs inside. Just give clues and see if the kiddo's can guess where they egg is hiding. Have someone from the presidency walk a child to get the egg and the kids have to sing the song inside. If they find all the eggs, sing well and fill an egg carton by the end of singing time then reward them with a small treat. 

4.) This is your good old matching game but used with plastic and felt eggs!! Check it out HERE
 This is an oldie but goodie and seems rather easy to put together. I know this would definitely be a hit with Jr. Primary. They just pick two eggs at a time and try and match up the colors. Once the colors are matched then the songs are matched and the children sing the song on the felt egg. 

5.)This last one I would like to share with you today is something I know my kiddo's would absolutely LOVE. They really seem to enjoy competition. This one can get a little rowdy. I think with activities like these we just have to remind the children that we will have to stop playing if they can't control the volume. This one is a balancing egg race. The kiddo's would come up, two at a time and grab a plastic egg out of a basket. Each egg has a song inside. On go, the kiddos will have to balance their egg on a spoon and walk to the finish line. Whichever child crosses first wins and we open and sing the song inside of their egg. Check out the link HERE

I was just thinking of another game the kids would like sort of related to the egg race but maybe not as rowdy. You could have the children roll their eggs down a homemade ramp and whichever egg wins, we would open and sing the song inside. I know this would be a BIG hit in my primary. 
 Lots of people may be concerned with the reverence involved or not involved with some of these kinds of activities. I think we just have to remind the children if they don't sing and if they can't control their excitement then we will have to stop and then we really have to reinforce it so they know that we mean business. I have found the children to do really well and to sing their very best when they are having fun and learning at the same time. I think first and foremost, that we know our primaries better than anyone else and if we see these activities as being too much for our kiddo's then we need to refocus and plan accordingly. 

Thank you all so much for stopping by! Please, always feel free to share with me your thoughts, good or bad on the ideas that I present here. I love to hear others thoughts and ideas as well!!! Happy Spring Singing Everyone, chat with ya all again in APRIL!!


 




 

Gethsemane Song - Stories of Jesus

This seems to be the go to hit for Easter this year! Love it!! You can find the .$99 sheet music download HERE

Putt, Putt Review

Wow, I can hardly believe it is the middle of March already!! This has been a really crazy month here in AZ. The first Sunday was Gilbert Temple dedication and tomorrow is Stake Conference. I will then be on vacation for Spring Break the following two Sundays. I just can't keep up!!!
Today's post is for those who are all caught up and looking for a fun game to use for review! I put this together and will be leaving it here with my sub while I am away. I will call this one Putt, Putt, Review!!

To start out, you will need the supplies pictured here.  I got my boxes at Wal mart for $1.55 or so for both. Can't beat that!! The spray paint was around $1.50 at Wal mart and the bouncy balls were a Dollar Tree goody I purchased earlier in the week. I had the construction paper in my craft box but if you don't have any you can use different colored markers in its place.

Your first step will be to tape your boxes together. The small one will be a dice. This is what I used the spray paint for. I took it outside and painted it red. With the bigger one you will mark some small doors that you will be cutting out. I think 5 is a good set amount to use for your door or holes.

Once you are done you will cut them out to look like this. I also made a ball return door on the side of the box for the ball to come out. It is pictured  below

You will then trim around your holes with different colored paper, or you can use markers for this as well. The finished product will look like this:

You will assign each hole a point value as I have done in the pic above. You can play the game two ways, you can break the kids into two teams and have them compete or you can pick a number value that the kids have to earn and have them all play together as one. If they reach the value say, 100 PTS by the end of singing time then they get a small reward, starburst, gumball, etc.

To play, you pick a child to come up front and pick a task card. You can download and print mine below:


putput-review-cards1
putput-review-cards2
putput-review-cards3

The child will then stand behind your line of tape and hit the ball into one of the holes. If they can do the task on the card they will then earn the point value from the hole that the ball went into.

When the task card is a Roll Dice and sing, you will have them roll the dice and sing however it says  to earn the point value. I didn't get the pics glued onto my dice tonight but these are the ones I will be using.
 There will be a boys sing, girls sing, mouse (sing in a squeaky voice) baby talk (sing like a baby) hula dance (hula dance while you sing the song) and Opera singer (sing song in your best opera voice.) These are the pics that I used:

I think the kiddo's are going to love this!  The good thing about this game is as you continue to teach more songs for the year you can add to your card collection and use this one over and over!!! LOVE IT!!! Thank you for stopping by and please never hesitate to email with questions. Happy Singing everyone! I will be posting a few more singing time ideas this week and then we are off to MEXICO for a much needed break!! When I return, I will share my Pics and ideas on The Family is of God flannel board figures!!

Teaching Children A New Song!

 

 

I found a site with ideas on How to Teach Children a new song. I thought I would share!! Becoming the primary chorister for the first time can be a bit scary for those of us with little musical abilities!! I like to think I can sing but teaching others may not be my strongest point!! I guess the best way to look at it  is at least its Children and not Adults!! When its little ones we can laugh at ourselves and make mistakes and they don't even realize it :)

Here is what I found: PERFECT


Before you can teach a song, you as the leader must know it. Listen to it over and over until you can sing the song spontaneously. As leader, you want to enjoy yourself as enthusiasm spreads! Even if you don’t have musical talent, you can teach a new song! (Nice to know)

Provide opportunities for the boys and girls to hear the song before singing. The music can be playing in the background as children arrive, while engaging in craft activities, and also during snack time. (maybe we could have the pianist play the song of the month and the songs we have been reviewing, before primary starts each week)

Children learn a song by hearing it many times, as memorization occurs via repetition. Knowing a song by heart, so the melody and lyrics will stay with children forever, is the goal. Repetition is KEY!!

Before actually singing the song together, ask questions. Be sure boys and girls know the song’s meaning and also the significance of unfamiliar words.

Perhaps you will enjoy using some of these ideas for helping children learn a new song:

1. A Mr. Echo puppet could be brought out. He sings one line; the pupils echo it. I've seen a Parrot used for this as well!!

2. Have the children make sock puppets, paper bag puppets or puppets on a stick. The children learn the words of the song as they have their puppets sing one verse or chorus at a time. I used puppets a lot when I was chorister years ago, the kiddo's actually loved this, surprisingly the older boys LOVED it!!

3. Play "Follow the Leader." The leaders sings one line, the children follow.

4. Use key words. Print key words of the song to be learned on slips of paper. Pass these out to the children. As the song is sung, pupils stand as their word is sung. This keeps the boys and girls alert to the words and helps them learn faster.

5. Have children illustrate various key phrases of the song. Photograph and transfer to PowerPoint. Chalkboard or dry erase boards!!

6. Videotape the boys and girls singing. Play it back and let the children sing along.

7. Use the American Sign Language. Go to their user-friendly site which gives easy-to-follow instructions.

8. When the body moves, the brain remembers. Discuss with the boys and girls possible hand motions. Accept all contributions and then come to a consensus as to which ones will be used. Verbs and nouns often spark ideas for gestures. My Lights, Camera, ACTIONS post works great for this one. The kids LOVED making up their own actions and they learned I will Follow Gods Plan really fast doing it this way!!

 9. Younger children will enjoy using rhythm instruments which will help them learn the rhythmic phrases of the song.

10. Have the children hum the tune before singing the words. Humming is a great way for learning a tune before memorizing words.

Keep singing new songs on a regular basis so the music will always bounce around in the children‘s heads.

Remind the children and parents to continue to listen to CD's or videos sent home with the songs for the year. Set a monthly motivator, ask a question regarding the song of the month and give a small treat to those children that can answer. Make sure and give a heads up the week before so they know to listen to their CD or watch their video!!

 

Cutest Primary EVER!!

I have the cutest primary KIDS ever!!! Check them out doing "I will Follow Gods Plan" using the paper plate idea HERE

We did this with a combination of my Lights, Camera, Actions posted in a previous post and it was a definite HIT, they learned the song in two Sunday's!! Way to go Kiddo's!!!

More Dollar Tree Deals!!!

I made a stop at the Dollar Tree today and found some more AWESOME singing time items!! You just can't go wrong with this place. They have some of the cutest stuff and its all $1.00!! PERFECT and affordable GOODIES + Happy Chorister = HAPPY SINGING CHILDREN!!

Take a peek and let me know what kind of ideas you can come up with using these Dollar goods: There are cute monster die cuts, suitcase die cuts, bouncy balls, plastic coins, stickers that say awesome, good job, etc, star wands, adorable birdies and St. Patrick's Day Hats!

I am thinking the cute star wands and stickers will be great for nursery. I will be using the bouncy balls for this Here

For those of you still searching for a St. Patty's Day singing time, these hats are perfect for this idea found on Oh what do you do for singing time blog Here

There are so many other ideas out there. The suitcases could be used for a singing road trip? How about the adorable birds? They are so cute, I just had to get them. Somehow I have to incorporate them into singing time. The plastic coins? The Monster die cuts? What are your ideas?
 I will be starting prep for The Family is of God, so please keep an eye out! I haven't quite put it all together yet, but my mind is certainly on the goooo! Once the rest of me catches up I will get it all together and posted!

HAPPY SINGING this week and thank you for stopping by!

St. Patty's Day Fun!!

Today I am going to share a few more St. Patty's Day Singing Time ideas for those who are still searching for that perfect THING!!! I am going to make it simple this week and do a Hidden Shamrock singing time instead of a Hidden Note. I will use this to review He Sent his Son and I will Follow Gods Plan. For those who are not familiar with the Hidden Note game, it is one of those you can pull out on a short prep day and the kids will LOVE it. For this one I will have a child step out in the hall while another child hides the Shamrock somewhere in the primary room. When they are done hiding the object we will have the child come in from the hallway. We will sing He Sent his son as they begin their search for the shamrock. If they are close then we will sing louder, if not then we sing quietly. This is your basic Hot/Cold game, just used for singing time!! It is a great one to use for review because the kids will sing the song over and over and will be having such a good time that they don't even realize the repetition.

This next one would be totally fun for the Sr. primary! You can find it Here!! It is a scavenger hunt! All kids love a scavenger hunt!! There are free print outs that you can use from this link and then fill in your own clue's using songs to sing with each one.

Example: Clue #1 I will Follow Gods Plan, Clue #2 hides on this stand, You would then sing I will Follow Gods Plan and let a child come up and find clue #2 on the music stand.
At the end of the hunt you could have a pot of rolo candies or chocolate coins.

The next one is finding the colors of the rainbow and putting it together. You can find it Here. You would have the songs on the back of the rainbow colors as they find them along with a short clue to find the next color. After they find them all and build the rainbow it would have a final clue to lead to the pot of gold!!!

Next you will find the St. Patrick's Day version of Don't Eat Pete. Find it Here. For this one you could have a child leave the room while you and the children pick which pic will be Lucky! After you have decided the child gets to come back in and start eating the M&M's off of each pic as you sing the song for review. When they get to the pic you have selected to be Lucky, the kids would stop singing and say Don't eat Lucky!! The child is then done with their turn and another child gets to leave the room. Does anyone have any other ideas for this one?

These are just a few more ideas I thought would work great for singing time. Thank you for stopping by and Happy Singing Everyone!!

Singing Time Ideas!!

As promised, I wanted to add a few more singing time ideas on here. I will be doing a St. Patrick's Day Fun Day Sunday this week. We have Stake conference on the 16th so this week will have to be our Fun day for the month. I will post pics on that as soon as I get it together.
Today I will share with you a few more educational sites I have pinned on my pintrest idea board. There are so many fun and creative ways to teach out there. I love to go to the educational sites because you can incorporate a lot of their ideas into singing time ideas!!

For the first one follow this link HERE. This would be a way to keep the kids engaged but it may be a little rowdy!! You would pick two  kiddo's to come up front and they would have to hit the balloon back and forth while the kids sing the chosen song. You could see which kids could keep it up through the whole song. This would be great for review because they would be singing one song over and over and enjoying it at the same time. If the balloon drops, then the song would stop and start over for the next two players. I would say you might be stopping and starting this one a lot but they will be trying really hard to make it all the way to the end so maybe not. If you were concerned about not getting through enough of the song you could just have the next group start where the last one left off!!!! Just be creative and make it work for you!!!

The next one is Flashlight Freeze. Find it Here. With this one you could have a child come up and they are it. While the children are singing they can flash the light and everyone has to freeze. When they turn off the light everyone starts singing where they left off. This could also be a good review  because they would have to be able to figure out the words from where they left off.

Marble run, Here! I know that my kiddo's would absolutely love this!!! You could have two reverent kids come up and race their marbles down the track. Whoever wins, gets to pick the song!! You could mix this up! Free choice, or have songs on the board die cut into cute shapes with songs on the back and if they win they get to pick the song!!

Huh, what do you think about this one? Here! How many ways can you think to use this? I was thinking you pick a reverent child to come up and hit through #1. When they make it then you sing the song that's on the other side of the tube? Not sure but it stuck out so I know it can be turned into a fun singing time activity!!

The last one I would like to share today will be this one Here! Singing Stack!! With this one, you can have 2 kids come up at a time and see how high they can stack before the end of the song. If it falls they have to start all over, but HURRY -UP, once the singing ends your time is up!!!

I love music and I LOVE when the kids have a smile on their faces at the end of singing time each week!!

"Somewhere over the Rainbow" March Motivator

March's motivator will be "Somewhere over the Rainbow." I will be keeping this one short and sweet! My plan is to draw the outline of a rainbow on a poster board and each week the kids will get to fill in a color or two depending on how well they sing and listen that day!
 Here in Arizona we do not have our regular meetings tomorrow due to the Gilbert Temple dedication and the 16th is our ward conference. Therefore, I am so off  schedule for this month. I am hoping to have a pic on here today of my finished product. This one is pretty simple for the fact that it is a short month here in our ward.
At the end of  March after they have filled in all the colors I will be giving them an individual pack of skittles with a few chocolate gold coins mixed in.  I will keep these in a black cauldron that I use for Halloween for the whole "pot" effect. Thank you all so much for stopping by. Please let me know if you have any questions. Happy Singing!!