Play Doh Review

Happy Thursday Everyone! It sure feels like it has been awhile since I have been on here. I apologize for those checking in. Now that we are on the homestretch and putting the finishing touches on all of our music, it is just coming up with the review games to keep everyone on their toes and learning the words and messages that they need to be learning. School has started and kiddo's are in Cheer and football so things are busy in this neck of the woods. It seems I don't get much down time these days and you all know as well as I do that you have to have some quiet time to think up new ideas.

This week I am going to do my "Capture the Flag" review game I shared in a previous post. I am trying to stay a little ahead of myself so that my weeks are planned out and I'm not waiting until Saturday to throw things together. That's just too much right now with Football games and activities going on all of the time.

For next week I am going to do this simple Play Doh review game. Come on, what kid doesn't LOVE this stuff? Just walking into the primary room and seeing the bright colorful doh will stir some excitement, now to add in some singing time review and wha-lah, PERFECT! (this could just be wishful thinking, but we shall see.)

This activity will be short and sweet. The prep is simple and that is music to my ears these days! All you will need to do is grab yourself some of this:

The Plan: To start out you will get your volunteer to come to the front. You will introduce which song the children are going to sing. You will whisper to your volunteer the item that they are going to make with the doh while the children are singing the song. The item will be something to do with the song or something from the song. When the song is over, the children will try and guess what item the volunteer built and what it has to do with the song. This isn't only FUN, but they have to actively think of the words and what the item has to do with it!

I will pick easier items for Jr than Sr and they will go as follows:

I Know that my Savior Loves me 
Jr: Heart (love)
Sr: Flowers  (beautiful place)

He Sent his Son
Jr: World
Sr: Baby (newborn babe)

Follow the Prophet
Jr and Sr: Whale

The 4th Article of Faith
Jr: Hand (laying on of hands)
Sr: Baptism

 The Church of Jesus Christ
Jr: CTR (Do what is right)
Sr. Light bulb (follow his light)  

Come, Follow Me
Jr/Sr Footprint
  
The Miracle
Jr: gift (the greatest gift the world has ever known)
Sr: Bread (fed a thousand people with a loaf or two of bread)

To finish off I will send one of these puppies home with each child and challenge them to go through the songs this week and see what other fun creations they can make from each song.

That's the plan and I'm sticking with it!! Have an AWESOME weekend everyone and Happy Singing!

Capture the Flag Review

Well, here we are ya all! On the home stretch once again (how is that even possible?)  Songs have all been presented and now review, review, review!! I thought I would share an idea I had come to me last night. I am thinking this one would work best with Sr. primary but I may come up with a way to make it work in Jr as well. I will be using the beloved game of Capture the Flag and turning it into a singing time review. I am always trying to come up with ways to get the boys more involved. I am thinking this is one they will really get into.

TO PLAY: To begin you will need to get a different colored flag for each team.

RED TEAM

BLUE TEAM

PREP: Before primary begins you will want to make a center line down the middle of the room splitting your two teams apart. I will be using masking tape to do this before the kiddo's come into the room. If you share a primary and don't have time for this you can just bring in some string or rope to form your line quickly once primary has begun. Also, you will want to make a Jail on each side of the room. I will be using cardboard and just painting me some bars on it and hanging one on each side of the room. Explanation to come!

Once I start singing time I will decide my teams and sit my kids on their side of the line. To begin, you will need to have a sing off or something to determine which team will go first. Once you have your starting team, each team will then pick a child to be their playing piece for the first round. The playing piece must also participate with their team on the challenges or they will not be able to move.

To begin: Your chosen pieces will hide their eyes while a team member from each side will hide their flag on their side of the room (red hides their flag on red's side of the room and blue on blue's side of the room.) The flag can not be out of site. Just placed somewhere on their side of the room. Once they have placed their flag, the pieces will uncover their eyes. The starting team will then pick a flag card with the song they get to sing. If they sing and do a good job then their playing piece gets to roll a dice to determine how many steps they get to take onto the opposing teams side of the field/room towards their flag. Example: Red team will head towards blue teams flag and blue team heads towards red teams flag. Play will continue this way until a child reaches the opposing teams flag. Whichever team reaches the opposing teams flag first, scores a point for their team and play then starts over with new playing pieces on the line.

BEWARE: In the deck of cards their will be JAIL cards. If your team picks one of these on their turn, then their playing piece has to go to JAIL and looses their spot. They then have to pick a "GET OUT OF JAIL" card on their  next turn to see what challenge they have to do to get their piece out of jail and back on the playing floor. Once they do the challenge, which will be a question, crazy action, fill in the blank about one of the review songs, etc. then their piece will go back to the center line and start over.  

THE OBJECT: Be the team with the most captured flags (points) at the end!!

This is what I will be doing next week. I hope that it makes sense to everyone. Please let me know if you have any questions. I am going to try and post a few more review ideas this week but I won't make any promises. I hope this is helpful, happy singing everyone!


I have placed a google drive download for you to get the cards I will be using. This has not been easy and so with the jail cards I recommend using 5 of them in your capture the flag deck. This will send them to jail. Print out the other 5 and write what they have to do to get out of jail. You can do a fill in the blank on one of the songs for review, name that tune, sing a song a certain way (boys sing like girls, girls sing like boys, etc.) 
To make the cards just print on cardstock, turn over and print the songs on the back. 

Click HERE to use the cards that I have saved! Happy Singing Everyone!

"Our Greatest Hero" (The Miracle)

Hello All! I am so excited to start this Beautiful song on Sunday! Thank you to Shawna Edwards for sharing her talents with the world and with our primary here in Cave Creek, AZ.  This song has an AWESOME message and I want to present it in a way that the kids can relate and understand the importance and at the same time feel the spirit! Whew, this is a tough calling isn't it? Don't get me wrong, I LOVE it, but it can be mentally and physically exhausting coming up with ways to present these beautiful songs so that the children can understand the message, feel the spirit and have a good time learning each and every song they sing. I truly believe that if they are enjoying the whole process then the words and messages stick better and they will never forget!! They may not remember all the words, but they don't forget the message and how they felt and that is most important for building their testimonies of this gospel!

That being said, I am going to present this song using a "Hero" based theme. I didn't want to play games and get crazy while introducing this because it didn't seem right with such a spiritual song, however, after praying for guidance, I am going to go in a direction I feel will help the kiddo's understand the importance and AWESOMENESS of the miracle's that Christ did while he was on the earth. I have lots of ideas swirling around in my head at the moment and I haven't quite gotten them in any kind of order so this is a work in process. I am hoping to have this done by this evening or tomorrow morning since I will be presenting it this Sunday!!! I love how I can get an idea that "pops" into my head but then putting it all together is up to me and that does not come easy these days folks! I've been doing this calling for 3 years now and have done it for 6 previous years so I have to say, BRAIN DRAIN! I am running on fumes here.... I am so grateful for all of the creative ideas out there that I have been able to fall back on this summer. Thank you to everyone for sharing your AWESOME talents, you have all been a lifesaver!!!


PLEASE STAY TUNED AND CHECK BACK TONIGHT OR TOMORROW TO SEE HOW I WILL BE PRESENTING ON SUNDAY......

Well, here we are and it is Monday and I never did get this post put together and finished, ugh! I am so sorry to those of you who checked back in for the end result!  I had the craziest weekend and I had to learn an important lesson this past few days. We just simply can not run faster than we have strength. I certainly had a Super Hero sized idea but I did NOT have the Super Hero Strength to get it done.  D&C 10: 4 Do not run faster or labor more than you have strength and means provided to enable you to tanslate, but be diligent unto the end. This scripture was totally meant for me. I was so stressed about how to put all of my idea together that I couldn't even hear anything else. I prayed for guidance and it just wasn't there. I had a pounding headache because I have never had this issue before. School has started here in AZ and Saturday was such a hectic day already getting everything together for that, we were away from home from 9AM to 9PM and I spent the whole time worrying because I had this grand plan for Sunday and I just didn't have the time to get it all together. I finally felt the answer come to me. Stop, slow down! I instantly felt relieved, and knew that I needed an easier plan for introducing this beautiful song on Sunday. No, it did not include some grand adventure, defusing a bomb, walking over lava, or some other crazy Super Hero feat, but it sure felt a lot better knowing that my HF knows me and loves me and if we rely on him, he will guide us at all times in our lives.

My introduction Sunday was AWESOME and so simple! The kiddo's absolutely LOVED it. I gave each class an envelope that contained a miracle that the Savior performed while on the earth. The envelopes were labeled 1-7, this way they would perform in the order of the miracles in the song.  They had 2 mins as a class to figure out a way to act out the miracle. Once seated, we started with envelope #1 and did a charades activity. As the class acted out the miracle the rest of us guessed what it was. I would then post the pic and words to go with that particular miracle and we would learn and sing that part before moving on to the next class. This was so perfect because the kids were a part of the song. They could relate because they actually acted out the miracle and then sang about it. It worked AWESOME for Jr and Sr.

 I am so thankful to my HF for knowing  me better than I know myself, for blessing me with the knowledge that he is always there no matter what, for blessing me with this calling and helping me along the way, and to all of you for your love and support and kind words when I need them the most! Thank you,