Hide, Seek and "Follow the Prophet"

Happy Wednesday Everyone! I have been absent the last couple of weeks and feel like everything is so far behind! I know you all get sick of hearing about my craziness but MAN, it just never seems to stop! I have been struggling with some family issues this last month and it has been pretty tough to get back on my feet! I have had numerous arguments with my HF and he has blessed me with the strength and knowledge that I need to move forward yet once again! I am pretty sure I am getting too old for this stuff and he is going to make it all STOP soon, right?
I would like to be honest here for just a minute and say that my spirit has been very weighed down this past few weeks. So heavy that I haven't even been able to focus on my calling. I have prayed continually for my HF to guide  me and help me be strong and once again he has stood by my side and given me strength. I love this gospel and the truths that we have in our lives. I couldn't imagine it any other way!  Watch HERE HF knows each and every one of us and WE are never alone. He is always there! Always!

With that said, I am excited to be starting "Follow the Prophet" this week with my kiddo's. I will do the same introduction for both Sr/Jr. It will go something like this:

Discussion: HF sent us to earth knowing that things would be hard, but he has always had a plan to help us return home to him once again. Who has HF sent to help Guide us on our journey back home? Who can communicate directly with HF and give us instruction on which way to go to live a happy life? Hint: it rhymes with Mophet! Is that even a word? :)
Once the kiddo's have concluded that the Prophet guides us and if we listen to his instruction we can once again return home to live with our HF, I will play this cute game with them that I thought up at 1AM this morning! It will be called Hide, Seek and Guide. I am hoping it will help the kids learn the song on top of grasping the concept that listening to the Prophet very carefully, can guide us to where we need to be in our lives.

Here are the supplies needed to put this together:

Poster Board for each Prophet, markers if your coloring your own, card stock to print out pics and a blindfold!

Velcro Dots from Wal mart $2.50

 To start play you will display your prophet poster on the white board. I drew Adam by hand but I will just blow up and glue Jonah, Daniel and Monson on the other 3 posters to save me some time. For those brave souls who would like to draw their prophets, you can find some great ideas on this blog Here. 

Adam

 I will display Adam on the board and then we will start the game.

To Play: To start out I will have 3 kiddo's come to the front. One will be hiding this pic that goes with the first words to the song,

Adam was a Prophet, 1st one that we know

  The 2nd child will be blind folded and will be seeking to find the hidden pic and the 3rd child is their guide. He/she will instruct the seeker and lead them to the hidden pic. The blind child will have to listen carefully to the guide to get to their destination, just as we have to listen to the Prophet as he instructs and guides us to our Eternal home.

Once a pic is found, it will be placed on the poster in its position and we will sing the words that go with the picture. I placed the velcro dots on the poster like this:

The first Pic for Adam will go on his shirt. There are velcro dots on the pics too. Like this:

Once the pic is found and placed on the poster, we will sing the part that goes with the pic and then game play will continue with the next 3 children and next phrase and picture to be found. I have posted the pics I used for my Adam poster below.

Adam was a Prophet, first one that we know!

In a Place called Eden, He helped things to grow

I drew my feet for this poster. They are for the phrase "Adam served the Lord by following his ways" and they are displayed like this:

 last pic to be found for Adam is:

WE are his descendants in the Latter Days 

This is what your poster will look like once all pics have been found and displayed:

Here is the Poster I am doing for Jonah: I will just do Adam and Jonah tomorrow, Daniel and Monson next week and review the last two weeks.

Jonah was a prophet, tried to run away

But he later learned to listen and obey

When we really try the Lord won't let us fail

That's what Jonah learned deep down inside the Whale

For the Chorus I will be using Sharla Dance's idea using Maori Sticks. You can find her idea HERE My husband will be making these for me out of PVC pipe. Sharla uses these for the Melody, we will only be using them for the Chorus. Tap, Tap, Clap, Clap. I will have the kids tap twice on their chair and then click the sticks together twice and then keep repeating this beat through out the chorus. This is a very repetetive song and I am hoping this will keep it fun and energetic for the kiddo's! I will post pics and a video of this idea when my sticks are done!!

These are my homemade Maori Sticks. PVC pip 10" long and 3/4 inch round

This is how we will be using them for the Chorus:
Here

This is it folks! If you are interested in using my pics you can find them HERE

Please let me know if you have any questions. This was kind of hard to explain and I feel like it makes no sense at all. Thank you for stopping by and having a peek! Happy Singing Everyone!

"Love Bug" Motivator

 Jr Primary Activity:
 

This little bug is looking for some "LOVE" and she will be flying around the room tomorrow in search of some sweet nectar. I will be making  balloon flowers and every time the sweetie's in Jr. primary sing their very best she will get closer and closer to eating (popping a balloon) some sugar. Whenever a balloon is popped the kiddos will get a spot sticker so that they can become "Love Bugs" too. If they pop all of the balloons by the end of singing time, then they get to give me a "Heart Attack" & dump a box full of hearts over my head! 

I will be teaching "He Sent his Son" and using my action dice to make it a little more fun! The little ones learned this last year but need the review. Each time they sing a phrase and do a good job then Ms. Love Bug will fly around the room and get closer and closer to each flower until "POP", she has eaten each and every last one of them, then BEWARE, a HEART ATTACK  is just waiting to happen!

Sr. Primary Activity:

Sr Primary will be playing the game  Be Mine, Valentine posted in my previous post Valentine Day Singing Activities! It is this game pictured here:

I will be using this game to review I Know my Savior Loves Me and He Sent his son. I will have hearts with different questions, fill in the blank and different ways to sing the song (boys, girls, blue eyes, brown hair.)  Instead of breaking the kids into teams they will be playing against the primary teachers and myself! We will do a guess the closest number to see who starts first. Each team starts out with 5 foam hearts like these pictured here:

The starting team will draw a challenge heart and do as it says. These will be paper hearts that have the question, fill in the blank or way to sing the song.  If they do a good job then they get to roll the dice and do as it says on the chart above.

 If they roll:

1.) Pick One: Pick a heart out of the heart pile

2.) Put one back: Put one of their team hearts back in the draw pile

3.) Take one from Someone Else: Take a heart from the other team

4.) Skip a Turn: Lose your turn

5.) Pick Two: Pick two hearts from the draw pile

6.) Put Two back: Put two of their hearts back in the draw pile

The object of the game is to be the team with the most hearts by the end of singing time! If the kiddo's win then they get to pick a teacher or myself to give a "Heart Attack" (pour a box of hearts over the victims head,) if they lose then I get to pick someone to give a Heart Attack to off their team!

These are my plans for tomorrow! It has been a very busy week so I am throwing this together kind of last minute!  We all have those weeks and I just have to tell myself its ok or I might go CRAZY! Happy Valentine's Day Everyone and Happy Singing!

Valentines Day Singing Activities!

Here are a couple more games that I found on pintrest that could totally be turned into singing time activities! You can take just about any game/activity and make it work for primary! For the weeks when you don't feel like you can possibly come up with one more thing, let your fingers do the walkin'! The possibilities are endless! I LOVE IT!!!

This first one I found on this site Here

You can use this one by breaking the kids into two teams or they could play against you! You start off by giving each team 5 paper hearts. They can earn more or lose them as determined by the roll of the dice. You could use this for review on just one specific song or you could use "primary love songs" as your song choices.
You would start off determining which team goes first. The team going first picks the song choice, they then have to sing the song, if they do a good job then they get to roll the dice and do as it says above. The object is to be the team with the most hearts by the end of singing time. If you click the link, the lady used candy conversation hearts. I would use paper hearts for the game and maybe do conversation hearts as a treat!

The next one is an oldie but goodie! So easy and the kids always enjoy it!

Your good ole fashioned "matching Kisses" For this one you would just put your page numbers on your hearts and when they find a match they get to sing the song! If they sing their hearts out, they can earn a "kiss" after singing time! Chocolate kiss of course!



This next one is called 'Heart Breaker" and would be perfect!

There's really not much explanation needed for this one. You would have your songs inside the cups. You can find the instructions on this blog. Here
You could use this one as a review too. Just have different ways to sing the song inside the hearts. Lots of possibilities!




Last of all is this one

You could play this where you give the kids a total amount of points they have to earn before the end of singing time. If they sing well, then they get to come up and toss the hearts to earn points. If they reach their goal before the end of singing time then they get a SURPRISE! Bribery is a GRRREEEAT thing!
You could play using teams as well. The team with the highest amount of points at the end are your 'singing champs" for the day!

One more fun idea that just came to mind! You could also do a "Heart Attack" motivator! If the kids do an AWESOME job and sing their HEARTS out that day, then they can give you or a teacher of their choice a HEART ATTACK. At the end of singing time, you or the teacher of their choice will come sit in a chair in the front and the kiddo's get to dump a box of earned hearts over your head! The kids absolutely LOVE this kind of thing!!!

These are just a few of the millions of possibilities out there. I already did my Valentine activity last week and will be presenting the beautiful message of our song of the month "He Sent his Son" No Greater Love! I will be posting my ideas on this later in the week. I'm still trying to decide on how I want to present this beautiful message!

Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek! Happy Singing and Have a WONDERFUL Valentines Day!!!

"Love Notes" singing time/"My Heart is Full" Motivator

Happy Wednesday! I can't believe it is February and I am planning my Valentine Day singing time already! Is it just me or is time flying by faster and faster these days? It was just Christmas yesterday! Anyhow, I do love Valentines day and have a cute idea planned for Sunday. I wanted to wait until the 15th but Valentines Day will be over so I thought this week will be best!!! I have been so overwhelmed the last few weeks. It is so hard to keep up with life these days. I have searched the internet and will be using a couple cute ideas that I found on pintrest to make things simple for myself this week. Sometimes you just need EASY!

First off, our Relief Society has a facebook page so this made my first step easy. I went on the RS page and asked for moms to share a primary song that they LOVE! I will then take the songs that they shared with me and write their name along with the song in white crayon on a white heart, like so...

When a child comes up on their turn, they will paint on the heart to reveal who and what song we are going to sing. You will need the supplies pictured here:

These are pretty basic supplies that most of us will have laying around the house. When the child paints on the heart, they will be able to see who and what song. It will look like this...

I will then be adding on a Motivator to get the kiddo's to sing their very best! I will be gluing cups onto cardboard in the shape of a heart. I got the idea off of this blog Here.
 If the kiddo's sing with all of their"HEART" they will get to come up and try and throw a red poofy ball into one of the cups. If they can fill up the heart before the end of singing time then they will get a SURPRISE!! Easy, peasy!! Happy Singing!