Would you like a yearly planner?

One with Opening, Scripture and Birthday songs all picked out?

I don't have any activities (except for recurring yearly ones - you know - from last year) listed, but all of the opening songs have been selected based on the weekly theme.  I also included the songs I picked for May and June.

I went on the chorister's facebook group (on the facebook page, if you're a member, there is a tab labeled "files" right beneath the group title) and someone posted a doc of the suggestions for May and June songs.

I picked these
May: Build an Ark from Sept 2010 friend (never heard it before - but KNEW as soon as I heard the kids when they started singing [I listened to it on the lds.com music site] that THIS was the song!)

June: The Hearts of the Children p. 92 (It's right next to 'The Truth from Elijah' and I often get those confused, but this one is also THE ONE)

So there you have it. It's editable, so feel free to adapt to your own needs. And happy singing!

2014 Planner with opening, scripture, birthday and welcome songs

*Edit* I can't seem to get the planner with opening, birthday and welcome songs to open, but the bare bones planner IS working, so here's the link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B27MQYRIn4kNRkpsb3BUa1FvMWM/edit?usp=sharing

December Planning

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I have made my plan for December! Here is the google docs link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B27MQYRIn4kNOWNacW1ZX01GaTg/edit?usp=sharing

2014 blank calendar

 

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(I think I picked this pic because of the mountains: there are none that look like that where I live)

I have finally FINALLY finished the bones for my 2014 calendar! I used Sunbeam Singing's monthly planner that I downloaded last year. I adjusted some things for my own use. Such as the upper box is completely different than hers as I pick a birthday song and welcome song for the whole month, rather than switch it up each week.

So, again, I can take no credit for the beautiful arrangement of the calendar. But, I am sure you'll find plenty of mistakes, so those are mine and I apologize. Fonts, font sizes and formatting glitches are all over the place. Again, apologies.

Here is the link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B27MQYRIn4kNRkpsb3BUa1FvMWM/edit?usp=sharing.

Have fun planning this FABULOUS program this year! I may download my "not so blank" version with my song choices (oh! the song choices! have you picked your May and June songs? - It made me cry - but I guess that is a good thing) and possibly opening songs.

And I have noticed lots of problems already, but I do think it is editable, so hopefully you can fix at least some of them

Children All Over the World tutorial

So this is one of those "after the fact" posts. I just presented this song this past Sunday.

So at this point, I can interject "It went GREAT!" And the posters have been dutifully stored to use for next year (it really was fun).

This time last year: I had just been called to this position and had been serving as the music leader for about 5 or 6 weeks. We had just finished our program. And I was really confused as to what to do next. And then I found the music leader's secret weapon:
Singing time blogs! And it was a glorious moment indeed.

I found Camille's Primary Ideas and saw her Children All Over the World post. And I SO wanted to do it. I am not positive, but I might have even bought poster board. But it just didn't pan out.

So, in my attempt this year, I decided that even though I couldn't post templates (because as how Camille did it, I did draw them by hand using her pictures as a guide), I could go through it and post some of the steps I took in making these.

As Camille said " I won't lie, they were kind of a bear to make but that may be just because I'm somewhat of a perfectionist."

I am most definitely NOT  perfectionist and it still took me 3 1/2 hours to do all 6. That was with very limited interruptions (thanks to school and Team Umizoomi - I will admit - that t.v. can be a great babysitter sometimes). I second guessed myself on the width of the arm of the first one  I made and the left arm is ridiculously larger than the right, but I still didn't change it and no one noticed. So, I'm just going to stay mum on that subject.

I began by printing out each one of Camille's pictures of her boards. That is actually the best advice that I can give someone attempting this, because they truly were the best help.

I started by going to the top of the poster board. When placed in a portrait position, the width of my poster boards was 22 inches. I measured out to 11 inches. At that point, I took my ruler and put the two inch mark on the middle of my board. I marked two inches on each side of the middle, and that became my neck hole.  

I then measured about 12 ½ inches down on the side. I (not until the last poster did I realize this trick) took a newspaper edge and made a straight line from the right neck point to the right arm end 12 ½ inches down the board. 

At this point, I measured 12 cm down from the first arm point and made my second line to make the underarm outline. I didn’t have a protractor or anything, so I couldn’t tell you what degrees the arms slanted at or anything. I just tried to make sure my underarm line was straight and didn’t angle inwards or outwards

For the skirts and the sleeves for France, I free-handed one side with a pencil. I then used the marker to outline my pencil mark. I then took a blank piece of paper and copied the marker line

  I then flipped over the paper and traced the line on the underside of the paper. I couldn't get it in a picture, but doing that (and especially if you can trace directly over the pencil mark that is on the underside of the paper) you get a transfer mark that you can then use your marker to trace. It should be pretty much even

I thought that I could freehand the design in the German outfit easily, but was quite wrong. I ended up cutting out a template. I took paper and folded into quarters and even though the picture is fuzzy, I think you can get the gist of the shape from this pic. I also used a paper plate to trace the upper and lower parts of the top part of the overalls (or liederhosen, if you prefer)

I thought I was being uber organized by writing the foreign phrase, language it was and its placement in the song along with title and page number on each one.

Forgetting, of course, that then if I give the posters to the kids in senior primary that I can no longer make a game of "where does this one go and which phrase do you think it represents"

I did still do that, but the kids had to stay sitting and teachers held the posters as they guessed. If I had to do it over again, I WOULD skip this part

 

I Started with the Spanish one, which was the easiest. I didn't take pics of all of them, as Camille's pictures are much better than mine. But I will tell you, I switched the direction of the veins of the leaves on the sarong that were pointed down.

 

The French one by FAR was the hardest. But it ended up as my absolute favorite. 

 

Of course, as aforementioned, it did take 3 1/2 hours. So even though Team Umizoomi occupied a lot of her time, I still had a fantastic mess to clean up.

But worth it! So much. My favorite visual aide so far

It's HeeeEEERRREEEeee!

It's here, it's here, it's here, it's HERE!!!!! I don't know why, but I have been anticipating the 2014 Outline for Sharing time for WEEKS

2014 Outline for Sharing Time: Families Are Forever

I wonder how much in common there is with 2009's theme: My Eternal Family

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But here is the list (and just in case you're wondering I totally snatched this list from Lesson Plans of an OCD Primary Chorister and let her dig through each page for each month to find the songs - thanks OCD Primary Chorister!!!!!!)

January:  He Sent His Son (34)

February:  I Will Follow God's Plan (164)

March:  I Stand All Amazed (hymns 193)

April:  The Family is of God (back of manual)

July:  Baptism (100)

August:  Seek the Lord Early (108)

The pdf is not out yet: but you can get the entire contents online

Thoughts: I  have no idea how I am going to get through this program! These are beautiful songs, these are wonderful songs, some of them are my very favorites. But they make me CRY!!!!! (I still am not sure how I will do when we sing "A Child's Prayer" {for heaven's sakes ----- I can barely type it without choking up} because at the suggestion from the facebook page, I have asked the Youth to sing with them [most inspired idea EVER] and there is one sweet YW that I KNOW I can't look at while directing because this song gets her as well - but it's last - so at least that is good)

May's Theme is "Families are Blessed When they Follow the Prophet" (I am not sure if I want to sing "Follow the Prophet" - again - but we just may

June's Theme is "Priesthood Ordinances and Temple Work Bless My Family" (The Priesthood is Restored would fit and we aren't singing it this year and I happen to LOVE IT! However, it IS rather short - so I guess I will just have to pray very seriously to find the right ones) I am very frightened with the prospect of having a pick your own song in June- during vacation time. I guess I will have to pick an easy one ( I could make it easy on myself for once, maybe)

I am actually quite surprised about the addition of "I Stand All Amazed". Delighted, but surprised. Some serious praying again, but I may limit it to one verse: many difficult words such as "proffers" "tremble", "descend", "rebellious", "sufficient", "redeem", "devotion", "adore" . But, because I KNOW this is inspired, I trust it. And upon second thought - how on earth could I ever not sing all verses. But I can't ever get through verse two. Ever. I guess I will have to pray for strength.

I am most excited about doing "The Family is of God". I love it and it reminds me of Finding Nemo, which also makes me cry. (In case you're wondering - since I told that to someone else and she thought I was hearing things - in the intro - those first two stanzas - but most specifically the first five notes)[I just went to hear the theme on youtube and I still hear it - but maybe that is just me].

I really hope our pianist does not get called to do something else, because I fear for anyone who isn't vastly experienced (as she is) when it comes to playing "Baptism"

Back to School Review

Thanks so much to Camille's Primary Ideas for this idea. I copied her activity nearly word for word, except I changed a couple of songs (because I picked obscure songs for my "pick your own months") and we aren't signing any songs (which is what she did for pencil: write the song (sign) with your hands) so I racked my brain for several minutes and finally came up with my highlighter idea. It is super lame because you actually want the kids to sing "brightly" just about all the time; but at this point I was desperate (I almost was going to use crayons and just do the same activity for markers but with a different song - see how desperate).
My camera is WAY upstairs (my computer usually resides far, far away from my bedroom) so I am just stealing Camille's picture:

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And here is my list:

ERASER: “Erase" (don’t sing) the words  “father”  or   “spirit” in the song I Know My Father Lives p. 5

GLUE: Glue your legs together and your arms to your sides so you hold really still while we sing Can a Little Child like Me p. 9

MARKERS: Only sing My Heavenly Father Loves Me p. 228 when you are wearing the same color as the marker that is held up.

RULER: Measure the volume as we sing I Am a Child of God p. 2. Point to 1 inch for softer up to 12 inches for louder.

CALCULATOR: Count  how many times we sing the word  “family” in Families Can Be Together Forever p. 188.

HIGHLIGHTERS: Brighten your singing (smile, widen your eyes and open mouth wider) during  If the Savior Stood Beside Me when the highlighter is held up.

SCISSORS: Sing When I am Baptized p. 103 legato (smoothly) as if it were a piece of paper for the verse. Then when we sing the chorus, cut it up by singing staccato (choppy).

SHARPENER: Sharpen the song by enunciating each word for A Child’s Prayer p. 12

September Schedule

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September Planning

hello again!

Hello blogland!!! I have missed you! Did you miss me?

Well, probably not -- but that is okay.

And................................................... No, I haven't been released-just very very lazy in the last month. My summers do tend to get busier than the school year. I still haven't figured out how that is, but there you have it.

So,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Thanks very much to much to All made of Hinges, I had an absolutely fabulous Pioneer day activity. I read this story from the Friend (but if you go here and scroll down to "saving the wheat" you can click on the download icon and choose view pdf and print up the actual pages that appeared in the Friend in color and with cute little illustrations) - Also thanks to all made of hinges. I chose several pioneer songs from the song book and attached them to cut outs of crickets with paper clips attached to them and put seagulls on the magnet end of our fishing pole (that someone else created years ago - yay! less work for me!)(photo courtesy of All Made of Hinges)
Here is the link to my google doc - for some reason I cannot get scribd to work : https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B27MQYRIn4kNN0pxNnN2MHZQdG8/edit?usp=sharing

And All Made of Hinges is not only super awesome and posted this great activity - but she also is the creator of the facebook group - to which I owe many, many of my activities. And the neat thing is - several different people commented on a post looking for this very activity - and she responded with the link but I think it is awesome that people found her idea by searching and inquiring on her group. But I guess that is just me. The internet is AWESOME.

And speaking of awesome internetness: another awesome post was on all made of hinges----- The most beautiful rendition of "The Wise Man and the Foolish Man" (We sang it today, but it didn't go over as well as I had hoped - the kids thought it was sad - I guess I should have showed them THIS rather than try to muddle through it ourselves)

And just for the record, I had fabulous singing times during the previous two weeks as well, Thanks very much to OCD primary chorister for I used her FCBTF lesson plan the first week of this month and mixed up program songs and used her Sing like a family member. Which worked like a dream. I must confess (and did so at church today) that I have prepared everything this month so far AFTER 6:30 on the morning of. - so, so, so lazy I am

Just found my Fourth of July Activity

Our Fifth Sunday of June just so happens to be the last Sunday before our blessed Independence day. I was kind of stressing this earlier - because I take the whole Sunday on Fifth Sundays and wasn't sure I wanted to dedicate an entire extended sharing/singing time to the Fourth of July.
Well, the pres would like to switch next week and the fifth Sunday since believe it or not, the President, the first counselor, the second counselor and the sub for the first counselor (it's her month) will all be gone this coming Sunday.
So I get the regular amount of time on the Fifth Sunday! It works out so great.
And here is the awesome activity I just found (because - fortunately for me - I do not have a balloon phobia) from Primary Notes 29
{I think the original post is here from Sing With Me}
(Picture from Sing With Me)

I cannot even express how excited my kids are going to be to provide me with several used push pop sticks.

Read the comments!!!

I have found other blogs, useful information, and just recently A SUPER AWESOME IDEA in a comment. I've said it before and I'm saying it again - BLOGLAND IS AWESOME!!!!!!!
Check out these Ideas found on Primary Singing Time Magic

One really successful and easy activity I recently did was to use my phone to record the kids singing, then have them listen to it and show me on their fingers 1-5 how good they thought it was. (1 = like it was the first time they ever sang the song, 3 = decent, but maybe not quite ready for Sacrament, 5 = like angels singing...you get the idea). The kids improved dramatically each time they sang the song and were really motivated to sing their best.

Isn't that GREAT!!!! I would have never thought of that in a million years (mainly because yes, [and I do hear all of you gasping], my phone is often used to placate my 5 year old into sitting quietly - I am awful and I know it, but it's just what I have to do sometimes to actually fulfill my calling)

and this little beauty:

Pop the balloon - I have one child (on one side of the room) holding a blown up balloon. I have another child (on the other side of the room) holding a large push pin. I tell the child with the push pin that they can take baby steps towards the balloon - only if the kids are singing well. With a little guidance, the balloon makes it to the push pin by the end of the song and, POP! the balloon gets popped! The kids love it!

And just to recap - we did the rainbow in cups activity:
and it was just so much fun. Did they learn anything? Not really, most of them already know the song. Did the activity correlate to the song as much as I wanted it to? Not even close. But was it FUN? YOU BETCHA!!!!!! I might have to come up with a reason to do it again. I would add more red drops to the red spoon, (because red kind of came out pink) but it was so pretty and just plain fun to do.
All right - I'm going to turn into a pumpkin - no more midnight surfing for me

June Planning

Calendar Template by Sunbeam Singing:

June Planning

And here are the songs I plan to post:

June 2013 Songs for Posting by Laura Henckel

Memory game with song graphics

Months and months ago I happened upon Oh sing sing sing ... We love to sing. She shared this great resource: someone who has made and posted (for free!) various things on TpT [sign up for a free account today!!!! You won't regret it - I adore Teachers pay Teachers - sooooooo many fabulous idea].

I grabbed some of these great calendar pages, cut them up, laminated them and use them for playing memory. As Oh sing sing sing says: "I put the songs underneath them and have the kids call out 2 numbers and check to see if it is a match. I love them because they have the numbers on them so they can call out the number from their chair and saves time not having the kids get up and down and move all about.I can switch out what I put on the back. So far, I have just used song titles that we are reviewing this year. "

My previous post has the graphics I have used that are mostly from Susan Fitch Design. I reduced them to a size that would fit on the calendar cards and for the 2013 songs, since Susan just had one graphic each, I would print those pages twice. However, Susan made some previous graphics where she doubled the image and saved it as such - so of those I just printed one page. I was reading her 2013 primary song post again this evening and realized that the link she provides for the previous songs doesn't work. But you can find them here (and they are adorable!!!!!!!)

Hopefully later I'll be able to update with a picture of the cards (they are currently at the meetinghouse awaiting next week to serve as a substitute game as I will be out on vacation)

Hide the Magnet Cut and Paste

Primary Singing Time Magic has posed the question: ?What are your favorite "back pocket" ideas that you can just pull out of your bag and use when the situation arises?? *I am actually paraphrasing rather than quoting*
And I found this one that would be great for that {even though I didn't leave that in my comment}.

Again, from Notes from a Novice Primary Song Leader: Hide the Magnet

I have some of these that I got from Wal-Mart on clearance. The middle circles in them do have cute little designs, so at least they aren't as quite utilitarian looking. But what I really want is the ones below. [Especially since my brother totally works at HSN2!!!!! Maybe he can score one for me - he gets the best presents for everyone since he started working there -- how lucky am I?]

Anyway, Here is the idea from Notes from a Novice Primary leader:

Today, with a rowdy, holiday-weekend Jr. Primary, I decided at the last minute to do the good ol' hide-the-magnet game instead of my planned activity.  They LOVED it - Jr. and Sr. both - they sang great and participate the whole time!  It's a game they played often with the previous chorister.

Basic idea - you pick two children.  One goes out into the hall while the other hides the magnet (a good-size clamp one, like the kind you use to seal food bags or hang notes on the fridge with).  When the hall kid comes back in, the primary sings louder/softer depending on how close the hall kid is getting to the magnet.

Super simple.  No prep.  And, apparently, a fave for our primary.  

I had the idea of having the child that hides the magnet pick one of the songs (from my song graphic cards below - mostly by Susan Fitch Design), showing it to the kids and then clipping it to the magnet! Then the child who finds the magnet picks the next song, attaches it to the magnet (great fine motor skills for the younger set!) and hides the magnet.

Here are my song graphics - almost all of them are from Susan Fitch (the ones that are nowhere near as cute were done by me - you'll be able to tell). I did include some "fun songs" that aren't on the schedule for 2013 [and designed by Susan Fitch as well]

Matching Cards for 2013 Songs and Others

Double the Dice cut and paste

This half hour's cut and paste (for I will post another one as soon as I am done with this one) is from Notes from a Novice Primary Music Leader: Double the Dice!! She writes:

For our review , I am doubling the dice.  I printed a set of cards with the names of program songs for the year and will attach them to one of my "Ways to Sing" dice.  We'll have the kids take turn rolling both a song and a way to sing.  Easy and definitely reuseable!

Now ------
I have found fabuloso graphics from Susan Fitch designs. They are beautiful but the format they are in is a little different - when you paste the image, the image is in the right hand side and to the left of it there is quite a bit of blank space. So when I enlarged all these images, it looks kind of weird - I had to rotate to get the image in the left hand top side - so the image might be upside down or sideways, but when you cut it out, that won't be a problem.
Remember - all graphics except for "Can a Little Child like Me" and "I Know My Father Lives" are all by Susan Fitch (mine are lame, but what can you do - I picked very rare choices)

Large Song Graphics for Singing Dice

Give said the Little Stream cut and paste

And today's cut and paste idea is from one of my very favorite bloggers in blogland: Sofia's Primary Ideas!This awesome rocking blog was one of the very first I came across after being called to be primary president. With preparing monthly sharing times behind me, alas, I do not frequent her blog as much -- but it is still an incredible resource. As seen here below:

 

I'm so excited for spring songs!!

 

1. Take some paper and whip out your black marker.

 

2. Draw a stream, a cloud with raindrops & find a picture of Jesus from The Friend to cut out.

 

3. Hot glue on popsicle sticks. Hot glue wiggly eyes onto your stream, cloud & raindrops. Let the children hold/wave while you sing!

 

Fun! And simple!

Idea and picture belong to Sofia's Primary Ideas! Thanks again for another fantastic idea!!!! Can't wait to teach this song - most likely in summer

Songs for Posting for May

Here are the songs I will post for May (that I have not previously printed).
They are:
You've Had A Birthday p. 285
Mother Dear p. 206
Mother Tell Me the Story p. 204
I Want to Give the Lord my Tenth p. 250
Stand for the Right p. 259

May 2013 Songs for Posting

a rainbow in a couple of cups cut and paste idea

So, I was surfing again and found this FABULOUS idea that could work in a number of ways!
Primary Notes 29 found this idea from Primary Singing Ideas
1) Fill clear containers (ie: plastic drinking cups) with 3/4 cup water and 1/3 cup vinegar. (the ratio can be varied, but more vinegar= more fizz). PLACE CONTAINERS on a BAKING SHEET. This WILL MAKE A MESS!!!!

2) Place one small drop of food coloring on a metal spoon (don't use clear spoons, 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 and remain clear while fizzing, so make sure they keep stirring.
Once the fizz has settled down, the color will show up.

I will be using 6 different colors. red, green, yellow, blue, orange (one drop yellow and one drop red), and purple (one drop red and one drop blue) 





(Notice the water on the bottom of the baking sheet? It WILL bubble over and make a mess. Paper towels would be a good idea to bring...)

WAYS TO USE THIS IDEA:

• AS A REVIEW: Color of the water = a color on the board that represents the song we are to sing.
• LEARNING LYRICS: Color of the water is the color of words written on a white board or chalk board. Erase the words written in that color.
• Would be fun with the song When I Am Baptized (...I like to look for rainbows...) 

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So I thought - why yes This WOULD be a great activity for When I am baptized. I will probably write out the verses on a white board for Senior, but I made word strips with pictures for Junior (because I really like pictures - all from google - I just searched and clicked copy) So here is my pdf of word strips. It's not formatted well because I just plan on cutting it up and tacking it together on the board.

When I Am Baptized Word Strips by Laura Henckel

My Mother Dear Activity

A gift from above in the form of inspiration has hit me! I will be using this flip chart that I found on Sugardoodle that is in black and white and I will use the flip chart to go over the song in Junior and then I'll give them the coloring sheet.
BUT in Senior primary, we'll go over the song with the flip chart AND THEN I'll whip out my foam board (that I just might spray paint pink) and let THEM make the poster by coloring the flip chart, cutting out the words and adding a few additional pieces of clip art I found on google

I hope they like making the poster as much as I think that they will. Hey! I might even bring my paper cutter to make it that more interesting for them - My own kids think the paper cutter is just 9 ways to cool.

My Mother Dear

To bring confusion to primary song leaders everywhere, the song book has several mother's day songs. Out of those several two are named:

My Mother Dear
and
Mother Dear.

(confusing enough that there is a flip chart for "My Mother Dear" on the "Mother Dear" song helps page on sugardoodle)

Confused? I was. Mother Dear 206 is the more familiar one (in my opinion) : Mother Dear I love you so, your happy smiling face -  you know, the one you want to bob your head back and forth to the beat when you hear it -----

So of course, I will go for the lesser known one - because that is just how I roll

I found this awesome coloring page on sugardoodle. I am not sure if I want to let them take it home (thus, alerting moms not serving in primary which song we're doing - but maybe they are all like me and don't even take a second glance at what comes home - yep, sorry - please try not to judge - all coloring pages usually end up crumpled in my church bag for a few weeks and then tossed), but I probably will forget and they'll take it home anyway.
Also found some great flip charts, but I think I like this one the most and I am really trying to come up with a new way to use it

May 2013 Schedule

 

image from mycutegraphics

Here's my schedule for May

  

May – Song for the Month: Can a Little Child Like Me CS p.9

Theme: “Prophets Teach Us to Live the Restored Gospel”

Scripture: Amos 3:7

Birthday Song: You’ve Had a Birthday p.285

Welcome Song: Our Door is Always Open p. 254

Scripture/AOF Song: The Ninth Article of Faith p.128

May 5 – Week 1: The living prophet leads the Church under the direction of Jesus Christ.

Opening: Mother Dear p. 206

Practice Mother’s Day Song: My Mother Dear 203 for next week

May 12 – Week 2: Mother’s Day! The living prophet leads the Church under the direction of Jesus Christ.

Opening: Mother, Tell Me the Story p.204-205

Introduce Can a Little Child Like Me p.9

May 19 – Week 3: Prophets teach me to pay tithing.

Opening: I Want to Give the Lord My Tenth p.150

Review 2^nd and 3^rd verse of If the Savior Stood Beside me (I know, weird, but the Senior just reads my poster when I have it and the Junior doesn't know it at all so we need some review time)

May 26 – Week 4: Prophets teach me to live the word of wisdom.

Opening: Stand for the Right p.159

Hula Hoop Review from Camille’s Primary Ideas

I will do individual posts on each activity later -- HAPPY MAY!!!