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