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