Thanksgiving Ideas

I am completely ready for Thanksgiving thanks to Camille's Primary Ideas - with the Turkey Toss and Thanksgiving Sing a Story, I've been set for years now. But just in case I continue to have this calling and I would like to switch things up, here are some Thanksgiving ideas for the future.

I have recently discovered the Barefoot Chorister. It's SO EXCITING for me when I find a new chorister web site! There is a post on Thanksgiving Ideas which towards the end has a fantastic Roll the Turkey game. In the same post she linked to another blog that has several games that can be adapted for Singing Time. There's a Turkey Turkey, Who's got the Turkey game, a Turkey Bowling game and lots of other cute Thanksgiving posts that someone might be able to adapt for singing time. And November of next year, like this year, has 5 Sundays, so some of those cute games might come in handy.

Next Year's Fourth of July Activity

Which will still be in June - but what can you do? However, it will NOT be a fifth Sunday. Hate that I found it AFTER this year's Fourth of July Activity, but next year will be new and fresh.
THANK YOU Primary Notes 29!
Her post is as follows:

The planes are named words from the song we sang (My Country, verse 2).
Naming the planes was helpful for when we "kept score".

Put landing strip on the ground and...

Idea #1:

1. Choose child to throw the plane on the landing strip.
2. Whatever # area the plane lands in, sing that way (MARCHING, SALUTE, HAND ON HEART...)
3. Repeat

Idea #2:

1. Choose three older children to be the "score keepers"
2. Write the names of the planes on the board
3. Sing
4. Choose a child to throw the first plane
5. Give that plane it's points (if it didn't land on the runway we gave it 5 points)
6. Repeat for the next plane. And so on.

PREP:

landing strip

paper airplanes
optional traffic controller sticks

Fourth Week in July

For July, surprise, surprise - I am completely plagiarizing someone and copying Camille from Camille's Primary Ideas and will do her Baptism shirt idea. But that just takes 3 of the 4 weeks in July. But I found this rocking idea from Precious Primary!:

I can't wait to try it! I may stop at just learning the verses as written in the songbook, but I adore her additional verses! So creative! And original! (This is why I copy others!)

Directly from Precious Primary (photos from that site as well)
Summer vacations are well under way and our Primary attendance shows it.  Instead of learning a new song for the program, I like to do fun activities during the summer.  For the last 2 weeks, we have sung "Oh, What Do You Do in the Summertime?" (CS-245).

Last week we sang through the 3 verses using props.  Many of the Jr. Primary kids didn't know this song and it was fun to see them pick it up quickly.  We sang through each verse 2 times, using different kids to hold the props each time.  For the last run through, we wanted to sing all 3 verses without stopping.  I handed out the various props to the kids with instructions to come up front when their verse comes around.  When we started singing the end "Is that what you do?  So do I", the current verse prop kids went back to their seats and the next verse prop kids came to the front.  By the time we were singing the end of the beginning "when all the world is green", they were in the correct order and we sang away!  They did great!

Verse 1 props:  Fishing pole, Pillow, Cloud

You may need to clarify the definition of "bank".  None of the Jr. Primary kids knew what that phrase meant as they thought it had to do with Savings accounts and such. Kind of funny:)

Verse 2 props:  Swim goggles, Hand fan, Artificial greenery with a swing hanging from a "branch".  Artistry done by courtesy of my 11 year old, Olivia and attached to the swing with poster putty.  The swing is made from craft foam and hemp string.  

The primary kids LOVED this prop.

Verse 3 props:  Flag, Lemonade bottle, Star sticks

What parade doesn't have flags?  I had just emptied 2 huge lemon juice containers the day before.  So I pulled one out of recycling.  Then I took 2 patriotic straws, taped them together for the length I needed and stuck it in the bottle.  Kids loved this prop, too.  They were instructed to NOT put their mouths on the straw.  EW! 

Back to me - I LOVE this song. I know very few LDS people my age who do not. However, I feel it is a song that has just fallen off the radar and I doubt my children would even recognize it if I sung it to them. I cannot wait to teach it! Thank you Precious Primary!

Lego Derby for 5th sunday in August

So, August ALSO has five Sundays in it. This past fifth Sunday I did a simplified version of the 4th of July poppers (without the cardboard tubes) and somehow it didn't seem as fun, but it occupied the whole time, so I guess I can't complain.

While I wouldn't call last Sunday an EPIC FAIL, it did make me think that I would have to work extra hard to come up with something awesome for the ridiculously soon next fifth Sunday.

I hope I have found it - although it will require some buying of lego wheels for me.

Here it is - completely plagiarized from Hum Your Favorite Hymn

My son was a new Cub Scout so I had Pinewood Derby on the brain -- I decided to do a LEGO Pinewood Derby! I made a very very simple cardboard ramp (and in the Primary room, I just propped it up against a chair at the back of the room).

For both Junior and Senior it was the same.
I put together bags of LEGOs beforehand, one per class. The same exact number and type of LEGOs. Also beforehand, we made 5 basic LEGO cars (Junior and Senior each have 5 classes) -- wheels and a base for them to build on.

I also prepared papers that listed their song choices.

So we began by singing one song together.
Then I handed out the bags of LEGOs to each class, and one of the cars, and told them they had a couple of minutes to work together to add the LEGO pieces to their car.
We then chose two classes to go first -- they raced their cars, and the winner got to pick the next song from my list of songs.
Then another class raced the winner of that race.
And so on until everyone raced.
It was kind of rowdy but fun!

Super Sub Activity Cut and Paste: Egg Carton Coin

Found another thing to stash away for substitute situations!

Thank you Primary Notes 29!

Egg Carton Coin

Have an empty egg carton with numbers written in each egg hole. Each number represents either; 1) a way to sing, OR 2) a song to sing. Put a small bead or coin in the carton. Ask a child to shake the egg carton. Open it. Whatever number the coin landed on is what you do.

 

Think I just might whip one of these up this week!

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

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

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...) 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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

Subway Art from Sunbeam Singing

Sunbeam Singing has posted some fabulous Subway Art Posters for songs from the song book! I am so excited I can hardly breathe properly!

So I have taken these awesome works of art and reduced them to distribution size! I have a small primary, so my goal is to give the ring cards to the senior (about 7 kids) and the albums to the junior kids (about 9 kids). I haven't talked to the president yet, but I am really excited

Subway Art Songs Small by Laura Henckel

Subway Art Songs Picture Album Size by Laura Henckel

I am not actually doing "Golden Plates" this year, but it is so adorably cute, I couldn't resist. And so far she has these two (and I know for a FACT I could not duplicate this awesomeness on my own for different songs), so I'm printing them up anyway!

St. Patrick's Day Singing Time

Didn't even have to think on this one (of course, that is the case many times - thank you singing time ladies!!!!!)
St. Patrick's day is ON Sunday this year, and Primary Singing Time Ideas for Leaders posted an absolutely incredible Lucky versus Blessed St. Patties idea with corresponding songs (So I don't have to think!!!!!! This is great!) But seriously, it is a wonderful idea that I am so blessed to have found. Thanks so much Brittney!!!

Missionary game

Thanks to Primary Notes 29, I found another great idea!

This super awesome missionary game from Susan Fitch Design.

Susan Fitch Design has all of the parts in a zip file and you have to download each jpg. I have put each jpg in a word document and if you would like to have a copy of my word doc, just comment below. {Didn't ask the author yet, so I didn't feel it would be right to post a pdf of all of her jpgs} Keep in mind, this is all Susan's work - I just copied and pasted (LOVE that control-V action!!!!!) 

Bubble Gum Ben

Found a great idea on the Facebook Choristers page:

Bubble Gum Ben (Or maybe Bob or Billy or Brad - I have a son named Benjamin who might get a bit possessive, so I'll probably have to change it). The above image is from livecrafteat.com and in the post, the author said if you emailed, she would send you a pdf of the tracings of her pieces. I got mine just a few hours after I emailed and I can't wait to use it!!!!! Thank you so much Katie!

If the Savior Stood Beside Me activity from the Friend

Boo
stinking
Yah
is all I can say.
So I JUST posted a post saying that I need to use the Friend more. Then I find THIS. Oh WOW. 

So, five years ago, this song was learned in primary as well. I'll probably use this diorama if the fabulous ladies in the primary presidency don't have the same idea. I'm going to use this for the last week in March (and may bring a game, just in case someone does have the same idea)

Singing Clock

Oh where, oh where would we be without the Friend? I think I forget about it way too often. In the wake of new ideas and this rambling treasure trove of the internet, I become like a kid in a giant candy store with my eyes wide and not able to focus on anything for more than a minute. So slowing down for a second, here is a fabulous idea from the Friend - a resource that I need to keep going back to way more often than I do.

I found this awesome singing clock via the chorister group on facebook. From the Friend, of course. October 1983, idea by Pat Graham and illustrated by Beth Maryon

An Idea for 5th Sunday

I often browse through the oodles of primary blogs (see list at right) and think: "Oh, that's a great idea - I'll do that weeks and weeks from now" and for some reason I don't stop to think "And yes, I had better write that down or make a post or something so I won't forget it"

So I forget and then consequently spend unmentionable amounts of time looking for that idea again.

As a consequence, my posts won't be as chronological as I initially planned.

So today's cut and paste idea is:
The Every Last Lyric Game from Sunbeam Singing

found on google images

And no, I never have heard of this game, but it sounds like a super game for Senior Primary. In our branch, we plan on having a Singing Time Sharing Time (Singing time for the whole block), so I am trying to come up with ideas to fill up the whole time.


Apparently you write something down continuously until someone rolls doubles. So in this case, it would be writing down lyrics to songs you are reviewing.