December Planning

(source)

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

 

<source>

(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

{source}

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:

{source}

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

{source}

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