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!