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

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

June Planning

Calendar Template by Sunbeam Singing:

June Planning

And here are the songs I plan to post:

June 2013 Songs for Posting by Laura Henckel

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