Oldie But A Goodie

I noticed that when you only learn one song a month, it gets a little old and tiring.  I have a monthly routine that kind of follow:

1st Sunday: Learn new song

2nd Sunday: Review new song

3rd Sunday: Oldie But A Goodie Week

4th Sunday: Review Game (All songs learned for the primary program so far)

Of course we don't only sing one song a day, I open with wiggle song, close with a reverent song, sometimes have a wiggle or quiet song in the middle depending on behavior..

But one of my favorite Sundays is the Oldie But A Goodie Week.  This is for all of those parents and teachers that have these great ideas like "Why don't you teach the song We'll Bring The World His Truth?" not realizing that you have a detailed plan of what songs you need to teach each Sunday that go along with the theme for the day and the outline that the General Presidency has given you listing the songs to teach.  (Sorry, rant over.)

But I do agree, there are songs that are some of my favorites that I want to teach.  And this is how I bring it in.  This song isn't for performing, so it doesn't have to be perfect.  But it is a good way to mix in some new songs for opening and closing.

So I found a record at Goodwill with some really old people on the cover.  (The kids love it.)  And then I pull out the record and we see what song it is that I have written on it!  And that's it!

~Kate

Mother's Day - Jail

One of the biggest hits in primary that I've had was one mother's day.  I decided that I would get some of the children's mothers and put them in jail.  (Ok, so one child in junior cried a little, but she was ok in the end.)

I our primary we have those accordion room dividers.  So I closed one half-way, and on the open half I hung black strips (that I made from cutting a plastic black tablecloth) to make it look like a jail.  I put the mother's behind it.

I had the mom's sneak in during sharing time.  Then I had my volunteer "Stinky Pete" come in.  A real fun dad that was up to play the part (his kids loved it).  So I started singing time with a wiggle song and then he came in.  He pulled back the divider half way (revealing the jail) and then the moms stood behind it fake crying and whimpering.  The kids faces were priceless.  He then cackled a bit and sat down on a chair in front of the chair.  I had him wear an old cowboy hat and chew a piece of straw.

Then I whispered to the kids a secret.  And they were so quiet and paying attention!  I told them that Stinky Pete had a weakness, if you sing really good and loud it actually puts him to sleep!  So we sang some review songs for the program, and I added in a few reverent lullaby-ish ones too, and they sang so well!  Every time they sang good he "fell asleep" and 1 mother would escape!  The kids were thrilled each time to say the least, even senior primary got really into it.

In the end all of the mothers escaped and Stinky Pete was sad he just wanted his own mother.  (The kids loved his fake cry.)  So we sang a mother's day song to him and it made him happy.  Then the kids all ran up and gave him a group hug.  This part was cute, but not so reverent.  Oh well, I learned that group hugs in church some times end up as a dog pile and that is NOT reverent for church!

~Kate

Learn Song - Giant Pop-Up Book

Who doesn't love a good pop-up book?  My son loves this scary Maurice Sendak pop-up book, I mean obsessed.  It is so amazing and intricate.

So it gave me the idea to make my own.  The song I used for this was Primary Colors.  I did this song because I thought we could use a new welcome song, and that song works well enough.  (Aren't you sick of the same 3 songs?)

I decided to use a tri-fold because there are 2 opening for the pop-up affect.  The front I had some pictures that went with the song, and then I opened up one side for some pop-up action, and then the other side.

The kids were so surprised when I opened it up!  It was worth the extra effort.  And then when we sing to a visitor the kids always beg me to get out the "book".

To create it I just googled how to make a pop-up book and did some easy things, stuff hanging down, whatever you can make work.

~Kate

Learn Song - Replace Missing Word

The song I used this idea on was I Am A Child of God but you could do any song.

I printed on card-stock the lyrics to the verses I wanted to learn that day, or you could just write it on the chalk-board.  (But you don't want to always use one or the other.  I like to mix it up with using pictures, words, chalk-board, actions... you get the idea.  Just so it's different every week.)

Anyway, every now and then I left out a word and just had a blank.  I had the missing words printed out and hidden in a bucket filled with macaroni noodles that I had left-over from something else.  But you could do anything!  Then one by one they came up and dug out a word and then had to find where it went.  After each word we sang the song once through.  Every time there was a blank I just hummed, even though they knew a lot of the words.  

The key here is repetition.  It always is!  But the kids really like to come up and dig.  It worked.

~Kate