Army Of Helaman

Two teachers chose "Army of Helaman" as their song of choice for our Song of the Heart Singing Time.  I knew this song wasn't well known by most of the primary kids.  And it's also a powerful song that is sung by the missionaries in the MTC.  I found this idea for using shields to help them learn the song on Christy's Clip Art.  Her pictures weren't available to download anymore, though, so I came up with some from my own collection of pictures on my computer.  I also added some key words for some of the pictures & have included those words with the collection of pictures I used.

I made one shield for each verse & the chorus.  I had black foam board already in my stash & I traced a foam shield that I have had for a few years.  I got 2 shields per foam board.  I cut them out using a utility knife.  Don't forget to put an extra piece of cardboard under the foam board where you are cutting.  Unless you don't mind your counter/table gouged:)

To hide the rough edges, I went to Walmart & found some silver metallic duct tape back in their paint section.  They had some awesome fire & peace sign ones as well:)  But I wanted silver.

I glued two pieces of the rough side of velcro on the back, about 3 inches apart.  Then I cut a generous length of the soft piece of velcro to allow the children to fit it around their arms comfortably.  I have quite a bit of velcro in my sewing stash that was just waiting to be put to good use:)  I also have self adhesive velcro that I had cut into smaller pieces & I used those for the back of each picture.  That way the pics are removable & I can use the shields for other activities as well.  (Like "Scripture Power")

The Jr. Primary learned the first verse & chorus.  They did o.k.  They really liked marching in place during the chorus!  The Sr. Primary loved the entire song.  All 3 verses!  Which was great since the teachers who chose this song were both in the Sr. Primary.

Some of the kids didn't really know the story of the Stripling Warriors.  So after talking about it a bit & refreshing their memories they dove right in & sang beautifully!