Oh, What Do You Do In the Summertime?

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!  

In Jr. Primary this week, we sang through the 3 verses, using the props.  Then I pulled out a prop from a separate bag.  These items are shown below:

Various Props:  A super hero cape (top), snake, tree, marshmallows, hero type book, flowers, bee, fire, sidewalk chalk

Last night I spent 3 hours driving one of my girls to archery class and back.  That gave me plenty of time to do some pondering.  I came up with 5 verses to teach the primary.  

1.  Do you go to the Lakes and catch water snakes to make the girls scream so high?

2. Do you roast a marshmallow to share with the fellow who sits with you by the fire?

3. Do you climb tall trees, or run from the bees that sting noses and make us cry?

4. Do you like to smell flowers, or read books for hours of heroes who fight for the right?

5. Do you like to use chalk and draw on the sidewalk fun pictures that make others smile?

I spent this morning gathering the props needed to help teach them.  I placed the props in a separate bag than the original verses' props.  The first prop that was pulled out was the snake.  I asked the kids what words rhyme with snake.  Sunbeams don't know how to rhyme. :)  But they sure are cute!!   I asked them to think about where they could find snakes and come up with a rhyming word.  LAKE!!  I drew 3 "lakes" on the chalkboard and labeled them.  Then I asked what would happen if they went to some lakes and found water snakes and then decided to take them home.  Oh yeah!!  There would be some screaming, don't you think?  This is how we learned these verses.  We didn't do all of them, but we got to 3 of them.  We sang them just once because of the time we spent discussing (me trying to pull the verses out of them so that they felt they were the ones making up the verses.  I'm very sneaky like that!) each verse.  

For Sr. Primary we didn't bother with the 3 original verses.  I jumped right into the rhyming process used in those verses to set up the activity for the props I had brought and already used with the Jr. Primary.  I let a child come up and look through the items in the bag and then choose what one would be used.  The first item chosen was the artificial "tree".  They spouted out different words that rhymed as I wrote them on the chalkboard.  When they got excited about "bee", I pulled that out of the bag.  It just so happens that 2 days ago I was stung by a bee on my NOSE!  So I told them about it and they came up with the last rhyming word needed for the "I" in "So do I" at the end of the song.  The picture below is the result of the 4 verses they made up today.  They were so proud of themselves!  We invited the presidency back in at the end and sang all the verses for them.  The presidency just laughed and laughed!  Especially at the last verse.

CHALKBOARD TRANSLATION

-Oh, what do you do in the summertime when all the world is green:

Verse 1: Do you roast a marshmallow until it is yellow and make a gigantic s'more pie?

Verse 2: Do you draw with some chalk, a picture of Spock flying The Enterprise?

Verse 3: Do you climb a tree or run from a bee, then scream 'cuz it made you cry? 

Verse 4: Do you jump in a lake and get bit by a snake, then float to the surface and DIE?

-Is that what you do?  So do I!

Verse 4 was my favorite!  I'm a bit morbid and I must say that these kids TOTALLY surprised me with their creativity.  The only verse I had much influence on at all was the bee stinging one.  But they did fantastic with their rhyming and music skills in this activity!  I just hope I still have this calling next month after posting about Spock and floating dead bodies being sung in Primary. :\   

"Live long and prosper"!

5th Sunday FUN!

Every 5th Sunday I have the opportunity to use the full 35-40 minutes.  This time I am using a category game to review the doctrine they have been taught thus far in Sharing Time and the program songs we've learned.  Each category has the corresponding program song.  7 songs, 7 categories.  Service is from the month September in the outline.  We learned a song in February about that topic.  Here is the basic plan and I hope to post pictures at a later date.

Category type game: Set up like Family Fued.  2 teams.  1 Member of each team starts at the front room with bug catchers & critters as their buzzers (because it's summer and it's fun!).  Using the 7 learned Program Songs, I will say or sing a portion of a random phrase for them to finish.  First one to catch their critter gets the chance to answer.  If answered correctly, they add their critter to their team jar and that team gets to choose a Category first. If wrong, the other team gets a chance to answer correctly.  If both teams answer incorrectly, I will do a different phrase and start the process again.  1 category per song.  4 questions & 1 *tie breaker question per category.  A critter is earned for each correct answer. Winning Team of chosen category gets to choose which activity to do for that category song.  Chosen category must be completed (a winner) before singing the corresponding song with chosen activity.  Then start entire process over again with different team members at the buzzer to determine the next category.

-ACTIVITY-

Word Hat, Yarn Pull, Hot/Cold, 1-2-3 Dice, Paint a Pic, Reverent Mouse, Melody Sticks, Crescendo Croc, Conducting Elephant, 12 Ways 2 Sing carton

-SONGS- I Am a Child of God, My Heavenly Father Loves Me, I'm Learning the Ways of Jesus, If the Savior Stood Beside Me, Priesthood Medley, Follow the Prophet, I Want To Be Baptized

-CATEGORY-      -5 QUESTIONS-

Child of God        HF has a plan for us.  What's it called?  (plan of happiness)

                            Where did our lives begin?  (pre-existence)

                            HF gave us the power to choose.  What's it called? (Agency)

                            When we make good choices, what does HF gives us?  

                                   (blessings)

                          *The result of choices we make are called what? (consequences)

Nature                 Who created the earth? (Jesus Christ, under HF's direction)

                            How long did it take for Jesus to create the earth? (6 days)

                            What is the name of the garden where Adam & Eve first lived?   

                                   (Eden)                           

                           What is the event called when Adam & Eve left the garden? 

                                  (The Fall)

                         *Why was The Fall part of HF's Plan of Happiness? 

                              (So we could be born on the earth with physical bodies.  Prior 

                                 to The Fall, we all lived in the Spirit World, including Adam &    

                                 Eve while in the Garden of Eden.)

Service              Who is the perfect example for showing us how to serve others? 

                                (Jesus)

                          What does it mean when we serve others? (doing something     

                                good for someone else to help them or bless them.)

                          Who can you serve and how would you do do it?

                          Name 3 people who serve you. 

                                 (Parents, siblings, teachers, bishops)

                        *Fill in the blanks:  "When ye are in the service of your blank-blank 

                             ye are only in the service of your Blank".  (fellow beings-God)                                            

Savior                Who was Jesus' earthly father? (Joseph)

                          Tell of a time when Jesus served another person. 

                                 (Disciple's feet washing, Good Samaritan, Healing the sick)

                          Before Jesus was taken away by soldiers, He went to a special     

                               place to pray.  What is the name of that place?

                                      (Garden of Gethsemane)

                         What does it mean to be resurrected?  (The body and spirit are 

                                reunited)

                        *Fill in the blank:  "Because of Christ's blank, I can repent and live 

                                with God again." (Atonement)

Priesthood         Why did the priesthood disappear from the earth?  (Apostasy)

                          The gospel was restored again to the earth through whom? (JS)                         

                          Name one thing, or blessing, that we have today because of the 

                               Aaronic Priesthood. (baptism, passing of the sacrament)

                          Name one thing, or blessing, that we have today because of the 

                                Melchizedek Priesthood. (Confirmation, Healing the sick, 

                                       Sealing, and all temple blessings)

                        *Which arm, or portion of the priesthood was restored first, 

                                Melchizedek or Aaronic? (Aaronic)

                       *Name the Heavenly Messengers that gave the priesthood keys to 

                                Joseph Smith. (A-John the Baptist, M-Peter James & John

Prophets            Who does the prophet follow?  (God or HF)

                          What is the event where we can listen and watch our living    

                                prophet tell us what HF wants us to do to live more 

                                righteously? (General Conference)

                          The prophets teach us to pay our tithing.  How much do we pay?

                                (10% or 1/10th)

                          The prophets teach us to obey the Word of Wisdom.  Name 2      

                                 things that we should NOT allow into our bodies.  

                                        (tobacco, coffee, drugs, alcohol)

                         *Name 3 Latter-day apostles. (Uchdorf, Cook, Anderson, Packer, 

                                  Neilson, Perry, Oaks, Christofferson, Bednar....)

                         *Name all latter-day prophets in order.  (Joseph Smith, Brigham 

                                 Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, Lorenzo Snow, 

                                 Joseph F. Smith, Heber J. Grant, George Albert Smith, David 

                                 O. Mckay, Joseph Fielding Smith, Harold B. Lee, Spencer W. 

                                 Kimball, Ezra Taft Benson, Howard W. Hunter, Gordon B. 

                                 Hinckley, & Thomas S. Monson)

Baptism             What does the word "immersion" mean?

                          When we are baptized, we make promises to our HF and He 

                                 makes us promises if we live righteously.  What is the name 

                                 for these special promises?  (Covenant)

                          What special companion are you blessed with after you're 

                                 baptized?  (Holy Ghost)

                          What ordinance can you participate in every week to re-promise, 

                                 or renew your baptismal covenants? (Sacrament)

                        *How many parts or promises are there in the Sacrament Prayer?

                                 (4)

                        *What are those 4 promises? (take upon them the name of Thy 

                                Son [hand over heart], to always remember Him [point to    

                                forehead], to keep His commandments [hold out hands like a 

                                book], & to always have His Spirit [wrap arms around self])

Follow the Prophet Fun

I am struggling SO MUCH when it comes to finding the time to sit down and share what I am doing with my primary kids.  Being a wife and a mom to 4 teenagers and a tween, a private piano teacher of 17 students, and the primary chorister, I find it a miracle that I am mostly sane!  MOSTLY :)

Rather than try to catch up on what I HAVEN' T been able to blog, I will just blog when and what I can.  So for tomorrow, the last Sunday of May, we will be playing a review game with this month's song, "Follow the Prophet".  It is a word game.  We are singing 2 verses in the program, so I have made 2 stacks of word cards; one for each verse and a 3rd stack for the chorus.  Each verse stack contains one card for each word I wrote.

Stack 1 contains the following words:  Heavn'ly Father, loves, wants, return, blesses, prophets, help, learn, Pres'dent Monson, humbly, leads, God's, church, today, heed, words, walk, righteous, way

Stack 2 contains the following words:  Now, we, world, where, people, confused, you, don't, believe, go, watch, news, can, direction, along, way, heed, prophets, follow, what, they, say

Stack 3 contains only 5 cards with the following WAYS to sing the verse:  
       Rhythm:  lap, lap, clap, snap, clap
       Sing Popcorn Style (staccato)
       High-Five your neighbor as you sing the word "Follow".
       Rhythm:  Do a rhythm pattern with your neighbor. (nothing silly or too complicated)
       March:  1 row of children will march around the room while everyone else marches in place.
                    (I may get the prophet sticks from my nursery bucket for the row of marchers to hold)

Stack 3 has only 5 cards.  We will shuffle them if we end up re-using them.  

HOW TO PLAY
Place the numbered stacks face down in their own stack.  I have a wooden dice my husband made for me.  I have written only numbers 1, 2, and 3 on it.  A child will be chosen to roll the dice and a card 
will be picked from the corresponding stack of cards.  If it is from stack 1 or 2, I will choose a child to go out into the hall.  When they are out there, I will tell the remaining kids what the word is.  They will be instructed to NOT sing that word.  When the child from the hall comes back in, they will stand up front with me and listen to everyone sing the verse, hopefully guessing correctly which word was left out.  This will require the other kids to WATCH me and hopefully be able to accomplish this task.  I'll have to pull out Snappy Bob.  That's another post I've been wanting to share with you!   If a 3 is rolled, then everyone will participate in the action of singing the chorus. Then we will continue to play as time allows.

The words to verse 1 were published in The Friend in 2010.  
Heavn'ly Father loves us and wants us to return.
He blesses us with prophets who help us all to learn.
Pres'dent Monson humbly leads God's church today.
I we heed his words, we'll walk a righteous way.

Verse 2 is just verse 9 as written in the Children's Songbook.

For Sr. Primary you could have the "guessing" child stand at the front with a headband or hat on with the word card attached for everyone else to see.  I have a fancy flowery fruit hat we could use.  The kids will love wearing it!

Have a safe Memorial Day Weekend!