Marshmallows & Popcorn!

The Sunday before our scheduled Primary Program, we did a rehearsal in the primary room.  As I had browsed through blogs weeks before this, I remembered an idea that another chorister had used as incentive for her kids to sing their program songs well.       For each Program song they sang extremely well, they earned a large marshmallow that was placed in a jar.  At the end of rehearsal, I placed (shoved) every marshmallow into my mouth and without swallowing or chewing them, I attempted to sing to them one of their favorite songs, "Popcorn Popping".  Impossible, you think?  Just watch how many they earned & how much fun they had!!!

A BIG thank you to Bro. M for recording this event!  

P.S.  I have yet to consume any more marshmallows.  However, I can at least think about them now without physically gagging:)  

I Will Follow God's Plan/Scripture Power-Week 1

New month=New song!  After a 5 week month in January, it's nice to move on to something new.  For our Primary, this month is a short one.  We have Stake Conference on February 27th, so we only have 3 weeks to concentrate on the monthly song(s).  To make it even more challenging, our Primary is also learning/reviewing "Scripture Power".  BRING IT ON!!!!

This month I want to use props to teach the song(s).

So without further adieu, I present my "I Will Follow God's Plan" prop list:

1st Half
gift wrapped box- My life is a gift,
plan of salvation diagram-  my life has a plan; My life has a purpose, 
large cloud-  in heav'n it began
picture of earth covered with a large home- My choice was to come to this lovely home on earth
eye glasses/flashlight- And seek for God's light to direct (have child use flashlight like the airport runway workers do to direct ground plane traffic)
baby doll- me from birth


2nd Half
plan of salvation diagram w/foot prints on it- I will follow God's plan for me
rope with "love" sign attached- Holding fast to His word and His love
construction hat- I will work and I will pray (have child wearing hat also fold arms for praying)
a shoe- I will always walk in His way
picture of earth covered with a big happy face- And I will be happy on earth
large cloud with a large home in it- And in my home above


The song is written as if there's a verse and a chorus.  So for me, it makes sense to teach the song by splitting it into 2 sections.  Besides, it's a long song & I know my Jr. Primary kids won't be able to take it all in one week anyway.  Sr. Primary, however, can handle it.




"Scripture Power" is a song that many of the Sr. Primary kids have learned in the past.  So for them, this will be a review.  For the majority of the Primary, it'll be a completely new song.  I'll teach the Jr. Primary kids the chorus first.  I will check out about 10 scriptures from the library for them to hold up every time they sing "Scripture Power".  I know it's been done before.  But I feel that they'll stay attentive & by only handing out those few scriptures, they'll need to take turns.  Thus, we can sing it multiple times without getting bored with it:)  I will also have the Sr. Primary use their scriptures in the same way.  I just won't use the libraries, as most of these kids bring their own sets.

So here's my prop list for "Scripture Power":


VERSE 1
picture of Christ- Because I want to be like the Savior, and I can,
scriptures- I'm reading His instructions, 
plan of salvation diagram- I'm following His plan.
hero's cape- Because I want the power His word will give to me,
CTR shield- I'm changing how I live, I'm changing what I'll be.


CHORUS
an anti-sin sort of picture- keeps me safe from sin
ribbon or gold medal- is the power to win
sun picture/scriptures- ev'ry day I need the power that I get each time I read


VERSE 2 ( only 1 child needs to help by wearing the armor & raising sword, shield, etc.. as we sing)
foam sword with truth written on it- I'll find the sword of truth in each scripture that I learn.
foam shield with faith written on it- I'll take the shield of faith from these pages that I turn.
helmet, etc.- I'll wear each vital part of the armor of the Lord,
ribbon or gold medal- And fight my daily battles, and win a great reward.




I'm off to start making/gathering my props!!

January Review Week

Tomorrow is our review day.  I had told the primary kids on week 1 that if they learned all 3 verses of January's song by the end of the 4th week, we'd have a game day on week 5.  So tomorrow's a big, big day!  I have cut out the pictures of If I Listen Verse Pics Only.  No words.  I'll place the pictures on the table & have a child come up to choose the ones that go to verse 1.  We'll place them on the chalkboard & do a quick review run through.  Then we'll have do an activity to re-enforce that verse.  We'll repeat this process for each verse, allowing a total of 6 minutes per verse.

Below, I've listed the activities for each verse.  The Pitch Sticks & Paint a Melody are ideas I found on The Children Sing Blog. The concept is similar to what we did with the Lily Pads & Frogs when learning verse 2, so it won't take much time to explain it to them.  I found colorful sticks at the dollar store to use & a 30 pack of brushes at Joanne's for $1.99.

Verse 1:  Pitch Sticks
Verse 2:  Paint the Melody
Verse 3:  Crescendo the Crocodile

If I feel the Paint the Melody will be to "babyish" for the Sr. Primary, I'll just pull out the Lily Pads & Frogs.  They loved that!  If I do, it'll be for the 1st verse and then use the Pitch Sticks for the 2nd verse.

Crescendo the Crocodile

This is Crescendo the Crocodile.  My daughter, Brynn drew him for me.  I admire people who can draw more than just stick figures.  I just can not make what I see in my head come out on paper, or chalkboard, or dry erase board:)  Brynn knows I've tried!  She gets a great laugh out of my effort and takes pity on me.  He is drawn on green poster board & is about 20-22 inches in length.

I teach piano and I love it.  I love teaching the children & I try to make learning fun, yet a bit realistic as well.  When teaching about crescendo and diminuendo definitions, I have found that if I compare the symbols to the jaws of a crocodile, they never forget what they mean.  The picture below is Crescendo the Crocodile with his jaws open, showing the children that they need to progressively sing a short phrase louder.  They have 4-6 beats to go from the volume they're at to an increased volume, appropriate for that phrase.  That means they have to watch the conductor (me!) to know just how loud to increase.  

I taught them the 3rd verse of "If I Listen With My Heart" using this method.  I chose to teach them through teaching dynamics because this verse is the most beautiful & spiritually touching verse.  I want them to crescendo on the phrase, "He testifies of Christ".  The trick is to teach them how much volume is too much for that phrase.  No ugly yelling.  And then also help them understand & learn what "gradually or progressively" means.  Once they understood all of that, we learned diminuendo.  This is when Crescendo the Crocodile gradually closes his jaws, they gradually reduce their volume.  This concept was used with the next phrase, "He speaks to me in quiet ways that fill my soul with peace".  It is a bit of a quicker decrease in volume here because I want them quiet by the time they sing "me in quiet ways".  They then just continue to finish the phrase in a peaceful manner.  They did a FANTASTIC job!  I don't think I'll need to stress out in September to get them to add dynamics to the song.  Learn it the first time & save yourself the pains!  And the kids really, really love putting those affects into the music.  

So this is the back of Crescendo the Crocodile.  Normally I wouldn't have details drawn on the back.  But I didn't pay close enough attention to the direction Brynn drew him for me.  I even cut him out before I realized he was facing the wrong way.  So I flipped him over & retraced the teeth & outline.  Brynn drew me another eye.  I used one of those thingies that poke through the papers & allow papers to turn.  Hey, it's almost midnight right now & I'm out of brain power!  I'm sure you know what I'm trying to say:)  Then I place 2 dowels I had in my craft closet on each jaw & taped them in place with clear packing tape.  I held a dowel in each hand to open & close his jaws.  His jaws always pointed to my left.  The kids would take turns with him & practice crescendo-ing and diminuendo-ing at all sorts of parts in the song.  But they got the concept & then had fun with it!

Leaping Frog

I was looking at this wonderful blog and she mentioned something about Melody Maps and frogs and using pitch sticks.  This sparked an idea!  I've said it before, "I'm a great copy cat, not super creative".

This is the method I used to teach the kids the 2nd verse of "If I Listen with My Heart".  I found a lily pad clip art to down load for free.  I copied 18 lily pads on bright green cardstock, laminated them & placed a magnet strip on the back of each one.  Why 18?  That is how many notes are used for the first 2 phrases of the song.  I wanted to teach it phrase by phrase.  Note are exactly the same for both except for the last 3 notes of the phrases.  So for the 2nd phrase, I just moved those 3 lily pads to their correct position.

I found a free clip art frog & made 6 of them.  I laminated them & taped them to the end of little dowel sticks I found at Walmart in the craft section.  For the main part of this activity, you only need one frog.  I just made extras to hand to the sunbeams to wave as we sang so that they could be pacified:)

Before Singing Time, I set up the lily pads on the large chalkboard in a Melody Map.  This is just the position of the notes as they are sung.  When the notes go lower, your lily pad is placed lower.  When the note jumps higher, your lily pad should be placed accordingly.  As we sang the notes, I took my frog and had him hop from one lily pad to the next, simulating the pattern of the melody.  We sang really slow so that the kids could see that many of the words ended up being sung on more than one note.  This way they could sing the notes more clearly and pronounce the words correctly.  We did this for the first 2 phrases.  By then, they had the hang of it & I gave them turns to come up and do the frog.  They LOVED it!

For the 3rd phrase, I changed the lily pads by using only 8 of them.  I stacked them vertically and explained another way to conduct the pitches.  Still using the frog, we sang the 3rd phrase as I moved the frog down & up the vertical row of lily pads, showing the interval jumps clearly.  Then I had them take the frog while I just used my hand in front of me.  They had a great time!

Throughout all the teaching of the 2nd verse, I made sure to ask questions about the pictures and get their answers to flow into the song the way it is written.  Most of the time their answers were just off by a word or two than the actual song lyrics.  It keeps them engaged:)

I will be using this method again next week as we review all 3 verses.

If I Listen With My Heart

January 2011 is here:)  That means the time has come to start teaching your primary children the first of many songs needed for the program in the 4th quarter.  Let me just start by saying I LOVE THIS SONG!  I also got a lot of teaching helps and ideas from Kathleen's blog.  Research her blog.  She's very thorough.

I found plenty of flip charts out there for this song.  But none of them felt just right for my primary.  I made one to add to your list of choices.   If I Listen With My Heart Flip Chart 

The first week I introduced the song to the children.  I asked them to listen to the song & tell me the 3 ways we can hear the Savior's voice.  My plan was to play the CD for them to listen to.  But of course that would be too easy!  My CD player went kaput right there in Primary.  So I sucked it up and sang it to them.  Yep, if I can do it.....you can too!  I'm a piano teacher, not a vocalist.  But I survived (obviously) and I haven't heard of any children that have been permanently traumatized.  The kids closed their eyes while I sang.  That helped me:)  They were able to answer the question: scriptures, living prophet, Holy Ghost.

Then we learned the first verse.  I simply asked them questions about the pictures & likened them to them.  I made it very personal to each of them, individually.  I used sticky notes to cover the words & uncovered the key words as we went along.  They did a great job & were anxious to learn the 2nd verse.  But that will be another post:)