Choose the Right

If you are teaching the songs in the order of the outline,you have already taught this song to your primary. In February, I we learned "Build An Ark". March's song is "Stand For the Right", which we already know. So we learned "Choose the Right" while reviewing "Stand For the Right".

For the program, only the Jr. Primary will sing "Stand For the Right". Only the Sr. Primary will be singing "Choose the Right", but the Jr. will join in for just the chorus. I think it will work fine.

The Sr. Primary learned verses 1 & 3 plus the chorus while the Jr. Primary learned the chorus only & enjoyed reviewing "Stand For the Right" with the String Bees (Picture of the String Bees is at the bottom of the post). I made a poster (on green, of course!) for the verses. It all fit on a piece I had left over from a piano practicing project. It was about 3/4 of a full size poster board. Perfect!

 For the chorus, I made 4 different pictures for the kids to hold up as we sang (CTR shield for obvious reasons, BOM for wisdom, a sun for its light, and Jesus blessing the children for bless you ever more). These pictures started on popsicle sticks and didn't last 2 minutes!  So we just held the pictures in our hands. As we sang the verse and then the chorus, everyone would hold up their picture at the appropriate time in the chorus. Then they would trade someone else for a different picture and we'd do it all again, making it 4 times of repetitive singing. Jr. Primary struggled a bit with all the switching pictures, but we managed in the end:)

String Bees the Nursery & Jr. Primary use to sing "Stand For the Right". 

We do actions with the song as well.  Actions are posted here.

Ideas for Stand For the Right

Did you notice the changes I made on the blog?  I'm anticipating Spring and jelly beans remind me that it's coming soon!  Tuesday, March 20th in fact:)  Which means I have less than 3 weeks to get my girls' Spring Baskets ready.  No Easter Baskets from the bunny at our house.  We totally separate the worldly celebration of Easter from the spiritual and TRUE meaning of the special occasion.  Off my soap box and back to the anticipation of SPRING!  

With March's Primary song, "Stand For the Right" I thought it would be perfect to incorporate Spring in teaching it. Last year I made this visual aid for a singing time.  Click here to read how to make one yourself & the way I used it in primary. 

As I thought about ways to teach "Stand For the Right" (aka BEE True!), this zippin' bee board came to mind.  By placing pictures or symbols underneath each flower, BEE can hover over each flower as your primary sings the song.  

FLOWERS

BLUE- picture of Pres. Monson: Our prophet has some words for you. 

ORANGE- the words "Be True!": And these are the words: "Be true! Be true!"

RED- pictures of a hammer a sports ball: At work or at play,

YELLOW-  pictures of moon and sun : In darkness or light.

WHITE- picture of CTR symbol: Stand for the right.

Notice that I didn't give the 2nd "Be true, be true!" to another flower.  I figure BEE can zip back 2 flowers to the orange one for it and then zip back to the end flower (white) for "stand for the right".  

This bee board might be a bit difficult for the Jr. Primary kids to manipulate.  Sr. Primary would do great with it, though.  And to continue repeating the song, you could always have them sing different ways (ie. staccato, soft, loud).

Now for something the Jr. Primary will enjoy!  

I thought about the bees & butterflies on strings I made last summer for the Nursery.  By just using the BEE's, we could hold the strings in one hand while we do actions for the song lyrics.  These bees are used for the same purpose I made the leaves on strings. I just changed the lyrics to a summer time song:)  

For "Stand For the Right", each child will stand up & sway their bee string back and forth to the feel of the music.  

1. Teach "Our prophet has some words for you and these are the words" as you "fly" the bee back & forth.  
2. When you sing "Be true! Be true!", raise your string hand above your head in a fist.  Then pump it 4 times as you sing "Be true! Be true!". Keep your string hand in a fist for the rest of the song.
3. For the phrase "At work or at play", act out shoveling dirt and then throwing a ball. 
4. "In darkness or light", put both fists over your eyes to make it "dark" and then pop your eyes open for light and move your fists to the sides away from your eyes.  
5. As you move your fists away, prepare the string fist to pump to "Be true, be true"
6. As you sing "And stand", place the string fist firmly on your chest over your heart.
7. As you sing "for", stomp one foot firmly on the ground.
8. As you sing "the", stomp the other foot firmly on the ground right next to the first foot.   
9. As you sing "right", you can either do a firm nod of your head OR you could raise those string fists firmly in the air & hold them there until Chorister cuts off the singing. I'm liking the picture in my head of them holding up their string fists until the cut off.  I can imagine battle swords in those little fists representing their choice in standing for truth & righteousness in this world:)

Slow the song down at the end so that you have enough time to do the actions to emphasize the lyrics.

This last idea is what I actually did to teach the Jr. Primary this song LAST year.  

These are just some ideas I had and I wanted to share.  If you're looking for some inspiration, maybe these with spark a little something for you!

Build An Ark Helps

The first week, we were only able to learn the first half of the first verse. With the complexity of this song, it was to be expected. The kids all enjoyed learning about the raindrops and rainbows as they learned the melody. They especially liked the frozen raindrops!

On week 2 we reviewed what we had learned the previous week and learned the rest of verse 1. To make things a bit more visual for them, I printed out pictures to go with the song. I cut them out in the shape of a cloud, outlining them with a black marker. I placed the main picture cloud at the beginning of the line of each part (A, B, C, D). I also wrote in some key lyrics with chalk above or below the raindrops/rainbows as needed. And since we were past the "short-long" chanting, we were able to have kids come up to be the "pointer" of the 'drops & 'bows as we sang repetitively. The Sr. Primary kids were competitive! Each child wanted to point EXACTLY perfect to each raindrop & rainbow. They definitely understand the concept much better than the Jr. Primary. But each level did a great job and more importantly, they learned the whole 1st verse!

This is the only picture I have from week 2. I forgot my camera again! Luckily, our secretary has a cool phone AND the know how to use it. Thanks, Tina!

For week 3, our goal was to learn the 1st half of verse 2 for Jr. and the entire verse 2 for Sr. But I wanted to change it up a bit. So instead of placing the 'drops & 'bows on the board as I'd done previously, I wanted the kids to do it. In order to do this, I wanted more visuals (pictures) for them. I decided to make my own "flip chart". I know that I posted a link on my last post of a beautiful chart that Mary put together last year, but I needed MORE pictures. I'm such a literal thinker that I NEEDED more pictures for the abundant lyrics involved in this song. I'm also a visual learner. As I visualized each part of the song, I quickly realized that I would end up with A LOT of pictures to flip. There's no way I could flip them fast enough. That's when I thought about the TOTALLY AWESOME birthday present my hubby gave me the week before. My iPad 2! I am a MAC lover. I will never go back to a PC. NEVER. EVER. I can sync all my iPhotos from my MAC to my iPad. Then I have the "Doodle Buddy" app where I can create my own iPad flip chart. 

By sliding my finger across the screen, I can easily keep up my "flipping" with the pace of the song. SO COOL! The kids thought it was fabulous:) And now I can upload these pics onto my MAC, convert them to PDF form and have them available for anyone who wants them! 

For Sr. Primary, we went through each part, learning the lyrics. As we were singing, I had 2 kids come up to the board to work together on figuring out the pattern of the raindrops & rainbows. We would sing that part over and over again, checking if the pattern was correct. If it was, we went on to the next part, choosing 2 different kids to put up the next pattern. If the pattern wasn't quite right, we sang it again as needed until the correct changes were made. They would then add repeat signs and fermatas where needed. The kids would need to look at the pics I was sliding across my screen and learn them quickly & well enough that they could transfer that knowledge to the raindrop & rainbow method they had learned. They did great and learned the entire 2nd verse!

The Jr. Primary was a bit different:) Starting with part A, I pulled out those raindrops & rainbows. I called up enough kids to the front to each hold a raindrop or rainbow for the lyrics. I placed them in the correct order. As we sang, I would put my hand over the child, according to the rhythm. In other words, instead of the 'drops & 'bows being on the board and me pointing to them as we sang, the kids held their piece and I placed my hand over their heads as we sang. Whew! When we learned that part, I just let the kids put their pieces on the chalkboard wherever they wanted, as they went back to their seats. We did get the first half of the 2nd verse learned. We also sang the parts after the pieces were randomly on the board by watching my cool flip chart:)

I have 3 separate flip charts. They are all the same pictures, but they have varying amounts of the lyrics on each picture. One flip chart has every lyric on the pictures.

Another flip chart has only key words on the pictures.

The last one is pictures only, no lyrics at all.

Each flip chart has 29 pictures. I told you I NEEDED a lot of pictures! But you can eliminate any pictures you feel you don't need, OR you can cut them out and make a poster with them instead.

If you could use any of the pictures/flip charts, email me to make your request.

Jesus Hearts

Over the last couple of weeks, I've started singing "I'm Trying To Be Like Jesus" as one of the songs in Nursery Singing Time.  I have a consistent list of songs we do every week.  I wanted to add this song to sing just before the closing song, "I Am a Child of God".  But by then end of Singing Time, the little ones have a hard time sitting back down to fold their arms & become more reverent.  So to help with this, I was inspired to make little foamy hearts with a picture of Jesus in the center.  I felt that they needed to show their love for Jesus by giving Him a hug as they sing the 2 closing songs.  As I passed them out to the little ones, I showed them the picture, explaining that Jesus loves us so much!  We love Him too, and can show Him by giving His "heart" a beautiful hug while we sing about Him.  It was amazing to see how many of the little ones understood the concept & studiously hugged Him to the very end.  One girl wanted Jesus even closer to her that she opened the neck of her shirt & dropped him next to her heart!  Gotta love kids:)

At Joann's, I found a package of 18 valentine foamy hearts.  9 were glittered, 9 plain.  I removed the inner hearts to make the large ones into "frames".  I traced the frame heart onto another piece of foam to create a back.  I then cut a smaller heart to trace onto the picture of Jesus.  I laminated the pictures before gluing them to the front section of the foamy heart.  Some of the babes in Nursery put the song props in their mouths.  Ew, I know.  More than one prophet has bite marks:)  Need to make them slobber proof!  Once the glue was dry, I held the front & back pieces together & "sewed" them together with a craft needle & yarn.  This is to prevent the hearts from being pulled apart.  However, one little turkey pulled the stitches & ripped them out of the heart.  But, you still gotta love kids:)  I tied the two strings in a knot at the end.  I also tied a knot in each string left to prevent the yarn from splitting/unravelling.

I've used these for the last 3 weeks.  The kids love them (and Jesus, too)!

Build An Ark & When I Am Baptized

In my last post, I mentioned that I'm teaching my primary the song "Build An Ark" for the month of February.  I was contacted via email by Mary Judy who taught this song to her primary last year.  She has graciously offered all of her visuals to share with you on my blog.

THANK YOU MARY!!

I have copied and pasted the following email from Mary that explains what she did for both "Build An Ark" and "When I Am Baptized" (which is a program song this year):

We sang "Build an Ark" in our program last year and it was one of my kids favorites. I made a flip chart that I would love to share with anyone interested. I also downloaded both versions of the music files (singing/accompaniment). I am attaching the sheet music, too. We also, sang "When I am Baptized."

For one of our reviews I brought a yellow umbrella and put laminated raindrops on it that matched the flip chart phrases. When I taught "When I am Baptized" I made rainbow ribbon wands for our primary. I did not give them as gifts but kept them so we could use them many times. I would choose a child to lead the music with me and all the other children followed our patterns. We would make large rainbows over our head or figure eights and then when we came to the fermata  on the word "Can" we would point our wands to the floor and twirl it in a spiral like a large whirlpool. We talked about how reverent the song is and that our wands should be reverent (no loud snapping noises). I bought dowels at Lowes or Home Depot and they chopped them for me. I bought fishing swivels at Walmart that I inserted into the dowel then tied the ribbon through. We will use them again this year. We did not use them in the Sacrament Program. I also brought a large rainstick that my friend gave me. I would let a child turn it over very slowly to make the rain sound. Chimes are also nice.

I have uploaded these visuals to my scribd account.  This will make them easy for you to access.  However, if you have any problems or questions, email me & I can send the pdf documents to you via email.

I can't say it enough:  THANKS MARY!

Jesus' Tomb Singing Help

For Jr. Primary's Singing Time on Easter, I made Jesus' Tomb.  I wanted a stone to roll open and closed over the tomb's entrance (pictures are at the bottom of the post).  The children's voices will be "the power of the angel" that will open the tomb.  And of course, my iPhoto has decided to mess with me once again!  I cannot post the pictures of the tomb:(  I will try again tomorrow.  O.k, how about a MONTH later!!  Frustrating!

I will explain the tomb and the resurrection, the reason we celebrate Easter.  I'll make a point to explain who rolled the stone open from the tomb on the 3rd day, then liken it to their voices and the power they have to open this tomb's stone.  Inside of the tomb will be 6 paper heart with a song title on each one.  The stone will be rolled closed.  We will sing 'I Am a Child of God' to start with.  If the kids aren't singing well or paying attention, the tomb stone will remain closed.  When they sing well and are paying attention, the stone will slowly roll open.  I will have a leader open & close it.  When the stone is completely open at the end of the song, a child will be chosen to come up & choose a heart out of the tomb.  I will make a point to explain that they represent the love that Jesus had for us to willingly die & then be resurrected again.  We will repeat as long as time allows.

The songs will be:

• Jesus Has Risen pg. 70
• If I Listen With My Heart pg. outline
• Book of Mormon Stories pg. 118
• I Hope They Call Me On a Mission pg. 169
• Stand For the Right pg. 159
• I Love To See the Temple pg. 95

 

 

 

 

Because this post is LONG OVERDUE on account of my iPhoto woes, I'm not going to go into detail about how I put the tomb together.  It's pretty self explanatory by the pictures themselves.  However, if you do have questions for the 2012 Easter, just shoot me an email:)   Sheesh, stupid iPhoto.

Pres. Monson and A Spring Time Visual Aid

I read a blog post on Little LDS Ideas by Sheena.  She researched many quotes specifically by our living prophet, President Thomas S. Monson.  I am using her idea & some of the quotes she made available for my Singing Time plan tomorrow.  

I will place the prophet's picture on the board.  I'll have a child come & choose a quote off of the table.  The quote will be read aloud & the other children/leaders are to guess what song would work best to go with the quote.  I have numbered each quote on the back & made a list of songs.  That list is below.

I have also made a visual aid to use for Spring time!  I took a piece of cardboard & taped blue wrapping paper over the front.  I placed 5 different colors of flowers on the front.  (I used double sided sticky tape)  I then cut slits on each end of the cardboard, above the flowers.  Thread some ribbon through it & secure in the back with a large safety pin.  Glue the bee to the ribbon.  (I used 527 Bond Glue)

 On the back of the board I placed colored dots to coordinate with the flowers.  I glued the bee after I had the safety pin over the white dot.  This would put the bee hovering above the white flower.  Then as you hold on to the safety pin, slide it to the desired color of dot.  This will allow the bee to fly & hover over that same color of flower on the front.  You can use this bee board for lots of things.  I'll be using it tomorrow for different ways to sing the songs.  I made picture signs for the color of flowers and how to sing as the bee hovers over it.  I have also listed the ways below.  The pictures are clip art from off the internet.

                

                Songs for the quotes

                1- Stand for the Right  – pg. 159

                2- I Hope They Call Me On a Mission – pg. 169   OR  Called To Serve – pg. 174

                3- If I Listen With My Heart  -- Outline

                4-A Child’s Prayer – pg. 12

                5-I’m Trying 2B Like Jesus – pg. 78

                6-Nephi’s Courage – pg. 120

                7-Families Can B 2gthr 4ever – pg. 188

                8-I Believe In Being Honest – pg. 149

                9-Thanks 2 R Father – pg. 20

               10-The Dearest Names – pg. 208

           

                    BLUE: Staccato    YELLOW: Slow     RED: Stop Singing     

                                       (popcorn)                                 (snail)                       (stop sign)                                      

                                                ORANGE: Softly     WHITE: Hum

                                                                      (Shhh pic)                   (humming birds)

          

                                   Did I mention that I love Spring time?!

                          

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!

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.

Seek the Lord Early

Did I mention that I like flip charts?  I try to coordinate all the songs, including the opening & closing, to re-enforce the theme/topic of Sharing Time that day.  This song is found in the Children's Songbook on page 108.  Seek the Lord Early Flip Chart

Search, Ponder, & Pray

This song is a great reverence song that has been used this month in Jr. & Sr. Primary.  It is found in the Children's Songbook on page 109.  I made a flip chart to use.  Our primary kids didn't really know it.  And I just can't be allotted enough time each week to teach all the wonderful songs that are available!  So I resort to the flip chart aid.  The kids don't seem to mind & willingly sing it.  Search Ponder Pray Flip Chart

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:)

Have a Very Happy Birthday

With Christmas over, I thought it would be fun to spend December 26th celebrating birthdays.  I wanted to teach the primary kids a new Birthday song.  I get kinda bored with the other ones:)  So a new flip chart was born!  Have a Very Happy Birthday flip chart   This song is found in the Children's Songbook on page 284b.  I chose verses 1 & 3.  It's a very upbeat song & goes quickly!  The Jr. Primary loves the 3rd verse the best.  They like to take a moment to "blow" out the candle.

I also took time to have some fun with the other Birthday songs.  For Jr. Primary, we worked on the "You've Had a Birthday" pg. 285.  They came up with other words to replace the "wiser" word.  Many of the words weren't quite what I was looking for.  But I had a list of words that another Primary had come up with to go off of.  I then wrote each of these words on yellow strips of paper & laminated them.  One birthday child gets to choose a paper & we sing the song to them all using the word that was chosen.
Dapper                        Happy

Sagacious                   Excellent

Sensible                        Greater

Brainier                         Sharper

Keener                         Brighter

Brilliant                          Intelligent

Astute                           Smarter

For the Sr. Primary, we worked on the "Your Happy Birthday" on page 283.  Again, I had a list from another Primary to help the kids come up with 3 & 4 silly syllable words to replace "zip-a-dee-ay" and "heigh-dee-ho".  I wrote the 4 syllable words on blue strips of paper & the 3 syllable ones on red &  laminated them.  I choose 2 of the birthday kids that day to draw a blue and a red strip of paper.  We then sing the song using those silly syllable words as substitutes.  Neither of these 2 Birthday Song ideas came from my less than creative mind.  I found them online at Sugardoodle while researching for ideas:)

HAP-A-REE  DAP                   FA-LIP-UH  DOE

SAP-O-RAM  PAM                KOK-A-LOW  UH

KISS-A-MOO  DOO              TIP-A-TEE  TIP

PEEP-A-SAL  MAL                  DOO-DA-DIPPA  DEE

BOP-E-TAP  LAP                    DOO-DA-DIPPITY  AY

WHAP-A-ZING  LING            ZIP-A-DEE  HO

DEE-DIP-DA  DOO

  

  

MISS-TOE-KEET                WEE-ZOP-ZOO

DRAPE-A-MOT                BUR-EEE-TOE

BAR-KEY-TROT                 HIGH-TEE-OH

WHURR-A-LOO               ZEE-BA-DOO

VEEP-A-LEEP                    TIP-A-DEE

GOOT-A-ZUR                   WIZ-DA-DOO

YIPPY-KYE-AY                   YUCK-TOE-JAM

DOO-DA-DEE                 WEE-WEE-WEE

TUR-KEY-AY

We had a great time that day!  It was nice to learn a new song that didn't have
anything to do with the upcoming Program for 2011.  But boy have we hit
the ground running since then!  Whew!

As I Search the Holy Scriptures

I have spent so much time trying to organize all of the Chorister material that I haven't taken the time to do much blogging since before Christmas.  This "Organizing" project is something I took on and began back in October.  Over the weeks since then, I would bring a pile of stuff home from the Primary Room closet.  I would go through it, decide if it was worth saving for future use or consider it history.  I had no idea that it would take me 3 months of non-stop attention to get it all finished!  There were a lot of flip charts that previous choristers had made.  I LOVE flip charts!  Especially for the opening and closing songs that the children don't know as well.  They can use the flip charts & bring the Spirit into the room.  Anyway, the flip charts were in folders & were kind of a mess.  I found that I like the flip charts in binders.  That way I can remove the one(s) I need and put them in my weekly binder without having to haul other song flip charts that I don't need at the time.  I always pull them out of the binder to use.

With January's theme, I wanted to sing opening and closing songs that re-enforce the value of studying the scriptures.  "As I Search the Holy Scriptures" is Hymn #277.  I uploaded it on my Scribd account & FINALLY figured out how to at least put it on this blog as well.  Just click on the link below!  Check out all the other flip charts I have available for you to download as well.  I'm a slow learner & there are quite a few charts that I don't have listed on this blog.

As I Search Holy Scriptures Flip Chart

Conducting Elephant

A few months ago, I decided to make a Conducting Elephant.  On white poster board, my oldest daughter drew a cute elephant for me.  I colored it & cut out a circular hole in place of the elephant's trunk.

I found a large piece of cardboard.  I cut it slightly larger around than the poster board.  I painted the outer edges green and about an inch wide.  I painted the "trunk" edge pink.  This trunk hole is slightly SMALLER than the elephant's actual trunk circle.  It helps keep the abused look to a minimum.  I found 6 used canning jar lids & glued them to the cardboard.

 

I placed magnets on the back of the elephant poster board, lining them up with the jar lids.  I chose to take the time for this so that I can make other posters later & just be able to switch them as needed.

 

Lastly, I made a handle out of heavy cardboard & glued it onto the back of the cardboard. I used 527 Glue.

And there you have it: Conducting Elephant!  

I have multiple old long socks for the children to choose from.  They place the sock on their conducting arm & use it as the elephant's trunk to help lead the music.  I use this prop only for the Jr. Primary.  The Sr. are just way too cool for it.  I sometimes need to help the kids hold up the elephant.  It is a bit heavy.  But they love it & sing beautifully!

If this looks familiar it's because I had this idea posted on Sugardoodle http://www.sugardoodle.net/joomla/  just a couple of months ago.  Great website!