LOWLY THE SHY WORM

Thanks to Mimi in the Clearwater ward for this idea...

Junior loves this one. Draw a large apple on a poster, cut a hole in the center, hot glue a piece of red checked fabric behind the hole as a curtain. Use a soft furry puppet as Lowly the Worm. To get Lowly to come out of his hole, the children have to sing very well.

HIDE A NOTE

Thanks to Mimi from Clearwater Ward for this idea...

Make a musical note out of paper. Break the new song into phrases using one or two a week. Have the children repeat the phrases several times and then sing the phrases.  Send a child out of the room and hide the note in the primary room. Sing one phrase over and over again while the child finds the note singing louder as he/she gets closer.  Do it again once found. Great way to learn a new song line by line.

ENCORE SINGING GAME

Thanks to Mimi from the Clearwater ward for this idea...

Enlist a couple of counselor's to help with this one...one counselor at the chalk board and another to help keep you straight on whose turn.

Each row is a team. Write a word on the chalkboard such as FAMILY. Row 1 sings the line of song that has that word in it. Write a new word on the board and it's the next rows, turn.

To pertain this to your program songs, use obvious words and tell the kids they are program songs.

HANGING SHIRTS

THANKS to Mimi from the Clearwater ward for this idea...

String clothesline or string back and forth on a piece of presentation board and cut out shirts in different patterns of paper or contact paper. On the back of each shirt is a different song title. On small clothespins, write different methods of singing such as rhythm (have kids clap out rhythm of song), stacatto, A Capella, Eyes Closed, Boys only, etc.

A reverent child comes up and picks a clothespin and shirt and hangs it on the line. The corresponding shirt and method of singing is sung.

SIT AND SPIN

Bring in a chair that spins and place numbers on the floor all around the chair. Choose two reverent helpers. One spins and the other does the spinning. Whatever number the chair stops in front of is the song that is sung. Add a pick your favorite song to the numbers. Great way to review and the kids LOVE IT!

POP STARS

Another one where I don't know the source. This is a version of American Idol. Use teachers or primary presidency as the 3 judges. Each class is trying to win the title of Pop Star Class by singing the best and correctly. You can really role play with this and make it fun.

EDDIE SPAGHETTI

I have not done this but it sounds really fun. I believe it was an idea from another ward chorister. Eddie Spaghetti is a guy drawn on poster board that loves spaghetti. He east a lot of spaghetti if the kids sing the right words. Cut a small hole in his mouth and have a bowl with red yarn in it. Pull the red yard (spaghetti) through the back while the kids sing. If he eats all his spaghetti, they must have sang great!!

NURSERY

Here is a list of songs good for nursery.

Popcorn Popping
The Wise Man and Foolish Man (they LOVE doing the hand actions on this)
Smiles (Put a picture of a girl/boy with smiley face on one side and frowny face on other with popsicle stick)
Book of Mormon Stories
Chorus of Scripture Power
Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam
Do As I'm Doing (nursery favorite)
Fun to Do
Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
Once There Was a Snowman (favorite)
If You're Happy
Follow the Prophet chorus (with sign language)
I Am A Child of God

MOTHER'S FAVORITES

Have the female adults in primary choose their favorite song to sing and have a message from either one of their students or their own children to share. Give them a chocolate or a flower.

HELLO SONG IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES

Arabic- Al Salaam   Ahl sah-Lahm

Danish- Goddag  Go dah

Finnish- Terve  Ter-vey

Hungarian- Szia  Zee-yah

Italian- Buon giorno  Bwohn JOR-noh

Japanese- Konnichiwa  Kon-NEE-chee wah

Mandarin- Ni Hao  Knee how

Mohawk- Sekoh  She-goh

Navajo- Ya at eeh  YAH-AHT-AY

Swahili- Jambo  JAM-bo

Turkish- Merhaba  MER-ha-ba

Ukranian- Pryvit  Pri-veet

Welsh- Bore da   BOY-ray DAH

WHAT ABOUT BLOB?

Make several colorful irregular blob shapes to cover up picture helps. One per page. Choose a child to come up and cover up a picture with a blob. Sing the song and see if the kids can sing the song without seeing all the pages. Make a big deal about them being able to do it or not. They love to show us that the CAN! Simple but fun and effective.

FUNNY HAT

Make a funny hat. Make it obnoxious. Whichever class sings the best, the teacher gets to wear the funny hat!

DICE GAME

There is something about big dice that kids love. I found mine at the dollar store for a pair of big dice. Designate a different way to sing to each number 1-12. For example, a 1 is staccato, a 2 is boys only, etc etc. Have reverent volunteers come up and roll the dice. Sing the song based upon the number rolled. You can change it up and have one dice to decide how and the other dice to decide what song by having a 6 different songs with a designated number. Change it up to fit your need!

RAIN RAIN

I found this next idea when I was going through my stake chorister information. It came from Sister Perry in the Badger Mountain Ward.

You will need a spray bottle and an umbrella. Pick someone (a teacher would even be fun) to come up and hold the umbrella. Tell the primary that the better the sing the more it rains....if they sing REALLY well, the storm just might blow under the umbrella. As the kids sing, squirt the umbrella with the spray bottle and even sneak a few squirts under if they are doing really great. Surprise a few kids by squirting those singing as well. I would suggest using a water bottle that mists more than sprays.

Great for review!

MELODY MAP

A melody map is a great way to introduce a new song and show how notes go up and down. I don't have a picture of one I have done so I will do my best to explain. On a poster board, make up signs to go with the how long a note is and how it goes up and down. When the kids look at it, it looks like a bunch of weird symbols. But when you follow the symbols with your finger as you sing, you find the lines, arcs, whatever you choose, actually fit the song you are singing. The kids thought this was a really cool thing. I really hammed up it at the beginning when I showed them the map and told them it was their new song to learn. They were so confused! It was great!

For reviewing a few songs, have a couple of maps and the kids have to figure out what songs they go with then sing the songs.

RADIO REVIEW

Make made a radio about the size of a regular sheet of paper and laminated it on cardstock. Have an off/on button with a brad and arrow to turn it off and on. When you are reviewing a song, pull out your radio which can be kept in your binder. When the switch is turned to on, everyone sings. During the song, switch it to off and that means everyone stops singing but the piano continues. When it is switched back to on, start singing again with the piano. This is great because even though the kids aren't singing, they still have to think what the words are so they know what to sing when it switches on again. Call upon some reverent kids to come up and turn the radio on and off.

BIRTHDAY

If you find yourself with a free Sunday or just need a break from the program songs, have a birthday party and go over the birthday songs. The younger kids that come into primary don't know any of them and it would be easy to throw in a new one since they are not very long.

PICTIONARY

What kid doesn't love to draw? There are a few things we can do with Pictionary as choristers. It's perfect for review and even learning.

Let's start with learning. Figure out how many phrases are in a song. If there are 8, divide the chalkboard into 8 boxes. Write the phrases in the top of each box. Invite reverent children to come up and make a picture about what that phrase is about or saying. Do this for each box and use their own pictures to learn the song. Go home and make your own flipcharts replicating what the kids drew. It doesn't matter if you can't draw...the kids just love that they came up with the ideas for the flipcharts and remember it better.

For reviewing songs, have a reverent child draw a song out of your WHAT jar (discussed in another post) and they draw the song and the other children try to guess what it is then sing it. You can even break it down to phrases in one particular song you want to review.

Here We Are Together...With a Twist

Here is a fun idea to do with the welcome song HERE WE ARE TOGETHER. When we don't have enough visitors to include in the blanks, I tell the kids to be on guard because I'm going to pick one of them to say their name and they have to be ready! When it comes to that point in the song, I will pick a person for each name fill in and they have to say their name really fast. It's fun!

Christmas Carols

Don't be afraid to bring out the hymnbook at Christmas with Senior primary. No prep needed. Simply give them a book, let them pick out their favorite Christmas carol, and SING SING SING!

HYMNS

The hymns are powerful tools to use in primary. The primary kids LOVE IT when a hymn is sung in Sacrament meeting that they are familiar with. I love that the last couple of years' primary outline has included hymns. Don't be afraid to use them in primary. In the back of the hymnbook is a section called Meters. This shows what the meter count is for each song and other songs they are compatible with. For example, the words to How Firm a Foundation can be sung to the tune of Away in a Manger. The senior primary loves this! Not only is it different, but the meaning of the words comes out when we are not singing it to the traditional tune. Try it!

OH CHRISTMAS TREE

The idea of this one is to have a bunch of letters as ornaments that hang on a 3 ft Christmas tree. The ornaments are a hint to a song to sing. For example, have 4 blue ornaments each with the letter M-A-R-Y. Call on 4 children to come up and pick blue ornaments. Show them to the primary kids and ask them to unscramble the word. Once they get that, sing the song that belongs with the hint.

I SPY

Really work up the primary into thinking they are spies...really ham it up. Tell them you need help deciphering some intelligence. Have the words of song titles (you could even do phrases of one song if reviewing) all scrambled up. You can choose whether to still have words themselves in order or those jumbled up, too. Once they figure out the song, sing it.

WORD STRIPS

This works mostly for Senior primary because of the reading but you could do something similar with pictures.

Write out the words to the song line by line on poster board into strips of phrases. Sing through the song a couple of times with the primary....then start cutting. Cut each strip into two and mix them up (works best if magnets are on back). Ask two reverent volunteers to put the strips in order as you sing.....then start cutting. Keep cutting and single til you are down to a jumble of words and ask 3 volunteers to try to put the words in order before the end of the song is sung. Senior loves this!

MUSICAL MITTENS

I found this idea on the internet and used it at Christmas and it was a hit. I bought some mittens/gloves at the dollar store. I hung them from a clothesline and inside each mitten was a piece of paper with a picture on it that represented a song. We played the matching game...the primary had to match up the pictures in the mittens. For example, two mittens had snowman pictures in them. When the match was made, we sang Once There Was a Snowman.

COLD SNOWBALL

Get 10 pieces of paper and crumble each one up like a snowball. Pass around the 10 snowballs around the room to 10 children. Play this like HOT POTATO but call it COLD SNOWBALL. The kids are to pass on the snowball as quickly as possible while reviewing a song. When the song stops, the 10 kids still holding the snowball get to form a line and try to make throw the snowball into the SNOWBALL CATCHER...a container you provide. This is a fun activity that involves alot of kids at once and you can sing a song over and over and over.

CUT THE TIE

Gather some old ties and ask brethren ahead of time to be a part of singing time. Have them switch out their tie to the old one you give them before they come into primary. Pretend they are randomly picked from the hallway. Bring the dad to the front of the room and role play. Ask them if it would be ok if they had their tie cut. Explain that the children are going to sing them a song, and based upon how well the kids sing, the dad cuts his tie. The higher he cuts the better the singing. Primary LOVES THIS!

GIFT OF MUSIC

Read over the preface of the Children's Songbook and pick out what you want to share with the kids. Tell the primary you want them to pretend they just got a phone call and it was from our church leaders in Salt Lake. Then read parts of the preface like they were on the phone with our church leaders. The point is that each child understand that the songs were chosen specifically for each of them as an individual. Talk about what a gift it is to have these songs.

Tell the primary kids they are going to give this gift today. Have a member of the presidency pull a random person from the halls (sometimes these people will be from other wards). While they are finding someone, decide what you are going to sing. When the person is brought it, introduce them to the primary and them tell them the primary has a gift for them and have the primary sing to them.

To set this up, tell the kids to look at the face of the person as they are brought into the room. They don't know what is going on so they are kind of confused. Then have them pay attention to what the individuals face does when they leave. They leave feeling happy.

If used at holidays, give a valentine or Christmas card to the individual. For Mother's Day, pull in Mom's from the hall and sing to them.

I AM GLAD FOR MANY THINGS

This is a fun one to do in November. Teach the song I Am Glad For Many Things. Super easy to learn. Then have the children draw pictures on the chalk board of things they are thankful for and subsitute those words into the song.

In senior primary, have each class write their own second verse of what they are thankful for and then have each class sing it for everyone. My primary LOVED THIS!

BEAR YOUR TESTIMONY WEEKLY

At the end of each singing time, bear your testimony of the songs you are singing and tie it into the sharing time topic if possible. Obviously, if you are singing wiggle songs, it's hard to bear your testimony about that but take advantage of every possible moment to bear your testimony to the primary children.

HOW, WHAT, WHO JARS

Great way to review and keep stashed in the closet when you need something quick. Have three containers with the words HOW, WHAT, and WHO on one jar for each word. In the HOW jar, have slips of paper with various ways to sing....swaying, with eyes closed, like a cowboy, standing on one leg, etc. In the WHAT jar, have different songs. In the WHO jar, have who will sing....broccoli lovers, anyone wearing black, horse lovers, brown eyed, blue eyed, etc.

If you just want to review a single song, only use the HOW and WHO jar.

PATTERNS

This is a HUGE hit in primary for both junior and senior primary. I got this idea off the internet and then tweeked it to fit what I was doing. Post several sequences of symbols and each symbol stands for a hand action. Pick and sequence and do it to the beat of the song as you sing. My song was 4/4 time so I had sequences of four beats. For senior primary, we even added two and three sequences together and then repeated. This was a blast and even the teachers had a great time. We were able to sing our review song MANY times! This is a great one to use over again so it may be good to laminate it. Teachers can even use this idea to memorize scriptures or Articles of Faith.

In this picture, the ? symbol is for jazz hands.

TEACHING NEW SONGS

As choristers, most of the year is spent teaching new songs. Here are a few ideas to teach new song:

* Use actions instead of flip charts: Our primary did this for "If I Listen With My Heart." I wanted the kids to listen with their hearts as we learned this song so I chose not to have any visual picture aids. I simply made up some hand gestures. The primary kids learned all 3 verses in 3 weeks. I even had a little Sunbeam's mother tell me that her daughter was trying to sing this at home and used the hand actions to help. So rewarding!

* Assign a phrase of the song to each class and then sing the song with each class singing their phrase. Mix it up so every class gets each phrase. The kids love being first! To incorporate movement, have them stand as they sing it.

* Have the kids stand up on certain words. For example, have them stand on rhyming words or on recurring words during the song. You can pertain it to anything you want in the song.

SIMPLIFY

In my two years as chorister, my own mission statement became SIMPLIFY. Don't spend so much time and energy on props and games that you only have time to sing the songs for 5 minutes. Gear your activity or game so that you are singing more than you are playing.

In preparing this post, I asked my kids what their favorite activity was in singing time...they all answered, "The singing!"

REVERENCE

The hardest thing about primary is reverence. Here are a few tips to help keep the kids reverent during singing time.

* Walk around as you lead. The kids will be more aware of you if you move around. When I was chorister, I would walk around and even bend down and look the sunbeams in the eye so they felt like they had my individual attention. If kids were talking, just walking over by them with a smile on your face and looking at them while you are singing is enough to get them to stop talking and start singing.

* Choose LOTS of volunteers during singing time and tell the kids you are looking for reverent children. Have helpers for everything...leading the music, helping with the hand actions, holding pictures, etc. Kids love to be chosen and if they know you are only looking for someone reverent, it helps.

* Constantly ask kids questions. Quiz them....ask them to fill in the blank. Keep their interaction going with you. I will point to myself as I say a line and then point to them to fill in the blank. It takes a few times for them to catch on but then they always know what that means.

* If kids are not paying attention, not singing, or not being reverent, I will stop in the middle of the song and lovingly say, "I will wait!" And I will wait. I will also say, "Show me your eyeballs!" to get their attention. For some reason, this worked.