Crazy Singing Scramble!

Wow ~ General conference was amazing, right? I can't wait to watch/listen/read all the talks again.

Here's what I'll be doing this Sunday to teach The Church of Jesus Christ on page 77 of the Children's Songbook:

I want to stress to the children the thoughts written in the 2010 Outline for Sharing Time for the month of April. ( Click here to go there.)

• Ask the children to stand if they belong to a family. Repeat for other groups they might belong to, such as a team, a club, and a church. Let the children explain what belonging means (that you are an important part of something). Introduce the song by showing a picture of Jesus Christ and having the children read together Doctrine and Covenants 115:4.

I am going to print and use this picture from the April 2010 Friend:

 • Introduce each phrase of the song by having the children listen for the answer to a question while you sing the phrase to them. (For example: What do I belong to? What two things do I know? How will I follow Him?) Then have the children sing the phrase with you. Continue until the children have learned the entire song.

I'll bear my testimony to the children that we are so blessed to belong to Jesus Christ's church. We know who we are, what we are supposed to so while we are on the earth!

 "Crazy Singing Scramble!"

Preparation:

• Make 8-12 magnets using printable inkjet magnet paper. I printed 2 green rectangles, 2 yellow squares, 2 blue triangles, and 2 red circles. I laminated the front of the magnet with self sticking laminate, then cut out the shapes.

I used magnet paper to make my shapes because I am going to place them on the magnetic rolling whiteboard in the primary room. (I have three whiteboards at home and none of them are magnetic, so if you are not sure with the one in your church building, be sure to check it out first!) You could also do the same presentaion with toy building blocks, or other objects that have different shapes sizes and colors, such as lids to your mixing bowls, plastic cups, etc.

• On cardstock print one page with a large green rectangle, one page with a large yellow square, one page with a large blue triangle, and one page with a large red circle.

Presentation:
As you show the colored magnet shapes one at a time, explain these rules:

• "Whenever you  see a green rectangle, you sing: I belong to the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ". Quickly bring the green triangle out and sing the phrase together. Put the green triangle magnet on the white board.
• "Whenever you see a yellow square I want you to sing the 2 things you know, because you belong to Jesus Christ's church." Quickly bring out the yellow square and sing all together, "I know who I am, I know God's plan, I'll follow him in faith." Put the yellow square magnet on the whiteboard next to the green rectangle.
• "When you see a blue triangle, I want you to sing what you believe and what you'll do". Pull out the blue triangle and sing together, "I believe in the Savior Jesus Christ, I'll honor his name." Put the blue triangle magnet on the whiteboard.
•  "When you see a red circle you should sing the 3 things you will do as a memeber of Jesus Christ's church."  Quickly show the children the red circle then sing together, "I'll do what is right; I'll follow his light, his truth I will proclaim." Put the red circle magnet on the whiteboard.

Now start at the beginning of the song, pointing at the green rectangle magnet on the whiteboard first, then pointing at each successive shape, singing the entire song.

Next, divide the room into four groups. Assign each group to be a colored shape, and give a colored shape on cardstock the coresponding group. Sing the song again having each group sing only their part, as you point to their shape on the whiteboard.

Remove the shapes from the whiteboard, and put them in a hat or a bag or a box. I will be using this purse:

 

The second set of shapes should be in th the hat/bag/box as well. With 8 magnets in the hat/bag/box, randomly pull one out at a time and place it on the whiteboard. Whichever group owns that colored shape will sing their phrase. Repeat this until all 8 shapes are on the whiteboard.

Gather the four cardstock papers with shapes on them from the four groups. Tell the children that now everyone is one group again, and you are going to test them to see how well they remember the phrases to the song. Put all the shapes back into the hat/bag/box, and this time take them out randomly and place them in one or two lines across the whiteboard:

 

Sing the song in the order that the shapes were placed on the whiteboard. In the photo above, they would sing:
"I believe in the Savior Jesus Christ, I'll honor his name. I'll do what is right; I'll follow his light, his truth I will proclaim. I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I'll do what is right; I'll follow his light, his truth I will proclaim. I know who I am, I know God's plan, I'll follow him in faith. I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I know who I am, I know God's plan, I'll follow him in faith. I believe in the Savior Jesus Christ, I'll honor his name."

End by singing the song all together in the correct order one last time.

***It might be helpful for the pianist to have a small sticky note next to each phrase with the corresponding shape drawn on it in the Children's Songbook, so he or she can quickly play along with whichever shape is drawn from the hat/bag/box.***

Ack! I always end up planning too much for the time I have! I am going to just see how things go, and perhaps skip one of the variations if I run short on time. Whatever we end up doing it's going to be a lot of fun, and a great learning game for the children!

Also, I usually make a flip chart of each month's song, although I didn't for Follow the Prophet. I don't know if I will make one for The Church of Jesus Christ or not, depending on how well the children already know it or how quickly they learn it.  But if I do make a flip chart, I really like this one found on Primary Singing Ideas.

Have fun!