Come Follow Me

Come Follow Me

Have fun!

Too Cute!

Just too sweet not to share:

Tumble, aka Ker Plunk

This Sunday will be a review of all the primary songs we have learned for the Sacrament Meeting program so far. I loved the Ker Plunk idea that Divine Secrets of a Primary Chorister had on her blog last December, and I have been asking around trying to find a Ker Plunk game to borrow, but to no avail. I almost bought it, but it wasn't on sale...yet...I thought I'd just wait it out.

Then one day I was in my local Walgreen's store browsing through the sale aisle...and saw this game, "Tumble" was marked down to $3.99! (regular price was $6.99, or mix and mach 3 games for $13.98)

 

I finally broke it out of the box today, and put it together. {LOL I just noticed that in this photo, whoever put the game together put the dish on the bottom upside down. Brilliant. Sounds like something I would do. Haha! *clearing throat* Okay, so now you know, the dish goes the other way, like this:}

There are four (plastic) marble colors, and four compartments where the marbles fall to in the plastic dish. Each compartment is supposed to represent one team. The marbles will fall into only one compartment at a time, and the tower rotates to the compartment of whichever team is in play. I am going to opt out of using the compartments for each team, using only one compartment, and I will remove the marbles each time after they fall.

How to Play:

Divide the room into four teams, and assign each team a color.

 

I made these team flags for a Primary Olympics game I did last summer, and the colors match closely enough, so I will use them for this game as well, and let the child who is waiting to pull a pick at the front hold their team flag. Another fun idea: get packets of small Post-it notes in the coordinating colors, and have each team wear a Post-it of their team color.

One person from each team will be at the front of the room to play the game at all times. To take a turn, a player removes one plastic pick from the Tumble game. When each player has taken their turn they will sit down and another player from their team will come to the front to wait their turn. 

We will sing the Sacrament Meeting program songs in the order that we have learned them. I will be treating each verse of Follow the Prophet as an individual song.

The first child will pull a pick (of ANY color) from the Tumble game.

• If no marbles fall, the child returns to their seat and is replaced by a fellow team mate, who waits for their turn. 
• If a yellow marble falls, the yellow team sings the song. If a pink marble falls, the pink team sings the song, etc. 
• If two marbles fall, then the teams with those two marble's colors sing the song. And so on...you get the idea.

Continue until all the songs have been sung.



Have fun!

Boppin' Pop

This Sunday is going to be very, very fun in the Lyman 3rd Ward Primary. Being Father's Day, and because the children have learned the The Holy Ghost and its ASL signs so quickly, I have decided to just have a fun day of singing with the dads. We will sing The Holy Ghost as our reverence song, and we will review all the program songs next Sunday, since it's the last week of the month.

I am going to invite 3-4 four dads to come into Junior Primary, and 3-4 more to come into Senior Primary. I will have chairs in the front, facing the children, for the dads to sit on.

I made these choosing ties:

 Here's the PDF if you would like to print them:

Father's Day Ties.pdf

I printed them out on white card stock and had them laminated, so I can use a dry erase marker to write the name of a primary song on the back. Use magnets to put the ties on the white/chalk board. Have a child come up and choose a tie then sing the song written on the back.

Boppin' Pop

How to Play:

The children will get a kick out of this, so I am going to explain to them, that although it might be funny and it's okay to laugh, I will pick a very reverent child to be the next Pop Bopper.

I will begin by showing the children the ties on the whiteboard and explain that there is a fun song written on the back of each tie. There are either "action" songs or "boppin'" songs.

When an "action" song is chosen, the dads will sing them with us and do the actions with us.

When a "boppin"' song is chosen, the dad's get to be bopped! Wait until the first "boppin'" song is chosen and then explain how "boppin'" works:

When the dads are bopped (gently of course) on the top of their heads they should open their mouths wide and shut them again, only once for each bop. They should be looking straight ahead, blankly.

You be the first "bopper" to show the children how it is done. Start the song with the children singing, and, as if you are playing the xylophone, gently bop the dads on the tops of their heads with each syllable of the song.


I got this idea from this youtube video. It takes a long time to get to the "bopping" part on the video because the first part is so funny. But it gives the general idea. He finally starts giving the instructions at about the 6:40 minute mark:



Boppin' Songs:

Hello Song (Children's Songbook p. 260)
The Wise Man and the Fooliosh Man (Children's Songbook p. 281)
Book of Mormon Stories (Children's Songbook p. 118)
Nephi's Courage (Children's Songbook p. 120)
We'll Bring the World His Truth (Children's Songbook p. 172)
Jesus Want's Me for a Sunbeam (Children's Songbook p. 60)
Follow the Prophet (Children's Songbook p. 110) For this song I will have each Dad choose one prophet poster to wear and we will sing the corresponding verses, while the dad wears the poster and we play the game.

Action Songs:
 
Smiles (Children's Songbook p. 247)
If You're Happy (Children's Songbook p. 266)
Do As I'm Doing (Children Songbook p. 276) For Do As I'm Doing, I use these:

They are from Divine Secrets of a Primary Chorister, and she has something like 20 different actions that are really cute. Click here to print your own set. I use these quite a lot. I have printed them on white card stock, cut them out and then had them laminated. For this Sunday, I will flip them upside down and have each dad choose one at random. Then we will sing Do As I'm Doing, following the dad and whatever action he has chosen.

Preparation:

You will need one of these water noodles:

I have seen them at the dollar store we have here in town, and also at K-mart and Walmart.

Cut the water noodle so you have two lengths about 20-24 inches long. You just need two, so you will have a little extra for something else.

I plan on giving the participating dads a bottle of "pop" as a thank you for their help. Something like this:

 Or this:

You can print out your own "Top Pop" label at 2CleverBlog. Its FANTASTIC!

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!

Have fun!

Picture Presenter Contest

Want to win one of these?

I think they are amazing and would be very helpful in Primary!

CLICK HERE to go to the Dress Up Drawer for details on how to enter!

The Holy Ghost - ASL Flash Cards

Last Sunday went exceptionally well!

However, I only had enough time to teach the sign language for the first verse. This Sunday I'll be showing the movie presentation again, and also teaching the sign language for the second verse. The kids seem to pick it up very quickly, so after we have learned ASL for the second verse, I will "test" them with these flash cards I made:

I printed the all the words we are learning to sign on to 4X6 photo paper, but index cards could be used, or color or white printer paper.

I'll ask one of the children or teachers to be my assistant. I'll shuffle the cards and hand them over to my helper. He or she will randomly show one of the cards to everyone, and we will all make the sign for the word on that card together.

For the younger children in Jr. Primary who can't read yet, just say the word out loud as the card is shown.

When the stack of cards has been gone through thoroughly and everyone seems to know the signs, sing and sign the song together.

Have fun!

The Holy Ghost

 
Here's a video I made to introduce The Holy Ghost (Children's Songbook p.105):



{Update: Previously I referred to an app that would allow you to download this video, but it is no longer available.

However, if you have a portable device (laptop, Surface, iPad, Kindle, etc), try loading the YouTube video at home (or wherever you have an internet connection), then playing it without an internet connection in your primary room.

OR...

If you have a smart phone with a hotspot, connect the hotspot to your laptop, iPad or other portable device. Works great if you have an LTE connection. Good luck!}

Here is the PDF for The Holy Ghost:

The Holy Ghost.pdf 

I printed all the pages, two sided, on card-stock on my printer, had them laminated, and bound on the left side, storybook style.

Presentation:

 I am going to start by using this teaching idea from the August 2005 Friend Magazine:

“The Holy Ghost” (p. 105), teaches us many things about the Holy Ghost. Sing the melody and clap the rhythm. Explain that just as the beat is constant, the Holy Ghost can be our constant companion. Invite them to clap the beat with you as you sing it again. Repeat again, this time inviting the children to hum the melody with you as they clap."

I am planning on playing my video, and letting the children just watch it the first time through. The second time I will have them clap the rhythm, and then we will discuss how the Holy Ghost can be our constant companion. The third time I will have them sing along with the video.

After the third time, I will introduce basic sign language signs. The children can watch me, along with the video I have made, and practice the signs as the video plays.

These are the words I plan on teaching the signs for this week, (which I am in the process of learning) from the ASL video from lds.org:
(Click here to view the sign language video, or here to see a list of all the ASL videos from the Children's songbook.)

• Christ
• earth
• promised
• send
• the Holy Ghost
• comfort
• eternal
• friend
• Holy Spirit (which is the same as Holy Ghost)
• whispers
• still
• small
• voice
• testifies
• God
• hearts
• rejoice
• confirmed
• priesthood
• power
• given to us
• guide us
• hour
• may I
• listen
• his light
• right
• choice

Next week I will introduce the filler words, such as: when, he, with, I, etc. 


 Have fun! (I know I will!)