Have I Done Any Good?

Have I Done Any Good?

This is the song I'll be teaching for August. I have printed it on both sides of the pages of cardstock (story book form), laminated each page, and then I had it spirally bound.

I'll teach the children to enunciate and emphasize the Green words on the flip chart.

You can download your own copy by hitting the download button above, or click here:
Have I Done Any Good?Have I Done Any Good? or email me at bridgettepatterson@gmail.com and I'll send you the PDF.

Have fun!

Come, Come Ye Saints

I am going to show this in Primary this Sunday. I think it will really set the mood.



I am downloading it to my laptop using zamzar.com, and I'll show it to the kids from my laptop.

Pioneer Wagon Wheel of Fortune

This idea is a combination of ideas borrowed from The Crazy Chorister's Wagon Wheel of Fortune and from The Children's Sing here, and here, and here.

Yesterday I was at my local dollar store, Dollar Tree, and saw this:

 

AND...they had this poster sized foam board! I was so excited to find both items, but especially the foam board! (I paid nearly $3.00 a piece at Wal-Mart for the foam board I used to make the Follow the Prophet posters. Ugh.) I snatched up a few of them. I'm thinking of going back to get a few more!

So here's my finished Pioneer Wagon Wheel of Fortune with assembly and game instructions:

To start, I took the largest kitchen bowl in my cupboard, and used it to trace a big circle on the foam board. Then I made a small hole in the center.

 (If you squint just right you can see my faint pencil circle on the foam board.)
Next I removed the plastic spinner from the Dollar Tree spin board, and put it on the hole I made. The spinner simply pulls apart into 2 pieces, so one part goes on the front side and one goes on the back to secure it.

The hole was purposely too small, so that the spinner would fit snugly. Next I drew (freehand...you can see I am definitely NOT an artist! Ha!)...I drew the details of the wagon wheel, and colored the space inside the spokes red, yellow, and blue.

I printed out the phrase, "Wagon Wheel of Fortune" on red, yellow and blue cardstock, and then cut out the individual letters.

And here's the end result! I still have to laminate the board, however.

***

UPDATE: My local Ship 'n Copy store, where I get my lamination done, does not laminate foam board. 

Wh-at?

Oops.

No matter, contact paper will do just fine.

***

As you can see from the first photo and this one,  I have 12 different graphics cut out for the wheel. I will also get them laminated. With both the wheel and the graphics laminated, I can use this tacky blue stuff called Blu Tack,

  

to stick the images on the wheel, and change them around at will. Also, because the wheel will be laminated, a dry erase marker can be used to write or draw anything in the wheel spaces. 

Here are two different versions of clip art for the game:

Pioneer Primary Art.pdf

and 

Pioneer Primary Art Alternate.pdf

Print the phrase "Wagon Wheel of Fortune" on colored card stock, then cut out the individual letters and tape them to the board before laminating the board.

Print the pictures on white card stock and then cut them out. Laminate, and then cut them out again.

Pioneer Wagon Wheel of Fortune

You will need:

• Pioneer Wagon Wheel of Fortune foam board and pictures.
• Pioneer clothes for boys and girls (I have bonnets, skirts and aprons for the girls; straw hats, cowboy boots and neckerchief/bandanna for the boys.)
•  List of pioneer songs (I am going to write this list on the whiteboard and have the child who spins choose a song from the white board either before or after spinning. Then we will erase that song from the white board.

Here's my list of songs:

Pioneer Children Sang As They Walked  Children's Songbook 214
Little Pioneer Children  Children's Songbook 216
To Be a Pioneer  Children's Songbook 218
The Oxcart  Children's Songbook 219
The Handcart Song  Children's Songbook 220

Here We Are Together ("...we're crossing the plains"...) Children's Songbook 261 (Pick 4 children to come to the front and be named in this song, and dress them in pioneer clothing.)
Fun to Do (Pushing the handcart, gathering wood, building a fire, etc.) Children's Songbook 253
For Health and Strength (because pioneer children were very grateful for health and strength and daily food!) Children's Songbook 20
When We're Helping  (Because pioneer children helped their parents all day long.) Children's Songbook 198
Come, Come, Ye Saints (Hymns, 30)

 To Play:

1. Select 6 of the graphics and use Blu Tack to adhere them to the wagon wheel spaces. 
2. Explain: "When the Pioneers were traveling across the prairies, plains, deserts, and mountains to reach the Salt Lake Valley, they encountered many adventures!  We are going to sings songs today that teach us about their journeys. First we will spin the spinner on the wagon wheel. The spinner will land on a picture of one of their adventures, and I will explain how we will sing the pioneer song."
3. Select a child to spin the spinner.
4. Sing the pioneer song according to the graphic where the spinner stops:

• Ox - sing very slowly "Teams of oxen were used to pull heavy wagons. Oxen are very slow animals, but because they are stronger than horses or mules, many pioneers used them to pull their heavy wagons."
• bunny rabbit - sing very fast "Rabbits were seen along the pioneer trail. Rabbits are FAST and hard to catch!"
• pioneer girl - only girls sing (Put girl pioneer clothes on a girl) "These are some of the things pioneer girls would wear."
• pioneer boy - only boys sing  (Put boy pioneer clothes on a boy) "These are some of the things pioneer boys would wear."
• cowboy boot - sing western style "Lots of pioneer boys and girls your age were real cowboys and cowgirls! They drove cows and other animals all by themselves along the pioneer trek!"
• snake - sing very quietly "Yes, there were rattlesnakes! If the pioneers encountered a rattlesnake it was best to be very quiet and not disturb it!"
• Native American child - children trade seats during one phrase of the song "There were many, many encounters with Indians along the trails. "Pioneers would 'TRADE' some of their precious items (jewlery, dishes, toys, furniture) for much needed food, or furs and blankets to keep warm."
• ax and chopped wood - sing "choppy" (staccato) "Children had the job of collecting firewood for campfires. When there were no trees for wood, they would collect sagebrush or buffalo dung to burn in their campfires! Eeewwww!"
• beehive and bee - if the child holds this picture up high in the air, everyone hums. When the child hides the picture, everyone sings the words.  "The Pioneers wanted to call their new home 'Deseret', which meant 'honey bee' in the Jaredite language in the Book of Mormon. The honey bee was symbolic for how industrious or 'busy' the pioneers were, just like bees!"
• ant - children stomp to the beat "Sometimes insects, like ants, invaded the pioneer camps. Pioneers had to stomp to get the ants off their bodies! Yikes!"
• cow - a child leaves the room. Someone hides the cow in the room. Child returns and the rest of the children sing loud when he/she is close to the cow, and softly when he/she is not close. "If a cow wandered away from the pioneer camps, sometimes children your age had to search for them and bring them back to the camp."
• mountains - echo sing: divide the children in two and have the first group sing a phrase of the song, while the second group echoes them. (Have the pianist play each phrase twice throughout the entire song.) "When the pioneers finally reached the mountains they discovered some places in canyons, between two mountains, that would echo anything they said or sang!"

 After each picture has been landed on with the spinner and used in a song, replace it with a new picture.  Some of the songs, like Fun to Do can be sung more than once and the spinner spun each time.

Happy Pioneer Day!

Have fun!

BIG fan of The Children Sing

This is another amazing idea from Kathleen at The Children Sing:

Pioneer Adventures Roller Box

I can't wait. The children are going to love it!

Have fun!

Come Follow Me with The Crazy Chorister

I am a HUGE fan of  The Crazy Chorister.

Her latest posting, COME FOLLOW ME --- JUST FOLLOW THE PATTERN is fabulous. I am definitely going to have fun doing it with my Primary children this Sunday.

Here's another pattern for an Oragami Shirt and Tie.

Thanks for the great idea, Crazy Chorister!

Have fun!

Come Follow Me and I Can Follow Jesus Activity

Here is my flip chart for this Sunday's Primary Singing Time activity.
Come Follow Me.pdf

I have printed it on card stock in story-book form (on both sides of the paper) and had it laminated and bound on the left side.

Introduction:

1.       Ask the pianist play through the melody first while the children listen.

2.       Explain that this is a very special and sacred hymn about our Savior, Jesus Christ.  After they have listened to the melody, ask the children if they recognize the music.

3.       Have the pianist play the introduction, and tell the children you are going to sing the words this time.  Invite anyone who knows the words to sing along. Use the flip chart to sing the story, and point to the appropriate pictures.

a.       Compliment the children for singing along with you.

4.       Show the children the first picture from the flipchart:

a.       Tell the following story: One day, Jesus taught from Peter's boat on the Sea of Galilee. Afterward He told Peter to take the boat to deep water and let out the nets to catch fish. Peter explained that he and others had been fishing all night without catching anything, but he said he would do as Jesus commanded. Peter and his brother Andrew caught so many fish that their net began to break. James and John came in another boat to help. The fishermen were all amazed. Jesus called Peter and Andrew to follow Him and become fishers of men. Fishers of men is another way to say ‘missionaries’, because it meant that Jesus wanted them to help bring people to the Gospel. He also called James and John. They all left their boats and nets and followed Jesus and became fishers of men. (Story adapted from the Gospel Art Picture Kit.)

b.      Sing the first phrase: “Come follow me, the Savior said”, and ask the children to echo it back to you. Sing it again in a whisper, and ask them to sing it back to you in a whisper. Do it again singing very slowly, and again enunciating every syllable. Repeat as many times as needed, until the children have the phrase learned.

5.       Show the second picture on the flipchart: 

a.       “Here’s a question: what does ‘tread’ mean?...That’s right! The word, ‘tread’ means to walk along, or to press your foot into something. So when I say ‘I want to tread in Jesus’ footsteps’, what does that mean?...That’s right, it means that I want to put my footprints in Jesus’ footprints, to follow him, just like the children are doing in this picture. They want to follow his example and do all the things he did.”

b.      “Sometimes when poems or songs are written, the words are very fancy or sophisticated, just like this next phrase, (say it with an air of sophistication) ‘Then let us in His footsteps tread’.  It’s not hard to understand it if you think about it, it simply means, ‘Hey, we want to follow Jesus! We want to do what He did! We want to follow His example!’”

c.       “Everyone say ‘We want to follow Jesus’. Now everyone say, (say it with emphasis on the bold words) ‘Then,…let us in his footsteps,…tread’. Both phrases mean the same thing.”

d.      Sing the phrase “then let us in His footsteps tread”, and have the children echo sing it back to you, the same as above in step 4b.

e.       Sing with the children the first two phrases: Come follow me, the Savior said. Then let us in His footsteps tread.

6.       Show the third picture in the flip chart:

a.       “Did you know there is only one way we can return to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ? It’s only through Jesus Christ, by following his example, and obeying the commandments, that make it possible for us to be ‘one’ with Him, and with our Heavenly Father.

b.      “In the first picture on this page we see these two children looking up at Jesus. They want to be ‘one’ with Jesus. They must follow his path (point to the pathway) and do as he did to become ‘one’ with him.”

c.       Explain what Jesus is doing in each of the five pictures of Christ on this page, and tell how the children might do the same in their lives.

d.      "What does 'thus' mean?...That’s right, it simply mean ‘this way’. So when I say, ‘for thus alone’, it just means, ‘this is the only way’.  When we sing (sing it) ‘For thus alone can we be one’, it means that following Jesus’ example is the only way we can be one with him."

e.      Sing the phrase again and have the children echo it back to you, the same as above in step 4b.

f.        Sing with the children the first three phrases: Come follow me, the Savior said. Then let us in His footsteps tread. For thus alone can we be one.

7.       Show the last picture in the flip chart:

a.       “Who is ‘God’s own loved begotten son’?...That’s right! It’s Jesus Christ. This phrase completes the phrase before it: (sing it) ‘For thus alone can we be one (with emphasis) with God’s own loved begotten Son.’ (Point to the last picture.)

b.      The children in this picture represent YOU! They want to be one with ‘God’s own begotten Son’, just like you do!

c.       Sing: “with God’s own loved begotten son”, and have the children echo it back to you, the same as in step 4b.

d.      With the children, sing: “For thus alone can we be one, with God’s own loved begotten Son”

8.       Sing the entire song together with the children, and compliment them for a job well done!

If time permits, play:

I Can Follow Jesus

(Adapted from Shelley Wille's, Keeping Your Kids Awake in Family Home Evening, Book Two, Self Reliance, page 85.)

You will need:

•        A small table
•       Slips of paper with ways to follow Jesus’ example in a “Mystery Bag”.
•      Play dough

On the slips of paper in the Mystery Bag, write:

Scriptures

Pray

Love

Dish

Pencil

Phone

Toy

Cookies

Bed

Footprint

Play Dough

2 ½ cups flour

½ cup salt

1 tsp. alum

3 Tbs. oil (add to water)

A few drops of food coloring

2 cup water

Boil water and oil. Add food coloring. Add other ingredients to boiling water and mix by hand.

How to Play:

Pick three or four reverent children to come to the table at the front of the room. Give each child a lump of play dough and ask them to set it on the table in front of them, then have each child pick a slip of paper from the Mystery Bag and read silently what it says. (Smaller kids will need you to whisper in their ear what it says on the paper). Ask them to close their eyes and imagine the play dough tuning into the object on their slip of paper. Encourage them concentrate with all their might, and try very hard to visualize the completed object in their minds down to the last detail. After they have given their best effort, have them open their eyes and ask them if the clay actually turned into the object they saw in their imagination.

Tell them that no matter how long and hard they think about it, that lump of play dough will never turn into the object they were thinking about on its own. It has to be shaped and molded with our hands! Just like the play dough, we can think and think and think about how much we want to serve others the way Jesus Christ did,  but nothing will happen until we use our hands to love and serve others.

Explain that everyone is going to sing Come Follow Me.  While everyone else is singing, the children at the front with the play dough have exactly as long as it takes to sing the song to form their object with their hands.

Sing the song. When it’s over, have the children show their play dough objects and explain how they can be used to follow Jesus Christ's example.

If time permits have another group of children form more objects from the Mystery Bag while Come Follow Me is sung.

Have Fun!

Stars and Stripes Forever

So my 16 year old son walked in the room when I was assembling this flag:

He said, "Mom, you know that's not a real flag, right? The stripes are all messed up and there's not even thirteen stars."

(Thank you Captain Obvious....I guess I won't be fooling the Primary aged kids, either, LOL)

Finding myself on the spot, I said, "Well, I plan on pointing out to the kids that this flag is incomplete, just like some of the songs we are going to be practicing are incomplete!"

Brilliant.

Here is the PDF for the stars and stripes.

Stars and Stripes
For the stripes I printed 3 pages on red card-stock and three pages on white card-stock, then cut them out, taped them together, and taped them on to a blue poster board. For the stars I printed one page on white card-stock, cut them out and taped them to the blue poster board.The stars are from my DJ Inkers graphics collection.

I have songs written on the back of each stripe. I didn't have 8 songs for the eight stripes, so I wrote the songs I want to review more than once on more than one stripe. I love singing the patriotic hymns with the children, so that was a given. But I also want to work on The Holy Ghost again and practice the sign language, as well as the 9th verse of Follow the Prophet that was in the Friend Magazine about President Monson. I'll wait to introduce Come Follow Me until next week.

Here's my list of songs. They are in no particular order:

• America The Beautiful (Hymns, 338)
• My Country 'Tis of Thee (Hymns, 339)
• The Star Spangled Banner (Hymns, 340)
• (Written on 2 of the stripes )Follow the Prophet, Thomas S. Monson Verse (Children's Songbook 110)
• (Written on 3 stripes) The Holy Ghost (Children's Songbook, 105)

On the stars I have 8 ways to sing:

• Hand on Heart
• Boys/Girls alternate phrases
• Softly
• With pride/loudly
• Swaying
• Drum the beat on knees
• eyes closed
• Statue of Liberty pose

Then, I found this cute patriotic paper airplane on familyfun.com.

Click here to download and print your own.

The "flag" will be placed hanging on the whiteboard. I will have a child come to the front, standing a few feet from the whiteboard and flag, and try to hit a stripe on the flag with the paper airplane. We will sing the song written on the back of whichever stripe the airplane touches. The older the child, the further back they will stand. I will also have a child choose a star, which will tell us how to sing the song.

Happy Birthday to the USA!

Have fun!