Invisible Points

Here's a fun game that worked really well with teaching The Fourth Article of Faith, but could apply to almost any song.

I divided the room into four groups and I explained that everyone would sing the first phrase of the song: (We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the gospel are). Then I assigned each group one of the phrases of the song.

• I told the first group to sing: first, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And, I told this group if they would ALL hold up one finger the whole time they sang thier phrase, I would give each of them 10 points. (Remember these are invisible points and don't mean a thing, LOL.) We practiced it once or twice, and then I invited everyone to sing from the beginning, with only the first group singing their part, and ending the song there. Naturally they earned the 10 points!
• Next I told the second group to sing: second, repentance and practiced it a couple of times. I told them that it was time to add them to the song and instructed that everyone would sing the first phrase, group one would sing their part, and then group two would add their part, and end the song there. If group two would all sing holding up two fingers the entire time, AND if they could sing better than group one (which encouraged group one to continue to sing their best) I would give them 20 points! (And from group one I heard..."Awwww! 20 points!")
• Next I told group three to sing third, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins and practiced it a couple of times. I told them that it was time to add them to the song and instructed that everyone would sing the first phrase, group one would sing their part, group two would sing their part, and then  group three would add their part, and we would end the song there. If group three would all sing holding up three fingers the entire time, AND if they could sing better than group one and two,  I would give them 25 points! 
• I did the same as above for group four, only increasing the points to an unheard amount of 45 points!

Seriously, they were wild about this.

Next, we did it all again, except I shifted the parts, so group two now sang the first part and held up one finger, group three the second holding up two fingers, etc. We sang until each group had done each part.

Somewhere about the middle of the game I began whispering the point value to each group, so the other groups would not hear. After they sang, I announced to the entire group how many points that particular (beaming!) group had just earned. This made the the children absolutely giddy!

At the very end, the last group to sing phrase four was group one. I had just given the group before them 100 points for a job well done. One of the girls from group one whispered, "Could you give us infinity points if we do it just right?" and I whispered back, "Okay, but only if it is your very, very best!"

And it was.

We finished by having everyone sing the entire song together, and I promised infinity points for everyone (just to even up the score, haha) if they would all hold up their fingers and sing their very best!

I wonder what they have done with all those points this week!

Have fun!