Just Dropping In!

After getting such wonderful ideas from a primary chorister I dropped in on earlier on my vacation to Utah, I was excited to pop in on another! My next visit was to another primary in West Jordan, Utah with chorister Jill Taylor.  

Hi Jill! 

Jill and I talked for a little while between her singing times, and I felt strongly that if we lived closer we'd become great friends. She even let me go into nursery with her, which was very wonderful. I don't see a whole lot of posts about nursery, or maybe I don't pay as much attention to them as I should. But Jill had some fun ideas that really inspired me to put more effort into nursery. 

The first thing Jill said when I told her I was a visiting chorister, was that she doesn't sing, and is not musical, and she was not sure why they put her in as the chorister. Well! It was obvious to me why she was called....she has such affection for the children, and they followed her in singing as if her fists were full of candy. She loves the children and they love her in return. It's as simple as that. 

Jill began by teaching both verses of I Love to See the Temple using pictures from a flip chart. They sang the first verse, and then she went back and explained what the different phrases meant, involving the children and asking them questions, too. She listened for the phrases that needed work, and had the children sing those phrases through until they knew the words better. She repeated the same process on the second verse. This is exactly what I will be doing this Sunday as I teach the same song.

Next Jill had a clear glass vase with about 8 small American flags in it. Crinkled inside the vase were torn pieces of red and blue paper, just for some color. Each flag had the name of a review song on it. She chose a reverent child to come to the front and choose a flag, and when they sang the song the child got to lead the song using that flag. It was so cute! The kids loved it! 

I have about 30 medium sized flags I bought at Deseret Industries last winter. I was able to talk the store manager into selling them to me for 10 cents each, which was a small miracle!  I mean, this was a first for me! Now I have just the thing to do with them. I think I may have an entire class come to the front to wave/lead the flags.

Jill used visual aids for nursery, and again, the little ones were completely focused on her. She had a flip chart for "Wheels on the Bus", which is one I use too, although mine is an older version. (Mine is from the book, Music Fun For Tots by Pam Carity and Marsha Nawrocki, published by Church Mouse Publications and distributed by Deseret Book. I bought it about 22 years ago at Deseret Book.) 

Jill also had some really cute-sy stars printed on yellow card stock, laminated, and adhered to tongue depressors. She used these to sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" giving one to each child to hold and wave during the song.  For sure, I have got to make some for my nursery kiddos!

Thanks Jill for your clever ideas! Thanks for letting me tag along in nursery, too. I had a blast!