Praise to the Man Week Three: Word Nerd

This Sunday I am hoping the following activity will allow a lot more repetitive singing of Praise to the Man, plus continue to focus on learning the words and their meaning. Its a little game I call:

Word Nerd

You will need: 

• Word strips. You can use the word strips from my last post, or use this revised list of words from Praise to the Man: PTTM Word Nerd.pdf. Print the words on white or colored paper or card stock and then cut them out. Divide the word strips into three piles: verse 1, verse 3, and chorus.
• Tape for the back of the word strips.
• 3 pairs of nerdy glasses. Buy them cheaply from thrift stores or just use some old glasses you might have lying around. Put tape or a band-aid on the bridge.

To Play:
Ask the children if they are ready for a test! Tell them it's time to sing Praise to the Man,  and that they will need to pay special attention to all the words in the song because you will be giving the Word Nerd Test afterward.

After singing the entire song once ask, "Who is ready for the Word Nerd Test?" Invite three children (or teachers) to the front, and have them each put on a pair of nerd glasses. After they have the glasses on, tape a word strip from your verse 1 word strip pile on the front of their nerd glasses (at the top so they can still see), so the audience can see the word but they can't. The children wearing the word on their glasses will be able to see each others' words, but not their own.

Explain that as you all sing verse one, everyone will substitute the words shown on the front of the children's glasses with "loo-loo". If the three words are "Jehovah", "anointed", and "seer" then everyone would sing:
"Praise to the man who communed with loo-loo-loo, Jesus loo-loo-loo that prophet and loo. Blessed to open the last dispensation. Kings shall extol him and nations revere."

Next, the children wearing the glasses and word have to fill in the blank with the correct word, that is also on their foreheads. If you have a small primary, you could allow the children who get the answer correct to stay up front and play again.  If they are incorrect they would take their seat and a new child would take their place. I have a very large primary, so I plan on having three new children for each round.

After each round is played, I will quickly remind the children what each word means. I won't be taking extra time for this, I'll just explain the definitions as I am taking the words and glasses off the children.

Continue playing as many rounds as time permits, using word strips from one of the three piles in each round.

Have fun!

Praise to the Man Week Two: Big Words

Sing Praise to the man one time through. After the song is over excuse yourself for a moment and turn around so your back is facing the children. Quickly put on a disguise; glasses, hat, or jacket to look like a game show host. Then turn back around to face the children and continue with:

The Big Words Game Show

Game Show Host: "Good morning everyone! And welcome to this episode of Big Words! Now, to play, I'll call up a reverent contestant to choose a card from this pile of Big Words. Each card has a Big Word on the front from the song Praise to the Man,

 and on the back, there are three possible answers for what the Big Word means.

The contestant picks a card, and I will read the possible three answers listed on the back.The contestant decides which of the three possible answers is correct, and rings the bell!

After ringing the bell the contestant gives his or her answer.  If the contestant is correct he receives 10 points*. If the contestant is not correct, the audience can say the correct answer,  and then we will sing the phrase of Praise to the Man that contains that Big Word.

Okie-dokie! Who can show me they are ready to be a contestant by being reverent?......"  

Notes:

• Play until you run out of words or time.
• Be sure to sing the phrase of the song the word comes from after the card is played. For example: If the word was "extol", sing "Blessed to open the last dispensation, Kings shall extol him and nations revere."  Sing the phrase 2 or three times if you like, and remind the children to think about what the word means when they sing it.
• You might opt to divide into teams; boys against girls, teachers against children, left side of the room against the right, etc. Keep score on the white board.
• Leave enough time to sing Praise to the Man all the way through at the end.

You will need: 

•  Game show host disguise: Hat, glasses, jacket, funny teeth, wig, fake mustache, etc.

• A bell (or have an item they can grab, or even just have them slap their hand on the table when they know the word. I found my orange bell at DI for something like .25 or .50 cents!)   
• Open, print, and cut out the following PDF's: 

PTTM-Big Words Wordstrips.pdf  This PDF contains the game title to display at the top of the white board. It also contains word strips to display beneath the game title, to be added as each word is chosen in the game. You might wish to point to the word strip and have the children repeat the word a few times. It would be best to print these on white or colored card stock, but white or colored paper should work just as well.

PTTM -Big Words Playing Cards.pdf
This PDF contains the playing cards. It is designed to be printed on both sides of the white or colored cardstock. When you hit "print" on the PDF, a print dialog window should appear. Click on the "Properties" button, and find the option your printer gives for printing on both sides of the paper manually. Then click "OK" and then go ahead and print. All printers will be different. You might have to go to "Settings" or "Options". You could also tell your printer to print pages 1,3, 5. After those are printed, reload the paper in the printer to print the other side, and tell the printer to print pages 2, 4  6.  After printing the pages, cut each card out. The word on the front should correspond with the definitions on the back of the card.


Have fun!

 *I give 10 points regularly in singing time as a measure of praise: I'll randomly call out: "10 points for whoever can smile when they sing." (I give a "thumbs up" to individual children if they smile while they sing to indicate they have received the points) or  "10 points for anyone who can recite the last phrase of the song from memory!" Sometimes I'll up the points to 25 or 100, and the children are even more eager to participate. The points are not real, they don't have any value, we don't keep score, and mean they absolutely nothing, but the kids love knowing they were awarded them! Sometimes they ask what they get if they received points, and I just smile and say "Points! You get 10 points! You are so awesome! Isn't that great?!" Its lots of fun.

Afterthoughts for Sunday May 15th:
I always seem to plan too much for so little time, and today was like that! I hoped to get through all the Big Words, but didn't. The idea was fun, and the kids really liked I think, but it might be a good idea to do it over two weeks, or pick and choose doing only the words that need the most explanation. Other than the time factor, things went great!

I loved this next idea so  much, I think it is definitely the way to go. Thanks 3boys2girls:

3boys2girls said...

I read the comments about running out of time and thought I would let you know how we did it. I am the Primary Pres. and it was my week to do sharing time, so I worked with both of my Music leaders and we did this activity the whole time. In Sr. I introduced the song with the story of WW Phelps and then followed the same routine we did in Jr. The teachers sang this song and I went out to change into my game show disguise(the kids loved this!) and then we followed your outline. I was the host and the music leaders led each line that we sang. I believe that the music is the most important part of Primary because most of us can't remember a sharing time lesson we had but we can remember the songs!! I think the more you can coordinate the songs in Sharing Time the better. It works great for us!

 How did it go for you?

Praise to the Man Week One

If you have read my earlier posts you already know that it's crunch time for our Sacrament meeting Mother's Day performance on account of it being Stake Conference next Sunday in my stake. Last week after primary I learned that we would, in fact be singing in Sacrament Meeting on Mother's Day.

It's all good.

But it IS crunch time. Especially because this is Praise to the Man Week One, as well.

For the Mother's Day Sacrament Meeting performance we will sing a medley of three songs, first verse only, no fluff, no frills:

Quickly I'll Obey 197
When We're Helping 198
Mother I Love You 207

Lucky for me, I have about 10 minutes before Sharing Time begins in Junior Primary (just after Sacrament Meeting) to sing wiggle songs with the children, while the presidency is ushering and preparing for Opening Exercises, so I'll use this time to sing through all three of these songs. If I need to go through them again at the beginning of Junior Singing Time, I'll do it, but it won't take long. It'll be more like a dress rehearsal where I have them pretend they are in Sacrament Meeting.

In Senior Primary Singing Time we'll sing through the medley one time and move on.

I will ask my pianist to play the first two songs all the way through once as their introduction, but we'll use the written intro on Mother I Love You. 

Praise to the Man Week One

To introduce this song I will first show this picture of William W. Phelps:

I'll explain that William knew the prophet, Joseph Smith personally, and soon after Joseph Smith was killed, or "martyred" he wrote the words to Praise to the Man to honor Joseph Smith. The feeling of this song is sort of a "joyful sadness".  It's really sad, because Joseph Smith had just been killed by a viscous mob! But it's joyful because we know that just because Joseph Smith died, does not mean that the Church of Jesus Christ died. In fact, we know that death can not "conquer", or "over take" Joseph Smith ever again, and those people who killed him can never hurt him again. We are joyful because we know that Joseph is with Heavenly Father and Jesus, (or "Gods" as is says in the words of the song), working with them and planning for the future of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (adapted from Our Latter Day Hymns, Karen Lynn Davidson, Praise to the Man pp. 55-56)

On the right....over there, but at the top---------------->----^
you will see I posted a YouTube video of the song, Fantasy on a Scottish Tune. (I did not create the slideshow.) I love this version of Praise to the Man so much! I purchased the track on iTunes for .99 and at this point in my introduction I am going to play it for the children from my iPod. Not the whole song, just the first 3:20 minutes. There are three parts I will talk to the children about before I begin playing the music. Before starting the music I will say something like this:

1. At the very beginning I want you to notice the Scottish bagpipes. The name of tune is "Martyr", but it is sort of a copy of a tune called (say this with a resolute and brave voice and stature), "Scotland the Brave"! (Our Latter Day Hymns, Karen Lynn Davidson, Praise to the Man pp. 56)  When you hear the bagpipes I want you to think about how the they make you feel.
2. Notice the "Regal" shift in the music. Regal is like royalty, or kings and queens! As you listen to this part, think of how it makes you feel and prepare to tell me why you think it was included in this arrangement.
3. The first verse and chorus. Think about what you think the words mean as I show you the pictures in my flip chart. I will be asking questions about what the words mean.

So I'll play the tune, and afterwords we will take just a few seconds to discuss the answers to the questions I posed.

Next I'll go directly to the beginning of the flip chart, and I will sing the entire song through, showing the pictures from the flip chart again, while they listen (or sing along). I will be sure to sing it with all the energy and reverence that I want them to express when they sing it. 

Next...time permitting, I will start at the beginning of the song and flip chart, and explain the words and phrases of each page. I don't expect to get very far, as there will be stories to tell, and because we will practice singing each page after we discuss it. With each new page learned, we will sing the song from the beginning to that point.


When there are about 2 minutes left, we will stop and sing the song from beginning to end (doing our best realizing this is just for the sake of repetition and familiarization) using the flipchart.

This is really going to be awesome!

Have fun!

Afterthought: Feeling sort of sheepish for not even mentioning that it's Easter tomorrow. 

Happy Easter!

FYI and if you are wondering, I am not going to be using any Easter themes in my Singing Time tomorrow. It's okay, I know they will in Sacrament Meeting and Sharing Time, so that'll be covered, and I am too focused on lesson plan above.

Praise to the Man

I know this is going to be my favorite song to teach this year. I have been over the top excited about it since I saw it in our 2011 Outline for Sharing Time.

This flip chart has 33 pages, but you will want to print it double-sided on white card stock, so you will actually need only 17 sheets of card stock. Click here to open and print the pdf:

Praise to the Man.pdf

After it is printed, laminate the pages and then have them bound on the left side in storybook form. They should look something like this:

This is the cover page:

These are two page views:

Have fun!