The Ordinary Adventures of a Primary Chorister

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Reverence is Love

I made this flip chart to teach Reverence is Love.pdf this Sunday. The images below illustrate how the PDF will look when printed, laminated and bound on the left side.

Here's the cover:

And here are the inside pages:

Reverence is Love.pdf
Open and print the PDF on white cardstock. You will need 9 sheets of cardstock, and you will need to set your printer to print on both sides of the cardstock paper. Laminate each page and then bind on the left side.

Have fun!

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Edvard Munch and Me

....okay, that's not an singing activity...and probably more dramatic than I need to be. All week my trigeminal neuralgia has been giving me a lickin', and today, well today, not good at all. I think there might be an electrified rail road spike protruding from my face. No, not like the mote in your brother/neighbor's eye...more like the beam....yesssss, that's it; a huge metal beam attached to a live wire.

Heeeeyay....Yooohooo? Somebody wanna remove this thing...? Its really putting a hitch in my git-a-long.

Needless to say, simplicity is once again the word of the day. I am going to be doing my end of the month review tomorrow instead of next week (the last Sunday of the month) and I'll begin teaching Reverence is Love next week. I'll most likely be flying on auto-pilot tomorrow morning, so for Singing Time we'll play Who? What? How? for the review, using only the songs If I listen With My Heart, I will Follow God's Plan, and Stand for the Right.

Thanks for checking in.

Have fun!

Friday, March 11, 2011

Stand for the Right with 6 Be's

I really like this video created by Heather over at The Joys of Our Life:

I especially love the beginning (Examples of Righteousness, from the April 2008 Priesthood Session),where President Monson is saying "...stand for the right..." I am going to go to my ward library and see if they have a DVD of the broadcast to play in primary. If the ward library does not have it, I'll either play the audio from my iPod (you can download it here), or I'll just read this much:

"My young friends, be strong. The philosophies of men surround us. The face of sin today often wears the mask of tolerance. Do not be deceived; behind that facade is heartache, unhappiness, and pain. You know what is right and what is wrong, and no disguise, however appealing, can change that. The character of transgression remains the same. If your so-called friends urge you to do anything you know to be wrong, you be the one to make a stand for right, even if you stand alone. Have the moral courage to be a light for others to follow. There is no friendship more valuable than your own clear conscience, your own moral cleanliness—and what a glorious feeling it is to know that you stand in your appointed place clean and with the confidence that you are worthy to do so."

What you will need:

Open and print this PDF:
Click Here: President Hinckley's 6 B's

This is what it looks like:

Cut out each of the small and large speech bubbles. Attach a handle to each of the large speech bubbles (paint stick, straw, wooden dowel, plastic spoon, stick from a tree...whatever you can find!).

Presentation:

Begin by showing a picture of President Monson, and telling the children, "Our Prophet has some words for you! And these are the words...." Cup your hand to your ear and wait for the children to finish the phrase, "....be true, be true." Explain that you have some other words from the prophet you would like them to hear, and play the DVD of President Monson mentioned above (or the audio clip, or read the paragraph).

Sing the song, Stand for the Right one time through.

Next, ask the children if they remember who Gordon B. Hinckley was, and show his picture. Put his picture on the whiteboard with magnets or tape.

Explain that President Hinckley also had some "words for you", called the 6 Be's. Hold up your fingers with each "Be" and recite:

Be grateful.
Be smart.
Be clean.
Be true.
Be humble.
Be prayerful.

Show the large quote bubbles with the 6 B's printed in them, one at a time. Give each class one of the speech bubble "Be" to hold, and explain that everyone gets to sing Stand for the Right again and again, singing one of the "6 Be's" replacing the words, "be true, be true". Put the smaller speech bubbles in a jar and randomly draw one out as everyone begins singing "Our prophet has some words for you..." Show which "Be" bubble you have drawn to everyone as you sing "...and these are the words...". At this point, whichever class has that speech bubble has to sing out the words, for example..."be smart! be smart"...and then everyone joins in to finish the song. After each speech bubble is sung, attach the smaller one (that you drew from the jar) to the white board around President Hinckley's head.

Have fun!

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Primary Feud

It's the last Sunday in February, and I want to review both January's and February's songs. We are going to play:

Primary Feud

You will need:

Something to hit the table with. I am going to use two fly swatters, each decorated with a silk flower. Children could use their hands instead, slapping them on the table when they know the answer. Another option would be to have a bell, or two bells. You could also use one object in the middle of the table that a child could grab if they know the answer, like a stuffed animal or even a sock or glove.

A small classroom table
Create questions about the song or songs you are reviewing. Make them challenging and thought provoking for Senior Primary, but make them extremely easy and obvious for Jr. Primary.
Or use my questions below. Copy and paste them into your own word processor, or open and print this: Trivia Review.pdf Cut each question/answer/song phrase into a paper strip. Fold each slip of paper and put them in a hat or a bowl or basket or any container. Make sure you separate the Senior Primary questions from the Junior Primary questions.

To Play:

I plan to sing both review songs before starting. I'll tell the children to listen carefully to the words in the song as they sing, so they will be able to "win" at the game we will be playing! After singing, invite two contestants (two children, or a teacher and a child) to come to the front of the room. Explain that you will read a trivia question drawn from your hat/basket/container. The first contestant who knows the answer will slap the fly swatter on the table. Whichever contestant has slapped first will give an answer. If they do not answer correctly, make a dramatic "Wha-Wha-Wha-Whaaaaa" or "Bzzzzzt!"sound to indicate they were incorrect, and give the other contestant a chance to answer correctly. When the correct answer is given, have everyone sing the part of the song written after the question. Next, two new contestants come to the table to try to answer the next question. Keep playing until you have about three of four minutes left, and then sing both songs all the way through again.

Senior Primary Trivia Questions: