4th of July

Happy Fourth of JULY!

It seems I always have a sub for this holiday. So here are few of my go-to plans.

This is a fun and easy matching game. Just assign a song (I am reviewing program songs) to each matching picture. For my SR, I like to have them tell me facts about the picture. Example: How many red stripes on the flag, white stripes, how many stars, who made the first flag? etc. They really like showing me how smart they are!

Click HERE to download the matching.

Here is a post I did last year. It was a big HIT! It is very easy, low prep and great for a sub.

Click HERE for this activity.

The easiest one of all is 'PASS the FLAG'.

Buy a small flag on a stick. Pick a song to practice. Start passing the flag as you are singing. Have the pianist stop suddenly. Whomever is holding the flag tells something they love about our country or a freedom they enjoy.

I LOVE the song 'My Flag'. It's a great one to teach or just sing on the Sunday before Independence Day.

Here is the flip chart I use to help everyone remember the words.

Click HERE for the flip chart.

Camille has some cute ideas over on her blog for the 4th of July. She does poppers or glow sticks.

Click HERE to go to her blog.

Sugardoodle.com also has some cute ideas. You can check those out HERE

Whatever you choose to do GOOD LUCK and Happy 4th of July!

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Nephi's Courage

I've been trying to figure out how to teach this great song. My SR knows it well so I will just be reviewing it but most of my JR don't know it at all.

There are sooooo many cute ideas out there for teaching this song. I don't like to 're-invent the wheel' but I do like to put my own spin on it. Here are a few I have added to:

The OCD Primary Chorister made a cute flip chart with pictures that she drew. You can link to it HERE.  I decided to use this with my SR to review but I re-did it and just put one 'key word' with each picture.

There are NO pictures for the chorus.

Click HERE to download a copy.

Camille over on her blog had a darling idea of teaching the first two verses of the song with puppets.

You can check out her post HERE. 

There weren't puppets for the chorus and Camille does the 3rd verse a different way so I made some puppets for them.

Susan Fitch has some really cute puppets on her Etsy Shop. You can check them out HERE.

I used her puppets but on the church's website there are some there too.

Here's how mine turn out.

When the kids know the verse pretty well I'm going to pull out the 'STAGE'. 

I use a shower or curtain rod with a long curtain attached. I have 2 teachers hold the rod. The kids stand behind the curtain and hold the puppets up over the rod as we sing.

Click HERE to download the puppets I added. 

Happy Singing!

I Feel My Savior's Love

My song pick for the program for April is "I Feel My Savior's Love". I've been searching the web for a way to teach it to my JR kids. Over on the FB LDS Primary Choristers page, Katie Gibbons had a cute idea. So I made it on my computer and added one more phrase. 

THANKS Katie!

I'm only teaching the 1st verse and chorus, so this is only for that.

Click HERE to download a copy of the pictures.

Happy Singing!

More Than Enough

I am so in love with this song! Mother's Day has never been a favorite of mine simply because I never thought I was doing enough. But Shawna Edwards has captured my exact feelings in her new Mother's Day song called 'More Than Enough'. You can buy it HERE from her website. You can get just the sheet music or a bundle with an MP3 recording. 

There is also a darling YouTube video sung by the One Voice Children's Choir.

Showing the video would be a great way to introduce it.

I've decided to teach this to my Primary kids to sing in Sacrament meeting on Mother's Day.

On Shawna Edwards blog she gives a suggestion on how to teach the chorus to Primary children. HERE

One suggestion she makes is having the YM and YW sing some of the verses with the Primary joining in on the chorus.

I contacted my YW President and our girls are singing all three verses with the Primary on the chorus. I'm excited to introduce it this Sunday. I thought I'd do the lesson plan by Sis. Edwards by singing the chorus and having the kids listen for several things mothers often do for their children. I made some picture cards with key words they can put in order and sing from. It will work well for both JR and SR.

Click HERE to download a copy of the picture/word cards.

This is ONLY for the chorus. There are a few word changes in the chorus on verses 2 & 3 so I made cards for them also in blue and there is a special phrase at the ending.

Happy Singing!

Finger Lights

I LOVE these little things!
 I used to put these in my birthday bags for my first graders.
My grandkids love using them when we're camping around the campfire.

And now they are a BIG hit in Primary.

I've seen several ideas on the LDS Choristers Facebook page. So I thought I'd put all the ideas together on one pages so I won't forget them. Plus, I made some shape cards you can download if you'd like.

Click HERE to download the ideas and shape cards.

Click HERE for a direct link to Amazon.com to buy.

Happy Singing!!!

Choose The Right 2

While preparing to teach Choose The Right I decided to put the key words on a picture. I thought this would help my JR kiddos better. So I guess it's like a flip chart but it's only key words. And it's only the 1st verse because that's all we are teaching.

Here's a few of the pictures.

Click HERE to download the pictures.

Happy Singing!

Choose The Right

I'm excited to teach this great hymn. I'm the Sacrament Meeting Chorister too and I love it when the Primary kids know another one of the hymns so they can sing along.

I've decided to use Camille's cute idea to teach it from her blog Camille's Primary Ideas. You can find it HERE.
I'm also making CTR shields for my JR kiddos to hold up every time we sing 'Choose the Right'. I found them HERE from a cute blog called 'In the Leafy Treetops'.

After my kids have learned the song, I want to do Hand bells to practice. I'd also like to do them for the program. This song is very easy for bells. You can do it even if you only have the 8 bell set. Just play high B for the low B.

I want to do it with my JR and they haven't done bells before. I made 4 different versions of charts- one is all chords for the SR and this one we will use for the program, one is melody on every 1st and 3rd beat, one is just bells on 'Choose the Right' (this one I'll start with the JR), and one is harmony just on 'Choose the Right' (I'm hoping JR will be able to do this one too).

This picture is only part of the charts just to give you an idea what they look like. I wanted to make the charts easier to make and print so I made the charts on 8 1/2 x 11 cards and you can tape them together or just put them up separately. My charts are for the 'Kids Play' brand of bells.

Click HERE to download the bells charts.

Happy Ringing!!!