Primary St. Patrick’s Day (Kiss Me I’m Irish!)

Song “Be True” The link for the flip chart is HERE

 Here are some fun St. Patrick’s Day activities I’ve done in the past.  You can choose to do one the first and 2nd weeks of March.  One is just having black pots of gold (filled with gold candy or coins) and putting a song under each one on a sticky note or masking tape. Here is an idea for pots, or just buy the black plastic ones from Michaels or Joannes Crafts.  They come in a pack of 6 I think.

Another idea is to put the songs on shamrocks inside a handmade hat, kids come up and pull one out to sing…

I was nicknamed Patrick as a young child by my Irish mother. I have always celebrated being Irish and was raised Irish Catholic until I converted to the LDS faith when I was 18.  So I like celebrating St. Patrick’s day. I would start the day with  little pots of gold filled with Gold candy (Rollo’s, Reese’s peanut butter cups, gold almond kisses, gold coins, whatever you can find) If you don’t want to spend a ton then just get some gumdrops and throw a few gold candies in there. You can usually find a giant bag of gumdrops at Walmart for a little over $1.00. 

Then under each black “pot of gold” or inside the Leprechaun hat,  put a little piece of masking tape or a sticky notes or Shamrocks with the song titles and page numbers written on them.

MARCH WEEK 2

The next week I have another idea I have used at church and in my own classroom.  Get 2 of the Tropicana 1/2 gallons of orange juice and use them up and rinse them out.  Cut each of them off to look like the bottom is a square. Then slit the sides a little and push both bottoms together to make a cool looking cube. It will make a very sturdy DICE.

Cover each of the 6 sides with a different color construction paper. I used the colors of the rainbow; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.  Then I find a clip art of the Lucky Charms symbols;purple horseshoe, pink heart, orange star, yellow moons, green clovers, red something, I don’t remember. And mine is in my classroom! But you can do your own, just come up with 6 items, color them with marker and tape them up to the sides real good with book tape. It will look kind of laminated.

This is how I do my colorful dice. Then I add the 6 Lucky Charm clip arts to it.

You could also just use a regular dice, and then it can be used again and again all year.

Maybe just make them GREEN for St. Patricks…use them again at Christmas!
Lucky Charms 4 corners Game

Then comes the fun part.  We are going to play a very rowdy, but fun game called 4 corners. Kids will pick a corner, then roll out your “dice”. The middle of the room is 1 corner, the seats up in front of the room are another corner, then the 4 corners of the room will all have a picture or word taped on them, using symbols of the 6 Lucky Charms shapes.  When you roll, then whatever lands on top, that group is out.  You can have one be FREE SPACE and only have 5 corners.  Then sing one of the songs. Kids stay in their corners. Then after singing, you tell them “Choose a new corner!” and then after they are situated, roll again to see who is out. Then sing again. 

It’s rowdy but a lot of fun.  When you get to the end you can have a prize for the last 2 or 3 kids, maybe just a licorice or a gold coin or something simple, a baggie of colorful skittles, or even a handful of Lucky Charms!   It’s a very fun, but slightly noisy game.  Just to keep a lid on it all, tell the kids you won’t play another round till you have quiet and good singing. But it is a nice break for them to sing standing up for the 15 minutes.  Try it, you will like these 2 fun ideas for March!

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Primary Singing Time – Cut the Bishop’s Tie!

New Song  for next month is “Be True” The link for the flipchart is HERE 

Today I think I will do a very fun activity.  There is usually a time in your month when the Bishop or a member of the Bishopric is scheduled to come into your primary to give a message and visit with the kids.  Find out which week that is ahead of time and you can do something really fun, if he will agree to stick around for 10 minutes of your music time.  That’s usually all I will do this particular activity for. 

The next thing you need is a couple of your husband’s or dad’s or somebody’s old ties. Because you are going to cut them up and pretty much destroy them. So be sure they are ties with a spot or two on them. Then you call the bishop or the counselor up and you tell the kids you are going to cut his tie as they sing and do a really, really good job on the song.  If you have words to the songs, or a flipchart, unhook it and give a phrase to each class in the room.  Then get a really big pair of scissors, you are gonna have FUN WITH THIS! 

My husband donated lots of ties over the years….

So then start singing the song.  The kids know if they do a good job you are going to cut the bishop’s tie.  Do it however you want, you can wait till the verse is over and then have a funny little chat asking the bishop if he thinks it was good enough?  He can play along and say, no, not really, let’s hear it again.  Or he can say, “Well it was okay, maybe good enough for one little snip!” and then go ahead and cut one inch off the bottom of his tie. The kids will absolutely LOVE this.  It is so fun for them to see the bishop as a playful, loving guy, willing to come in and interact with them in a memorable way too.

Then go and do a few more tries on the most important song you are working on.  Then you can end his time with you with the song “He’s Our Bishop”, just run through it once and cut the tie all the way up to the top on that one.  It is a really fun activity to do once in awhile, maybe twice a year.  Be sure it is another member of the bishopric next time, so the same relationship can be developed with a different member of your ward’s leadership. It’s always a fun singing time activity to motivate kids to sing their best.

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