June 2012 – Pattie's Primary Place

Primary Birthday Singing Time!

Today I’ll share some fun things you can do for the kids’ birthdays. Besides the cute little doo dad the primary leaders give them for their birthday it would be fun to do some different things besides just singing the birthday songs.

This idea is from Primary Singing Time link is HERE.She has other cute ideas too.

SING A BIRTHDAY SONG IN A ROUND!

SING IN A ROUND:
Sing “You’ve had a Birthday” (CS 285) in a round:
Divide up the room into 2, 3 or 4 groups. Assign a singing leader to each group. Following the breaks listed in the Children’s Songbook, cue each group, in turn, to start singing the song (from the beginning).
1st group: You’ve had a birthday shout Hoo-ray.
2nd group starts, You’ve had a birthday shout Hoo-ray. etc.

How about doing the HAND JIVE! This idea is from Primary Singing’s blog, link is HERE. I would do this song to “Happy Happy Birthday Children Dear”
1. Slap legs twice on “Happy Happy”
2. Clap twice on ” Birthday”
3. Wave hands in front of the other twice on “Children Dear”
REPEAT
4. Slap legs twice on “Happy Day will”
5. Clap Twice on “Come To”
6. Wave hands in front of the other twice on “You all Year!”
keep going through the entire song.

BIRTHDAY KIDS WEAR THE BIRTHDAY HAT!!
There are also birthday cake hats you can purchase for the child to wear while they are sung to. I’ve never purchased one but I wish I had. They are soooo cute and the kids love them.
Here are links to a few I’ve seen online. HERE at Webhats.

This hat is $13.59 on sale! I could use this in my family or my classroom too!

The link for this hat is Here at everafter store. It’s only $14.95 It would be fun to see my 28 year old 6 foot 4 son wearing this hat as we sing happy birthday to him now, wouldn’t it? Super fun!!

For MORE fun than a hen in a pen, try the CHICKEN DANCE!!! It goes good with this birthday song “This month is such a special one it’s birthday time for you…

1. Both hands make a “talking”motion, 4 x to “This month is such a special one”
2. Flap wings like a chicken (hands by armpits, and wave the elbows up and down) 4x to “It’s birthday time for you”
3.Make body twist back and forth (4 beats) to “We really want to celebrate”
4.Clap four times to “This happy day with you”
5. repeat the 4 x fingers talking motion fo “Yippedy aye and hidey ho”
6. Repeat 4 x flapping wings to “there’s something we can do”
7. Repeat body twist 4 x to “We’ll sing a song that we all know”
8. Repeat clapping 4 x to “Happy Birthday to you!”

HOPE YOU CAN FIND A FEW WAYS TO SPICE UP PRIMARY BIRTHDAY SINGING TIME!!!

http://feeds.feedburner.com/PattiesPrimaryPlace

He’s Our Bishop…

Today I think a very fun activity is to play “CUT THE BISHOP’S TIE!” . 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….

1. Busy as a man can be,
He’s our bishop.
He finds time to talk to me;
He’s our bishop.
Always kindly words he’ll say
To the children ev’ry day.
Let us help him ev’ry way;
He’s our bishop.

2. Cheerful as he serves the Lord,
He’s our bishop.
He’s the father of our ward;
He’s our bishop.
He helps us to do the right
In our Heav’nly Father’s sight.
We love him with all our might;
He’s our bishop.

Words and music: Robert P. Manookin

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.

Here’s another great idea for singing the song “OUR BISHOP”

I won’t take credit for this but I saw one of our music leaders do this and the children loved it. We took photos of our Bishop acting out the song. Around the time the music leader wanted to teach it, our Bishop was re-shingling his roof. His wife had a photo of him and his daughter (who was in Primary at the time) on the roof. We used that for “Busy as a man can be”. Then we posed him at the front of the Primary as if giving a bishopric message for “He takes time to talk to me”. We had photos of him doing follow the leader and the whole bishopric among other poses for different phrases. (Shared by Lisa in Murray, UT / Primary Music Yahoo Group)

CUT THE BISHOP’S TIE!

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.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/PattiesPrimaryPlace

Musical Measles

How about playing Musical Measles? If you can get some sticker dots from Walmart to use as “measles or chicken pox” (I think they are about $3.00 for a pack of a few hundred).

Here are the dots I would buy. I’d probably give each teacher a half sheet..

Then before you start singing time you can ask all the teachers to help you by listening and watching for some good singing by the kids in their classes. Then you can give them each a half sheet of stickers. They can help by putting sticker dots on kids’ faces in their primary class as you all sing.

I’d probably try making a chicken “hat” like this from an old baseball cap and felt.

Then ask the kids, “Do YOU want to get musical chicken pox? (or musical measles?) Then they need to really sing for you! Then sing your first song. Tell the kids you will be watching for good singers who might be catching the ” musical measles or chicken pox”. Tell the teachers to watch and add pox as they want.

But if you had a chicken costume, it might be really fun to “be” the chicken too!

You could put a chicken hat on if you can find one but you wouldn’t have to. I just got a cute fur deer hat that I might use and call it musical deer pox. It doesn’t really matter. Be creative. Somebody is gonna catch something musical this week and you’ve got the dots to prove it!!!

Then go around and put the “pox”on teacher’s faces as well as kid’s faces. As you see more and more kids singing their hearts out, you will be able to add “pox”. Don’t leave out the presidency or the pianist. The kids will love seeing that. At the end of the song pick a teacher to choose one of their “pocked up” kids.

HERE’s a LINK to a cute chicken head for $15.00 if you really want to get crazy. :O The picture is below.

I LOVE this hat. I’d buy it just for Halloween it’s so cute! You could probably make one though with just
a chicken stuffed animal from the DI and a baseball cap and a glue gun.

The one with the most “chicken pox” from that teacher’s class gets to come pick the next song. I think I would put the songs on round circles on the board just in keeping with the “chicken pox or musical measles” theme. Am I spelling pox right? Ah, who cares. LOL. Happy singing!

http://feeds.feedburner.com/PattiesPrimaryPlace

August Primary Singing Time

Most choristers are getting ready for the primary presentation in September. I always started to add my musical instruments about now. I always had a few instruments as accompaniments to the song. It adds so much.

I looked out the window and what did I see? Popcorn popping on the apricot tree! ALWAYS
add some funny songs into your weekly list.

One idea is to use the older kids who can play the violin. I had 2 girls a few years ago that played alongside an easy, repetitive chorus of one of the presentation songs.

Most years I have used resonator bells to accompany a song. I love the wood block bells and they sound delightful tinkling in the background. You can use other types of bells too.

First Note 15 Note Wood Xylophone
One I recommend is a xylophone set for $20 bucks. The tones of these bells is very crisp and rises above the piano AND the singing. And you can get a child who has some piano lessons in his/her background to play a simple rythm or several children to do chords to add to the chorus of a song. The link is HERE for Musician’s Friend, where I bought mine. The kids LOVE them. they have many other types of bells to choose from for around $25.00.
Rhythm Band RB2130 Plastic Resonator Bells
Another thing to start is maybe a song with sign language. I tried to do this every other year. It is so moving to watch young kids sign a song. Love One Another has signs in the songbook.

Another instrument I’ve used in the past is a flutist. I don’t care if it is an adult or a primary child, it always adds to the meeting.

And lastly, I will add some solos and trios or duets. Many songs have a harder 2nd or 3rd verse that the kids do not really master in time. If that is the case in your primary, then add an older group of boys or girls or a mix to trio the 2nd verse.

Of couse they couldn’t be dressed up as cute as this trio of BEARS (and Goldilocks) we just performed in my classroom, but singing trios are always a cute addition to the Primary Program.

It especially has worked well in missionary type songs. It just brings such a sweet spirit to the song lyrics to have individual kids sing them at the microphone. Anyway, add some special things to your program this month, so you have time to practice and perfect the special musical touches.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/PattiesPrimaryPlace