Bon Bons- 13/12/09

Today was a very festive primary. To start I brought along all the christmas hats I have. Reindeers, Santa hats, elf hats, christmas hats etc and we all wore hats for singing time. Then I had christmas bon bons with songs in them, so I chose two children at a time to crack them open and we would sing the song inside. That was a lot of fun. One of the songs was 'Christmas bells' and when we sung it I got one of the children to shake some bells in time with the music and it was really effective. I also taught the oder girls the part that goes over the song and they sounded beautiful. Next week we will be singing for the Relief Society.

Primary Presentation 29/11/09

It has been a while since I have been able to write with all the preparations for our Primary presentation. It was last week, and the kids did an amazing job. There were some things that the presidency did that I thought was quite unique for our presentation. Because it was all about eternal families, our first counselor in Primary created word strips in the shape of a home. So throughout the presentation we built a home with the main themes of each month. I did another video presentation, and the kids all walked in with their builder hats on. I'm so grateful for all the children in primary and for their sweet spirits. I love my calling. I also had a thought for a new project. I would love to teach the children some songs that they can perform for elderly people at retirement homes. Perhaps a faith in God activity?

Primary Idol Review 19/10/09

This week I taught both the junior and senior primary "Seek the Lord Early" using the visual helps from Shari's singing time [http://singingtimecollection.blogspot.com/2009/06/seek-lord-early.html].
 I laminated them, and they really helped the children to learn the words very quickly.

Then afterwards I had an activity similar to Australian Idol, to see where we're at with our songs for the primary presentation. I made three laminated flip charts with the numbers 1-5 and they were for three judges. I chose two leaders, and one of the children that were singing well when I did it with the seniors, and three leaders for the Juniors. This worked well. Then I got the children to tell me what songs we needed to know for our program and I wrote them on the blackboard. Then in order we sang each of our songs and the judges gave a score and feedback for each song we sang. This gave me a good idea as to which songs the children needed to work on, and it was a bit of fun. And now when we do that activity again, the children can try and beat their scores.

General Conference- 11/10/09

It was Conference this week, so of course no primary. It was such an uplifting conference. There was one talk that really got me thinking about Primary and the impact that my teaching can have on the lives of children. It was a talk given by Russell T. Osguthorpe in the Saturday morning session. Some things to think about:


1. As a teacher, do I view myself as a messenger from God?
2. Do I prepare and then teach in ways that can help save lives?
3. Do I focus on a key doctrine of the Restoration?
4. Can those I teach feel the love I have for them and for my Heavenly Father and the Savior?
5. When inspiration comes, do I close the manual and open their eyes and their ears and their hearts to the glory of God?
6. Do I invite them to do the work that God has for them to do?
7. Do I express so much confidence in them that they find the invitation hard to refuse?
8. Do I help them recognize promised blessings that come from living the doctrine I am teaching?

It's a great talk, here's the link: [http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-1117-5,00.html]

Don't say a word game- 27/09/09

SENIOR PRIMARY

To learn 'How firm a foundation ' better today, we played the game 'Don't say a word'. The way that game is played is I would choose one child to go outside, and another to pick some words out of a pretty box, that were all words from the song 'How firm a foundation. Then I would hold them up in front of all the children and they would have to sing the song without saying those words. Then I would invite the child outside back in, give them a pen and paper and tell them to listen out for the missing words and if they knew them they could write it down, and their team would get a point for each word they got right. I played it as girls verse boys and they loved that. The boys won in the end.

JUNIOR PRIMARY

I wanted to do a pass the parcel type thing, but due to lack of time this week I used my trusty pretty box and put in all different ways of singing. There was whispering, humming, girls only, boys only, standing up, sitting down, eyes closed and free choice. We sung the song 'I lived in Heaven' as they passed the box, then when the music stopped we did what was on the card they picked out.

Plate Memory Review-20/09/09

This is an all time favorite of mine that I bring out every so often so the children can review their program songs. It's a game of memory on plastic plates with pictures that relate to the songs we are doing for our presentation. The children singing the best get to come up and flip around two plates to see if the pictures match. If they match you sing the song, if not, the next child has a turn until there's a match. Here are some pictures. The images are glued inside the plate and a number is written on the back. The plates can either be stapled to the string or fed through holes and tied with a knot.

Ping Pong ball toss- 13/9/09

This is the game I played with the kids in singing time today and it worked a treat. Today I wanted to focus on the song "I lived in Heaven," since we haven't sung it in quite some time. The game itself is really easy to prepare. All that was needed was a bucket or box of some sort filled with cups that are squeezed in there tightly so they can't fall over inside. Then inside the cup I added a piece of paper in each with some of our other presentation songs and one cup that had a "free choice". At the beginning of singing time I told them we would sing "I lived in Heaven", then I would choose the best singer to come up, throw the ball from a distance and try and get the Ping Pong ball in a cup. If they get it in a cup we would sing the song in that cup, but if they missed we would have to keep singing "I lived in Heaven." It made repetition fun :) and was adaptable for Junior's and Senior's.

2008 Primary Video Presentation

This was the video presentation I put together for the Nambour ward Primary Presentation last year. The music in the background is 'I am a child of God' by Paul Cardall. I think I'll do another one for this year, so I'll be sure to post it up when I do :)

Pin the tie on Dad- 6/9/09 'Father's Day'

Happy Father's Day to any Father's out there :)

Today the children sang beautifully in sacrament meeting for their father's :) They sang "Daddy's Homecoming" with all the actions, and it was adorable. They did very very well.

In singing time we played the game 'Pin the tie on Dad'. What I did was I drew a picture of a Father on a piece of big white card, then I cut out ties on different patterned paper that fit in the correct spot. On the back of each tie was 'harder' questions about Dads for the seniors and 'Easier' questions for the littlies. Some of the questions for the seniors were: Who was the first father on the earth? Who was Nephi's father? Who's the father of our ward? etc.

So we sung songs that we have been working on recently, and the children singing the best were able to come and have a turn. Then there was a prize at the end for the child tat gets closest to the spot. It was a lot of fun, and it could be adapted for both the Junior and Senior Primary.

Singing Time- 30/8/09

Today was the first week we split the junior and Senior Primary up in Kawana ward and it went extremely well. It was certainly very necessary because we have 12 sunbeams at the moment! So this is what I did with them today:



SENIOR PRIMARY:




1. How firm a foundation- I brought a large white board that I had at home and drew the above image I found on sugar doodle which i thought was a great way to set out the words. We sang the song through with the words, then gradually i would rub of parts of the words, until they knew it well enough to rub off all the word! It was great.

2. Books of the Old Testament- Today I taught them the song "The Books of the old Testament." So I got them into groups with a piece of paper, pen and some scriptures and got them to make a list of all the books in the book of Mormon in order from beginning to end. Once they had their list we sang through the song with the list to help them get familiar with the tune and the words. Then once we had sung it a couple of times I took the paper away and I assigned each of them a book, and when it came to their book in the song they had to sing the name of their book. It worked really well and helped us learn it really quickly in time for some more songs. Once they got good at their book, I'd swap the books around until they knew the whole song. It also meant they could all pass off that song on our senior primary song chart :)



JUNIOR PRIMARY

1.My Eternal Family- A few weeks back I taught the children actions to this song that have really helped them to learn it. This is a basic rundown:

(Marching the whole time)

I am a builder working each day (Pointing to themselves)
to build my family (fist on fist to look as though they're building-just like the wise man & foolish man)
and I will do the best I can (Pointing to themselves)
to serve them lovingly (make a heart shape with their hands)

I am a builder (Pointing to themselves)
growing so tall (Hands going up above their heads)
and learning everyday (make a book with their hands)
to speak with kindness in my home (talking hand-like the chicken dance action)
to help at work and play (sweeping action)

My Heavenly Father sent me here (Pointing to themselves)
And he knows I can be (point to their heads like they're thinking)
Strong and righteous (flex arms)
as i build (fist on fist to look as though they're building-just like the wise man & foolish man)
My Eternal Family (March)

As an incentive to get them to sing really well (worked like a charm) I incorporated the game musical measles. For those who were singing well they were given musical measles (red dot stickers) that they could stick all over the teacher of their choice at the end of singing time. Beware, you might end up covered in stickers :p

Spin the Bishop!- 16/8/09

We just had our stake boundaries changed, and we have a new Bishop in Kawana Ward. So it was a "get to know the Bishop" singing time. And today has to have been my favorite Singing Time in Kawana so far, it was a lot of fun! I organised for Bishop to come in and we started his visit by singing him the song "He's our Bishop." Then I asked bishop to come and sit in a spinning chair in the middle of the room (I got it out of the clerks office), and the children sat in a circle around Bishop. I asked Bishop to point his arms out straight like a pointer, then I spun him around on the chair. When he came to a stop, the child he was pointing to got to come up and pick a question out of a pretty box I had in my hand. These were some of the questions, and some of the songs I added to the questions:

1. How long have you been married?
2. What was your favorite subject at school?
3. Where did you serve a mission? (Called to serve)
4. What sort of car do you drive?
5. What are some of your hobbies?
6. How many children do you have and what are their names? (I am a child of God)
7. Do you have any pets?
8. What's your favorite Book of Mormon story? (Book of Mormon Stories)
9. What sort of books do you like to read?
10. What's your favorite food? (Popcorn Popping)
11. What's your favorite Primary Song? (Sing Bishop's favorite song)
12. What are your favorite sports?
13. Where were you born?
14. What is your favorite hymn? (Sing his favorite hymn)
15. Have you ever broken any bones? (Hinges)
16. What do you do for a living?



The children were so well behaved (mainly because Bishop was there) and they all really enjoyed watching Bishop get dizzy on the chair. And it was a really nice way for the children to get to know the Bishop a bit better. You could add any other songs to the questions, but I found I didn't need too many songs as we ran out of time quickly. At the end of singing time we presented bishop with a bucket that had all the Primary children's hands cut out, with their names on them, on coloured paper and attached to skewers. On the front of the bucket was a little heart shape that read "Our Primary sustains Bishop Kelly." Bishop was very appreciative, and he seemed to really enjoy the time he had in Primary. He even put it on the pulpit on Fathers Day, so I think he likes it :)

Hot & Cold- 9/8/09

The game hot & cold is so easy to do, yet it keeps the kids interested, I love it. Today we reviewed the song "He's our bishop" so we'll be ready to sing for bishop next week. So i got one child to go outside and another to hide a lollie somewhere in the room (I got permission to use lollies today) and then once it was hidden, and all the children knew where it was, we'd let the other child back in. Then all the children had to sing softly when they were far from the object, and louder the closer they got. We played a number of rounds and got fairly good at the words by the end.