The Family Is of God - Word Jumble

I saw this idea on the wonderful Facebook group, and I believe it is also on Sugardoodle.

This is an activity better suited for SR primary, not so much for JR primary, as most of those little ones can't read.

First, explain the weird phenomenon of most people being able to easily read a scrambled word as long as the first and last letter are correct.  Then split the Primary into 4 groups, by class or area of the room or by counting off or however, and give each group one verse to figure out.  (I'm going to give the easier verses, 1 & 4, to my younger kids, and the harder verses, 2 & 3 to the older kids.)  Have the pianist play the song softly in the background while they are working.  When they are done, have each class come to the front, either by a spokesperson or all together, and read or sing their verse.  Then put up a bigger version of all 4 verses and the chorus on the board and sing the whole song through together.  This can be a great intellectually stimulating activity for those older kids as they need to really focus on some of those words.

HERE are the verses on individual sheets for handing out to classes.

HERE is the whole song scrambled in large print for posting at the front.

Wiggle Song: Do As I'm Doing

Occasionally those little ones need to get their wiggles out.  And moving helps them get engaged for learning as well!

One favorite is Do As I'm Doing, but sometimes the kids have a hard time coming up with actions to do while we sing this one.  I found some cute cards from Susan Fitch Design that can be used as prompts - have them chose one before you sing the song.

HERE are the images in PDF form, ready for print.

The Family Is of God - Outline (Pat Graham)

On her blog, Pat Graham posted this wonderful lesson plan for teaching this year's outline song -- The Family Is of God.  It appears to only be available in JPG format so I typed it up in a Word doc for ease of use.

Click HERE for the editable WORD DOC of this lesson plan

Below are her pictures of examples of her visuals for listing the roles of each family member:

I took the liberty of taking the color out of her drawings to be able to print (hopefully that was OK!).  Just click on each one and save to your computer.  :)

If you're having trouble saving these images:

Click HERE for a WORD DOC with the pictures in them.

The Family Is of God - Crack the Code

I love this idea!  Here is a video explanation (she calls it a Melody Map but it's really a Word Map...).

The point is to have the Primary "crack the code" -- Each dot is one word in the song.  This one I've done for THE FAMILY IS OF GOD I made the GREEN dots forms of "me" or "us," BLUE dots forms of "God/Father" (as in Heavenly Father), PURPLE dots word relating to family -- ie "family, children, mother, father," and BLACK dots for all other words.

You can sing the song over and over and over this way.  If they haven't gotten it after a few times you can help them by pointing to each dot as you sing.  Once they've figured it out you can split them in half and one half sings the color dots and the other half sings the black dots, and then switch!  You can have them stand when it's their word(s) for good and extra movement, and extra fun!

Click HERE for the PDF.

Verse 1 is page 1

Chorus is page 2

Verse 2 is page 3

Verse 3 is page 4

Verse 4 is page 5

Prophets & Apostles Name Song

A great activity to do around General Conference time!

Sing the names of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to the tune of The Books in the Book of Mormon (p. 119).  Last names only, and you have to sneak a couple "&"s in there.  It seems a little tricky at first, but it does work, I promise!

Each syllable gets one note (an eighth note):

Mon-son
Ey-ring
Utch-dorf
Pack-er
Per-ry
Nel-son
Oaks
&
Ball-ard
Scott
Hales
Holl-and
Bed-nar
Cook
Chris-toff-er-son
&
An-der-sen (this one you kind of have to squeeze in there at the end, but it fits right in with the music)

Click HERE for the PDF of the music.

(I did not type this up but I don't remember where I got it from, sorry.)

Someone posted on the LDS Primary Choristers Facebook page about doing actions for each of the names:

• Mon-son (two index fingers make M sign-like McDonalds Arch-start in middle)
• Ey-ring (two index fingers point to side of two eyes)
• Ucht-dorf (Make U sign like Football Touchdown)
• Pack-er (Football pose both hands to knees-Think Green Bay Packers)
• Per-ry (Body shape of P—right arm straight side. Left arm up, hand on head making top of P)
• Nel-son (make N across chest-with left arm cross chest, elbow to side, hand to right shoulder) 
• Oaks (both arms over head making Oak tree shape)
  & 
• Ball-ard (right hand throws out base “ball”)
  (think of Scott (land)-country Hails Holland-country)
• Scott (body shape S—right arm curve up over head, left arm curve hand to hip, also shape of Scottish dance)
• Hales (right arm up like Hail a Taxi)
• Holl-and (body shape H-Arms up sides/bent elbow, legs second position plie )
• Bed-nar (“Bend” over from waist, right hand reaching out) 
• Cook (grab pretend pan from top of stove-(Think Who cooking for? Two “Sons”)
• Chris-toff-er-son (Body shapes C arms curve to left of body)
  & 
• An-der-son (both hands make A shape like a hat on head)

Click HERE for a PDF with pictures of the actions.

I also love this video that shows a hand clap pattern that others have said both JR and SR loved!

And here are some fun facts about each Apostle to go along with this activity.  One way you can present it is by letting a child choose slips of paper from a hat or bag, have the Primary guess which Apostle it is, and then pin it up next to the picture of the correct Apostle on the board.

Here are some interesting facts:

• MASTER LIST
• PRINT & CUT FOR PRIMARY

Review Activity: What's the Secret Word?

~~ Credit: Hum Your Favorite Hymn ~~

Yesterday I did a review activity with my Sr. Primary called WHAT'S THE SECRET WORD?  It was a hit!!  I handed out 4 different half sheets of papers with instructions to 4 different teachers at the beginning of Primary.  When Singing Time started I put 4 chairs at the front of the room and invited the teachers to come sit in the chairs.  I told the kids that we were going to do an activity called What's the Secret Word?, that each teacher was going to do a different action for a specific word in each song, and their mission was to figure out what was their word and action.  For each song we sang it through one time for a good review and also for the teachers to remember where their words were in the song.  And then we sang it through a second time when the teachers would do their actions.  At the end of each song I had the kids tell me who had what action and which word.  They loved it!

I was a little nervous about doing this with I Stand All Amazed because of the sacred nature of the song.  But I chose actions that were simple and reverent and actually were similar to the sign language I had been teaching the kids for this hymn.  When it was time to sing this song I briefly explained to the kids that we had to make a deal, that because this song is special and talks about sacred things we should treat it with reverence and respect.  So we could sing this song and have the teachers do their actions, as long as they (the kids) were reverent and respectful as we sang it.  They actually responded well to this and they were not rambunctious while trying to figure out the teachers' actions and words like they were for the other songs.  We still were able to use this activity as a good and different review and they understood that this song is not one to go crazy during.

I created a PDF form with actions already written in, all you need to do is type in the song and the word for each action.  This form is editable which also means you have the ability to change the typing in the action column as well.

Click HERE for the editable PDF form.

This is my Master List:

FAMILIES CAN BE TOGETHER FOREVER

I                               Jump up and down a few times

FAMILY                 Clear your throat loudly

FOREVER             Give yourself a high five

SHOWN                Raise the roof

HE SENT HIS SON (boy/girl cards)

HOW                     Hop up and disco dance
TELL                       Hop up and stomp your feet
SENT                      Hiccup loudly
LIVE                       Tug on both your ears

I WILL FOLLOW GOD’S PLAN (stand/sit)

LIFE                        Clap three times really fast
PLAN                     Stretch and yawn loudly
EARTH                   Hop up and flap your wings
I                               Bark loudly

I STAND ALL AMAZED (sign language)

ME                         Point to self
HE                           Lift one hand up to heaven
OH                          Stand up then sit down
WONDERFUL     Raise both hands above your head

MOTHER, I LOVE YOU (cover mouth on “you”)

MOTHER              Give yourself a hug
LOVE                     Hop up and wave quickly
HAPPY                  March in place
YOU                       Cough loudly

BAPTISM

KNOW                  Sneeze loudly
WITNESS              Hop up and spin around once
WORD                   Do the chicken dance in place
OBEDIENCE         Hop up and snap your fingers

~~ Credit: Hum Your Favorite Hymn ~~

I did not do this activity in Jr. Primary.  I decided instead to do a simple review of songs with them by doing something different for each song.  I'll probably use this activity with them closer to Program time when they know the songs better.  Below is what I did for Jr. as we sang through each song.  We stopped and focused on I Stand All Amazed for about 5-7 minutes with pictures from the Gospel Art Book and going over the simple sign language we've been learning.  Then with just enough time at the end of Singing Time we finished with singing through our song for Mother's Day.

• Give Said the Little Stream - 236
  Actions: GIVE (hands out in giving motion), LITTLE/SMALL (shrink)
• He Sent His Son - 34
  Cards: Boys / Girls (stand when it's their turn)
• I Love to See the Temple - 95
  Louder and softer, by big/small arms conducting
• I Will Follow God's Plan - 164
  Stand/sit : I/me/my
• Popcorn Popping - 242
  Actions
• I Stand All Amazed - h. 193
  Sign language
• Mother, I Love You
  Hug yourself on the word "love" (or sign language for LOVE)

Review Activity: Ways to Sing Cards

This is a fun and simple tool to use in reviewing songs by singing them in different ways.  It can also be a good way to involve the children by letting them be the ones to hold up the different cards.

The cards in this printable PDF are:

• Hum / Sing
• Soft / Loud
• Boys / Girls - hold up one or the other or both or none!
• Go / Stop - can be used as: "go" means sing, "stop" means don't sing while the piano keeps going
• A Cappella - with without the piano
• Lights off - sing the song with the lights off
• Long / short - as in legato (long and connected) and staccato (disconnected and choppy) (the Short card can also be used separately to sing the whole song in that way)

Click HERE for this printable PDF.

Here is my 2nd post with more ways to sing cards.

Fathers - p. 209

I'm not the biggest fan of using flip charts in Primary, but I am a fan of variety so I figure I'll use them every once in a while.  Our Primary is going to sing "Fathers" from the Children's Songbook for Father's Day.  I would like them to sing all three verses.  I wanted to use visuals to teach them / review this song -- there are already flip charts out there for this song but I had some ideas for what I wanted, so I created my own!

Click HERE for the PDF file of the flip chart.
WITH WORDS

Click HERE for the PDF file
WITH WORDS ON SEPARATE PAGES

I saw a Music Leader friend of mine use a binder for a flip chart with pictures on one side and words on the other.  I like that because then you can use the same chart and take the words away to use only pictures, and slowly wean off the words, then pictures, to help the kids memorize the song.

NOTE: I found a typo -- the word "praise" in the 3rd verse. The files have been fixed and updated.