New Testament Books Primary Wave

Today the kids were really restless after Sharing Time, so I tried an idea I found by Tami Reid on Sugar Doodle called Primary Wave that you do with the song "The Books in the New Testament" (adaptable to Old Testament too).

by Tami Reid / ga02182008

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"I have a fun activity that we do with The Books in the New Testament.  This idea is based on the concept of the stadium "wave" that you see done at college or professional sports games where part of the audience stands up with their arms up in the air, then the next section of the stadium stands up and so forth until the whole audience has a "wave" moving through it.  We sing "The Books in the New Testament" with each class forming part of the wave and then going around and around the room with each "book" from the New Testament.  It works especially well with Senior Primary children.  It takes a little more work initially with  the Junior primary children.  However, they really enjoy this song/activity now that they know the words.  When we get to each class' verse, they stand up with their arms in the air and sing the name of their "book(s)."  Depending on how your room is situated, it may be easier for the music leader to stand in the middle of the room while leading this song/activity...

**Here's an example of how it goes...

Matthew --Sunbeams (Sunbeams stand up & sing "Matthew" with their arms raised high in the air.)
Mark -- CTR 5 (CTR 5s stand up & sing "Mark" with their arms raised while Sunbeams sit down.)
Luke -- CTR 6 (CTR 6s stand up & sing "Luke" with their arms raised while CTR 5s sit down.)
and John -- CTR 7 (Same pattern as above...)
The Acts -- CTR 8
and The Romans -- Valiant 9
1st & 2nd Corinthians -- Valiant 10
Galatians -- Valiant 11/12
Ephesians -- Sunbeams
Philippians -- CTR 5
Colossians -- CTR 6
1st & 2nd Thessalonians -- CTR 7
Timothy -- CTR 8
Timothy -- Valiant 9
Titus -- Valiant 10
and Philemon -- Valiant 11/12
then to the Hebrews -- Sunbeams
Epistle of James -- CTR 5
Peter -- CTR 6
Peter -- CTR 7
John -- CTR 8
John -- Valiant 9
John -- Valiant 10
Jude -- Valiant 11/12
Revelation -- Sunbeams
These are the Books of the New Testament -- All sing together

**My own children love to do this song in Family Home Evening with each person forming part of the "wave."

**Initially, to help the children learn the names of the books, I made posters with word strips and pictures signifying the name of the book (for the non-readers).  We were fortunate to have a Primary/ward with many Matthews, Johns, Phillips, Peters, Timothy's and even a "Corinne" (for Corinthians).   I had to get rather creative with some of the books obviously--some ideas might include a picture of a check mark for Mark; an oarsman in a boat for "Row-mans;" a glacier for Galatians, etc. "

It was a spur of the moment decision, so I didn't have it written on the board, or any word strips prepared or anything.  So I "winged it'.  We also have a small Primay and some of our classes are combined so I had to adapt that too.  I assigned the classes "their books" and we started out slow and progressively sung it faster until it was up to speed.  It took a little while for them to catch on, but they got it and seemed to have a lot of fun with it.  :)  Eventually I'd like to be able to sing it really fast with them.  I also had a thought that if you had them keep their arms down and went the normal pace so that it was reverent, it might actually be a fun song to put in the program. : D

UPDATE (6/19/11):  After trying several different ways, this is what I've come up with for this song.  We're going to use it in the program and I want to do the sporatic singing but a little more reverently.  So I've divided the song into five groups (some of our classes are combined because we're a bit small).  Each group has a color.

Sunbeam/CTR 5 = Group #1 (Yellow)
CTR 6/CTR 7 = Group #2 (Orange)
CTR 8 = Group #3 (Purple)
Valiant Girls = Group #4 (Pink)
Valiant Boys = Group #5 (Green)

I made a large poster with all the words and underlined each section with the groups color so that they know when to sing.  Each group stands up on their part to sing it and then sits down (except where noted). This is how I have it divided:

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, (Yellow)

the Acts and Romans, (Orange)
First and Second Corinthians, (Purple)
Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, (Pink)
First and Second Thessalonians,  (Green)
Timothy, Timothy, (Yellow)

Titus, Philemon, (Orange) Then to the Hebrews, (Purple)

Epistle of James, (Pink) - stay standing
Peter, Peter, John, John, John, (Green) - stay standing

Jude, Revelation— Jr. Primary - stay standing
These are the books of the New Testament. -  Everyone.

They loved it!  Especially since they figured out it was the same tune as their favorite program song this year, "Praise To The Man".  The keep begging to sing it again! :D  "I love it when a plan comes together!"