Christmas Songs Game

Made up a new game last Christmas! 😃 Yes, I'm posting it six months later. Lol!! I was given the whole time in Primary (music leader’s dream right??) I had completely planned on a “sing a song for each nativity character” activity but felt that I needed to let the children have more choice and control over which Christmas songs we would sing today.

So “Name a Tune/Pick a Tune” was born! I printed the names of all the songs from the Children’s Songbook and picked out the ones that I knew and added the one song from the Hymn book that they’d learned this year. (There were more than are in the picture, we had already sung some). I made “special effects bulbs” that went on some of the songs (bells, finger lights, scarves, sing as a round etc.,). If those songs were chosen, we did the special effect also. I prepped by putting all the names on the board and all our special effect tools on the table to be ready.

How to play: I drew a child’s name, they would choose to name a tune or pick a tune. If they chose pick a tune, they chose a song and we would just sing it. If they chose name tune, I chose a song from the board and whispered it to my pianist. She would then play it until they guessed it and then we would sing it.

With the Senior Primary, I took it up a notch. All the Christmas songs in the Hymn book were fair game too! So we passed out hymns books to all of them. They chose two of them and begged to sing all the verses! I was so surprised! Also, I had two guests come in that sat blindfolded on chairs up front and had to guess on the name a tune ones. The kids thought it was fun to try to stump them. All of us were sad to see our time come to an end. It was a very rewarding day! 🎄

On A Golden Springtime

UPDATED! 3/7/2018

We are singing this song with the choir for Easter Sunday.  The children sing the 1st verse, the choir the 2nd verse in parts, and the children sing the third verse while the choir does ahhhs and oohs in harmony.

Last year I printed off a flipchart, but this year I found a fabulous idea that I'm using for the 1st verse.  It's a seed puppet and it's so cute!  Laurie McBride shares her idea on Sugardoodle explained in detail.  But where I first saw the idea was on the blog Singing Time Saver.  She has pictures on there of her puppet which I really liked, but I wanted to make a few changes.  So here's my version of the "Seed Puppet".

                                                                   Side 1 - Awake seed

Side 2 - Asleep eyes

When it's "sleeping" you fold your fingers over so that the sleepy eyes are over the awake ones like this:

(hint: make sure your marker is dry before you do the other side, or do flower first so that you don't get ugly marker stains on your felt like mine did!)

Then the seed "awakes" to side 1 by just opening your hand.

After the seed has seen "the day is bright", on the phrase "with all your might" I turn the puppet inside out on my hand and show "the flower" side for "push upward to the light".

It only takes a few times practicing to get the hang of it.  The Jr. Primary was crazy about it!  I was a little worried about the Sr. Primary but decided to try it because it's creator, Laurie said even her Sr. Primary liked it.  So I did, and while all I got from the older boys was some interest (that's something!), the girls were all saying, "again! again!". :)  Success!!!

After we'd done it several times with the puppet, I went back to the flipchart because that's what I plan to use in Sacrament Meeting, but they seemed to remember it a lot better! 

UPDATE:
I'm so excited that I ran into a FB Primary Music Leader friend Rachelle Taylor Jensen that shared with me her ideas for verses two and three of this song! I did my verse two puppets very similar to hers, adding a tombstone but ended up doing different ones for verse three. (I absolutely loved her cute verse three flags but I needed something more consolidated.)

So here are the puppets for verse two:

"On a golden springtime, Jesus Christ awoke and left the tomb where he had lain; the bands of death he broke".

"Awake, awake, O sleeping world! Look upward to the light. For now all men may live again.

"Look upward to the light". (Her sun was all felt and very cute, I didn't have any yellow felt so I improvised. Lol!)
Note: The sun puppet is also used in the other two verses for "to the light" and "glorious light".

Verse three:

"On a golden springtime, in a forest glade"

"The Father and the Son appeared as Joseph knelt and prayed"

"Awake, awake, O nations all! Receive the gospel light! The gospel true is here for you"

("Receive it's glorious light!' - see sun)

He Died That We Might Live Again

For our program song for April we will be learning "He Died That We Might Live Again".  Once again, I found some great ideas on Sugardoodle.  A lady named Bonnie shared the idea she read of a perfect introduction to the song.  She refers to this story, "Plane Crashes Into The Potomac"  and of the bravery shown by a couple of men to save other's lives.

I'm going to use the "Who, What, Where, When, Why, How" idea with wordstrips from Becky (same Sugardoodle link) for the Senior primary.  But for the Junior I think I'll do an Easter song introduction idea that I found on Teaching LDS Children.

Update 4/10/11 - I didn't end up having time yet to make the Easter song introduction box, hopefully I can for next week. The word strips worked so well though!  I've only done the first half of the song because we're also working on another song for Easter.  We'll finish it next week. To do the matching game, I printed the question words (who, what, where etc.,) on colored paper.  Then I printed the phrases on white sheets. I ended up doing a phrase on each sheet that I printed.  Before we began, I magneted the question words on the board.  For the Jr. Primary, I did them in order.  As we sang each phrase, we discussed which question it answered.  For the Sr. Primary, I mixed up the questions words all over the board.  Then as we sang each phrase, they had to figure out which question it answered and put it in order. As we learned it this week, I divided the phrases one way, but I'm going to change them for next week to this:

WHY: "He died that we might live again"
WHO: "Lord Jesus, our Redeemer true"
WHERE: "He died on Cal-v'ry's lonely hill"
HOW: "His life he gave for me and you"
WHEN: "He rose from the grave on Easter Morn"
WHO #2: "Our Savior and our King"
WHAT: "He showed his love for all man-kind"
WE CAN: "For his great love, give thanks and sing
                 "Re-joice! Re-joice! and sing, sing, sing."

For Junior Primary, after we learned each phrase, I picked a child to look for a plastic Easter Egg (I had hidden several around the room before we began) and we repeated and repeated until they found an egg -then we had to stop and go on to the next one.  They LOVED it!!!

Update 4/17/11 -  I forgot to take my list with me to church today.  (I hate it when I do that!) So when I got there I ended up rearranging all the question words because I couldn't remember what I had put down.  It still worked though.  Here is a picture of how it ended up at the end of today.

We continued our Easter egg hunt this week.  I went ahead and did an Easter egg hunt with the Sr. Primary too because they begged last week once they found out that the Jr. Primary had done one.  It's amazing how much more the children pay attention and sing well when they want to be picked for doing a good job. ;)  By the end of both singing times, they knew the song really well, and I had their attention most of the time! Yay!

If I Listen With My Heart

I really love the Theme Song that they've chosen for this year.  The more we sing it, the more I love it! 

Week 1: Introduction and "chorus"

To introduce the song "If I Listen With My Heart", I chose an idea from Loralee Kurzius:

Call a helper to the front. As you do so the Pianist discreetly makes a small tapping noise, peaks over piano and says, “Did you HEAR that? What is thatPretend you can’t hear it. When the kids tell you they can, tell

Ask the helper to tell you about their favorite scripture story. After they begin, cover your ears.  If they stop talking, tell them to go ahead, you are listening and then start to hum and walk away while they are talking.

• Discuss whether or not you were really listening.
• What does it mean to “listen with my heart”?
• Ask them how to listen with your heart (eye contact-not being busy, etc.)

Week 2: Verse 1

I also used part of an an idea from Loralee Kurzius and changed it just a little:

If we had been little children when Jesus lived on earth we could have walked with him and listen to his words.  Well, we can’t go back to that time, but how can we hear his words today? (pull out scriptures) Discuss how reading the scriptures is listening to Christ's words.  Although He isn't here in person, we can hear His voice through the scriptures.

• Read a scripture quickly (she suggests Matthew7:26). Was I really listening to what I read?
• Ask how to listen with your heart when reading (with the spirit)
• Ask them to listen with their hearts while you read again (vs. 24).

To teach the words of the 1st verse, I wrote each line with a different color marker on a white board.  We went color by color to learn the verse.  That way, they knew when to stop and it broke the song up into learnable pieces.  If you were reviewing, you could erase each color as they learn that part really well.

Week 3: Verse 2

For this week, we reviewed verse one and the chorus and then learned verse two.  I found an idea that I really loved on the Teaching LDS Children website.  I laminated the whole thing so that I can use it over and over!  I showed it to my family the night before church when I got it all done, and they loved it! 

You can go to their website for the full directions and patterns. :)  It's really great!

Week 4: Verse 3

Next week, I plan on using part of an idea from Tanya Conrad:

I have several sounds recorded (from www.FindSounds.com).  The ones I chose were:

1. Laughter of a Child
2. Doorbell
3. Elephant
4. Ambulance (these are louder sounds). 

Then we will talk about how those are easier sounds to hear.  What about quieter sounds?  Then I will play:

1. Wind
2. River
3. Sparrow
4. Whisper (I whisper "And if I listen with my heart I hear the Savior's voice)

I will ask the children if they could understand what I said.

As I am using this for a different verse than she did, after I play the sounds I am going to talk about how the Holy Ghost is a quiet sound and we have to listen carefully to hear him.  We will discuss how if we listen to the Holy Ghost, we can hear the Savior's voice.

I also really love this idea from Loralee Kurzius:

"When I teach the third verse of this song , (HG comforts me) I'll not only wear my warm, fuzzy slippers, but I'll get the presidency

and teachers to do it too. The kids will be so curious about them by the time we get to Singing Time that they'll totally go home

talking about it and remembering that the Holy Spirit give you a warm, comforting feeling!!!"

To teach the words of the song, I think I'm going to use another idea that I found on Teaching LDS Children:

"Tell the children that they are now going to learn the third verse of the song “If I Listen with My Heart”. Explain that this verse is about the Holy Ghost being a way we can hear the Savior’s voice. The Saviour communicates with us through the Holy Ghost.  There are many different things that the Holy Ghost tells us that the Savior wants us to know.  
Ask the children if they have ever seen a stain glass window. Explain that a stain glass window is many pieces of colored glass combined to make a beautiful picture. When light comes through the window, its beauty can fill us with joy, and uplift and warm our souls. Explain that the Holy Ghost can also fill our lives with joy, warm our souls, and light up our life with beauty. Like the different pieces of a stain glass window, there are different things the Holy Ghost does. A few of those things are mentioned in this verse."



There's a story to go with it as well from The Friend with photos she's put together that you could use if you have time.  She does such a great job!



Click here for the story pictures, stain glass pattern, and word pages.


Week 5: Review


For the last week I want to review all three verses a couple of times. Before we sing, I'm going to review the three different ways we can hear the Savior's voice (the scriptures, the prophet, and the whisperings of the Holy Ghost).  I'm going to use this idea I found on Teaching LDS Children where you put a picture of the Savior in the back and use pictures of the scriptures, the prophet and the words "whisperings of the Holy Ghost" printed on vellum to place over the picture of the Savior showing how you hear his voice through those three ways.  Cool huh? (Click here for the verse one pictures and words to print.)



I will sing through the whole song with the flip chart I printed. (There are several different ones you can choose from on Sugardoodle) .  The second time through, I'm going to hand out "Listen/Hear" sticks for the children to hold up on the right word as we sing.  (This idea was originally in the Outline for Sharing Time 2011 pg.27) You print out these hearts with "Listen" and "Hear" on them and glue them to either side of a popsicle stick.  (Click here for the link to the "Love Cards" or go to sharingtime.lds.org for a simple b&w version you can color).






















They have to listen for the right words to hold them up on.  The two words are used a lot more frequently in the first two verses, and only in the chorus on the third, but I that's ok.  They'll have fun with them.  :)  (Update: The kids LOVED these!  I've used them for a couple weeks now!)

Update: I actually ended up doing something different that the heart sticks.  I'm going to use them in February.  Instead, I used an idea that I found on Precious Primary for reviewing songs called "Leaping Frog".  It worked so well, and the kids LOVED it!  There were only enough lily pads for the first two phrases (18 notes) in the song,  so then I used my frog on a popsicle stick to mark the melody up and down (as they suggest). (For following the lily pads, I used one on a skewer like the picture below).  Once the kids got the hang of it, I passed out a "frog on a stick" to every child and let them follow the lily pads in their mind, hopping with their own frogs and then do the melody up and down like I had done.  That was the most involved our little Sunbeams and CTR 5 classes have been in Singing Time and even the "big kids" thought it was fun!  This one is definately a keeper!!!




More Review:


In February, I plan to use another idea from on Teaching LDS Children to help them memorize the song.


"You put all the words the first verse seperate (or in small groups) and put them on the board.



Then I will have each child search for their "Valentine Word" under their chair (if you have Jr. and Sr. Primary split, they'll need to put them back).  Each word will be one that is sung in the song throughout the verse (the more frequent, the better).  You call multiple children up to take out "thier words" so you can sing it again. You could do this several times with kids taking words out each time." 

You could even adapt this to all three verses by adding words from the other verses and numbering the words 1,2, or 3.  Then after you have sung each verse through once,  you'd call multiple children up with the right number (verse 1, 2, or 3) to take out "thier words" so you can sing it again. 



For the second verse, I'll take the word strips from week three off the rings and magnet them in order (with their help) on the board.  We may see if someone can put them in order while we sing. :)


For the third verse, we may take the stain glass window apart piece at a time or something.  I'll have to think about that one some more.

I'm hoping to have it memorized in time for our Ward Conference the end of February when the Stake comes to visit!  :)