Hawaiian Song Review

We just got back from my daughter’s wedding in Hawai’i. The groom’s family live on Oahu so they were married in the La’ie Temple. It was our first time there and it was AMAZING! I wanted to share some of that experience with the Primary children so I showed them pictures of the temple and the wedding and we sang “I Love To See the Temple” and I shared how my daughter has sung that song since she was a little girl in Primary and know she finally had that dream come true! I told them that they can too one day.

Next we talked about “Paradise” in the scriptures, the Garden of Eden and when Christ spoke to the thieves when he was crucified from this week’s lesson. Then I shared this poster of some of my favorites things from the paradise I visited. They came up and chose items that had the songs written on the back BUT there was a twist! They had to come up three at a time and one would choose the item that had the song on it, then each of them had to do something during the song. One had to put on a Kukui Nut and shell lei and do the hula, one had to squat and make the ugly face and grunt like the tiki statues and one had to lightly strum the Ukelele. It was so fun!!!

Food Rhythms

Someone somewhere posted this great guide that uses food to teach rhythms, I don't know where it originated from, but I love it!

I was thinking that sometime this summer I will pull it out to have a "Rhythm Picnic". I think I will put down a checkered tablecloth and a small basket or make a basket poster that I can make a slit in and reach into. Something like this:

Inside the basket, whether real or paper, will be these fruits (cut apart from the chart) to draw out and practice their rhythm. I think the kids will enjoy doing something different.

Oh What Do You Do In The Summertime?

This last summer I was called as Primary Chorister again! I was so excited!! Best calling in the church! Since then, I've been taking pictures of things to share but never took the time to post them! I need to learn how to do it from my phone. I remembered another chorister using these posters for the song "Oh What Do You Do in the Summertime" years ago and loved them. When I was chorister last time, I just gathered some props for them to use. This time I was determined to make my own. I borrowed this set and got to work. I changed a couple of them and got my set all drawn and my kids were helping me color them. Somehow before finishing the last couple of posters, we ran out of steam and I never finished them! I will for next summer and I will post them but in the meantime, I thought you might enjoy seeing the posters that inspired me. They LOVE using these posters and we especially get a lot of giggles when a boy is one of the girls, so funny!

Update: I finally finished the posters last summer (they took FOREVER!!) and loved using them! Here are my versions:

Campfire

I love this little campfire someone made for the kids for Pioneer Day!  They turned off the lights and sat around the campfire to sing.

The campfire was made out of flickering LED candles and tissue paper.

Another option is to purchase a campfire cut out. I like this option because it folds flat and doesn't take a lot of room in my bin.

Here's one that I found on Amazon:

Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam

The next one is one that she uses for the song "Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam".  The Nursery kids absolutely love this one!  They just put the sun-on-a-stick up in the air on the word "sunbeam".  I like how she chose different faces for the suns instead of making them all the same because each of the children like a different one.  Children aren't all alike, why should the suns be. :)  We have one little boy that chooses one of the sun glasses ones every time. :)

Song Chooser Visitor

One thing that works really well in choosing songs (especially in Nursery) is to invite a "visitor" for singing time.  When I first started working in Nursery it was wintertime, so I invited a stuffed snowman similar to this one to choose our songs:

Sometimes I would do a voice for him and have him talk directly to the children, other times I have him whisper in my ear.  The little kids LOVED it!  I have penguin one for winter too.

You could adapt this for any season. I brought a Leprachaun for March and a bunny for spring.
I went to the local $ store and purchased a few puppets a ladybug, a bee, a frog etc. for summer (although I haven't used them yet because we have our Primary Chorister coming in now.)

You could easily find a scarecrow or pumkin or something for fall.  Really fun!