Mary's Canaries

September's my birthday month.  I received lots of red helium-inflated balloons from my husband.  I grabbed a big plastic tub, cut circles from wrapping paper, taped them on so that it looked like a present.  Then I put a ribbon around the lid and filled the tub with the helium balloons.  Three of them.  That tub was placed at the front of the room. Here's what's left of it.  I had a big purple bow on it and the circles were flush with the tub.   I put pieces of paper beginning at the back of the room and winding to the front.  On the papers were the words of the song we were reviewing.  The child would start at the back and jump from word to word as it was sung.  The words would lead them to the big tub.  They got to open it and watch the balloons float up and out of the bin.  In junior primary I coupled a younger child with an older child.

For Thanksgiving I chose a song full of "thank you" and made puppets for each language. In order for children to memorize well, engaging many senses at once is necessary. Because of this, I color-coded each "thank you" puppet with a specific color and then gave each a different script.  Then cut, laminated, and taped them to large wooden sticks. I brought costumes or some symbol that represented the country who's language we were singing at the moment: "Gracias" =  sombrero "Malo" =  grass apron "Wir Danken Dir" =  folded a German hat out of newspaper "Tak" =  brought my Dansko clogs "Merci" =  a scarf "Kansha Shimasu" =  had the child bow while wearing flip-flops with socks on Lots of involvement each time.  The children would hold up the "thank you" that they represented by their dress.   Have Fun!

For our Christmas review I created a banner that held rolled-up streamers behind each letter, which had a song on each.   Our songs: C -  Christmas Bells Are Ringing : jingle bell bracelets around wrists and jingling to the beat H -  Have A Very Merry Christmas : same as Christmas Bells R -  Reverently, Quietly I -  I Am A Child of God : sign language on chorus S -  Stars Were Gleaming : signs made-up by previous chorister T -  The Shepherd's Carol : in a round M -  Mary's Lullaby : 2 or 3 baby dolls wrapped in blankets for junior primary to hold while singing A -  Away In A Manger : same as Mary's Lullaby S -  Samuel Tells of the Baby Jesus : costumes for Samuel, baby doll for Jesus,  Hosanna leaves  for "hosanna," costume for angel Banner instructions: (9) 4x4 green cardstock squares red cardstock for the letters streamers (9) clothespins For the letters, I started with a 4x4 square of green, so that the size mat

(pictures coming) Truly, a gem I had never heard before.  It's a wonderfully upbeat, cheerful, jolly Christmas song.  I had the senior primary work on this one, not the junior.  We jingled wrist bells with the beat.  Our senior primary is so small that I invited them to put their arms around each other in a circle and sing their hearts out.  The two males in the group refused to be a part of it, but the girls loved it.  It was magical and inspiring.  The Spirit of Christ is in this song.  It's jovial and light and fun.  They recorded this for the ward Christmas CD. I made a colorful poster that organized the phrases into boxes to better categorize it for memory sake. 

Oh, the joy Christmas music brings! Have you ever heard this primary Christmas song?  I hadn't, but I love it. Puppets made the words and ideas memorable.  The little children loved them. I used wide popsicle sticks and googled the images I wanted to portray.  Then cut the images, laminated them, and used clear packaging tape to tape them to the sticks.  I then utilized a golden wicker basket that I've had for years, some straw from an old cut-up wreath, and big styrofoam block to anchor the puppets in a presentable "manger". First verse: "Who is the child in the swaddling clothes" question mark (it's all about a question) "Lying asleep in the manger" baby Jesus "Mary and Joseph watch nearby" Mary and Joseph "Who is this little stranger?" question mark Second Verse: "Hush now, the child is the Son of God" finger in front of mouth in "shh" position  "Jesus

I love reviews! Bubble Gum Ben: http://www.livecrafteat.com/live/primary-music-time-and-family-home-evening-resource-bubblegum-ben/ Highly recommended.  I just had someone sit behind him and pump air into the balloon with a hand balloon pump that will not suck the air out of the balloon while pumping it up.   You'll need to lead the children, so an assistant is needed. Singing Time Olympics: http://iheartprimarymusic.blogspot.com/search/label/Olympics Great fun during Olympic season last year.  Commandments Game: I found inspiration for this game on a blog that I cannot find anymore.  Thank you to whomever started me on this path and I'm sorry that I cannot give you credit for it! I love this game.   I hauled a big, heavy rock to church and heaved it onto the table at the front of the room.  I wanted the children to see how heavy and practically immovable it was to make a point.   Jesus Christ is our Rock and Salvation.  He is immovable and steady a

(pictures coming) This program was written for a stake children's matinee to be presented on Saturday before Easter last year.  I want to incorporate it into our singing time on Sunday.  It won't be exact but I'm going to use as much as I can.  I will be dressed as Mary Magdalene.   The hand signs for "Jesus Is Risen" I acquired from aslpro.com.  A great resource.  I utilize both the main dictionary and the religious dictionary.  If one the signs in either category is too complicated I can usually go to the other category and find a simpler version. The palm leaves I made were from this website http://www.dltk-bible.com/ crafts/mpalm.htm and I was so pleased with how they turned out.  They are a nice prop that I still use for other songs throughout the year that sing "Hosanna". Here it is: [Opening Prayer] Easter is the very special time of year when we get to honor Jesus and celebrate his resurrection.  Jesus loves you so

This is a song of testimony. "Dare to do right.  Dare to be true.  You have a work that no other can do." I loved teaching it to the children. We just sang it over and over again.  I had them stand on "Dare" and sit on "Dare," back and forth.  It kept them on the edge of their seats...literally.

Power Words: First Verse: Trying, Jesus, Following, Love, Do, Say, Tempted, Listen, (as still small voice whispers) Second Verse: Trying, Jesus, Serve, Friend, Watch, Jesus (comes again), ((lessons He taught), (Holy Spirit enters into my heart saying) The phrases in parentheses indicate ideas that I signed instead of individual words.  I just asked my pianist who knows sign language to help me out with those.  You could also go to aslpro.com and put signs together.  You don't always have to do word-for-word signs. Now that I had something to show the children with my hands to aid in memorization, I presented to them the pictures that the church provided in the pamphlet "Choose the Right". Church-provided visuals: following, love, do and say, tempted, listen, love one another, gentle and loving, deed/thought, Jesus.

The children already knew this song from years past.  The senior had no problem remembering it. For this one I used pictures that I drew and hung them up on the board (like I did for "I Feel My Savior's Love"). Pictures: Prophet - Thomas S. Monson picture Be True -  wrote the words in capitals on piece of paper Work - a hammer and nail Play - children playing ball and jump-roping Darkness -  moon and stars Light - sun "Stand" - everyone stood when we sang this word The Standing Game: In order to make it fun as we cemented the words in the children's memories we played a standing game. I brought a chair up front and throughout the song the children would have to watch me to see if I stood up or sat down at any particular part of the song.  I chose names out of the basket and let a child at a time be the "standing" leader. As the children learned it better, I would choose names out of the basket and let them ta

Now this song is fun.  It brought me back to the days of "John Brown's Baby" with Grandpa at every family reunion.  There are actions to that song that are easy to act out only (no words) while still going on in the song.  It makes it fun.  I decided to apply that idea to this song because of all of the absolute actions. First, we applied the actions in the songbook.  I did not do an action for the "foolish man," even though some of the children did.  I don't like it.  I didn't say anything I just didn't do it and many children followed my lead. House Rock Rains Sand Floods The children learn it quickly because it's a fun, catchy song, and the actions are fun and engaging.  So then we started choosing words to leave out, one at a time.  We would leave out the words but still do the actions.  It was really  fun.  I would pick a name out of the basket and let that child decide which word to leave out. As the children learned the

Props and Signs Verse One  Laman and Lemuel - fabric strips to tie around heads Golden Plates - wrapped small box in gold tissue paper, wrote Hebrew-like characters on the front, and lines on the side to indicate pages Laban - headband (a happy new year's one that already had a crest on it) with taller crest taped to the top and robe Verse Two Boat - made one out of paper Older Brothers - Laman and Lemuel  fabric strips around head again Verse Three Us - point with both fingers to me Tempted - worried face and point to side with thumb Discouraged - hold hands out to side and shrug shoulders Courageous - fists and chest up CHORUS - Sign Language Power Words Go Do Commands Know Wants While preparing these things for the children I felt the power of Nephi's example and his keeping the commandments.  Truly, "the Lord giveth no commandment unto the children of men save He shall prepare a way for them  to accomplish the thing which he comman

I like this song.  I wanted to make it very visual because it's always been full of imagery to me.  I like rainbows and rain.  In our primary chorister bucket, which has been added to over the years by many choristers, I found ribbons on sticks.  Short dowels with ribbons of primary color (one of each red, yellow, and blue) tied to a hook and screwed into the top.  There were papers with different actions/movements you could make with the ribbons.  I tried to use movements that depicted the words as best as I could. First Verse and Chorus: "I like to look for rainbows whenever there is rain" arc over head, left to right in shape of rainbow "And ponder on the beauty of an earth made clean again" circle over head "I want my life to be as clean" start in front of face and bounce ribbons down making small humps to the side "As earth right after rain" wiggle them back up like a snake "I want to be the best I can"

Power words: 1st verse: Feel, Savior, Love, World, Spirit, See 2nd verse: Feel, Savior, Love, Gentle, Kneel, Pray, Heart, Peace 3rd verse: Feel, Savior, Love, Know, Bless, Offer, Heart,  Chorus: Knows, Follow, Give, Feel, Savior, Love, Freely, Gives From the start I use these.  It gives the children an anchor amidst all of the other words and groups phrases together, which helps memorization. I used pictures this time:  I am not a fan of flip charts.  I don't think it helps the children learn the songs as well as other activities.  This is the closest I get to using one, though.  I would have them pinned to the board while we sang.  Perhaps have a child come up and use a special pointer to help direct the children's eyes to the right picture.  You could start with a full board and (using the popsicle stick basket) as you sing take pictures down one at a time.  As the children learn the song even better mark the pictures' spots on the board

This song fulfills one of the requirements for Faith in God.  Tell your senior primary and they'll be more engaged in learning it.  Mine were. I printed out mini CTR shields on colored paper, cut around them, and glued them to popsicle sticks.  It gave the children something to hold and hold up when we actually sang that phrase.  It is wonderfully sung over and over again.  I made probably ten or twelve so it would take a couple of times through the song for everyone to get a turn. I also used my son's knight shield.  I laminated a large CTR shield and taped it to the front so that I could use it to hold up (or some lucky child picked from the basket).  A chance at holding a bigger shield made it better for the kids. Again, this song has power words that I wanted to highlight.  I took them from "As A Child of God".  In fact, the songs this year have many of the same  power words.  You'll notice as I post about them. 1st verse: Right, Light, Bless 2n

For each song I made posters out of 12x12 cardstock and foam letters.  I made unique designs that fit each song individually.  I wanted to have the poster displayed every time we sang the song so that they children would associate the two together and recognize what song we were going to sing.  It was kind of unnecessary, though, because all the children really need is the piano introduction.  I had fun creating them and trying to use them.  I haven't been consistent with making them this year, though, and I think that's okay.

This song has a lot of power words in it so I wanted to highlight them by putting signs to them.  No matter which activities I put with this song I will always use these signs.  The children will continually be reminded of their order and placement in the song.  Also, the more senses utilized means more memorization.  They're seeing the words, hearing the words, and making the words with their hands. 1st Verse: Earth, Power, Bless, Family 2nd Verse: Safe, Happy, Peace, Family, Love 3rd Verse: Home, Happily, Serve, Strengthen, Family, Good Works Chorus: God, Light, Helps, Know, Right I just go to aslpro.com to their "religious" section to find most of theses words.  If I don't like a particular sign  I just google it to find a different version that I like better.  Not all signs are the same for the same words. I made a singing cube for an activity just to get the children singing it over and over again.  The sides of the cube had f