"Mormon Idol" music time idea

I am pretty certain that our ward is the only ward in the world that has yet to have the primary program for the year but we are so close-WAHOO!  Today was our final music time before running through the program in its entirety next week.  

Today I wanted the kids to take ownership of the music and to recognize the power that they have to really touch the congregation with their message through.  I also wanted them to get some positive feedback and constructive criticism-from someone other than me- on what we could do to polish our music.  I decided to do "Mormon Idol" for our music time.  

This ended up being super easy to pull off.  As far as prep work, I just made a big sign with the "Mormon Idol" logo and then made 3 scoreboards for the judges.  For the scoreboards, I had intended to just do the "Mormon Idol" score sheet under 8x10" frames and then the judges could write directly onto the glass-erases quite easily and is sturdy.  Turns out I didn't have a single 8x10" frame in my house so I just put the scorecards in sheet protectors instead backed by a couple layers of card stock to firm them up.  They were easy enough to write on and erase.  

I had three adults (that I'd made arrangements with earlier) come in to be the judges. The judges all sat up front.  I introduced each of them to the kids and then explained that each judge had a different purpose.  

(1)The first judge was going to score them on how they sounded: volume, how well they could understand the words, etc.  

(2)The second judge scored them on how they looked-was everyone participating, were all eyes up front, did they look cheerful, did they watch me when they stood and were seated, etc.  

(3)The final judge based her score solely on how the music made her feel.  I thought this was important as we've been talking so much about having conviction in our music.  I wanted them to see that the message of the music, and the way that they present it, had am impact on others.   

I love it when we get some fresh faces in there because the kids really try to "wow" them and they did a fantastic job.  It was great to have the feedback from the judges and some suggestions on what we could do improve on any areas.  Overall, a great success!  I feel like we are FINALLY ready for our primary presentation. :)  I can't wait to put both Junior and Senior Primary together over the next two weeks and see how it goes.  Wish us luck!

 

Although my 12-year old son said that my logo looked nothing like the American Idol logo, you are welcome to use it.  It's the best I could do with the fonts I had available to me.   Just right click on the image and you can save it onto your computer.