Stand for the Right

 I made this chart this morning.  Apparently I did it way too early and wasn't fully awake yet since I left the last line off...sheesh!  I figure for the last line "Stand for the Right", I will just have the kids stand up for the action.  That way it will seem like it wasn't an accident that the line is missing off the poster. :)

(I did the words as a word bubble coming from President Monson's mouth)

Our Prophet has some words for you,

And these are the words: "Be True".  "Be True".

At work, at play, In darkness or light

Be True, Be True, and Stand for the Right.

If anyone wants the clip art collage I did, just leave a comment and I will send them your way a.s.a.p.  (One of these days I will figure out how to add PDF files on here).

I love it when songs are short and sweet like this!  Everyone enjoy a much easier month of teaching the new song! :)

Meet "Max" conducting dog

When I was first called as Chorister I browsed the web for fun ideas for Singing time.  I came across a cute idea on Sugardoodle for a Conducting Elephant. I liked the idea a lot but I didn't really want to make an elephant so I kind of put the idea in the back of my mind.

Last week I was trying to come up with a fun way to make the monotony of learning a new song a little more enjoyable for the kids.  That's where Max came into play.  We have a dog named Max who LOVES music.  If I sit down to play the piano, he climbs right under the piano and lays on my feet-literally.  Music sends his tail wagging.  That gave me the idea of making a "Max" conducting dog.  He was pretty simple to make and made such a huge impact on the kids.  We probably sang Choose the Right 5 times today until we had it polished and the kids just kept singing their heart out because Max wagged his tail even harder when they sang their best.  I just had a different child come up and wag his tail each time we sang it. The kids were very cute!

I had debated even pulling Max out for the Sr. Primary because I thought they'd think he was silly.  I decided to give it a try anyway.  Many of the older kids know my dog Max so they thought it was awesome that he'd made his way to Primary to hear them sing. :)  

This is the best singing time I've had in a long time with the Sr. Primary, surprisingly enough. Max will definitely be paying a visit again!

Max was feeling a little shy with all of the kids so he turned around while they sang (this way the kids could see him wagging his tail).  It's kind of hard to tell from the pictures how Max works but the kids just stuck their hand through the hole and into the sock to wag the tail).  Clear as mud?  No?  Sorry.  Hard to explain.  If you have any questions, let me know.

 

Love Letters from Heaven

I probably should have done this post BEFORE now since it's more Valentine themed and Valentine's is TODAY.  I figure February is a month of Love though so this activity could work all month long.  Right? :)

Typically I use sticks (with the names of all the kiddos written on them) to choose my helpers for the day.  Unfortunately my sticks have been out of date since we had all of the new sunbeams come in, and many kids move up to Sr. primary at the first of the year.  

In the meantime I have just been calling on kids, trying to choose kids I hadn't picked before.  It's so hard to keep track of who I've called on and I could tell a few kids weren't super happy about that fact.  It was stressing me out. I finally tracked down a new roll this week and decided to do something fun for the month of February, instead of going back to the sticks.

I bought a big bag of Hershey's kisses and wrote each one of the kid's names on the bottom.  Tried it out this past Sunday and it worked like a charm.  I picked a kiss out each time I needed a helper.   After that child helped me, I gave them their "kiss".  Once their kiss is gone from the jar, they won't get called on again until every child has had their kiss pulled as well.  That way, everyone will get chosen to be my helper this month.  This will make my life so much easier. I threw a couple blank ones in there as well in case we have visitors.

here's a copy of the label I made (if anyone wants to use it).  I had a different one for Sr. but I cannot find it on my computer anywhere.

For our singing time, I'd seen a really cute letters from Heaven idea here .  While I didn't have a big mailbox to use for the activity, I did have a bunch of smaller mailboxes that our family uses to give each other "Love" notes during the month of February.  I put one letter in each mailbox.  I used my "Super Singers" jar to call the kiddos up to pick a letter.  There was a "love" related song in each of the mailboxes with exception to one.  In one of the notes from heaven, it said "sometimes Heavenly Father wants to bless us just because he loves us".  Instead of singing a song for that letter, I gave them each a little conversation candy heart.

label for the Letters from Heaven if anyone wants it.

"Choose the Right" Football Game

I am in a zombified state so I don't know if this whole idea will pan out like it's playing out in my head. Things always seem better in my head than they play out in reality. :)

Anyway, I'd found a cute idea on a blog that used Choose the Right symbols.

Using her idea of holding up the symbols, I made multiple symbols for the key words in the song "Choose the Right". I will pass out a symbol to each one of the kids (I was able to fit 12 symbols on each page).  Every time their word/phrase is said in the song, they will quickly stand and hold up their symbol.  If by chance that gets a little rowdy, I will just have them sit and hold up the symbol instead.  I am hoping this will break up the monotony as we learn the song but also to help them focus on the words that are being learned.

"Choose the Right"

 

"Light"

 

"Heart"

"Wisdom"

Once we've gotten the words down on the song pretty well, I will pull out the football field poster I made (because hey, it's the Super Bowl, and the boys will get a kick out of it).  :) 
I got the football field idea here.

I have a ref shirt that I will have one of the teachers put on.  Each time we sing the song, the ref will move the football up the field, depending on how well the kids sing it.  We will keep singing it until we get a touchdown.  I did two footballs just in case I decide to break the kids into two teams-the "Army of Helaman Harmonics" and "Moroni's Musettes". :)