The Voice

So today I found the secret to a successful singing time in the form of the Swivel chair.  While I have never actually seen the television show "The Voice", I understand, and like, the concept.  I thought I'd try it out with the kids today by having three judges come in to judge the kids' performance on the program songs.  

All I can say is "why, oh why, didn't I try this sooner"?  It was a smashing success and so very easy.  The primary presidency gave me the full hour to polish everything up with the kids.  For the first 25 minutes (before the judges came in), we ran through almost all of the songs, using our "Bubble gum Bob" (previous post) to help gauge how well we were singing.  Once we'd run through the songs, I called the judges in to put the kids to the real test.  THE KIDS.  WERE.  AMAZING!!! They knocked it out of the park.  I knew that Junior primary had it in them.  Originally I didn't have that same confidence with the Senior primary but they stepped it up in a huge way today.  Brought me to tears...happy tears.

How it all went down:  I tracked down three swivel chairs at the church.  Actually, my husband tracked down three swivel chairs at the church-I should give credit where it's due.  :)  I set them up at the front of the room.  I had the three judges come to the front of the room and sit down facing AWAY from the kids.  Once we started singing, the only way that the judges would turn around is if the kids "WOWed" them with their singing.  I told the judges to really make the kids work for it. The judges played the part up so well and the kids went right along with it.  After we finished the song, the judges would critique the work and give any constructive suggestions to help us improve the song.  So much fun.  So productive.  This is the kind of day that makes me love this calling oh so much!!!

*If you need swivel chairs, check your clerk's offices and bishop's office.  I'd imagine they'd be willing to part with them for a couple of hours.  After all, it's for a good cause.

"BOB" and his bubble gum

I'd seen this adorable bubble gum idea here.


While I loved the idea, I didn't want to make a completely new guy so I decided to do a little makeover on Bob instead.  He's kind of fulfilled his purpose this year in our singing time so I thought he deserved some bubble gum for all his hard work. :)

I just cut a dime-size hole in his mouth.

  

then inserted a pink balloon.

 I had one of the teachers come up and stand behind the poster where he blew the bubble for Bob.  As the kids sang the song, the teacher would blow it larger, and larger the better they sang.   I stepped aside at one point because I thought the balloon was going to pop, they were singing so well.

I inserted a new balloon for Sr. primary and had a new teacher blow the balloon for them.

To go along with the bubble gum idea, I also found this bubble gum machine in one of my F.H.E. kits that I did ages ago (those kits sure have come in handy with this calling).  I just put the name of each of the program songs on the back.  I invited a child who was participating very well to come up and pull a bubble gum off to see what song we'd sing next.   Turned out to be a very fun singing time but we were able to accomplish a lot in the process.  I love it when we can do those two things simultaneously.