"Getting the Bugs out" music time idea

Oh this sad neglected blog. We had such a busy summer (can't believe it's already over).  I'm trying to get back into the swing of things now.  All four of my kiddos are off to school this year so that should leave me a little more time.  First time in 13 1/2 years that I haven't had a little one in tow with me every day.  It's going to be strange...and sad...and way too quiet around this place. :)   

As the primary program nears, we have "learned" all of the songs, yet many of them leave much to be desired.  As a Child of God is definitely one of those.  I'm not sure why the kids didn't take to this song as well as it's such a beautiful song.

I decided that we needed to do some fine tuning.  One of the teachers suggested that her kids weren't singing it because they didn't remember the words.  Sometimes we learn the songs but then we move on and don't practice it again for awhile (my bad).  I decided that if that class was struggling with the words, maybe there were others as well.  I figured we might as well start back at square 1.  

I made a poster with all of the verses (we have the chorus polished so I didn't put that one on the poster).  I added a bunch of detachable bugs to the poster.  Tomorrow we will focus on "getting the bugs" out of this song, whether it be learning the words, or working on dynamics.  I am bringing a fly swatter (clean of course). :)  As we polish the different verses, I will let the kids come and swat one of the bugs.  The goal is to be "bug free" by the end of singing time.

Another fun idea I had for this as I have an adorable bee costume lying around...I will have one of the children wear the costume and buzz around the room as the children are singing.  If the bee spots a child singing "BEE-autifully" he/she will sting them.   Every person that gets a sting will get a little candy bug after sharing time.  I don't think I will need to do the candy bug with Jr. as they just LOVE to sing for me but Senior may need a little added incentive.

Should be an enjoyable day and hopefully we can finally master this song!  The program is sneaking up quickly.

***If anyone would like the poster, I have it saved as a pdf, and I'd be happy to email it to you. You would just have to take it into FedEx/kinkos to have it enlarged (or you can do what I did and just enlarge it at home on the printer and piece it all together-a trickier route but definitely cheaper).

I also created a pdf of the bug clipart if you would like that.  Just let me know.  

Good luck polishing up songs for the program everyone! :)

 

This is my cute little guy who "stung" the kids.  I failed to mention that the "sting" was just a dot sticker. That's how I knew who got the bug candy at the end of singing time.  Turns out the kids sang FANTASTIC in both Jr. and Sr. so they all got stung.  Love it when that happens. :)

"As a Child of God" song learning idea

I was trying to come up with a way to present the new song "As a Child of God" for January and came across this idea on the Crazy Chorister blog.

I thought it was an awesome idea as it would work for both Jr. and Sr. Primary. Some weeks I feel like I am preparing two totally different music times to make it work for each age group so I'm always happy when I come across an idea that will work for both.

The kids loved this activity and learned the verses really quickly.  Jr. Primary was so cute with it BUT I must say that I had a REALLY hard time keeping the Sr. Primary reverent with this activity.   I came home a little frustrated because even though they enjoyed it, the spirit and message of the song (and it's a beautiful message) got lost in the silliness of the activity.  I actually lost sleep over it Sunday night because I have a responsibility to teach the kids but I also want them to enjoy what we do.  

I feel like I've come up with a way to redeem that this Sunday and impress upon the kids the importance of reverence during our music time so that the spirit can be there with us.  I will post more about that later and let you know how it goes.  I think it will really drive the message home.

Having said all that, I may have scared anyone away from the idea but I do think that this is a great way to present a new song.  It just needs to be done carefully. 

Preparation:

The original idea suggested using bags but I used two file folders.  On each folder I put "Choose the Right" as the kids were going to try to Choose the Right folder.

I googled a bunch of objects that corresponded with the words in the song:  For each of those items, I also chose a silly, or opposite item. All of the pictures were placed in the folders (I mixed it up so that there were some correct and some incorrect in each folder).

Earth / Saturn

Choices CTR Shield / Ice Cream Cone

Family/ Snowman

Peace/ War

Prophet/ Television

You get the point. Here's how it played out. The kids wanted to play Boy vs. Girls (seems to be their favorite).  I explained that we were learning a new song about making choices.  I had the song written up on the board, but with several blanks (that the items above would represent).  So we would go over he first line of the song and say "I came to _______ with the power to Choose".  One boy and one girl  came up and each picked a folder.   One of the folders contained the picture of the Earth while the other contained the picture of Saturn. The group that "Chose the Right" folder got a point.  We then sang through that part of the song several times before moving on to the next phrase.  We repeated the activity over again until all we had the song down.  Clear as mud? :)

We will review the song again next Sunday but I think they did a great job learning the song quickly.

I made these "I Spy" telescopes (one for boys and one for girls) to scope of the girl or boy who was participating and singing. They were the ones who got to come up and pick the folder. I used a pringles can, cut it in half, covered them in some scrapbook paper and then added "I Spy" to them.  These were very effective.  I will be using them again for sure.