Saturday, May 25, 2013

Pick-a-Prophet

Determine how many phrases of a song you need to review ("We Thank Thee, O God, For a Prophet" or another one you may have taught this month) or how many songs you would like to review.  Choose several pictures of prophets throughout history to equal how many phrases or songs you will be singing.  If possible have 3 to 5 extra pictures of prophets.  On strips of paper, write the phrases of your review song or the titles of the songs you will be reviewing.  Tape them behind the pictures on the board.  Have the children choose a picture and tell who it is or a quick story about him.  Then sing the phrase or song.  Continue choosing pictures.  If nothing is behind the picture, ask the child to tell why it is important to follow the prophet.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Review With Word Strips

If you used the idea from last week's post, this week will be easy.  Place the word strips from "We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet" in a scrambled order on one side of the board.  If you have a wall or door close to the board, that would be a great place to put the scrambled word strips.  Ask the children to listen to the music as the pianist plays through the hymn.  After, ask one or two children to find the first phrase of the hymn and put it on the board leaving room for the rest of the phrases.  Now sing  the hymn with the children and continue having them put the phrases in order.

This is a great activity to "cement" the words into the the minds of the children.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Mother's Day Heart Tree

Cut out several hearts - I like to use a rainbow of colors.  On the back, write songs you wish to review or sing for Mother's Day.  Leave several blank.  Place all the hearts in a basket.  Draw a tree on the board - no leaves, branches only.  Start by singing "I Am a Child of God."  Place a heart on a branch of the tree and tell the children why you love your mom or a quick story about how she took care of you as a child.  Have the children take turns picking a heart and placing it on the tree on the board.  If the heart has a song on it, sing it.  If it is blank, ask the child to tell why they love their mom.  The goal is to cover the tree with hearts.

Saturday, May 4, 2013

We Thanks Thee, O God, for a Prophet

The theme for primary this month, May, is "Prophets Teach Us to Live the Restored Gospel."  There is no suggested song for the month.  If you choose to learn hymn # 19, "We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet," there is a great idea in the 2013 Sharing Time Outline on page 11.  (You can access the outline on the Church website.)  Using the colored paper helps the non-readers as well as the rest of us.  We learned this hymn for the 2008 Sacrament Meeting Program, so hopefully a few of the older classes will remember it or at least pick it up quickly.

Remember to review songs learned in previous months by singing them for opening or closing songs in primary.