Feliz Cumpleaños

An easy and fun activity to help teach the birthday song "Feliz Cumpleaños" is to type out the language (and phonetic pronunciation) on separate pieces of paper. Then, print out blank maps of each country.  Split the children in to groups for each language and let them try and figure out the pronunciation.  Then have the children come teach the primary and guess which country it comes from. I used the magnetic chalkboard to post the maps and then once they guessed, placed the words under the map (in the order of the song).

Click here to download a PDF link of the languages already typed out.

If anyone else in your primary happens to speak a different language, have them come up and share.  If you can, it might be fun to also find clothing or traditional dress from each country to have the kids put on.

Then repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat!

(If you are lucky enough to have members from any one of the countries mentioned in the song, you can have them come in and help say the word, or record it to play for the kids.)

Learning by clothesline

I forgot to take a picture of our clothesline song, but this is a very simple activity that gets the children involved. All you will need is:

• clothesline (or sturdy string - I used yarn)
• clothespins (the spring kind)
• visual aids that can be pinned to the line

I made all of my visual aids on paper.  I then used magnets to pin them all over the chalkboard.  We sang the new song once through.  Then we started with the first line.  I called a child up to find the very first picture in our line.  Once they picked the right one, they hung it on the line (which I had attached across the room, or you can have two very patient kids hold it).  Once we had two lines of pictures on the string, we would sing those lines.  Do this until the song is complete.

For the older kids, who learn the song quickly, I would then randomly remove pictures and see if they could remember the words. If they made a mistake the picture would have to be added back.  The goal was to have an empty clothesline by the end of singing time.

Another option to make this more of a game is to hid/tape the visual aids all over the room so they have to search for it.  Depending on the number of children you have in your primary you can have them seek one-by-one, or an entire class at a time.

Hide-n-Seek Snowman

We did another snow theme today. We are finishing up the final verse on the song "As A Child of God" and needed a game that would allow us to repeat the song over and over again (anything to drill it in, right?).

I created a snowman out of white poster board (3 circles, increasing in size).  I then created 6 snowman items for the kids to hide (one at a time).  The items I made were a hat, eyes, nose, scarf, buttons and mouth.

This game is similar to "Hot and Cold" where children say hot/hotter/cold/colder depending on how close the seeker is to the hidden "treasure". However, with singing time, we have the kids sing quiet when the seeker is far away and gradually get louder as the seeker gets closer.  This is a great game to sing a song in a repetitive nature while keeping the kids interested. I select one kid to be the hider and another to be the seeker. The seeker steps out in to the hall (with a leader) and waits for us to hide the treasure.  Once they come back in the room, we begin singing.

Remember to make sure the kids are still singing! I had to stop a few times and make the kids re-focus on the song and words when they were just mumbling or messing up the words.

Other options for this game are:

• On each item to be hidden, have a song choice on the back (to mix up the monotony)
• Have one object to hide and have the child that is hiding the object pick their favorite song
• Hide letters to build a word (rather than snowman pieces)

This is also an easy game to pass on to a substitute. I would suggest the sub lets the children pick the song, or provide a list of well-known songs for them to use.

Snowball Fight

January we find ourselves (in some places) covered in snow and shivering in the cold temperatures.  So...why not have an indoor snowball fight?  We did this last week and the kids had a blast. I should have allotted more time, as this went over better than I thought.

For the needs of our primary, I pre-selected 5-7 wiggle/play/review songs and printed them on pieces of paper (just the page number).  Then, I handed a piece to each child in our primary.  I had a rather large red bucket with me in the front of the room and told the kids we were going to have a snowball fight.  But!! You can't forget to share the following rules:

• Snowballs can ONLY be thrown at me (the chorister)
• Snowballs cannot be thrown directly at the face

I had the back rows come around to the front and tried to align everyone so the poor sunbeams/front rows weren't getting hit in the head.  The kids then crumbled up their snowballs and threw them at me (as I held the bucket). I would choose a song to sing from the snowballs that made it in to the bucket.  For the senior primary, I held the bucket and slowly spun around to make the game more difficult.

Depending on the size and needs of your ward, here are a few alternatives to this game you could use:

• Hand out blank papers and let the children write their favorite song.
• Hand out papers with the page number already written, but have the children write their name. If their snowball is selected they can pick a silly way to sing the song (humming, stop/go, or use the cards mentioned here.)

(Thank you to my sister-in-law for sharing this idea with me.)

Do you have ideas? Post your comments below!

Silly Singing Cards

Sometimes the kids can get bored or distracted when reviewing songs that they know quite well.  I found another blog resource that provided adorable silly singing cards.  I used this my first time substituting as a chorister and the kids STILL talk about it.

Click HERE to read/print the Silly Singing Cards
 (courtesy of afprimarysingingtime.blogspot.com)

These cards are great for a substitute. Send these alongside a list of songs the kids already know and the job is done. I do recommend sorting through the cards and using ones that you (and/or your presidency) is comfortable with. I removed a few that I knew would get our kids too wound up. Pick the best ones that work for you -- but they ALL are fun. Enjoy!!

Note that there are a lot of other resources around the internet for these...or feel free to make your own.  Here's one more that I found -- CLICK HERE.

Substitute Ideas:Tic Tac Toe

Here is a great resource for those times when a substitute is needed.  I would print this out, laminate, and keep in your stash ASAP.  It is easy and the kids love it.  During my first few weeks, when I was figuring it all out, this was a life saver.

Click HERE to read/print TIC TAC TOE game.

Courtesy of http://afprimarysingingtime.blogspot.com

The Beginning...

I was recently called to be the primary chorister in our LDS ward. I am excited and needed a way to track what I have done. I can hardly remember yesterday morning, let alone the things I did in primary last week.  Here will be a journal of sorts to help keep my mind and straight. And...if it can help any of you along the way...then even better!

Happy Singing!