Musical Missionaries

I have really wanted to find a way to teach the kids how to apply the songs they learn at church, in their daily life.  Personally, when I was younger, I relied on all my primary songs to help me remember the basic concepts of what our church believes.  I grew up in the "mission field" and did not have very many LDS friends.  I was often asked very basic questions about my Sunday activities and was very grateful to have primary songs memorized to help in situations like these.

I created a little activity I am going to call "Musical Missionaries". Here are the supplies I am using:

• large, printed missionary tag (one per class)
• graphical representation of appropriate songs for board
• missionary questions
• my curious kids picture (to act as a visual for the friend asking questions)
• a set of 9 questions that are asked (and match up with the songs represented on the board)

You can work this activity however it best fits your primary (I have a very small primary) but I plan on randomly selecting one "missionary" per class, who will act as the spokesman (be sure to pick someone you know is not particularly shy). I then plan on having my 9 questions in separate envelopes numbered 1-9 (in my pre-set order).  You could either hide the questions around the room for a child to find or simply have them up front for you to read. Each class will answer one question (I plan on starting in the front and going through each class).  Once I ask the question, the class with talk with each other (and teacher's really need to step in and help!!) and tell the missionary which picture/song on the board they "think" will answer the question.  If they pick the wrong song, depending on time, you could sing the incorrect song and ask them if they think that song worked. If not, why? Place back on board and try again.

With the correct song selected and sang, I will ask the missionary (and class) to tell me one thing they heard in the song that could answer our friends question.  So on and so forth.

If you have any suggestions on how this activity could be improved or any variations you may have done, I'd love to hear them!

I do have some rough graphics available for you to download below.  I plan on re-doing them when I have more time and mounting on colored paper, then laminating.  Of course you could amend my documents to reflect any songs/questions you want.

Click here to download the questions.

Click here to download the missionary tags (print, fold in half and put string through), and song/pictures.

July: Pioneer Month - Diving for Crickets

I am using July as an opportunity to revive the fun pioneer songs from the Children's Songbook.  There is a story in this month's friend called 'Saving the Wheat'.  I took this story and created a different version of "fishing" that allowed us to pick a variety of songs.

I printed out little crickets and a seagull picture.  I then placed the cricket cut-outs in a bin of rice (you could also use wheat berries if you have them and are willing to use them).  I then attached paper clips to each cricket.  For the pole I used a piece of wood (skewer) and yarn to make a pole for the seagulls.  I attached my seagull picture to the yarn that had a magnet attached to the bottom.  (Hopefully that all made sense).  I began by telling the kids the story from the friend and then we went diving for crickets! Each cricket had a song written on the back. I enjoyed the simple way of bringing a real adaption to the game and I think the kids will remember the bugs! They had lots of fun!