Fillable Primary Music Agenda



Here is my agenda, which I use every week to plan my Sunday.  This is the link to my downloadable and printable file, blank Primary music agenda, in case you'd like to use it in your own planning. Below, I'll show you my agenda outline and insert explanations for each item.

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Date:

Junior Primary

Prelude:  I give specific requests to my pianist each week. They are always songs we're either learning or getting ready to learn, so that the children can become familiar with the melody.
            -if time, sing a wiggle song:  If I have my supplies ready with time to spare, then I'll sing a song or two with the children, just to let them stretch and move.

Opening Song:  I almost always choose a program song from the current year. I prefer not to teach by hammering lyrics, so instead, I have to use crazy amounts of repetition. :)
           
Birthday Song:  My Primary knows four birthday songs from The Children's Songbook. I just rotate through them.

Wiggle Songs:  I always start with a high energy song that has the children stand up. I repeat a few times, with variations. My second wiggle song is a calmer one, which ends with the children sitting. 

Singing Time Songs:  I select songs from the current year's program, as well as from topics that support the Sharing Time theme for that week.  I choose 4 songs every week, each with a different activity, as children need a change of pace every 3 to 5 minutes, and they learn best in a variety of styles. (See my page here on different learning styles.)  In Singing Time, we never just sit there and sing. The children are always engaged in the song in some sort of purposeful way.

            Song with a high concentration activity:  Examples are a matching game while we sing or a simple pattern with an instrument.

            Song with movement:  I try to have the children standing for this activity.

            Song with interactive visuals:  Young children are especially keyed in to color, so I try to tap into that most weeks.

            Song with either movement or high concentration:  I like to give the children a change of pace several times.  I shy away from having any manipulatives to pass back in after this last song, to help with a smooth transition to Sharing Time.


Senior Primary

Prelude:  Same as for Junior.
            -Primary pianist:  We have several Primary children who are learning piano, and I have a rotation for them to play prelude. They normally finish before the time is up, so our adult pianist takes over.
                                                  
Opening Song:  Same as for Junior.

Article of Faith:  We cover one each month. As part of opening exercises, one child holds the poster of that Article of Faith and reads it aloud. Then she asks everyone to stand, and I lead them in singing. I lead using my hand to show the rise and fall in pitch along with the rhythm, since we don't spend any other time learning these songs.

Birthday Song:  Same as for Junior.  I add in the round for the one applicable song.

Singing Time Songs:

            Song with movement:  The older children think they're too cool for traditional wiggle songs (though I still sing them occasionally, using methods described in my post "4 Ways to Boost Stale Wiggle Songs"), so I typically involve some sort of physical movement early on in Singing Time.  Instruments, hand rhythms, ribbon wands...my Senior Primary kids love them all, as long as they're being challenged.

            Song with a high concentration activity (often a logic or words activity):  My older children love thinking games.  I choose codes, word puzzles, etc. that they can do silently, so I can sing in the background.  I sing the song over and over, often 8 or 10 times, so I know the children are still learning it. :)

            Song with a low concentration activity (often with interactive visuals):  I change from the previous intense activity to a more relaxed one, where the children are still interested and involved.  I have a number of children who notice colors and visual patterns to the point of distraction, so I attempt to harness their interest by having visuals frequently.  In my ward, we have closing prayer immediately after my last Singing Time song, so I keep that in mind when choosing this final activity.


I try to plan a week in advance, and then I email a copy to my pianist (so she knows what to practice), my Primary secretary (so she can prepare the agenda for opening exercises) and the member of the Primary presidency who is presenting Sharing Time that week (so she can see what activities I've planned, and we don't both plan to have the children color, for example).  I find that when I take the time to purposefully plan my Singing Time, the 20 minutes fly by, and the children, teachers, and I are all having fun as we learn. :)  


Happy singing!

2 comments:

  1. This is so great! I think this is the best calling in the church and have been blessed to be called to do it several times in my life...and currently. I'm seeking more and more to make singing time more meaningful, fun and...well, just better! I'm going to be prayerfully studying your plan here. I'm trying to visualize and internalize the high concentration activity ideas and all the color involvement ones, really, all the song ideas you mention. Could you possibly give me some examples of each? Thank you for all you do here!

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  2. Lynette, I know, right?! This calling is fantastic. The basic idea for each of these categories is simple. For high concentration, you just want them thinking hard. For color, you incorporate color any-old-which-way you like.

    One example of high concentration for senior would be a scripture they have to decode (where you've switched it so that A=1, B=2, etc.). You could choose a scripture that matches the theme of the song you're learning, and you'd sing the song over and over (likely by yourself) while they decode the words. Senior kids love this! And they don't get bored of hearing the song 15 times because it's just soaking in while they're focusing on something else.

    One example of color involvement would be different colored shaker instruments (I have brightly colored eggs). You could all sing and shake the first time through the song, and then you could hold up a sign to show only one color plays, then switch the colored sign in the middle of the song a few times.

    Have you checked out my page on the 8 Learning Styles? You can find it here:

    http://www.purposefulprimarymusic.com/p/learning-styles.html

    That page includes brief descriptions and examples. For more examples, look at any of my Singing Time Plan posts. You can find them easily by looking at the right hand column of any page on this blog, looking under the heading "Labels," and clicking on "Singing Time Plan" under it.

    I love how you mentioned you're going to pray about it. It took me way too long to learn that, so thank you for being awesome! ;)

    Thanks for your questions. If you have any more, please speak up!

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