Extreme Primary (Part 2): Tiny Primaries

Yep, that's enough chairs.

All Primaries are not created equal.  Or at least, they're not created with an equal number of children.  While most of the activities I detail in this blog will work for most Primaries, sometimes you have to adapt to meet your children's needs.  This Friday post is the second of a three-part series exploring ways to help your extreme Primary.  You can read the other two posts here and here. 

Challenges With a Tiny Primary

I grew up in a tiny branch of the Church in Arkansas.  We averaged fewer than 60 people in attendance every week, with a Primary of about 15.  After I moved away, I've seen even smaller Primaries:  a branch with only one Primary child in Yambol, Bulgaria, where I served as a missionary; and a branch with only two children in Long Beach, Washington, where we visit while on vacation every summer.  Tiny Primaries bring their own set of unique challenges, but they also offer opportunities not available to large groups.  Here are some of the differences I've noticed myself while teaching tiny Singing Times, along with some possible ways to adapt to them.

Difference #1:

You have Junior and Senior children combined in one Singing Time (and sometimes Nursery-aged children, too!).  Planning activities that appeal to both the youngest and the oldest child is difficult.

Suggestion A:  Some activities appeal equally to all ages of children.  One approach is to solely base your Singing Time plan around these type of activities.  See my post here for a good example Singing Time plan that would work well for a combined Primary.  Two of the activities are exactly the same for both Junior and Senior aged children.

Suggestion B:  Plan the base activity for the young children, and then part-way through, offer an added challenge for the older children.  I taught Singing Time to eight children last week (three of them being my own sons), having called ahead to the branch where we were vacationing to arrange it.  Two were still Nursery-aged!  I planned a base activity of clicking rhythm sticks with the beat of "The Church of Jesus Christ" (p.77), and after one time through, I demonstrated a trickier rhythm for the older children to adopt. 

Suggestion C:  Plan complementary activities for your younger and older children.  For example, in my Singing Time plan here, for the song "I Feel My Savior's Love" I have the younger children draw their own idea of how they feel the Savior's love, and I have an envelope game for the older children.  These activities can be done simultaneously quite well.

Here's a full example Singing Time plan, based off of the one I linked to above.

Combined Singing Time "The Holy Ghost"  (p. 105)  Paper cups.  Use as an instrument, tapping on lap and on the opposite hand.  Add a more complex rhythm after the first time through.

"Tell Me the Stories of Jesus"  (p. 57)  Magic chalkboard.  Tell the children you brought in a magic chalkboard, and it will draw a picture of what you sing.  As you sing, draw a fast, simple illustration, then hide the chalk and pretend like you're surprised. Ask the older children for ideas for details you could add. Add them while you repeat the song.

"I Feel My Savior's Love"  (p. 74)    Draw your own idea for Juniors.  Envelope game for Seniors. (See description here.)

"Come, Follow Me"  (Hymns #116)  Mirror image.  I got this idea from Sharla at TeachingPrimaryMusic.com.  Stand face to face with a partner. One person moves his hands with the feel of the music, and the other person follows the movement as the mirror.  See Sharla's video on YouTube here.  You can either choose to partner an older child with a younger to be a helper, or you can partner older children together so that they get the full experience while you assist the younger ones.

Difference #2:

With only a handful of children, there's no way your Sacrament Meeting presentation can fill 45 minutes.

Suggestion A:  Don't try to fill the 45 minutes. Focus on making it a positive experience for the children!  Make it a memorable and happy 15 minutes. :)

Suggestion B:  With your Primary President (if that's not you) and your Branch President, consider inserting talks by others associated with Primary:  a Primary leader, the Branch Presidency member over Primary, or a member of the branch who has a particularly powerful love for Primary.

Suggestion C:  Get creative with your songs.  Have every adult with a Primary calling sit up front to sing with the children.  Ask any musically inclined youth to join you for the songs.  If your children are particularly timid in front of groups, consider only singing a couple songs, or else print out lyrics for everything and have the congregation sing the entire program with you.  

Difference #3:

With so few children, you have a lot more flexibility with your activities than most Primaries.

Suggestion A:  Buy some instruments!  Unlike with the huge Primaries, discussed in my post last week, you can purchase a lot of different instruments for relatively little cost.  I've even found several small sets of rhythm instruments at my local second hand store.  In the amounts I could find second hand I couldn't stock a large Primary, but they are great for tiny Primaries or for most Nurseries.  

Suggestion B:  Bring in more sophisticated instruments.  You could borrow some from friends or branch members, like a guitar (you can finger the chord, and just let the children strum), snare drum, glockenspiel (That's the mini xylophone that beginning percussion players normally use--you could color-code a couple chords for the older children to play.), etc.  With a tiny Primary, you can give each child a turn to accompany your songs. 

Suggestion C:  Get moving.  Bring the children up front to sit on the ground in a circle when you're singing a story to them.  Post pictures around the room on the walls, and have the children walk with you to different ones as you feature them in your activities.  March through the halls or around the outside of the building as you sing a movement-filled song. I wanted so badly to do this with "Pioneer Children Sang As They Walked" (p.214). :(  Let me live vicariously! Somebody please do this and let me know!

My final thought is this:  don't fall into the trap of thinking, "Oh, my Primary is too small to do anything really fun."  That is so not the case.  Embrace your tiny Primary and leave the rest of us looking wistfully at what only you can do. ;)

Happy singing!

Singing Time Plan: August #1

Junior and Senior Primary are getting very different Singing Times this week.  Some activities only work for one age group, so I tend to pair those for easier planning.  Besides the ASL I have for both groups, take a look at the remaining activities and see why I'm not presenting those both hours.

Junior Primary
	"Follow the Prophet"  (p. 110)  Egg cartons.  Make them instruments by tapping and scraping with a rhythm stick or dowel.  Get more details in my previous post, here.
	"Tell Me the Stories of Jesus"  (p. 57)  Guess the story.  Hold up a picture showing a story of Jesus.  After you finish one verse, have the children guess which story the picture shows.  Repeat with a different picture.
	"Help Me, Dear Father"  (p. 99)  Front and back sways.  Stand and move your arms slowly front and back with the music.
	"I Know That My Savior Loves Me"     ASL

Senior Primary	Older kids love the challenge of a cipher.
"Follow the Prophet"  (p. 110)  Rhythm band.  Have different patterns for different rhythm instruments that you bring in. See more details in my post here.
"Help Me, Dear Father"  (p. 99)  Cipher.  My older kids love breaking codes.  Use a substitution cipher (like A=1, B=2, etc.) to have them decipher a coded verse of scripture that applies to the song. I'll be using the second half of Doctrine & Covenants 64:10.  I write the coded phrase on a paper for each child, and I put the key on the board.
"I Know That My Savior Loves Me"     Sing vs. sign.  To keep things fresh as we review, we'll either sing OR sign.  We'll switch back and forth at a predetermined signal (bell or the like) at unannounced times throughout the song.

Happy singing!

Singing Time Plan: July #4

Happy Pioneer Day!  I've included one pioneer song in my plan for Junior primary.  For Senior, I plan on singing a pioneer song during the prelude time.

Junior Primary
Dress up like the pioneers and go marching!	"He Sent His Son"  (p. 34)  Ribbons. Move ribbon wands in a simple pattern to the music.
	"Tell Me the Stories of Jesus"  (p. 57)  Cutaway picture. Choose a picture that shows one of the stories of Jesus, and cover it with paper. As you sing, cut away small pieces of the paper to slowly reveal the picture underneath.
	"The Holy Ghost"  (p. 105)  Create your own actions.  Assign each class one line of the song, and have the teachers help the children come up with an action that goes with the words.
	"To Be a Pioneer"  (p. 218)  March with the pioneers.  Bring a couple basic costume items (straw hat and vest, for example) and dress up two children as pioneers.  Have them help you lead the other children in marching around the room as you sing.

Senior Primary	Creating an action for the line "The Holy Spirit whispers..."
"He Sent His Son"  (p. 34)  Ribbons. Use a more complicated pattern than for Junior primary. Write symbols on the board to represent each action (like I describe here), so the children can follow along.
"Tell Me the Stories of Jesus"  (p. 57)  Cutaway picture. See description in Junior primary, above.
"The Holy Ghost"  (p. 105)  Create your own actions.  See description in Junior primary, above.
"The Church of Jesus Christ"  (p. 77)  The "I"s Have It.  This is a word strip activity I presented in April.  Read about it in my post here.

Happy singing!