A Sensory Experience for "My Heavenly Father Loves Me"

Can we bring nature into Primary? This is a hard one for me to figure out. Nature is one of the 8 learning styles I describe in my post here. I believe that it's important to reach all of our children with varied learning styles, but this has been the hardest one for me to put into practice. When I learned that "My Heavenly Father Loves Me" was the Sharing Time song for February, I realized this song--which talks about nature and our senses--is the perfect one to use to tap into this learning style. You're probably already done teaching the song to your Primary, so this is a good activity to review it or help the truth of it sink in.

Bring nature in with a touch-and-feel guessing game

Getting Ready

The Main Idea

The gist of this activity is to help the children have sensory experiences that remind them of nature and tie into the major descriptions in verse 1 of this song. To make it fun and exciting, I turned it into a touch-and-feel guessing game.

Materials

• Brown paper lunch bags
• Loose feathers
• Rose petals
• Kleenex
• Floral scent (perfume, body spray, or essential oil)
• Folded paper fans
• Several pairs of inexpensive sunglasses
• Baby wipes
• Plastic sandwich baggies

Preparation

Make one set of the following bags for each class in your Singing Time, and label the brown paper bags with the following numbers. The quotes in parentheses are the words in the song that correspond to the items.

1. In bag #1, place a feather. ("song of a bird")

You can quickly make several folded paper fans.

2. In bag #2, place some rose petals. ("a velvet rose")

3. In bag #3, place a Kleenex with floral scent on it, and include a note on the bag, "Close your eyes and smell." ("a lilac tree")

4. In bag #4, place a folded paper fan. ("wind as it rushes by")

5. In bag #5, place a pair of sunglasses. ("look at the blue, blue sky")

6. In bag #6, place a baby wipe on top of a plastic sandwich baggie, so it won't soak through the paper. ("feel the rain")

Presenting the Activity

Before Singing Time, give one set of the bags to each teacher, with instructions to hold them back until the appropriate time. To intro the activity, have one different paper bag with a common item inside (matchbox car, spoon, pencil, etc.). Have two children come up front and take turns putting one hand in the bag, to feel what it is. Tell them not to say anything out loud yet, so their friend can have a turn to guess. After they've both had a turn to feel, ask them what they think the item is. 

Explain to the group that everyone will have a turn to play the guessing game, and they will have to listen to the words of the song to get clues. Set up some quick ground rules (no talking, passing the bags nicely down the row, etc.). Then ask your teachers to pass out bag 1, and you start singing!

Sing only the first verse (quite possibly by yourself) as the children take turns feeling the mystery object and passing the bag to their friends. The teachers can help their classes as needed. Depending on the size of your Primary, you might need to repeat the verse more than once in order for everyone to have a turn. When everyone has a guess, stop the music and ask them to compare with a neighbor. Did they guess the same thing? You can take one bag and reveal the item. Point out the line of the song to which it corresponds, and then immediately call for bag #2 and repeat! 

Junior vs. Senior Primary

Your junior Primary will likely not have patience for all 6 bags. That's okay! The bags are numbered to have harder items later in the lineup, so just stop when the children are too restless or when you think the clues are too difficult for them to guess, perhaps after bag 3 or 4.

Senior Primary kids will have both a longer attention span and a greater ability for abstract thought. Make use of that by continuing the activity through bag 6. Tell them that these last items are tricky on purpose, and the words in the song are only clues as to what the items are. Ask them if they can match up the items to the words in the song they represent. 

A Final Note

This activity calls for sitting still and waiting your turn. Since that is tricky for many of our cuties, I highly recommend you do this activity after you've given them a chance to get their wiggles out. ;) 

Happy singing!

Looking for more?    For another nature-focused activity, try this one.

DIY Rain Drop Craft

DIY Rain Drops

So we’re wrapping up the Primary program season. If you haven’t had your program yet, you’re probably in the last couple weeks of review. Hooray for not stressing anymore (even though you're trying not to anyway) about whether or not your kids will remember all the songs! This sounds like a great time for a Primary music-centered craft project. :) 

Yes, yes, normally I like simple, fast activities like you do. But every once-in-a-while you just itch to make something fancier, right? Ok, if not, then you might not want to attempt this. Cuz it's not a five-minute project. But it's fun, the product is adorable, and they'll make lots of tiny kids happy. Reason enough for you? Then read on. :)

Using the Rain Drops

This is not an original, folks! I saw Sharla Dance (http://teachingprimarymusic.com/) use these at one of her workshops, and I loved them so much that I had to make my own. (Disclaimer, my awesome mom and sister helped me figure out how...) 

These rain drops admittedly have a limited use. I mostly use them in Nursery or Sunbeams, as they don't hold the interest of the older children. I like to pass one out to each child (you really have to have one for each child!) and sing "Rain is Falling All Around." You just hold the end of the yarn and dance the drops around like they're raining. These youngest kiddos are still trying to learn about where their bodies are in space. So, slowing down the last line of the song, "Rain is falling on my nose, on my head and hands and toes," and having the rain drop touch each body part when mentioned is a fun challenge for them. 

Making the Rain Drops

Materials Needed

• card stock or cardboard
• blue felt
• blue yarn (I chose different shades of felt and yarn for fun.)
• googly eyes
• rice
• fabric glue
• Fray Check
• Sharpie marker
• scissors
• sewing machine or needle, thread, and patience ;)

Instructions

1. Cut out a rain drop-shaped template out of the card stock or cardboard. Size really is just your personal preference. Mine are about 2 1/2" tall. 

2. For each rain drop, trace and cut out 2 pieces of felt, using the template as a guide. 

3. Sew the 2 pieces of felt together, sewing only around the edges to make a kind of tiny bag. Leave the area by the point open, as you will need to put rice in through this hole. 

4. Put rice in through the hole. ;) I don't know how much. 2 teaspoons, maybe? The idea is just to add enough weight so the rain drop will hang down nicely.

5. For each rain drop, cut 1 piece of yarn to your desired length. Mine are about 12" long.

6. Insert one end of a piece of yarn (maybe 1") in the hole of your tiny, rice-filled bag.

7. Sew a lateral line across the top of your rain drop to keep the yarn in place. Sew around the tip of the drop to keep the shape of the drop intact.

8. Glue on the googly eyes wherever you'd like them.

9. Apply fray check to the exposed end of the yarn, so it will last more than one singing time. 

And now you're ready to sing, sing, sing! The consumable materials required for this project are super cheap, so it didn't bug me that it took a little while to make. You could even grab the Primary music leader from the ward next door and help each other get these whipped out in no time.


Happy singing!

Looking for more?       Here is a sample Nursery music time that utilizes these cutest of rain drops. :)

Nature Daydream: A Senior Primary Activity

In the hills around Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, there are boulder-filled overlooks where you can get close to some steep, rocky cliffs.  I went hiking there with my district as a full-time missionary.  When we got to one of these overlooks, we spread out from each other a little bit, and I thought of a line of a hymn, which I started to sing to myself.  "When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur/ And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze/ Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee,/ How great thou art!" (Hymns #86).  The place and the song fit so perfectly together that now, every time I hear this song, and every time I'm at a rocky overlook, I'm reminded of my missionary experience. Go ahead. Daydream!    Nature Daydream Some children learn very well through connections with nature, and we want to help them!  However, since Primary is generally held indoors :), I find it hard to think up Singing Time activities to tap into this learning style.  Here is one of my few, precious nature activities, which I call Nature Daydream. I gave a brief introduction to this activity in my Singing Time plan earlier this week, here.  Nature Daydream should only be used with Senior Primaries, since it requires symbolic thinking, and the little bitties in your Junior Primary need concrete representations in order to understand.  This activity can be a relief because it requires zero prep from you!  Well, you have to think through it, but that's it.  Here's how to present Nature Daydream in Singing Time: Presenting the Activity Begin by asking the children their favorite place in nature that they visited during the summer.  This is a perfect activity for the end of summer vacation!  Hear a few responses.  Ask the children to daydream themselves into that favorite spot, and suggest closing their eyes if they'd like.  (Don't try to require eye-closing. 1-They won't all do it anyway. 2-Some kids will be so focused on their embarrassment that they will miss the entire point.) Once they're in their daydream, ask the children to see if they can match your song to their favorite spot.  Sing through the song once, then ask the children to open their eyes.  Call on a few children to see if the song matched their favorite place, and then ask why or why not.  (For example:  "Help Me, Dear Father" (p.99) might match a quiet beach because the swaying beat of the song reminds us of waves.  It might not match a white-water rafting trip because the song is so slow and calm.) After receiving three or four responses, ask the children to daydream up another place, one that they think will definitely match the song. Sing through the song again, and again ask for the children's thoughts on why their location matches. In this age group, children are very keyed into their imaginations.  By channeling their ability to daydream, you can give them the opportunity to learn a song while they connect with nature, and all without leaving the Primary room.  :)

Happy singing!