"Stand for the Right" with Ribbon Wands

Let them stand for the right! 3/4 time.  Upbeat tempo. Lilting, swaying, rocking. These descriptions come to my mind for the song, "Stand for the Right."  I love to get my kids up and moving with doctrinal songs, too, not just with the fun wiggle songs. This song gave me the perfect opportunity to bring in my ribbon wands. Demonstrate First Even my youngest Sunbeam kiddos can catch the feel of this song when they use ribbon wands.   The little ones feel more comfortable participating in an activity when they've had a chance to see it first, so without preamble, I take out one ribbon and start singing, waving my ribbon side to side in time with the beat.  Each time I sing, "Be true," I bring the ribbon straight up in the air (on "Be") and then down sharply to rest on the ground (on "true").  When the next note starts, I pick back up with the side to side motion. Below is a video showing this movement. Immediate Participation After singing the song through once, I remind the children of the rules ("Please treat my special ribbons gently, and please don't touch your neighbors with them!") and ask a couple older children to pass them out.  As soon as they start to pass out the ribbons, I start singing and moving my ribbon, so the children can follow me right away.

Repetition That's Fun

I don't know about your kiddos, but my Sunbeams could do this for ten minutes straight, no problem.  My 6- and 7-year olds, however, get bored if something doesn't change.  So after each sing-through, I change up something slightly.  One time, I'll challenge them to move their ribbons exactly with the beat.  Another time, I'll ask how high they can get their ribbons on each side. Or, I might say, "Freeze!" at a couple points in the song, and then comment on the words (like, "Isn't it amazing that we have a living prophet? We'll get to listen to him at General Conference!"), and then I'll pick back up with the song where I left off.  *Note:  it's especially important to work well with your pianist for starting and stopping activities like this. I have been blessed with the most helpful and patient pianists ever!

For the Older Crowd

My older kids love ribbon wands, too.  I just have to take the difficulty up a notch.  Or two. ;)  I come up with a more complicated pattern (I normally just sing the song by myself at home and play with a ribbon until I come up with something I like), and then I invent simple symbols to write on the board (squiggles, circles, waves...) to denote each action.  See the video below for one example.  

Whereas in Junior Primary I only have two actions, for Senior I choose at least four, and sometimes more.  The symbols on the board can be a code for them to decipher when you first demonstrate the activity, and they're also useful in helping them remember which action in the long sequence comes next.  The "Freeze!" add-on also works well with this age.

Happy singing!

Looking for more?   To see how I've incorporated ribbons into a full Singing Time, read my post here on what activities pair well with this.  Interested in how better to work with your pianist?  Check out the guest post my pianist wrote for me. :)

White Board Colors--An Older Child Activity for Verse 2 of "If I Listen With My Heart"

White Board Colors

I always worry a little bit when preparing to teach wordy songs with several verses. I want to be sure to give my children different experiences learning the different verses, so they can have separate and distinct memories associated with the words. 

After working on verse 1 of "If I Listen With My Heart" with my kids for a few weeks, they knew it pretty well.  So, I decided to introduce verse 2 with White Board Colors, an activity I borrowed from Elise over on the Facebook Choristers group. (Love that place!) This activity does well for a first introduction to a verse, since the children are encouraged to interact with the song in a number of different ways.  

The Prep Work

Virtually nil.  Gather white board markers (or chalk, if that's how your room is set up) in 6 different colors.  Before Singing Time, write the entire lyrics for the verse on the board, along with these 6 instructions:  

Share (in purple)

Draw (in red)

Sign (in blue)

Erase (written in black)

Eyes closed (in orange)

Hum (in green)

The Instructions

Hold up a bag containing your six markers.  Announce, "I have different colored markers in this bag. When I offer the bag to you, choose one--without looking!--and then check for your color-coded instructions on the board."  Offer a brief explanation of each one:

Share=pause the singing to share one way you can listen to the living prophet


Draw=erase one key word, then use your marker to draw a simple picture to replace the missing word


Sign=using your marker, underline one key word, then make up and show a sign-language style sign to represent the chosen word


Erase=take the eraser (left by the board) and erase one word

Eyes closed=using your marker, underline a word or phrase on the board. The entire Primary will then close their eyes during that phrase every time.

Hum=using your marker, underline a word or phrase to be hummed every time

The Presentation

After the instructions, immediately launch into singing.  Walk around the room, offering the bag to various children to choose a marker.  I normally pass out about 3 at a time, and then I wait for space to open up at the board before passing out more markers.  Ideally, you'll be singing constantly, only pausing when a child draws the Share marker.  I find that it's helpful to stop every so often, though, to encourage a child who's confused about the instructions, or to clarify the sign that a child chose.  

The variety of the activities allows you to repeat this song over and over without feeling stale.  I sang this verse repeatedly for ten minutes, until we finally ran out of time.  The kids never did lose interest!



Happy singing,

Looking for more?  Even a great activity like this one shouldn't last your full 20 minutes.  Take a look here for a complete Singing Time plan that includes White Board Colors, as well as a couple contrasting activities.

"The Books in the Book of Mormon"--Let Paper Cups Make Some Music

Older kids love a challenge I love bouncy, upbeat Primary songs. :D  "The Books in the Book of Mormon" is perfect to pair with physical movement, so I decided to use Sharla's paper cup pop idea.  (You can read about her version for Junior Primary here.)  I wanted a more challenging version for my Senior Primary, so I created a longer pattern that includes switching your cup between hands. When I first introduce this activity, I normally do it without the cup, just clapping instead of passing the cup.  I don't give any explanation--I just stand in front of the children and start singing and showing the pattern.  After one sing-through, I encourage the children to follow my hand movements, and we repeat a time or two. By this time, they're ready to up the difficulty by adding in the cups.  I demonstrate once with a cup before I pass them out to everyone.  Here is a video of me, so you can see the magic in action. ;)

Even my too-cool older boys like the challenge this activity provides. :) 



Happy singing!

Looking for more?   Here's another movement-based activity that provides a challenge for older kids, Silence Is Golden. Or, check out my egg carton post, where I offer ideas for both Junior and Senior Primary.

Adventures with Activity Days: Part 2 of 2

This post is the second of a 2-part series describing ways to bring Primary music into a weekday Activity Days meeting. Read part 1 here, about memorizing the Articles of Faith.

Tracing conducting patterns

I love that Activity Days gives our girls the chance to learn how to conduct music.  If you think about it, women and girls in our church have a ton of opportunities to lead music, so it makes sense to help our girls learn this skill.  I've been invited into Activity Days a couple different times over the years to teach basic conducting patterns.  Here are four techniques I've used.

1.  Finding the Down Beat

This is a most over-looked skill. :)  Let's face it, the piano will keep playing, and the congregation will keep singing, even if you don't have a clue what a down beat is.  But we're talking about teaching these kids correct technique, right? So let's start them off right. 

I have the girls sit in a circle on the floor with me, and I ask them to listen to the flow of my singing and try to sway to match it. I try to emphasize the down beat slightly, and I sway and nod my head with the beat, too. Then I ask them if they can feel that there's a stronger beat that comes every so often.  I label it as the down beat, and then I sing a song with a different time signature, so they can identify the down beat there, too. 

2.  Tracing Conducting Patterns

Before class time, I drew the shape of the conducting patterns for 2, 3, and 4 beats onto separate sheets of white paper, making sure to have one set for each girl.  (If you have any left-handed students, make a mirror-image shape for them.)  I also taped the papers onto the wall or chalk board.  Now I let the girls choose a color of crayon. Directing them to start with the 2-beat pattern, I ask them to trace as I sing.  After singing for a minute, I pause singing to say rhythmically, "Down, up, down, up," at the same tempo as the song. Then, I switch back to the song, so they can match their movements to the beat. After they've got it, I have them switch colors, move to the next paper and pattern, and repeat.

Practicing with ribbon wands

3.  Practice with Ribbon Wands

Once the girls have learned the three basic patterns, I change things up to allow for extra practice.   I give each girl a ribbon wand and ask them to spread out through the room.  I ask for favorite Primary songs from the girls, but I also have a few songs in mind of my own, in case their songs don't cover all the time signatures we're learning.  Then we sing and conduct all together, using as many songs as we can until the hour is up.

4.  Provide Opportunities to Conduct Afterwards

Learning a new talent is always more fun if you have a chance to use it right away.  In addition, the Activity Days girls have a Faith in God requirement to teach or share a song with either their family or Primary.  So, after I teach them conducting music, I offer the girls a chance to lead a prelude song in Primary opening exercises.  If they are interested, I let them pick which Primary song they'd like, and I remind them before Sunday.  When they're conducting, I normally sit in the front row and conduct the pattern low in my lap, in case they need a little help.  


It's so rewarding to develop a new ability and be able to share it, both for the girls with their conducting, and for me with my teaching them. :)

Happy singing!

Looking for more?   Learn about the different icons I include, like this one,  , and how they correspond to different learning styles in my post here. Or, if you'd like another activity that includes basic music skills, try my post on using hand bells.

Adventures with Activity Days: Part 1 of 2

This post is the first of a 2-part series describing ways to bring Primary music into a weekday Activity Days meeting. Look for part 2 next week. Create a word search on poster board I love being with my eight to twelve year old girls! Their weekday Activity Days leaders occasionally reach out to me for help incorporating music into their activities.  One thing they wanted was help memorizing the Articles of Faith.  We decided to focus on learning the songs for the first four Articles of Faith.  I split the girls into four small groups (this worked well for our class size of 12), and they rotated through four stations.  Here's how it worked: The Flow I had each group choose one of the stations to start.  All the supplies, along with written instructions of the activity, were in separate corners of the room.  The pianist and I started playing and singing the first Article of Faith, while the Activity Days leader helped the girls understand the instructions and work on their different activities.  I basically just sang the song over and over for 10 minutes, with short pauses to answer questions, until I called out that it was time to switch stations. Each station was focused on a different activity. We changed to the next Article of Faith song when we rotated stations, so that each group was working on the same Article of Faith at the same time, though they were working on different activities.   Station 1:  Create a Word Search I prepped a blank word search for each Article of Faith on poster board.  My local department store had poster board with grid lines already drawn, and that made my life a lot easier. :)  I chose key words from the Article of Faith and wrote them at the bottom.  Working as a group, the girls wrote the chosen words in the empty boxes first, and then they added random letters in the remaining spaces. Station 2: Create Rhythm Patterns I tasked the girls with working as a group to create their own rhythm patterns to go with the song. I had been thinking something like pat-pat-clap-snap/pat-pat-clap-snap, etc.  One of the groups did something similar, but the others were wildly creative. It was a lot of fun seeing what they came up with!  Lesson learned:  encourage them to choose actions that match the reverent tone of the song....:/ Station 3:  Make a First Letter Code This activity is one I've used a lot in my Primary, so the girls were familiar with it.  You can find the description in my previous post, here.  This time, I had the girls work as a group to make their own codes by listening carefully to the words as I sang. Station 4:  Draw the Melody This station was very simple. I had paper and markers, and I asked them to individually draw a line to show how the melody goes up and down. Then they showed their papers to their group members and traced the line as I sang. The Wrap-Up After the girls had been through each station, they demonstrated their hand motions for each other, and we sang each Article of Faith as we did the motions.  Then we put the word searches up on the board, one at a time, and took turns solving them while we sang, until it was time to go home.  The first letter codes we saved for another day.  I had been worried about being able to fill the time, but the hour flew by!  I hope they call me to come visit Activity Days again. :)

Happy singing!

Looking for more?  Take a look at my post for a rhythm band activity, which gives older children the challenge they crave.  Or try some of these suggestions for having older children play prelude for Primary.

5 Tips for Teaching ASL in Primary

When I was in Primary, I learned "As I Have Loved You" with ASL (American Sign Language).  I can still sing and sign the whole thing!  Something about combining music with representative actions really helped me retain what I learned.  Now, every year I choose a song to teach in ASL to both my younger and older Primary children, so they can have a similar experience. Here are some tips to consider, if you'd like to teach ASL in your Primary, too.

1.  Choosing a Song Take a look at the list of songs you want to teach your children this year.  (For tips on how to plan your year, look here.)  Cross off any songs that are very fast, as it would be difficult for the children to sign that quickly.   For the slower tempo songs that remain, think of the following questions:  Do I want to teach ASL for more than one verse? Do I want to include ASL in a song where I already have a small group or solo planned for the Primary program? (Again, see my previous post on yearly planning and deciding verse assignments early.) Which songs might be harder for the children to learn, so ASL could be a help? Are ASL videos available for these songs? (Find the Church's ASL videos on lds.org, here.)  2. Simplify Since I'm a music teacher, not an ASL teacher, I've decided to focus on teaching my children the song, rather than on teaching them precise ASL.  I don't change the signs themselves, but I cut out some signs and reorder others, focusing on key words, in order to make it easier to sign in the time the song allows. The result is more like signed English, distinctly different from ASL.  Young children are very literal, and this style of teaching helps them better relate to the signs I present. At the right is a video of me, showing the version of "I Will Follow God's Plan" that I simplified for teaching my Primary this year.   3.  Teaching Yourself the Signs Although with any song it's important to know it yourself before attempting to teach it, this principle is especially true with teaching ASL.  The handy part is that you only have to be one step ahead of the kids. When I'm learning a new song in ASL, I teach myself one or two lines at a time--just the portion that I'll be teaching the following Sunday.  That way, I'm not overwhelmed by how much I have to learn.  To learn the signs, you can either watch a video over and over, signing as you go, or you can work with your stake's ASL interpreter. I've done both. :) 4.  Teaching the Children the Signs The best idea I ever had about teaching ASL in Primary (inspiration, perhaps?) was to start in the middle.  The main idea is to help the children feel confident in their signing.  Start with a section that has a lot of repetition (the chorus, or a phrase with repetitive words, like "I will work, and I will pray. I will always walk...")  The repetitive signs will help the children feel successful right away. As you add on bits of the song and it's harder for the children to remember everything, the most familiar part will come later on in the song, when they most need help remembering.  When teaching individual signs, I try to think of ways to explain the motions. For example, I say, "This is the sign for God. Notice how we point up to heaven, where He lives!"  Teaching signs in this way helps the children match their movements to the words. 5.  The Big Picture

I take several weeks to teach a song in ASL, reviewing each small section from the previous week before moving on. After the children know the entire song well, I'll challenge them to close their eyes as they sign, only opening them when they need to check on a sign or two.  Throughout the rest of the year, we'll periodically sing and sign this song for the opening song for Primary, to make sure we--both the children and myself!--don't forget what we've learned. 


I can't say enough good things about using ASL to teach children songs. My younger kids, my older kids, my special needs kids, my inactive kids, even my nursery kids! can learn these signs and the song that goes with them.  If you've never given ASL a try in Primary, then, you know...consider giving it a try. :)


Happy singing!

Looking for more?   ASL is a perfect activity for combined-age Primaries (see my post on combined Primaries, here) or for taking Primary music into the home of children who don't often come on Sundays (read more about this here).  Simple ASL signs can also be a powerful way to teach nursery-aged children (read more about their musical needs here).

Focus on the "I"s--Learning "If I Listen With My Heart" With Your Senior Primary

The first verse of "If I Listen With My Heart" has six "I" statements.  This song is practically begging us to liken it to ourselves! I adapted an idea from Sharla, over at TeachingPrimaryMusic.com, to tap into the word-based learning style for this older-child activity.

Unscramble the "I" word strips

Preparation

Take note of the six "I" statements found in verse 1:  I had, I would, I search, I can, I listen, I hear.  Write each phrase on a word strip, large enough to be read by everyone in your Primary room.  Mount each word strip on colored paper, one color for "I had" and "I would," and a second color for the remaining strips, as shown in the picture at right.  

Before Primary begins, tape up the word strips around the room, in visible locations.

Presentation

Tell the children that you will sing them a song that is about all of us.  "If you see a word strip from this song, raise your hand, and I'll motion for you to bring it up front and help put it in order."  Immediately begin singing, and continue singing until the word strips are all in song order on the board, repeating the song if necessary.  If the children need help placing the word strips in order, you can heavily emphasize the appropriate phrases as you sing.

Ask the children to help you check, to make sure they're all in order.  Sing again, pointing to each word strip as it comes up in the song.  Have a child come up to make corrections, if needed.  

Let the children know that you have another challenge for them with this song.  "I chose different colors for these specific word strips for a reason.  Listen carefully as I sing the song again, and see if you can figure out why they're grouped separately."  My kids got it without any clues, on the first sing-through.  The first two statements talk about what WOULD have been, and the rest talk about how things ARE.  

Now is a perfect time to briefly share how you know the scriptures help us learn the words of the Savior.  The children have been engaged mentally, so they're actively listening to what you say.

Happy singing!

Beat vs. Rhythm--a Movin' and Shakin' Activity

Beat vs. Rhythm--which one will it be?

   Sometimes it's fun to prepare nice pictures, word puzzles or codes for Singing Time, and sometimes it's nice to have an activity that requires no preparation at all!  Beat vs. Rhythm is a simple activity with zero preparation that still engages the children while they sing.  This activity is full of movement, so I use it for a change of pace between activities that tap into the visual or word learning styles, as in my Singing Plan, here.  I find that Beat vs. Rhythm works best with quick songs with a strong beat, such as "The Church of Jesus Christ" (p. 77) or "Follow the Prophet" (p. 110).  I have done this activity with egg shakers or just with hand tapping, and both work well.

The Basics

"Let's pretend we're drummers, and we have to step on the pedal for a bass drum with our foot, once for every beat."  Immediately start singing, and tap one foot on the beat.  If children in the back can't see your feet, you could nod your head or pat your lap to help them stay with the beat.  

Once they have that down (perhaps after one time through the song), switch to only hand tapping, and tap on your lap the rhythm of the melody, one tap per syllable sung.  

Challenging Junior Primary

For Junior Primary, here are a couple ways to add a challenge, and thus make repeating the song fun.  Challenge One:  Choose a couple confident, older children to lead half the room in tapping their feet on the beat. At the same time, you lead the other half of the room in tapping their hands with the rhythm of the words.  Switch halves of the room and repeat. 

Challenge Two:  Ask one child to stand by the light switch and prepare to turn it off and on while you sing .  Have all the children start tapping the beat with you as you start the song.  When the lights go off, switch to tapping the rhythm.  When the lights come back on, switch back to tapping the beat.  

Challenging Senior Primary

Challenge One above will likely bore your Senior children to tears, but Challenge Two is still fun for them.  Here is the real challenge, though:  tap both the beat and the rhythm at the same time. Crazy hard! I normally mess up a couple times, but that's okay.  The older children love doing something that is actually difficult to master.  Just have fun with it!

Happy singing,

Follow the Prophet Review Activity--Inside Camera

I love the many verses of "Follow the Prophet."  Last week I used a review activity that can be used for as few or as many of the verses as you choose.  I call it Inside Camera.  I first learned about this activity from Sharla Dance, over at TeachingPrimaryMusic.com.  The presentation is simple, the prep is virtually nil, and the children ask to keep doing it over and over. A picture for each verse First, choose a picture which corresponds to each verse you'd like to review.  I use pictures from the Gospel Art Picture kit, but the Church has an online Media Library that you could use, as well.  In the photo on the left, I have pictures for Abraham, Enoch, President Monson, Moses, Adam, Noah, and Daniel. In Primary, tell the children you're going to show them a picture, and you want them to take a picture of it with their inside camera, the camera inside their mind, in order to memorize the details.  They can look at the picture while you're singing the song, but when the verse is done, you'll hide the picture and ask questions to see how much they memorized. Show this picture and sing, "Adam was a prophet..." Immediately show one of the pictures, and sing the verse that matches it.  Turn the picture around to hide it from the children while you ask your questions, and then let the children see the picture again to confirm each answer.  For example, last Sunday I showed the picture you see on the right while I sang the verse about Adam.  Here are some of the questions I asked: "How many people are in this picture?" "What are their names?" "Are they outside or inside?" "Are they by a forest, an ocean, or a desert?" "Name one animal you saw in this picture." I ask 3-5 questions per picture, typically, and then I go straight into the next verse with the next picture.  The children, both junior and senior, enjoy having a challenge to go with their pictures.

Happy singing!

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!