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).

"If I Listen With My Heart"--an Intro Activity for Junior Primary

The song, "If I Listen With My Heart," shares a powerfully important lesson for our children to learn:  in the scriptures, we hear the voice of the Savior.  With shifting morals all around us in society, it's vital that our children learn where to go to hear God's word. This song can help us accomplish that, but the complicated melody can be especially hard for the younger children to learn.  With new Sunbeams in my Junior primary, I decided to do an intro activity for this song aimed at the youngest children, reminiscent of how I do music in nursery (see my example nursery agenda here). Dive Right In Scripture accounts of the Savior I hold up a stack of pictures portraying the Savior in various scripture accounts.  "I brought some pictures to share today.  Raise your hand if you can share a picture with the friends sitting next to you."  I start singing "If I Listen With My Heart" and then start passing out the pictures as I sing, one picture for every two or three children. Connect the Pictures to the Song "Now, don't say it out loud, but raise your hand if you know--who do you see in your picture?"  Once I receive the answer of Jesus, I continue, "That's right! We can't hear Him talking to us like the children who lived by Him, can we? But we can hear His words when we read the scriptures! I'm going to hum my song again, and I want you to whisper with your teacher to find out which scripture story you have in your picture."  I immediately start humming the song along with the piano (having previously asked my pianist to play only the melody line, so the children can hear it better).  When I get to the last line, I sing instead of hum, "If I listen with my heart, I hear the Savior's voice." Focus on a Phrase and Repeat I hold up a picture of Christ that I kept back, and pointing to Him, say, "Did you know that 'Savior' is another name for Jesus? Can you all say, 'Savior,' with me?"  I encourage them to repeat the word with me.  Then I ask one little group, "What scripture story do you have?"  After they answer, I take back their picture and hold it up for everyone to see.  I immediately launch into singing the final line of the song, "If I listen with my heart, I hear the Savior's voice."  This time, I add simple actions as I sing.  I cup my ear with my hand on "listen," I put my hand on my heart on "heart," and I point to Christ in the picture on "Savior." Now I repeat the exchange for each tiny group.  After two or three repetitions of asking and singing, I encourage the children to do the actions along with me. I'm hoping this activity has helped my little ones 1) understand the main gospel principle in the song and 2) hear the last line enough times so that they'll recognize it as a comforting, familiar song next week.

Happy singing!

Teacher Appreciation Day

It's Teacher Appreciation Day!

Primary songs stick with you throughout your life.  They become part of who you are.  Instead of telling the children this (they'd probably forget it anyway!), I'm planning an activity that will show them.  This Sunday I'm combining a few ideas I've seen and having a Teacher Appreciation Day, where I highlight the teachers and their favorite Primary songs.  My hope is that the children will not only get to know a little more about their teachers, but that they'll also feel how special these particular songs and their meanings are.  

Prep

Over the past couple weeks, I've contacted all the Primary teachers and leaders.  I asked for their favorite Primary song and an emailed picture of their family.  Then I printed out their family pictures on cardstock.

Presentation

I'll jump right in as soon as Singing Time starts:  "Since Thanksgiving is this week, let's talk about a group of people for whom we should be very thankful. Please raise your hand if you spend lots of your free time every week, getting ready for Primary...." The teachers and leaders should all raise their hands. "Let's learn a little bit more about your teachers today, so you can feel even more thankful for them.  Brother Smart's favorite Primary song is 'Love is Spoken Here.'  Brother Smart, why is that your favorite Primary song?"  After he answers, I'll explain that as I sing the song (the children are welcome to join me if they know the words), we'll be playing the game called Inside Camera.  The children should try to use the camera inside their mind to memorize the family picture of that teacher.  When I'm done singing, I'll turn the picture over and then quiz them. (How many kids does he have? Who in the family has a different color of hair? etc.)

I'll repeat for each teacher, naturally. :)

*   -Hearing why it's the teacher's favorite song could be either a spiritual or a word-focused activity, depending on the comments.

*  -Inside Camera is a visual activity.

A Change of Pace

The children will undoubtedly start to feel wiggly sometime in the middle. When that happens, I'll pause the Inside Camera game and sing "Fun to Do" (Children's Songbook p.253), using teachers' favorite hobbies.  

*  -Using actions for "Fun to Do" is a physical activity.

Have you highlighted your teachers in Singing Time?  What ideas have worked for you?

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!

Circle Code: A Senior Primary Activity

Cracking the Circle Code      Here's a closer look at Circle Code, the new activity I mentioned in my SingingTime post earlier this week, here.  I got the idea from Sharla over at TeachingPrimaryMusic.com, and then I changed it to meet my needs.  (You can read about her original Color Code activity here.) A New Code Needed In Sharla's Color Code, she created the code for the first verse of "Come, Follow Me" (Hymns #116).  My children already knew that verse, so I wanted to use the code for verse 4, instead.  As I sat down to apply Sharla's code to verse 4, I quickly realized it wouldn't work.  She had circles of different colors stand for words that started with a certain letter. (eg. Orange circles for words that started with "C.")  That worked well for verse 1, but in verse 4, only the letter "W" was used with any frequency higher than twice.  So I set out to develop my own code, using her basic idea of one circle per word. Interpretation of the Circle Code

My Circle Code

Here's what I developed, after looking at the song and verse I wanted to highlight.  You can use a similar process to adapt Circle Code for any song.

Dark blue circles=baseline, one syllable word
Light blue circles=one syllable word starting with the letter "W"
Shadow=add to a circle to indicate the note is longer than a quarter note
Small white circle=add to a circle to indicate the word has more than one syllable

So, the first line of the poster corresponds to this line from the song:  "Not only shall we emulate..."

Making the Poster

The pictures make it hard to see how simple the poster really is.  It's truly just poster board with paper circles glued on.  I used a plastic cup to trace the larger circles onto construction paper, and I used a depleted roll of scotch tape for the smaller circles.  The shadows are just large black circles that I aligned a little lower.  

I lined up all the circles before gluing them down, so I could double check their placement and my coding.  My favorite glue to use is a dot glue runner, as I've found that liquid glue will pucker the paper, and a glue stick doesn't have very good staying power.  

Presenting the Activity

Place the poster on the board and ask the children what they notice.  Receive their answers.  Ask them to crack the code while you sing.  Point to each circle as you sing the corresponding word, and after the first sing-through, ask what their guesses are.  Sing through a couple more times, emphasizing different words as necessary.  

Now you're all set!  Prepare to be amazed at how quickly your children rise to this new challenge. :)


Happy singing!

Puzzle Pictures

I nearly failed art class in both junior high and college.  My home is only sparsely decorated.  My husband has had to remind me to put photos in my blog posts.  I'm not a visual learner!  However, I've realized that many of my Primary children learn best through interacting with colors and pictures, so this activity is for them.

Preparing the Puzzles

A four-piece puzzle keeps things simple for Junior

I normally use this Puzzle Pictures activity with a song that lends itself well towards concrete representation.  This week, I'm pairing it with "Tell Me the Stories of Jesus" (p.57).  I print off 4 pictures from the Church's Gospel Art collection, here, onto card stock.  Then I cut each picture into four puzzle pieces and put the pieces for each puzzle into separate plastic baggies.  When I get to the Primary room, I put little rolls of masking tape on the back of each piece, making sure to keep each 4-piece puzzle separate from the others.

For Junior Primary

My intro to the activity is simple.  "Will you help me put together a puzzle on the board?"  Then I start singing while I walk around the room.  For Junior Primary, I hand out the pieces to the first puzzle to various children, and I motion them forward to tape their pieces in place on the board.  When the puzzle is complete, I start on the next set of pieces.  

For Senior Primary

A mixed-up challenge for Senior

For the older kids, I want to make the activity more challenging.  I deliberately mix all 16 pieces together, and I tape them up around the Primary room, making sure to place some in the back of the room.  I give two rules:  no talking, and raise your hand if you see a piece you'd like to place on the board.  I start singing, pointing to individual children or tapping them on the shoulder when they raise their hands.  Sometimes children need to rearrange a piece or two, and that's fine.

This activity is great at engaging the children.  They want to figure out what each picture is, and when they do, the applicable story of Jesus pops to the front of their minds.  Right as they're finishing the last puzzle is a wonderful time to bear a one-sentence testimony of the Savior.  The children's minds are already turned to Him, and you can echo what they're thinking and feeling.


Happy singing!