Our time as Primary Choristers is coming to an end. By all rights, it's a calling I never should have had. I'm not musical. I'm not naturally creative. But I like to have fun with kids and with Brent as my co-chorister, I had lots of help and support. Our Primary President had full faith in us so we were really able to let loose.
Here are some of the activities we've done in Singing Time this past year:
Speak Out
We borrowed these suckers from our game Speak Out and then put slips of paper in a bag. Our volunteers tried to say the name of the song and the rest of the kids guessed what it was. Try to say "Popcorn Popping" without putting your lips together. Coincidentally, one of the Primary teachers was a dental assistant and she understood everyone perfectly.
Red Carpet
With award season upon us, we had our own Academy Awards. The kids had to read the category and try and guess the song. If they got it right, they could put on long gloves or a fancy hat and have their picture on the red carpet. If they didn't get it right, they got to boo Brent. They really loved booing him.
Fail
I don't even remember what we called this one because it was a debacle of epic proportions. We labeled Nerf guns with gospel principles like Faith, Hope, Charity. We had slips of paper with the songs on them rolled up in Pelligrino bottles that we labeled Doubt, Fear, Hate. The kids could then pick one of the Nerf guns to shoot the bottle and we'd sing the song rolled up inside.
We received a pretty clear message that the Lord doesn't want guns- even fake guns- in his church. They all jammed. Every. Single. One. I think we ended up having kids throw something at the bottles to knock them over. Afterwards, a bunch of kids wanted those empty bottles, so it wasn't a total loss I guess. Someone even requested we bring this one back but we never did.
Feeling Lucky?
Due to the dietary restrictions of some of our Primary kids, we really didn't do food often. But for the Chinese New Year, I had a plate of fortune cookies. I used tweezers to pull out the original fortune and then put in in a new one on the front, with a phrase from the song we were learning on the back. Kids got to pick a fortune and then we went over the ASL of that phrase of the song. By the end of Primary, we were able to go through the whole thing.
March Madness
My memory is failing me on this one. I just remember we had a little basket and basketball, there was a bracket, and we let kids shoot hoops.
Armed Forces
For Memorial Day, we did a mix and match of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines symbols and logos. Once the kids made the match, we asked them which Primary Song would go well with that branch of the armed forces.
Army- Army of Helaman
Navy- The Wise Man and the Foolish Man
Air Force-My Heavenly Father Loves Me
Marines- Gethsemane
That last one was really poignant because I didn't really think about the lyrics when I put everything together. I was just thinking about how Christ was like a Marine- the first in to conquer death! But as the kids sang, "The hardest thing that ever was done, The greatest pain that ever was known, The biggest battle that ever was won, This was done by Jesus, The fight was won by Jesus" I couldn't help but tear up.
One of the teachers was miffed we left out the Coast Guard and wasn't shy about letting us know. I tried to explain I couldn't really find a song that went with the Coast Guard and besides people only think of the big four when they think of the military. This did not assuage him in the least and he made sure all the kids knew there are FIVE branches of the military and we were missing one. It was really funny.
Stick It, or Sing It
We invested in a helium tank for this one. Half a dozen balloons had a piece of paper inside with a song on it. The kids could choose to "stick it" and pop the balloon and everyone sang the song inside. Otherwise, they could "sing it" which meant they could suck the helium from the balloon and sing a solo of a song of their choice. To demonstrate, Brent and I sang the chorus to Army of Helaman, slightly altering the words to Army of Helium. I have to say we sounded pretty good singing in unison with Micky Mouse high voices! I was really surprised to find most of the kids had never sucked helium out of a balloon and didn't know how to do it right. They'd let the balloon deflate in their mouth without wrapping their lips around it and swallowing the air. Even so, they really loved this one but a mom made a comment afterwards wondering if we received any complaints yet because sucking helium isn't exactly the best thing for kids.
All Dolled Up
Oh poor Brent! Since I was the heavy coming up with the ideas and putting things together for Singing Time, sometimes he bore the brunt of the humiliation. Okay fine, he always bore the brunt of the humiliation! For this one, he had Cubs gloves with little pom poms on the end of each finger. If the kids sang well, he would do spirit fingers.
Uno
This is another one Brent did when I was out of town with the girls. I believe he found it on Facebook and it just so happened we were really focused on teaching the kids a new song. There were two piles of Uno cards. The first just had the cards with 1, 2 or 3. Whatever card the kids picked, that was the verse the kids sang. The cards in the second pile determined how the song was sung. Reverse meant everyone had to face the back of the room and sing and couldn't use our flashcards for help. Skip Card meant the child could choose a phrase to remove from the flashcards. Draw 2 meant the child could choose a way to divide the class (boys have to sing it standing while girls stay seated, for example). Wild Card meant the child could decide which verse and pick a wild way to sing it. Brent said this one went really well.
Falling for Music
I cut out a bunch of leaf shapes from paper and wrote a song on the back. Then we tied them with a string to our fan and the kids had to capture a leaf. In the end, Brent had to hold the fan over the their heads because our fan wasn't strong enough to blow the leaves horizontally. They ended up in a twisted mess we had to untangle over and over. If I had to do this one again, I'd nix the fan and just throw them up in the air.
Shake It & Sing It
We belted tissue boxes with ping pong balls inside to two volunteers. Then they had to dance, shake, spin, etc to get a ping pong ball out. The song we sang was written on the ball.
Name That Tune
I feel bad mentioning this one because it was not our brainchild, but one from the Primary Chorister we replaced. It's super simple, requires no planning at all and the kids loved it, requesting it over and over. We had two kids face off and Kid #1 had to start with 12 notes. "I can guess the song in 12 notes." If the kid #2 thought they could do less, they'd say, "I can guess the song in 5 notes!" They'd negotiate down until one of the kids said, "Name that tune!" Then the pianist would play the notes. If kid #1 couldn't guess the song, the number of notes went up to the next number they had challenged until someone got it right. There are a lot of Primary songs that are actually really hard to guess from just a handful of notes. Popcorn Popping, for example, has the exact same note over and over.
I Mustache You a Question
A pretty standard mix and match. We had 10 different types of mustaches (courtesy of Party City) and the kids had to try and find two that had the same song on the other side. If they made a match, they got to keep a mustache and then give the spare to a friend or teacher.
We received LOTS of comments from parents on this one! Those kids did look pretty darn cute in their mustaches.
One kid picked Brent, even though he already has a mustache. One picked me and it was so dang itchy, I had no idea how the kids could wear those for more than a few minutes.
Most of them wore them all day!
So You Think You Know Your Mom?
We hung a clothesline across the front of the Primary room and hung a shirt from each of the moms. The kids had to come up and 1- identify their mother's shirt and 2- identify their mother's favorite Primary song. We had to group kids together because a lot of mothers had the same favorite song. Not a bad thing since there are time constraints. This was one of my absolute favorite Singing Time activities! It took a lot of prep- collecting the shirts, making sure the clothesline would stay, getting busy moms to respond to my emails and texts about their favorite song, but it was definitely worth it. Even the little sunbeams knew right away which shirt belonged to their mother and they were so excited to pick it out.
Music for Mentos
Depending on how well the kids sang, they could earn Mentos that we later dropped into a 2-liter of Coke and exploded on the sidewalk outside. If they earned all the possible Mentos, they got a bonus 2-liter. Our pianist was the judge on how well they sang and she was really kind to always give them all the points. Brent became kind of an expert at this, as it was requested again.
Say WHAT?
We played around with misheard lyrics on this one. I told them when I was a kid in Primary, I thought the phrase in Love One Another was "by this shall minnow". I had no idea what tiny fish had to do with loving one another, but figured the disciples were fishermen so maybe it was related. That's how I sang Love One Another my whole childhood. It wasn't until I was older that I discovered it's "by this shall men know" which makes a lot more sense. We told the kids the misheard lyrics and then we sang the song that way- just this once! Here's our list:
Misheard: Jesus wants me for a zombie
Correct: Jesus wants me for a sunbeam
Misheard: Reverent Lee, quiet Lee (a little boy named Lee burst into tears thinking he was in trouble and everyone was singing at him for it)
Correct: Reverently, quietly
Misheard: We believe in being honest, true, chased by an elephant
Correct: We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent
Misheard: I know when I am baptized, my arms are washed away
Correct: I know when I am baptized, my wrongs are washed away
Misheard: Follow the prophet, follow the prophet, follow the prophet, don't cross the street.
Correct: Follow the prophet, follow the prophet, follow the prophet, don't go astray
Misheard: High on a mountain top, a badger killed a squirrel. Ye nations now look up, he waves to all the world.
Correct: High on a mountain top, a banner is unfurled. Ye nations now look up, it waves to all the world.
Human Spin Wheel
Brent took care of this one when I was home with a sick kid. He took one of our office chairs that rotates and put 16 papers on the floor that had different ways the song could be sung. For one song the kids had to sing like an opera star, for another they had to plug their noses. Volunteers sat in the chair and pointed straight out while Brent spun them around. Whatever they landed on is how they sang. Here's a screen shot from Pinterest:
Sing With Samuel
I'd rather not admit how long I took prepping for this one. We actually had to save it for the following week because I didn't have it ready for the Sunday we intended. I spent hours at Office Depot getting things printed on card stock and later having them laminated. I meticulously colored with crayons and carefully cut things out. It turned out really cute and the kids loved it, but it kind of took over my life for a while there. The goal is to spell out S-A-M-U-E-L and get him to the top of the wall so he can preach to the Nephites. Behind some parts of the wall are the letters of his name, and behind others are a big, red, SORRY! Every time a child found a letter, we sang a song and of course we ended with Book of Mormon Stories. We handed over all our Singing Time props to the new Primary Chorister aside from this one. I put way too much time into it!
Beat Brent
Since my husband is a human calculator, we decided to pit him against an actual calculator. Using the hymn #, the kids could choose to add, subtract, multiply, or divide the song we just sang, with the next song. If they were able to calculate the answer before Brent did, they got to cut off part of his tie. Just in case you're wondering, yes, this was a thinly veiled way for me to eliminate my least favorite ties from Brent's wardrobe. The kids loved cutting that tie! And I loved seeing those ties go in the garbage!
"Hole"y Music
I purchased poster board from a local craft store and cut holes into it. Then we put cups in the holes and covered them with tissue paper and rubber bands. The kids got to pick a hole to punch, pull out a clue and try and figure out the song from the clue. Although a simple idea, it took a while to cut the holes with an Xacto knife. The rubber bands had to be wrapped twice, otherwise punching the hole only resulted in a fist covered in tissue paper and a rubber band on your wrist. We really scrambled between Junior and Senior Primary getting the clues back in the cups and getting the tissue paper back on. This would be an easy one to duplicate because we had everything ready to go, but we never did. The kids enjoyed it though.
Would You Rather
Some of the best conversations I've had with my kids begin with, "Would you rather..." so we decided to incorporate it into Singing Time. Would you rather be on a plane with heavy turbulence? Or on a submarine with a small leak? Would you rather eat a small square of the best chocolate you have ever, and will ever eat? Or have 10 okay cupcakes? Would you rather have fingers for toes? Or toes for fingers? We put 2 options on each card and asked the kids to choose. Would you rather have a burger or pizza? Since we are a Chicago suburb, it was pizza hands-down. But then during the song, Brent would flip the card back and forth so sometimes the pizza lovers sang, and sometimes it was those who prefer burgers. This one was a fun way to get to know the kids and they enjoyed seeing who sided with them on different decisions.
Oldie but Goodie
Another take on the mix n match. The kids could "order" an Greased Lightning Rings with a Cherry Lime Rickey and see if the song on the other side matched. The songs were some lesser-known ones to the kids but classics to all the adults in the room like Little Purple Pansies and Primary Colors. For the menu items, we had some fun things like a Rock Around the Clock burger, Dog Sled Delight, Love Me Tenders, Sh-Boom Chocolate Malted, Elvis Sandwich, O Donna Dog, Chubby Checker, and a Johnny B Goode Float. The only problem with this one is we did it on a fast Sunday, and we had church at 11:00 so all the adults in the room were pretty hungry. The pictures of these fabulous diner items was a little hard to take by the end of it.
Yeah, those are making me hungry even now...
Master the Tempest is Raging
Our sweet pianist really played up the music for this one. We used our parachute to create our very own tempest with the kids. As we sang about the storm and perishing, the kids furiously shook the parachute but then when we sang about the Savior calming the waters, we gently moved the parachute up and down until it rested on the ground at the end of the song. We did this one a couple of times and divided the kids into disciples and tempest makers. The disciples got to sit under the parachute but they had to sing really, really loud. The parachute continually landing on their heads created so much static that everyone's hair was on end! One particularly rowdy Sunbeam positively lit up with this one. He was so excited to grab his handle and shake that parachute with all his might! I really loved this one too. Master the Tempest is Raging should be in the Children's Hymn because it's such a dramatic song to sing. I think the parachute really brought home the account from the New Testament for the kids.
Blind Trust
Having taught the kids a couple of songs in ASL, we decided to let them try their hand at reading braille. We invested in a braille writing plate and stylus from Amazon. Brent printed up the name of the song with the accompanying braille beneath it. We gave kids a braille card and using only their fingers, and looking at the board for clues, they had to guess the song on the card. If I could go back and do this one over, I would have had 3 kids come up for every card because there were a lot who wanted to give it a try.
Break the Tie
We did a bracket of brethren who competed to see how many ties they could tie while the kids sang a Primary song. Possible points were as follows:
250- 1/2 Windsor
500- Double Windsor
750- Double Windsor with a dimple
2000- Bow Tie
Find the Light
We invested in pens that could be seen under a black light (which we already owned). We brought dark curtains from home to darken the room and then turned out the lights. As we introduced the theme of the Holy Ghost helping us when things are dark, I turned on the black light to show a large piece of paper that had the CTR shield on it. We talked about how the black light helps us to see when we can't and that it what the Holy Ghost does for us. Before church, I cut 5 paper CTR shields and then cut them again like puzzle pieces. Those I taped all over the room but we had a couple of small black lights that we taped to the Sunbeams chairs. The kids had to do what they could and put together the shields, but then they had to ask for additional help from the Sunbeams to be able to read the song written on it. While the kids were putting the shields together, we passed out glow sticks (again from Party City). The kids went nuts for this one. Having Primary in the dark is a nice change of pace!
Sense the Song
The theme was Christ's role as creator so we talked about how the kids are his crowning creation. We talked about how amazing our bodies are and asked the kids to use their senses to figure out the song we were going to sing. We also gave them a fun little factoid about each sense.
Taste- we have between 2,000 and 4,000 taste buds! We asked the kids who can roll their tongues and who can click their tongues (this helped involve those little Sunbeams). Then anyone who wanted to guess was invited to the front. They closed their eyes, stuck out their tongues and Brent placed a piece of popcorn on it. The song was Popcorn Popping.
Touch- our skin is the largest and fastest growing organ on the human body! The way it protects our internal organs and heals itself from scrapes and cuts is truly amazing. This time the kids closed their eyes and held out their hand. Brent let them touch the petals of a rose. The song was My Heavenly Father Loves Me (whenever I touch a velvet rose...)
Sight- did you know when the light hits your eye every morning it burns off a layer of your retina? We all literally get to see the world with fresh eyes every day. The kids were able to stay in their seats for this one- we showed them pictures of various temples. The song was I Love to See the Temple
Sound- sadly we ran out of time for this one because the new Primary Chorister was teaching the kids a new song. Did you know ambulance sirens are designed to be the same tones as a baby's cry? The combination of those tones instinctively puts people on alert. We were going to use my Bose noise-cancelling headphones to play part of Jesus Once Was a Little Child.
Misc.
One of the Faith in God goals is to learn how to lead a hymn so for the opening hymn in Primary, I always invited a volunteer. I coached them on how our pianist would play an introduction, how they should make eye contact and nod and then how to lead 3/4. 4/4 or 6/8 time.
Having served a mission, I know that good pianists are not available everywhere. At the end of almost every Singing Time, I asked the children to say thank you to the pianist. They really make the whole show run, but get caught behind that big piano. I didn't want ours to be anonymous, I wanted her to know how grateful we were for her.
Do As I'm Doing is a popular "wiggles" song but we often found kids were stumped for a movement for everyone to replicate. Those poor Sunbeams would meekly suggest clapping only to get boos and jeers because it was too simple. I created these dice with a free Etsy download, some wood blocks from Hobby Lobby and some Modge Podge. The older kids really enjoyed popular movements like the floss or orange crush. Brent and I showed them the running man and they enjoyed that one too.
We spent a fair number of Sundays learning ASL. There are a few kids who didn't sing no matter what we did, but we noticed they liked doing ASL. There are some oldie but goodies like I Am a Child of God that have been done so much, we wanted a fresh take. When we first attempted it, a friend of mine suggested doing I Stand All Amazed with the lyrics and the ASL and then just the ASL for the second first. The Spirit was always so strong during that second verse! I studied YouTube videos for weeks to get it down but the kids picked it up really quickly.
Whenever a child moved out of the ward or onto YM/YW, we let them choose a Singing Time Activity. With the changes at the end of the year, we let the Valiant 11 class decide as a group and then we did a "clap out" to say goodbye. Starting with the Sunbeams up to the teachers, kids stood on either side and gave graduating kids a high five while the pianist played Called to Serve. Just outside the Primary door, Brent handed them their popsicle stick. It just so happened the Primary Presidency was changed that week so we clapped them out too.
A Child's Prayer was one of the songs for the Primary Program. Brent had seen a suggestion on Facebook to have the kids sing the first and second verse, then to go back and sing the first verse while the congregation sang the second. Thinking about that song and those lyrics, it made perfect sense. My very favorite moment as a Primary Chorister was standing right between the Primary kids and the congregation for that song. The sweet, innocent voices of the children asking, Heavenly Father, are you really there? while the congregation assured them, Pray, He is there... There was a lot of sniffling after that one, some definitely from me.
Our Primary Presidency really did us up right the Sunday of the Primary Program. They demanded that we go to Sunday School for the first hour. Brent and I were exhausted from the program and I cannot imagine what doing a Singing Time on top of all that would have been like. Standing in front of the entire congregation and trying to remember when to have kids stand up, when to signal the pianist, how to position the small class choirs, what time I was leading in, etc. It was a lot. I could have laid down in a pew and napped right then and there. When we came to the Primary room for the second hour, we found the kids had made us each a candy gram:
The Primary President had included a small paper for feedback in the printed program and collected them after Sacrament Meeting. She also sent a request via text for everyone's favorite part of the program. They put together a slideshow of pictures like those posted here of things we had done for both Singing Time and Sharing Time. When the slideshow wasn't playing, she read us the comments she had received. Although Brent and I were swamped with people congratulating us on the program generally, it was nice to hear the specifics about what really touched those who watched it all unfold.
We've really loved this calling! Even though it takes an immense amount of preparation, we had so much fun with the kids. On the one hand, Primary Chorister is basically the ward clown. These poor kids have been sitting in church for over an hour and need to move and let loose a bit. We had to put our pride aside and give in to being goofy and hamming things up so the kids were entertained. On the other hand, I truly believe what my sister Reagan told me when I received the calling. It's one of the most important in the church because children learn the gospel through music. She pointed out that no one remembers any of the Sharing Time or Sunday School lessons, but they remember those Primary songs for the rest of their life.
I'm not sure what our next calling will be. It's unlikely that we will serve together again, those callings are pretty rare. Since we moved to this ward, I've been in a calling that requires intense, weekly preparation so I'm hoping for a bit of a break. Regardless, I'm really glad I got to try my hand as Primary Chorister and part of me will miss it!
