June Week 3

Monthly Theme: The First Principles and Ordinances of the Gospel Make It Possible for Me to Live with God Again

Week 3 & 4: When I am baptized, I make a covenant with God, The Holy Ghost comforts and guides me

We are not having week 4 officially, so I'll try to do both together

JP
Sing When I Hear My Father Pray - pitch lead
Sing Faith
Play Heads/Tails to review some of the songs

SP
Sing When I Hear My Father Pray - pitch lead
Sing the Fourth Article of Faith and then play 8 questions -
Idea from the Crazy Chorister Blog

Give hint - each song will have something to do with one of the first principles or ordinances of the Gospel

Faith p.96:
Faith is knowing I can return when my life ends on earth

The Holy Ghost p. 105
The Holy Spirit whispers with a still small voice

If I Listen with My Heart
He comforts me in times of need, He testifies of Christ

Repentance
I'm sorry is not always easy to say

Baptism p. 100
Jesus came to John, the Baptist, in Judea long ago

June Week 2

Monthly Theme: The First Principles and Ordinances of the Gospel Make It Possible for Me to Live with God Again

Weekly Theme: Repentance brings forgiveness

I had planned too much today. In Junior Primary - we only worked on Faith! I had the kids review by drawing pictures again for verse one. For verse two, I used an idea (I can't remember where) - where the kids bring up a picture that is on a string out of a pocket (I'll have to post pictures soon).

In Senior Primary, we did the same, but moved a little faster.

We played heads/tails again and worked on the song Repentance.

June Week 1

Monthly Theme: The First Principles and Ordinances of the Gospel Make it Possible to for Me to Live with God Again

Weekly Theme: Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ leads us to love Him, trust Him and keep His commandments

Faith p. 96 (both Junior and Senior Primary)
Divide the white board into four sections. Write "Faith is" on each section. Have the kids draw a picture for each line (sun, person praying, seed/plant, heart/CTR)

Fourth Article of Faith p. 124
I used the visual from the April 2011 Friend. I enlarged it, and I had the children match up the pictures with the arrows. (Both JR and SR) The fun part of this song are the rests after each number of the principle/ordinance. It is fun to have the kids clap on the rests. In JP, I have them hold up their finger for the number and tap that finger or fingers on the palm of their other hand.

In Senior Primary, we added in the "Learning the Articles of Faith" activity in the September 2009 Friend. I wrote each one on a paper, and I challenged the children to see how quickly they could locate the correct posting.

When I Hear My Father Pray - We used the flip chart from Sugardoodle

Praise to the Man (in SP) - we used rhythm sticks. One side of the room tapped the rhythm and the other the beat. Finally, I challenged them to tap the beat with their foot and use the sticks to tap out the rhythm

May week 5

We will play keep the beat to review verse one and three of Praise to The Man. I didn't get to play the game - name that tune with a number cube - last week, so we are going to try it again. The kids really enjoyed singing Uno - both JR and SR. I'll definitely will pull that out again in the future.

For keep the beat, here are my four phrases

Praise to the man who communed with Jehovah
(repeat pattern twice)
Jesus anointed that prophet and seer
Blessed to open the last dispensation
Kings shall extol him and nations revere

Great is his glory and endless his priesthood
Ever and ever the keys he will hold
Faithful and true he will enter his kingdom
Crowned in the midst of the prophets of old

I think for future review of this song, we will try to do the "roller coaster" activity I've seen posted on Yahoo music groups - going up and down with song - a child leads the movement up front and everyone else joins in on the "ride"

Review sixth article of faith the the following minute to win it challenge:

Pick up six penne noodles placed around the perimeter of a table using only a piece of uncooked spaghetti in your mouth.

May Week 4

Monthly Theme: The Church of Jesus Christ Has Been Restored
Weekly Theme: The Priesthood has been restored

Praise the The Man: Verse 3
We will play the uno game to learn this verse from the Divine Secrets of a Primary Chorister Blog.

Red: Great is his glory and endless his priesthood
Blue: Ever and ever the keys he will hold
Green: Faithful and true, he will enter his kingdome,
Yellow: Crowned in the midst of the prophets of old

I hope to also work on the Sixth Article of Faith and the Priesthood is Restored.
For the Sixth Article of Faith, in Seniore Primary I will put up word cards of the names of the leaders, and ask them to arrange the names in order.

For both JP and SP, their challenge question will be "The names of the leaders have the rhythm that is usually long -short. One of them has a short-long rhythm. Which one is it?" (teacher)

For the Priesthood is Restored, I will rely on a flipchart form Jolly Jenn.

Finally, I'm anxious to try Name that Tune with a Number Cube from the Children Sing blog in order to review some songs.

May Week 3

Monthly Theme: The Church of Jesus Christ Has Been Restored
Weekly Theme: The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ

Praise to the Man -
In Junior Primary, we did "fancy feet" to review verse one. I put up color cards: I put up red for the quarter notes, blue for the dotted eighth notes, green for the eigth notes, and yellow for the whole notes. Then, we did actions for each color. We hopped on red, step and quick kick on blue, and stepped/stepped on green, and put our hands on our legs for yellow.

For the chorus, I copied the actions from a sister on the Primary Music Yahoo group.
Hail to the Prophet, ascended to heaven! Clap quietly with beat, rise hands
up as clapping for ascended.
Traitors and tyrants now fight him in vain. One fist up , other fist up, 2
punches (kids love this) then make X with arms still fisted
Mingling with Gods, he can plan for his brethren; Hands up palms facing each
other and intertwine fingers, Plan- one hand like paper other like pen
Death cannot conquer the hero again. Shake head, then stand like a hero with
fists on hips- legs apart- stand tall J

In Senior Primary, I showed the clip from Youtube of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing the song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5id63Twddk

Then, we played the synonym game loosely based on the game on The Children Sing Blog.

Finally, in both Junior and Senior we played heads/tails to review songs. If the coin they flipped landed on heads, they chose a card from a pile of songs. If it landed on tails, they pulled from a challenge pile to "do" something. Some of the challenges included: giving all the grown ups in the room a high five, telling a favorite scripture story, choosing a wiggle song and leading it, naming the members of the bishopric, and naming all the kids in their class.

May Week 2

Monthly Theme: The Church of Jesus Christ Has Been Restored

Weekly Theme: Joseph Smith is the prophet of the Restoration

I only did Junior Primary this week as it was Mother's Day. I was able to go to Relief Society during Senior Primary

I introduced the first verse of Praise to the Man to the Junior Primary. We played a memory game. I had four pictures with a key word from the four phrases of the first verse. I showed the picture as we sang the corresponding phrase. I instructed the children to study the picture carefully, because I'd hide it after we sang the phrase three times. Then I would ask them questions about the picture. They did great!

This picture's word was communed. We talked about the word. Here are my questions:

What kind of chair is Joseph sitting on?

What is the curtain doing?

This picture's word was annointed. Here are the questions:
What color are Joseph's pants?
Which hand is he holding up?

This picture's word was dispensation. The questions:
How many sets of scriptures are in the picture?
How many people are wearing a necklace?

I had a picture I found online of a map of nations. I only had one question - name three of the colors on the map.

We also reviewed Beautiful Savior with the scarves.