July week 4

Monthly Theme: The Temple is a House of God
Weekly Theme: I can prepare to be worthly to go to the temple

I Love to See the Temple - play don't eat Pete to Review

Twelfth Article of Faith
Focus on the different leaders - kings, presidents, rulers (mayors, governors - those who lead local governors), and magistrates (police, judges - those who administer the law)
Ask - which of the four leaders do we sing about on the highest note? (rulers)

Review Oxcart
Pioneer Children Sang as They Walked (how many time do we sing the word walked?), Sister Bates - the composer of this song lost her eyesight as an adult. She says, "we are all pionners - none of us has been in this day before. Earlier pioneers had no automobiles, railroads, airplanes, telephones, electricity, radios, or televisio, but they sang as they walked and walked. We can sing as we walk through today, or we can be a grouch every step of the way and be miserable."

SP - Westward ho
To be a Pioneer (make a list of do's and don'ts)

July Week 2

Monthly Theme: The Temple is a House of God
Weekly theme: Families are blessed through sacred temple ordinances

I Love to See the Temple
Last week, we put together puzzles of temples in groups as we sang the first verse. After completing the puzzles, the groups shared a fact about their temple, and then something about temples in general.

This week, we did the I Love to See the Temple poster that was on Teaching LDS Children.

After reviewing the song, I closed all the windows and doors. I then sang a line of the song, and asked someone to come and open the corresponding window/door.

Twelfth Article of Faith p. 131
I showed three melody maps - one for by obeying, one for honoring, and one for sustaining the law. We sang the song a few times and tried to match the melody maps to the words

Pioneer Songs:
The Oxcart p. 219
I showed a picture and talked about what an oxcart is. As we sang the song, I had the kids slowly march in JP. In both JP and SP, I asked them to count how many times we sang "creak."

Westward Ho - we just barely sang this in SP

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.