Primary Singing Time

Okay, so I am slightly baised but I have to tell everyone that Primary Music Leader, is possibly the BEST calling you could ever have!! I just love teaching all of "my" 140ish children different songs each week.  Sadly my time as their teacher has come to an end, so I thought that I would quickly sure some last few ideas that I did with the children.

Singing Hat

To get the primary children to sing louder (not shouting!) I told them that the class who sang the nicest got to put the funny hat on their teacher.  The crazier the hat the better!!


Teaching the Children how to 'Follow'
I found this idea from another website but I don't remember where, but I loved it so much I had to share it, with my little tweaks.  The problem with having a big primary like ours is that there rarely is a time when every child is watching you, listening and singing when they should, BUT this idea actually achieved all 3!! The idea is to do everything in mime.  This has to be adjusted with junior and senior primary, but it works brilliantly.  I typed everything out that I wanted to say and just used them for the senior primary.  For junior primary I started by telling them that I wasn't going to speak and that they would just have to watch my actions.  At the end I spoke and asked them if it was hard to follow me? I then asked them who else we should follow?  As I was trying to focus on following our Saviour I focused on that, but there are many different things you could use and bear your testimony on.  Here is the link to the words I used: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OBVE559ib2p3l9PPLSs4TtHb5N6fZ4gd6BD1xx7pdLw/edit


Jenga
This was a fun little game for reviewing songs.  I colour coded my jenga blocks with red, yellow and blue and split the primary children into 2 groups.  I had one person come up and take a block out and stack it on top (like you do with the game!) but with each block there was a question or song to sing. Once they had done the song or answered the questions correctly then they could get a point.  The team that knocks over the jenga blocks loses.  (Although it doesn't always happen, which I have to admit, I prefer! Not that the children always do....!) Anyway, I made red blocks my presentation song reviews (so they had to sing the song all the way through), yellow my question about the songs (for example What do you like to look for whenever there is rain? Answer: A Rainbow) and blue was recite an Article of Faith.  It was a fun little game and could easily be played if you have a fifth Sunday and need to fill 40 minutes!


Treasure Chest

I never got to use this idea, but I thought I would share it anyway.  You will need a treasure chest with goodies locked in it.  A pad lock and 6-10 similar keys.  Attach a song onto each key and have a child come up, pick a key and try to open the lock to the 'treasure'.  Despite whether they get the treasure sing the song written on the key.


Magic Potion
You need clear plastic cups and fill some of them with water and just a couple with vinegar. Then, next to each cup is a plastic spoon with "magic potion" (couple drops of food colouring with a spoon full of baking soda on top, except the spoons next to the vinegar have no food coloring). Then the children get to choose a cup and place the spoon in the liquid and stir. The cups with water will turn the colour of the food colouring under the baking soda. Then you sing the song that is written with the corresponding colour. The cups with vinegar will bubble and over flow (so this should be done on a cookie sheet with a lip) and the children get to choose a favourite song to sing. Simple but very fun!

I don't know that I can think of any more that I did....but if they come to me I will post them!