Flipcharts – Two Ways

Elinor — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:05:38 +0000

I love flipcharts! They are such a simple yet effective way of teaching the Primary songs. Children love pictures, and remember so much better what they are taught when the lesson is accompanied by a picture. A flipchart generally consists of pages of pictures with cue words or phrases from the song being learned. They can be displayed and protected wonderfully well in our Picture Presenter, available from our website here. The Music Leader flips the pages one by one as they are learned or sung. It’s quite exciting to see which picture will come up next… certainly a good way of holding the children’s attention as they are taught the gospel through music.

Each month we offer a FREE flipchart for you to download here from our site. The new flipchart each month is designed to teach the new Primary song of the month. Towards the end of the month, that month’s flipchart moves to our Resources page, where it is still available for you to freely download, and the flipchart for the next month becomes available in the FREE box for new subscribers, or available upon request (use our Contact Box) for previous subscribers.

In addition to the typical flipchart (consisting of pictures and text), we also offer a flipchart with pictures only for most songs. This flipchart is particularly useful the day you introduce the new song. You can use it in the following way, and you will find that your children have to really think about… and thus, hopefully, really internalize… the message of the song:

1. Print the pictures (in this example, for the song “As a Child of God” from the 2012 CSMP) out and tape them on the walls around the Primary room in random order.
2. Sing the first line, “I came to earth with power to choose.” Ask the children to find the picture that best illustrates that line. When they find the picture, you can place it directly in the Picture Presenter, on the magnet board with magnets, or on the chalkboard with tape or poster putty… and discuss the meaning of the line, or the story the picture represents, more fully. Then sing the line together.
3. Sing the next line, “Good choices bless me and my family too.” Have the children find the picture, discuss it and put it in order. Then sing the line together. Then sing both lines together.
4. Continue in this fashion as you learn the entire song (may take a couple of weeks).
5. The pictures (either these without text, or the pictures with text) can then be placed in the
Picture Presenter for learning and review in future weeks. The Picture Presenter keeps them nicely organized, ready for you to use at a moment’s notice, and protected from certain destruction in the hands of small children!

Home-Made Rhythm Band Instruments

Elinor — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 18:32:09 +0000

Rhythm instruments are really great fun! Many of the songs in the Children’s Songbook lend themselves nicely to the use of rhythm/percussion instruments, and children love using them. Here are some ideas for making your own instruments out of common household items:
Drums: Use any of the following items (turned upside down)… metal pots, sturdy boxes, aluminum pie plates or large plastic ice cream containers. Children can drum with their hands or drumsticks.
Drumsticks or rhythm sticks: Wood or metal spoons
Cymbals: Two metal pot lids
Maracas: Pringles containers or other plastic Tupperware-type bowls, or plastic juice bottles, filled with uncooked rice, popcorn kernels, beans or small pebbles (make sure you tape the lids shut!).
Triangle: Metal cake/cookie cooling rack on a string, with a metal spoon for striking.
Tambourine: Two paper plates (or aluminum pie plates for a louder sound) filled with dry beans and taped securely together.
Bells: Large jingle bells can be sewn securely to a loop of sturdy fabric.
Coconut clappers: After a coconut is cut in half, cleaned and dried out, the two halves make a marvelous percussion “clapper.”
It’s always important, with rhythm bands, for children to understand that using the instruments is a special privilege which can be revoked if they don’t use their instruments properly. Then it’s fun for everyone!
If anyone has other ideas for rhythm bands, we’d love to hear them!

“Little Jesus” – CS#39

Elinor — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 03:14:35 +0000

This delightful little Christmas song is ideal for performing with rhythm instruments. You will need three rhythm instruments. Ideas for these might include: a shaker, a tambourine or drum, sticks, bells, sandpaper blocks, coconut clappers, spoons, maracas, etc. These can be purchased fairly cheaply at toy stores or music stores, or you can make your own. Shakers can be made out of containers with lids… like Pringles containers or Tupperware bowls… filled with rice, beans or pebbles. Drums can be made out of pots or bowls. Sticks can be made out of wooden spoons or, well… sticks. Big jingle bells can be purchased at fabric stores and sewn to sturdy loops of cloth for a jingle bell percussion instrument.

Give an instrument to each of three children… your band!… who line up in the front of the room. If you have enough instruments for more children, they should still be just in three groups. Group 1 only plays during the first phrase (Fairest little Jesus child), Group 2 only during the second (Came to earth so meek and mild), Group 3 only during the third phrase (Came to earth to show the way) and all three groups join in for a rousing finish… “Praise we sing on Christmas Day!” The seated children can join in on that last phrase with hand clapping. Verse two would be done in similar fashion.

Falling Leaves

Elinor — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 00:15:50 +0000

A great theme for “Choose and Review” at this time of year is, of course, Fall leaves. Beautiful and colourful, they are easy to create out of paper or cardstock. To make things very simple, make a line drawing of a tree… with several branches… on the chalkboard or whiteboard in your Primary room. Attach several construction paper leaves (cut out of various Fall colors like orange, red, yellow or brown) to the tree with tape or magnets (good to get this done before the children arrive). On the back of each leaf write the name of one of the songs you would like to review or learn that day. During Singing Time, the children can be reminded that the leaves fall off the trees at this time of year. The leaves are finished for the season, and they need to fall so that the tree is ready to grow new leaves next Spring. Invite the children to help the leaves “fall” off your tree. When they remove a leaf, you or the child can check for the song written on the back. Then everyone gets to sing it!

Review with a “Twist”

Elinor — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:20:15 +0000

Its’s that time of year! Time to review all the songs you’ve been learning since January in preparation for the Primary Sacrament Meeting Presentation. Some of those songs the kids might know really well, and some… not so well. Some they may be getting tired of. This is a great way to put some new life into the whole process.

Use the spinner board from a game of “Twister” and make four corresponding construction paper circles – one blue, one yellow, one red and one green. They can just be posted on the chalkboard or wall near the spinner board. On the circles, write the names of each of the songs you are reviewing. You could even make eight corresponding circles… for each color top and bottom! There would then be two rows of each of the four colored circles. The upper four would correspond to the upper four on the spinner board, and the lower four would correspond to the lower four on the spinner board. A child is chosen to spin the spinner and then whichever song/color the spinner lands on is the one you sing! Using all eight works out well for the eight songs you have to review. Or you could focus on the four that need the most work.

Another variation of this game… if you just want to focus on one song… is to write in the circles different ways to sing the one song: loud, soft, fast, slow, boys only, girls only, standing on one foot, while marching, a capella, etc. A child spins the spinner and the song is sung according to the color it lands on. A fun “twist” to this, that one of our Primary children suggested, is if the spinner lands between two circles you sing it BOTH ways: e.g., fast while standing on one foot!