"Families Can Be Together Forever"

In July the program song our primary will be working on is Families Can Be Together Forever (CS 188).

Handbell music for this song!

SIDE THOUGHTS:
Lately I've been thinking about a few things (if you have any ideas please comment with your input!)
1) I don't know why, but some of the Children in my primary (particularly the Sr. Primary) make comments or sounds indicating that they dislike singing time. This is crazy to me because the little bit that I had the opportunity to go to primary as a child, singing time was my favorite part! I can't recall what I liked about it so much other than that I got to sing wonderful songs; I know there were some activities or visuals at times, but I don't remember details and wonder if it was those or just my love of singing that made it so amazing. I don't recall other children NOT having a good time, so I wonder if I'm just missing something as I teach?
2) Because of these negative reactions I have spent much of the first half of my first year in this calling trying to "entertain" the kids in hopes that if I can just get them to pay attention a little the music will have a better opportunity to touch their hearts and teach them something that will help build their testimonies. But it bothers me so much that I feel like I have to entertain them. I want them to grow a love for the songs and want them to really learn. Maybe I'm just being too hard on myself?

So this month I want to find a way to teach the principles taught in this song without HAVING to entertain. Of course I will still have engaging activities/visuals because they are great aids to teaching, but I want the focus to be on the principles and bearing testimony through singing the song and less on the fun of the activity (although, it can still be fun. I'm just trying to put first things first).

Source

LESSON:
The first week we will focus on learning the music and words. Now how do I teach this in a way that accomplishes my goal? I have a feeling they already know this song so I don't think it will be too hard of a task to accomplish learning the words, it's just a matter of having it mean something to them. After I finish teaching I want to have some time for a Q&A/testimony session to help with this. How will I get the children to participate? Maybe a bean bag I toss when it's their turn to talk?

To create my lesson plan I ventured into a part of my wonderful book, A Children's Songbook Companion (by Graham, Gourley, Shipp, and Stewart), the beginning part that I have never taken the time to read, which has some great ideas to prepare lessons for ANY song! (Usually I just skipped to the page with the song I was preparing). I highly suggest you get this or a similar book. Find my notes on LESSON PLANNING here.

I will come back and add more as I decide what I will do for sure to teach the song and message, but for now I really like one activity idea from my book of putting key words from the song on puzzle pieces that get taped to the back of a picture of a family in front of the temple. So once the puzzle is done (the song is learned at this point as well) you reverse the puzzle to show the picture. *Side note: this makes me want to create a puzzle for my family out of a picture of us in front of the temple! Wouldn't that be great for FHE!?

Q&A: What are ways we can prepare to go to the temple? Mention how growing up I longed for the blessings of the temple (since I didn't have them from my parents) and how I worked hard to live right so I was worthy to receive the blessings when I became an adult. *Side note: it actually always made me sad to sing this song until I met my husband. I'm usually a very positive person so you would think that knowing how I would get there some day would make this song positive for me, but because I knew so strongly how the temple blessing of having an eternal family was important it always made me sad I couldn't change my "growing up family" to one that was able to partake of this blessing. I mention this in hopes that I can help make a difference to a child with similar feelings so that they can learn NOW to hold on to the hope and happiness of their having this blessing in store for their future more than dwelling on the negative of not having that blessing YET. It was totally worth the wait! :D

The second week I will teach them the sign language of the first verse (the link to the ASL can be found at the top link on the upper right hand side of the page...I will teach this mirror image to them - which will be easy for me to learn because I'll just mirror the video). I think this will help with focusing on each word/phrase, so hopefully they gain an even deeper understanding of the song as a whole. I will also intersperse this with "fun" songs to give a break and gather back attention as needed.

The third and fourth weeks I will just have us do a quick review with the sign language (and we'll review it every so often in future months) to make sure we have it down for the actual sacrament program as we do some other lessons with other songs as the focus.

Another cute temple + family picture