Families - July 2013

July 2013

"Families Are Part of Heavenly Father's Plan"

Welcome: Here We are Together (CS 261) - Choose names first!

Birthday: Your Happy Birthday (CS 283)

Baptism: When I Am Baptized (CS 103)

Article of Faith: #8 (CS 127)

Program: Families Can be Together Forever (CS 188)

Fun: The Church of Jesus Christ (CS 77), Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes (CS 275a), Smiles (CS 267a), Rain is Falling All Around (CS 241b)

7th/Week 1: Heavenly Father planned for me to come to a family

Reverence: Listen to songs or sing My Country (CS 224) and My Flag, My Flag (CS 225)

Opening: Book of Mormon Stories (CS 118) verses 1, 2, and maybe 8

Singing: Learn entire Program song + talk about meaning, 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

Closing: I Am a Child of God, first verse (CS 2)

14th/Week 2: Family prayer, family scripture study, and FHE can strengthen my family 

Reverence: Seek The Lord Early (CS 108)

Opening: Search, Ponder, and Pray (CS 109)

Singing: Learn sign language to first verse of Program song, fun songs for breaks

Closing: Love Is Spoken Here (CS 190)

21st/Week 3: The Priesthood can bless and strengthen my family + Sunday before Pioneer Day

Reverence: Listen to Whenever I Think about Pioneers (CS 222) as children come in, sing 

Westward Ho! (CS 217) - the kids just sing "westward ho!" and I do rest

Opening: The Handcart Song (CS 220)

Singing: Quick review of Program sign language, Review Restoration Medley

Closing: Pioneer Children Sang as they Walked (CS 214)

28th/Week 4: Heavenly Father wants me to marry in the temple and have an eternal family 

Reverence: Truth from Elijah (CS 90)

Opening: Families Can be Together Forever, both verses

Singing: Learn Oh, What Do You Do in the Summer Time? (CS 245), Review third + forth verses of I Am a Child of God, if time permits review other program songs

Closing: I Love to see the Temple (CS 95)

"Daddy's Homecoming"

"Daddy's Homecoming" primary music

Actions are always fun

Handbell music

Picture to color for a break after singing in sacrament for Father's Day

"When I Am Baptized"

I'm taking two weeks to review "When I Am Baptized" (most of my primary already knows it from last year's program) - one verse each week.

Week 1/Verse 1: 
First, I put my ideas together with help from Camille's Primary Blog (some of the wording came from here) and In the Leafy Treetops... 
Second, since we are learning the first part on Father's day I wanted to keep it simple and fun as a reward the first week. We will be focusing on the message the second week, but you could combine these to do them in one week.
 

ASK: “Have you ever seen a rainbow?” –share experience, talk about how they only come after storms, etc.

  

      1. Make a rain storm (snap, rub hands, clap, blow): have the whole primary do these actions to create a "storm" from the sounds. You can have everyone do the same thing and then have some add other parts as directed.

2.  Make a rainbow (water + light): do a search online for "How to make a rainbow" and use the best method that works for you. I wanted water and light to be a part of mine because of water being involved for a baptism and the light being needed, lol. You could also just post a picture of a rainbow, do a rainbow with the words of the song in rainbow colors, use ribbon wands, or anything else you can think of for a rainbow visual.

Sing the song through 3 times and each time you sing it through, focus on the 3 different areas which are:

1. This song TALKS about rainbows and rain (each time rainbows/rain is sung do the actions - arms make rainbow, hands flick or clap for rain).

2. This song SOUNDS like rainbows and rain; Legato (the verses) and Staccato (chorus). The verses are smooth and connected like rainbows. The chorus is more choppy and disconnected like rain. Sing the verses legato and move your hands back and forth without breaking. Then during the chorus, flick fingers for each note as you sing it staccato or choppy. Make sure to over exaggerate so they can tell the difference (have the pianist do it too)! You can also make a "thunderstorm" by making large movements and singing loudly and a "light rain shower" by making small movements and singing softly.

3. This song MOVES like rainbows and rain. The song (its pitch) moves like a rainbow and raindrops. Notice each line in the verses' pitch start low and gradually go higher then go back to low - just like a rainbow. Then for the chorus, the pitch is disconnected, up and down, all over, just like raindrops.

Before singing the song, draw a "rainbow" with chalk making horizontal lines going up as the notes go up and going down as the notes go down. During the song, follow the lines with your hand showing how the pitch of the notes represent rainbows and raindrops (example picture for raindrops found HERE) again following them by moving your hand up or down as the notes go up and down.

Week 2/Verse 2:
Sing through the whole song

After you have sung through it, ask why this song is about rainbows and rain. Discuss how they are like being baptized and repenting.

Activity: Use a laminated poster and wet-erase markers (dry erase on a white board could be substituted) to write the words of the song that can then be erased with water to represent repenting and becoming clean again (*activity example found below). 

Bear testimony of the blessing of baptism and how we are made clean. If we make mistakes, we can be clean again by taking the Sacrament and repenting.

*We did a fun activity yesterday to learn the 2nd verse of "When I am Baptized".  I wrote the words to the verse on the blank side of a laminated poster with wet-erase markers (I'm sure dry-erase would work as well). After we spent a little time learning the verse (copy cat), I told them that now we were going to 'wash away' the words. I had a child come up and choose a word from the song out of a bag. The child would then get to use a spray bottle of water to spray the poster every time they heard the rest of us sing that word. Really simple, but they loved it! We sang the song tons of times without anyone complaining and some of them even asked to come in after Primary was over so they could finish spraying off the rest of the words. (Idea shared by Alberta on Primary Music Yahoo Group...and found at SugarDoodle)

"Mother, I Love You"

We are singing, Mother, I Love You for Mother's day next week :) We are using handbells along with singing (ringing music can be found HERE). To review this week I want to make it fun so we are going to be doing this activity HERE (list of item ideas HERE) where we get to dress someone up as a "mom!"


For Mother's Day, as a reward/break I had the kids color THESE (PDF) and they REALLY enjoyed it ;) They were quite the artists!

"We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet"

To teach, We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet, I will be using the wordstrips suggested in the 2013 Outline for Sharing Time p.11 (pictured above but in coordinating colors).

Since the Jr. Primary typically cannot read - and to make it a little more fun - I will be using the following pictures as well (I will probably get some helpers to hold these up):

We thank Thee, O God

Source

 

 for a Prophet

Source

To guide us

Guide

in these latter days

Source

We thank Thee

(Maybe just use this once and hold it up each time)

 for sending the gospel

Source

to lighten our minds

with its rays

Source

 We thank thee

for every blessing

Source

bestowed by they bounteous hand

Source

We feel it a pleasure

to serve Thee

Source

and love

Source

to obey thy command

HERE is another cute idea. Happy Singing!

Restoration Medley

The program song this month is one of our choice. Because I have a musical theatre background (or maybe I'm just crazy) I wanted to tell a bit of a story about the restoration... So instead of just keeping things simple (which is usually best) I decided to go ahead and make a medley of restoration songs.

The songs we are using are: The Golden Plates (verse 1), The Sacred Grove, The Priesthood Is Restored, and On a Golden Springtime (3rd chorus).

To prepare for the medley (as well as to give time for it to be composed) a few weeks before my chosen date to teach this song we will learn the songs listed individually. That way when the medley is being taught they already know it for the most part and it's just a matter of fine tuning into a beautiful medley :)

Now, I've never claimed that I am a composer (or even a pianist), so this is probably not written correctly and I probably have made quite a mess of things (I just tried to base it off of singing combined with the bit of musical theory I know...), but below is a link to my attempt at creating a medley to bridge these restoration songs together. Feel free to use it, change it, or laugh at it ;) Good luck!

Find my Restoration Medley HERE

"The Priesthood Is Restored"

This week we will be learning the last song for our "Restoration Medley", The Priesthood Is Restored (CS 89).

I figure the way I will teach this is to show the above picture, play the "echo" game to learn the words, and focus on teaching some technique to hold out the longer notes. Simple enough!

Then I will teach them our "Restoration Medley" which will be more like a review that combines all the songs we've learned the last three weeks :) I'll also review our Mother's Day song and add in the handbells.

"On a Golden Springtime"

The song I will be focusing on for singing time this week is, On a Golden Springtime (CS 88). The part I want to focus on is the chorus of the third verse about receiving the gospel because that is the part the children will be singing in our Restoration Medley for this year's program (that we will be learning next week); but for this week I want to also tie in the first verse and entire third verse of the song and how it symbolizes/is about the restoration and also about having faith that the restoration happened like they have faith (hopefully) that a seed will grow into a plant.

To begin, since it is , I want to use an actual seed and plant as a visual as I teach the first verse, because it makes me happy :D

I will ask the Children, "who here has a garden or likes to garden?" Then I will show them my visual and I'll talk about the miracle of how a seed can turn into a plant using pretty descriptions of the springtime. We will then sing the first verse (because I'm pretty sure they already know it), reviewing the words as necessary and while pretending to be seeds that grow into plants - because it's fun!

Scriptures: I will probably just summarize this part for the Jr. Primary, but for the Sr. I will have them split into three groups to discuss the scriptures 1) Alma 32:28, 2) D&C 88:7, and 3) Joseph Smith - History 1:17 with some helpful questions to help them discover the general meaning of the scriptures that they can then share with the Primary (as the pianist quietly plays some pretty music about the restoration)...found HERE. We will then have an explanation of scriptures 1 and 2 given and sing the first verse once more so they can think about a seed growing being like having their testimonies grow as they sing. Next we will have an explanation of what scripture 3 is about and learn the third verse.

To learn the third verse I will use the same pictures as in my post "The Sacred Grove" as a visual since they tie in so well (or you could use this lovely flip chart HERE). Since sharing time will have talked about the message in this verse I will only review the key points as necessary. With the visuals it should be easy to learn this verse and then to help with the chorus I will play the echo game for each line and adding in actions as they fit/are needed. To help them understand it I will ask the questions, "Why should the nations all awake?" ANSWER: To receive the gospel light. (Sing that phrase). "Is the gospel true?" Yes! "What will we receive when we truly accept the gospel?" ANSWER: It's glorious light. (Sing that phrase). Then we will sing the chorus of the third verse and then sing the whole third verse for good measure.

Finish by bearing testimony that Heavenly Father and Christ did appear to Joseph Smith (maybe mentioning the forest glade and how it was a beautiful spring morning to tie everything together) and how we can "each look toward the light of the gospel that has been restored" (A Children's Songbook Companion by Graham, Gourley, Shipp, and Stewart, pg. 125).

HERE is another flip chart for this entire song some might like from "Happy Clean Living"

Happy singing!

"The Sacred Grove"

Our Primary learned this song, The Sacred Grove (CS 87), a couple of months ago, so we will be reviewing it this week as we prepare to learn our Restoration Medley containing part of it next week.

The way I taught this song originally was by following the ideas in the book, A Children's Songbook Companion by Graham, Gourley, Shipp, and Stewart.

Summary of teaching: I had them close their eyes while the music was played and I described the morning when Joseph entered the Sacred Grove (complementing the words in the song). Then I sang it for them. The song was then repeated as I asked questions and made statements about the words in the song until they were very familiar with it. *I really like the part where "Joseph Knelt" and the notes descend (as I had pointed out to the children).
I also used pictures to enrich the song: trees, the sun, Joseph kneeling, a picture of the first vision, etc.

REVIEW: To review this song I will just use the same pictures and maybe point out some of the answers to the questions I had originally asked. I shouldn't have to do too much to introduce this song because it is tied into the sharing time lesson.

"The Golden Plates"

I actually will be out of town this week, but here are some ideas for teaching The Golden Plates (CS 86):

Mention how these were part of the truths lost (to tie in with sharing time lesson). *Feel free to prepare any visuals/games you think would be useful. The "echo" game (they repeat each line after you once or twice and then add some lines together until it's complete) works well for teaching. You could also use some of the ideas below (or of course search the Internet for some other ideas):

Visuals + Role Play Activity

Make "Golden Plates"