The Church of Jesus Christ

I taught "The Church of Jesus Christ" (CS77) in December, because most of the children knew it already, we had a bit of extra time, and it just takes the pressure off during the year if you already have one of the presentation songs under your belt.

I pretty much followed the guidance given in the sharing time outline.

I got the children to first stand if they belonged to a family, a sports team, a school class, a club or a church. Then I explained that "belong" means to be an important part of something.

I showed a picture of Jesus Christ, and read DC 115:4 "For thus shall my church be called in the last days, even The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."

Then I started going through the song. I'd ask the kids one of the following questions, and then sing the line of the song, and they'd tell me the answers. And then they'd sing the line afterwards.
• What do I belong to?
• What two things do I know?
• How will I follow Him?
• Who do I believe in?
• How do I honour His name?
• What 3 things will I do?

Then I split the kids into two groups, and they did a call and response thing with the song, where each line was split into two, and they'd take turns singing the phrases.

It definitely helped that they pretty much knew it already, but they perfected it pretty quickly!

My approach

I am very fortunate to have internet access at home and at work, so when I need to teach a new song or a sharing time I make great use of these resources.

For sharing times, I tend to use the sharing time ideas in the Friend/Liahona and the CSMP outline. I almost never give the sharing time exactly how it's outlined in either place, but I combine what I like and put in a few ideas of my own. I then write out my lesson plan in my Primary book, listing the sequence of events, questions I want to ask, scriptures, and if there's something I want to say in a specific way I'll write it out. I use this notebook for all of my sharing times, so I then have all of my lesson plans in one place.

For singing time I tend to look a lot more widely. Some months the Friend has ideas for teaching the song under the Sharing Time Ideas. So that's where I start. Then I'll go to SugarDoodle. Under Primary, Music Leader there is an alphabetical list of all the songs in the Children's Songbook, and also Hymns that have been taught in Primary. There aren't suggestions for every song, but just about all of your common ones.

Other places I consult are other music leaders' blogs. There are lots out there, and I've included links to the ones that I follow. Some of the music leaders have dedicated Primary blogs, others include their personal lives in their blogs as well, but all of the ones that I follow have some great ideas.

So once I have all of these ideas I again do a bit of a mix and match and decide how I'm going to teach the song. I always try to not spend much money, and I hate using my colour ink unless I have to (stingy, I know...) so you'll find that my ideas are generally pretty cost effective.

And so that's how I do it. I'm going to try and post all of the songs that I've taught over the last 18 months and where I can still remember I'll always include the source of the idea. I have to be honest and say that most of the basic creativity comes from someone else - but I always put my own little touch.

Welcome to our Primary!

Welcome to the Panorama Primary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints!

I am very involved in our Primary, in various different places, and I've been wanting to share some of what we've done for a while. And I've finally got around to starting!

I was called as the second counsellor in the Primary presidency a few months ago, and I've been serving as the music leader since March 2008 (and still continue with that now), so I've got my finger in just about every aspect of the ward primary.

So I hope that some of my ideas will be useful. I certainly use ideas that I find on other people's blogs, so I hope that I can now return the favour.