Grandmother

This year I decided to do two short mother and grandmother songs for Mother's Day, and then also two short father and grandfather songs for Father's Day.

For grandmothers we're doing the first verse of "Grandmother" (CS200).

For senior primary I'm going to teach it very simply, but using a method that worked really well for "The Family" last year.

I've put each of the 4 lines on a separate page

and they're really short, so it will be easy to learn the lines.

Then once the kids have them, I'll choose one (probably whoever was singing well) to go out of the room while everyone else chooses a word from one of the lines that we'll leave out when we sing.

The child will come back and sit on a chair facing the other kids, and I'll stand behind with the page, and show the kids which word to leave out. Then when they sing it, the child in front will have to figure out which word they left out.

They'll probably all want a chance, so we'll get to repeat it a few times, and use a different line each time to have a word left out.

For the juniors I'm planning on just using simple actions (kiss, hug, smile, see, every child, whole wide world, you). Our juniors are very young, so they need actions usually to help them remember the words.

Follow the Prophet

"Follow the Prophet" (CS110) is a really fun song! I decided to do verses 1, 2 and 9 from the Children's Songbook, so Adam, Enoch, and then just modern day prophets.

I wanted to do something active for the song because it is quite a "bouncy" song.

So what I did was set up a circle of chairs in my part of the Primary room, with half of the chairs being brown and half black.

I first taught the chorus, and what we did for the chorus was everyone stood up and we'd walk around the inside of the circle, all following each other. For "Don't go astray" I got them all to do a bit of a side step, and for "He knows the way" we all held up one hand ahead of us. Then wherever they were standing when the chorus ended they'd have to sit down. The idea was that they'd all sit in a different place for each verse.

Then for the verses I split each line in half. We'd have the people on the black chairs singing the first half of the line, and the people on the brown chairs singing the second half of the line. I stood at the break between the types of chairs and I'd point to the group that had to sing each time, and I managed to make it a bit of a competition too (I always find that helps ;o) ) Then when we got to the chorus we'd all stand up and march around the circle doing the actions, and we'd end up sitting in slightly different places. So they all got to sing both sides of each line.

I taught the chorus and verse 1 the first week, and then verse 2 the second week (the Elders joined us for Primary that day, and the kids loved having them join in the marching and singing) I had to also explain about the story of Enoch so that they'd understand what they were singing about. For the third week I was sick, so my sister taught verse 9, using the same formula, but there were a lot of kids missing that day.

The fourth week I needed to do verse 9 again because of all the kids who'd been missing, but I didn't want to do the same thing again. So I cleared the room, and then got them all to line up next to each other at one end of the room. We'd sing the verse (and we recapped all 3 verses) and then for the chorus I'd choose who had sung the best and they got to lead everyone down the length of the room and back again, doing the normal side step and raised hand. Most of the kids got a turn to be the leader, and they just loved it!

Book of Mormon Stories

I've been trying this year to also re-teach some old songs if I have some time left over during a month.

One that I chose was "Book of Mormon Stories" (CS118).

Because I'm not too fussed if the kids have these songs memorised so I'm just going the straightforward way of making posters for each line. I did simple outlined pictures, and then got some of the senior girls to colour them in for me.

I sang each line and show them the picture, and they'd sing it with me afterwards. And then once we'd done the whole thing I turned over a couple of the pictures to see if they could remember. It's a simple song, but they got it quickly!

He Sent His Son

For "He Sent His Son" I used the fact that the song is divided into questions and answers to do a call and response kind of thing with the children.

I made a poster (I always make them just A4 size) for each question and each answer. I always just use outlined pictures for this kind of thing and then normally colour them in myself, but this time I got a couple of the senior girls to colour them in for me, and they just loved it! For a few weeks afterwards they came to me every time and asked if there was something else they could colour in for me!



Before singing time I set up my part of the room with two rows of chairs facing each other, but slightly curved so that the people in the same row should be able to see the other people in their group. I also stuck all of the posters on the board in random order.

When they all came through and we started with this song I would sing a line, and they would have to guess which picture went with the line. All of the questions I gave to the one side, and the answers to the other side. I explained the meaning of the lines each time.

Then once I'd sung through the whole song, and they all had the pictures we started singing it as a group. But I'd get the group with the questions to sing the questions, and the group with the answers to sing the answers, and the child holding the relevant page each time had to hold it up while they sang. Then after a while we swapped the questions and answers to give everyone a chance to sing both.

I taught the whole song in one Sunday, and it is quite a difficult one, but they got it reasonably well, and they're managing to sing it quite well each time we subsequently sing it too.

I know that my Saviour loves me

For "I know that my Saviour loves me" I decided to go with the suggestion in the sharing time outline.

The message of this song is so powerful - I had quite a few spiritual experiences during the time I was preparing this song and working with it a lot (see my personal blog post)

When I first introduced the song I used the Book of Mormon story reader and told the children the story of Christ blessing the children and then I helped them see how the words of the first verse are all about this scripture account.

Then I used actions to teach all of the words. My plan is for the kids (especially the juniors) to do the actions while we sing it for the presentation...

1. A long time ago in a beautiful place, (point behind, spread arms)
Children were gathered ’round Jesus. (gesture around body)
He blessed and taught as they felt of His love. (point at flat hand, point at heart)
Each saw the tears on His face. (fingers down cheeks)
The love that He felt for His little ones (point at heart, indicate short person)
I know He feels for me. (point at head, point at chest)
I did not touch Him or sit on His knee, (shaking head, touch arm, pat knee)
Yet, Jesus is real to me. (pat chest)

2. Now I am here in a beautiful place, (point at ground, spread arms)
Learning the teachings of Jesus. (point at head, hands make a book)
Parents and teachers will help guide the way, (show each hand, path ahead)
Lighting my path ev’ry day. (pretend to hold lantern high up)
Wrapped in the arms of my Saviour’s love, (wrap arms around body)
I feel His gentle touch. (gently touch arm)
Living each day, I will follow His way, (show fingers walking behind each other)
Home to my Father above. (point up to heaven)

Chorus
I know He lives! (point at head)
I will follow faithfully. (show fingers walking, behind each other)
My heart I give to Him. (point at heart, hands cupped)
I know that my Saviour loves me. (point at head, point at heart, both hands on chest)

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.