Back-to-School

Here are is a fun activity for back-to-school...I have posted this before, but this time I have adapted it to be done with this year's program songs.

SCHOOL SUPPLIES

Fill a backpack with various school supplies.  Attach the saying to each one.  Have a child choose an item from the backpack and then sing the corresponding song.

Glue Stick -  Stick to the Savior’s example like glue.  If you do so, you will always 

choose the right.  

Song: "He Sent His Son" p. 37

Pencil -  The scriptures contain the written words of Prophets.  We can read them to

learn how to return to our Heavenly Father and Savior.

Song: Your song of choice about prophets.

Crayons - Priesthood ordinances and temple work "color" our lives... they bless us and

make it possible for our families to be together forever.  

Song:  Your song of choice.

Sharpener - Stay “sharp” and be in-tune. When you're baptized and confirmed, you 

become a member of the church & receive the Holy Ghost.  He will comfort and

guide you and help you know the truth.  

Song:  "Baptism" p. 100

Eraser - Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can repent and be forgiven of our
sins.  We can "erase" our mistakes! 
Song:  "I Stand All Amazed" p. 193 Hymn Book

Calculator - The best way to “calculate” how to return to Heavenly Father is to follow 
His plan.

Song:  "I Will Follow God's Plan" p. 164

Ruler - Parents and children have important responsibilities in families.  Children can show love to their parents by obeying them and keeping the "rules".

Song:  "The Family is of God" p. 28-29 of Sharing Time Outline

                                   

Scissors - “Cut” things from your life that aren’t pleasing to Heavenly Father.  

Participating in wholesome activities will strengthen you and your family.  

Song:  "Seek the Lord Early" p. 108

Baptism

As I am sure you know, this month's song is "Baptism".  Most of your kiddos should at least be familiar with it.  Last time it was a program song, this is how I introduced it & it worked really well.  This activity works well for reviewing the song also.

Place a picture of Christ being baptized on the chalkboard/bulletin board at the front of the room.  Dress up like a news reporter...I wore a trench coat, a sticker on my chest that said "Primary Singing Time News", and carried a microphone and/or notebook & pencil.  You could also have someone else with a video camera follow you around.

Enter the room and introduce yourself...for example, "This is Sister Lewis with Primary Singing Time News".  Next ask the children "who", "what", "where", "when", "why", and "how" questions in the order of the song and take notes of their answers.  For example, for the first line of the song, point to Jesus and John the Baptist and ask, "Who are these people?"  Then ask another child "where are they?" (in Judea).  "When is this happening?"  (Long ago).  Then play their answers back... "Okay, let me make sure I have this straight.  "Jesus came to John the Baptist in Judea long ago.  Is that right?"  Have the children sing the portion of the song you've just asked questions about.  Proceed in the same fashion with the rest of the song.

As I ask questions and get the children's answers, it works well to place pictures/visuals that correspond to each portion of the song on the board.  Then as I play their answers back and as they sing, I point to each picture.

Have fun with this one!  The kids love it.

The Family is of God

I originally found an awesome lesson plan for "The Family is of God" on the blog,  Pergler's Primary Place.  It incorporates the proclamation to the family.  I thought it could easily be adapted for singing time.  

-Wrap a picture of a family.  Present it to the children.

-“Inside this present is a picture of a gift from Heavenly Father.”

-“Raise your hand if you like to give gifts? Put your hand down and think of someone you have given a gift to. Why did you give that gift to that person? Was it because you love them?”

-“Our Heavenly Father gave us this gift (refer to the wrapped present) because He loves us. Listen to this song for a clue about what Heavenly Father’s gift is and then I’ll let you guess what it is.”

-Play the song for children.

-Let the children guess what the gift from Heavenly Father is and then unwrap the present.

-“Why did God give us families?”  Listen to the song again & take answers from the children.

-Hold up “The Family: A Proclamation to the World”.  “In 1995, the prophet, President Hinckley, issued this proclaiming, ‘the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.’  Successful families work together…when family life is founded on the teachings of Jesus Christ, we can be happy!  This means when we follow the Savior’s example and do what He has asked us to do, we can be happy with our families…both on earth and through eternity!”

- “Our new song for April is ‘The Family Is of God’. We are going to learn about the special responsibilities parents have and also how we can honor and help our parents.   I have a series of homes filled with love.  You will come up and pick a heart…each one has part of the song on it and something important about families.  Then you will place the heart in this happy home and help create an eternal family.”

-A Primary child will select a heart from a house.  Start with house #1.  Each heart has a verse from the song written on it…have the hearts coordinate with whatever chart or visual you are using to teach the song.  I placed blank house images up on the board & then wrote the verse to the song on a heart (I used the same image for the heart).  I then taped/velcroed the heart to the house image.   Have the child read the heart (or read it for them) and place it in the house (create the paper house below or use a toy house).  Present the corresponding portion of your visual and then sing it.  Discuss/explain & share personal stories/testimony where needed.  Continue with the remaining hearts/houses, adding lines to the song and singing as you go.

-Close by bearing testimony of the importance of families. 

Love at Home clipart can be found at http://www.freeldsart.com/love-at-home.htm.

House can be found at http://www.lds.org/friend/1996/06/sharing-time-love-at-home?lang=eng.

I Stand All Amazed

This month's song is "I Stand All Amazed".  Teaching hymns can be tricky.  They often contain difficult vocabulary & concepts.  It's important to really break down the lyrics for the children to be sure they understand what they're singing about.

I recently held a training for the choristers in our stake at our Primary Leadership Training.  I assigned each of the choristers a song from this year's outline & asked them to share how they would teach it.  Below are Sister Grant's thoughts on "I Stand All Amazed".

These need to be slightly adapted depending on the age of the children.

1. This song is about the atonement of Jesus Christ. When we say "atonement," we are talking about Jesus' suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross.

2. How many of you have ever broken an arm or leg, or hurt yourself in some way? (Most children will raise their hands, and a few will want to share their experiences, so it's important to keep things reined in at this point :) ).

3. When we sin, our spirit gets hurt, kind of like getting a broken arm or leg. But we can't make our spirit all better by ourselves. We need Jesus' help.

4. In the Garden and on the cross, in some way we don't completely understand, Jesus was able to take our sins and suffering upon himself. This means that when we repent (i.e., recognize our wrong, apologize, promise never to do it again), Jesus can take the hurt out of us and into himself, and he overcomes it--he makes it better. This is an amazing gift that Jesus has given us!

5. "I Stand All Amazed" is a song about being grateful for Jesus' atonement. There are some grown-up words that we can learn about so we understand this song better. (Each music leader could pick the words to focus on. Possibilities include amazed, confused, grace, proffers, and/or crucified.)

On another topic, a friend asked how to explain to children the scripture about the earth being "utterly wasted" if temple work isn't done (see D&C 138:47-48, also D&C 2). Here is the explanation I gave him. It occurred to me that this might be helpful for the month when we're teaching a family history song.

Before we came to earth, we lived with our Heavenly Father. While we were there, we made promises to help our family members. Some of our family members came to earth before us, when the gospel wasn't on the earth. It was very brave of them and they had many challenges because they didn't have the gospel.

We promised these family members that when we came to earth, we would help them get the blessings of the gospel. We would find out who they were, and we would go to the temple to be baptized for them and receive other gospel ordinances so they could be together forever as families.

Now we're on the earth. Do we remember our life with Heavenly Father? That's right, we don't. So how can we remember those promises we made to our family members before us? Well, Heavenly Father said in this scripture that he would put those promises in our hearts. So even if we don't remember them with our heads, we will feel them in our hearts. We will want to help our ancestors by going to the temple for them so they can have all the blessings of the gospel, and be together forever as families.

Did you know that when we do temple work for our family members who have died, we also make our own families stronger? Doing temple work for our families is so important! In fact, in this scripture, the Lord says that if we don't do it, the earth will be in really bad trouble by the time he comes back. (That would probably be enough for Junior Primary; for Senior Primary, we could talk more about the problems we see around us in the world because of the war on families.)