Scripture Songs

With the new Come Follow Me  for Primary came many changes.  One of those changes is that we no longer have Sharing Time Outline that tells us what song to teach each month for the primary program.  Instead we now have a list of "Music for Singing Time" that correlate with the Come Follow Me lessons both in primary and at home.  I really like this new change and love that we have a little more freedom to choose which songs to teach for the program.  Even though it isn't possible to thoroughly learn every suggested song on the list I still wanted to work in as many as possible during singing time.  So I came up with the "scripture song".  Each month I choose one song that we focus on as a Scripture Song.  This is a song that focuses on principles that we can learn by reading and studying the scriptures.  For most of the songs I chose a song that is either from the"Music for Singing Time" list or goes along with the same principle, but isn't the song I am teaching for the primary program.   To make this a little more fun I created a puzzle out of gospel art pictures and at the end of every month the children add a puzzle piece and identify the scripture principle the song teaches.

Most of the time I don't "teach" the scripture song.  The expectation isn't that the children will memorize it or know it perfectly.  The goal is to introduce or review primary songs that support the gospel principles we are studying in classes and at home during the month.  This is also a great way to remind the children that as we read the scriptures in the Come Follow Me curriculum we are learning important truths.

On the first Sunday of each month I introduce the new scripture song.  I usually just post the words
(Camille's Primary Ideas has a great suggestion on how to do this that you can find HERE) and if needed have the pianist play the song through once while I sing it and then the primary joins me.  We sing the same scripture song at the beginning of singing time each week for the entire month.  On the last Sunday of the month I choose a child to add a puzzle piece and we review the gospel principle that can be found in the scriptures.  Even though I'm not spending a lot of time teaching the song by the end of the month the children usually know it pretty well.

My list of monthly scripture songs has transformed over the last few month as I've learned along with everyone else how to best use the Come Follow Me for Primary.  This is my revised list of scripture songs that I plan on using for the rest of the year, but might not stick to at all. :)