Swat a Song

Primary singing time review game: 

I found these cute fly swatters at the dollar store and wanted to make a singing time game with them.  So I came up this game called "Swat a Song".  (if you can't find these exact swatters any fly swatter will do)

To make the game print 16 lily pads on full sheets of paper and then 16 ladybugs and frogs 4 of each per page.  Then attach a bug or frog to the back of each lily pad.  I printed the bugs and frogs on card stock so they couldn't be seen through the lily pads.  I laminated mine, but you could also put them in sheet protectors if you don't have a laminator.

You can download the printables HERE

The clipart is from http://www.clipartpanda.com/  and clipart-library.com

How to play the game:  Before singing time use magnets to put the lily pads up on the chalkboard or just lay them on the floor in a 4x4 grid like this:

   Choose two children at once to come up and use the fly swatters to swat 1 lily pad each.  Turn over what has been swatted and sing according to what you have assigned to that combination. 

Ideas for what to assign to the possible combinations: 

A frog + a frog = first verse of review song or let children choose from a list of song options that you want to review. 

A frog + a bug = second verse of review song or a program song 

(this combination is the most likely to be chosen so you should assign whatever you want the most work on to this category.)

A bug+a bug = fun song or activity added to review song

The great thing about this game  is it is very versatile and can be used a lot of different ways.  So once you make the game pieces you can reuse it throughout the year to review in a number of different ways.  My primary children really liked this and will be excited to see it return in the near future. 

In the Leafy Treetops

The song "In the Leafy Treetops" is a fun song that has a great rhythm and makes me feel happy. I wanted to use this song as a movement song to break up learning program songs.  So I posted the words (Camille over at Camille's Primary Ideas has a great suggestion on how to do this HERE) and we just started right in on the singing.  The children who can't read yet picked it up really quickly after singing it a few times through.  To make the song a little more fun and get the children moving I made sticks with pictures of a bird, a tree and a sun on them.  Each child got 1 picture and when we sang the part of the song that mentioned that picture they stood up and put their picture in the air.

The second verse says, "the flowers were nodding" I was in a primary once and the children thought the song said," the flowers were naughty". :) So when I taught it I quickly made sure the children understood that sometimes people "nod" as a way to greet each other before we started singing.  Then I had the children nod their heads when we sang, "the flowers are nodding" and shake hands with the person on their left when we sang, "how do you do they say" and shake hands with the person on their right when we sang, "how do you do today".  

If you want to use the same clip art images as mine you can find them at the links below. I downloaded them and then put them in a PowerPoint image to print.  I made the images about a 1/4 of a sheet each.  

Bird- Click HERE 

Tree- Click HERE

Sun- Click HERE

  

I Know That My Savior Loves Me

I am teaching, "I Know That My Savior Loves Me" for the month of May.  This song was a program song in 2010 and can be found HERE as well as in the above link.

In May the Come Follow Me in Primary curriculum focuses on how much the Savior loves us and how we can return to be with Him and our Heavenly Father.  The suggested songs are Keep the Commandments, Families Can Be Together Forever and I Am a Child of God.  Since our primary children are really familiar with these particular songs I wanted to teach something new that had a similar message and this song does that perfectly.  However, I will be singing the suggested songs as review songs and using Keep the Commandments as our scripture song for the month.  You can see how I use scripture songs in primary HERE.  You can watch a video of the fun actions I put to Keep the Commandments HERE.

I really love the song, "I Know That My Savior Loves Me" because it reminds me of a story being told.  It starts out by saying, "A long time ago in a beautiful place, children were gathered round Jesus."  The wording makes me think of a bed time story, "a long time ago".  The words are so personal and help the children understand that Jesus is a REAL person who loves them and lives.

Last week I introduced this song during the last 10 minutes of singing time by singing the chorus to the children and then teaching them the sign language.  The signs are really simple and the children picked up on them fast.  By the end of the 10 minutes most of the children were able to do the entire chorus.  You can watch a YouTube video of the sign language HERE.  I am only teaching the sign language for the chorus, but the video shows signs for the entire song.

The versus to this song I am going to teach by using THIS flip chart that I found on Susan Fitch's website.  I printed the flip chart and put it together in a spiral bound scrapbook I had on hand to make it look like a book.

Make sure to print the pages double sided so that when you turn the pages it looks like an actual book.  If you can't find a book like this you could also put it together by stapling the edges together, using book rings or having it bound at a copy shop.  You could also just put it in a binder, but because of the page orientation the pages won't turn like a standard book.  I also had to use the custom scale feature when I printed so that the pictures would fit within the book nicely.  I printed at 70% for the book I was using.  

Music Lesson: I will begin by asking the children if they like to read stories and if their parents read books to them.  I'll let them share for a few minutes what types of books they like to read.  Then we will discuss how some stories are real and some stories are true.  I will explain that I'm going to read them a story about something that is true.  I will then read the book that I made.  Once I finish reading the book we will talk about how we know the things in the book are real and why knowing they are real is important.  Once we finish the discussion I will use the book again, but this time to sing the song. Then we will add the chorus and sign language, which we already learned last week.  I am going to introduce both the first and the second verses when we read the book, but will probably focus on singing the first verse one week and the second verse the next week.

I am teaching this song on Mother's Day so I am going to play the game "Sing Your Heart Out" to help the children sing the song multiple times without getting tired of it.  You can find my post on how to play this game HERE.

Sing You're Heart Out- Mother's Day Activity

Since this week is Mother's Day I wanted to do something in singing time that related, but I didn't want to lose a week of teaching our song for the month.  So I decided to do a game I'm calling,
 "Sing You're Heart Out".  I made this "Mommy Meter" that has encouraging phrases on it that mom's might say to their children.

I'm going to teach the song "I Know That My Savior Loves Me". Then  I will use the meter to encourage the children to sing the song so we get in some repetition.   As they sing the heart will move up to each encouraging phrase until it reaches the smiling mom.  I will probably add in a few other songs so everyone doesn't get bored. If you aren't teaching a song this could also be used to sing Mother's Day songs or any other songs that you want to review.  

To make the "Mommy Meter" I  downloaded the mommy from HERE and then printed it out.  I cut a poster board so it was long and a little bit wider than the mommy's head.  Then I made a small hole in the bottom and top of the poster board to put the yarn through. I then tied both ends of the yarn at the back of the poster board, like this:

  

You want it to be tight enough that it will hold the heart close to the board, but not so tight that it rips it.  I secured the holes by putting a piece of scotch tape where the tension of the yarn looked like it might start to tear. 

Then I cut a piece of sturdy but thin cardboard (another piece of poster board would also work) smaller than the heart and secured it to the string so that their would be something to secure the heart onto.  

After I made sure that the pulley system was going to work I wrote the phrases about every 2 inches up the board.  The entire thing took me about 15 minutes to put together.