Thursday, December 31, 2015

If I Listen with My Heart

Date:  January 3, 2016

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

Talk, Scripture, Theme, etc.

Visitor Song: Do As I'm Doing p.276 CS
(Have the visitor(s) stand at the front and lead the group.)

Birthday Song: You've Had a Birthday p.285 CS

Singing Time
Materials:
*Signs that say OOH and AHH  

*Giant Pop-up Book of Mormon (This is the prop that I chose to make the story of 'Jesus visiting the   Nephites' (3 Nephi 17) come to life.  Other ideas would be to show a picture of the story or puppets. I did spend about $4 and 10 hours making this, and normally I wouldn't put all the effort and time into a prop, but I plan on using this all year so I decided it was a worthy investment. I got the foam board and tape from the dollar store, watercolored the scenery and cut up an old Gospel Art Book from the thrift store.)


















*Dress up clothes for a child from Jesus' time (My kids loved them ...haha :) I just cut up old shirts and got a foam ring from the dollar store.













*Paper hearts with a picture of Jesus on the back for every child (put underneath the stepping stones)

*Stepping stones (tape these to the floor before primary starts)

*Index card with 3 Nephi 17:21 written on it (hide in Book of Mormon)


Introduction:  "Today we are learning a new song.  I have two signs here.  One says OOH and the other says AHH.  Let's practice!  When I hold up OOH, you guys sing OOH.  When I hold up AHH, you guys sing AHH.  Easy right?  Now lets listen really close to the piano, and OOH and AHH the tune of this new song.  But make sure you watch closely, because I might switch the signs and try to trick you!"
 "Awesome!  Now let's learn the words to this song."

Teaching Steps (One line of the Song at a time):
   
      1.  "If I had been a little child when Jesus lived on earth.."
First, invite one child to come up and pretend to be a child when Jesus was on the earth.  Make      sure they know they will be dressing up.  After helping the child with the costume, ask the children, "Can you pretend to be a child in Jesus' time too?  Let's all pretend to dress up like (name of child)."  Pretend to put on clothes.  Sing the first line and have them repeat.  Sing the line 2 times.
      2.  "...I would have liked to walk with Him and Listen to His Words."
"When I say go, walk up quietly and stand on a quiet stepping stone."  When the children are on a stone (I will arrange them into two circles), sing the next line and have them repeat.  Sing the whole song to this point while the children walk in a circle.  You can switch directions each time.
      3.  "But as I search the scriptures I can hear His words of peace,.."
Have the children gather in front of the Giant book or other prop.  Ask,"What does 'search' mean? Right! To look hard for something.  I am going to search these scriptures."  Pull out the index card with 3 Nephi 17:21 from the giant pop up book.  Have a child or teacher read the scripture.  Talk about how when Christ came to visit the Nephites he blessed the little children one by one.
Explain how he didn't just say "I love you all" but said "I love you, Kye." Etc. How would that make you feel inside? PEACEFUL.  Sing the line and have them repeat it twice.  Sing the song up to this point.
      4.    "And if I listen with my heart I hear the Savior's voice."
"When I say go, I want you to search under one stepping stone.  When you find one heart, I want you to take it back to your seat and hold it by your heart.  When everyone is holding it, I'll know you're ready to learn the last line of the song. Ready go."
Have the children hold their heart to their ear when singing the last line.  Sing and repeat 2 times.

Conclusion:
Sing the whole song.
Bear Testimony

Closing Song: Stand for Right p.159

Senior Singing Time Adaptations:

1.  Give the music to a child ahead of time and have them sing it for the class when they dress up like a child from Jesus' time. We have a few children in our ward that love to sing solos whenever they get the chance!

2.  Have them share experiences with reading the scriptures and how it made them feel.  Share personal experience of the scriptures bringing you peace.

3.  Start learning the 2nd verse and bring a picture of President Monson and his recent General Conference talk of how he "teaches how to lie in righteousness and peace."
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/10/be-an-example-and-a-light?lang=eng



Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Songs for 2016

Here's the playlist on LDS.org:
https://www.lds.org/callings/primary/sharing-time/music?lang=eng

January:  If I Listen with My Heart
(Found in the 2016 Outline for Sharing Time)
Words:
https://www.lds.org/manual/2016-outline-for-sharing-time/if-i-listen-with-my-heart?lang=eng

Sheet music: https://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/content/images/magazines/friend/2011/01/fr11jan25_song.pdf

February:  I Will Follow God's Plan p.164 CS

March: Stand for the Right p.159 CS

April: Song of Your Choice from the Children's Songbook
(We are having the pianist choose the song! I felt like the pianist is kind of stuck in the background and wanted to give her a chance to be more involved.  I could not do anything without her!  I will be trying very hard this year to involve her more in the lesson (example: if I wear a crazy hat, then she will with me.  We are a team and the children and I depend on her so much!)

May: Praise to the Man p.27 HYMNS

June: Song of Your Choice from the Children's Songbook
(We have two pianists: one for Junior one for Senior :-)

July: I Love to See the Temple p.95 CS

August: The Lord Gave Me a Temple p.153 CS

For the Primary Program, we are also going to sing The Iron Rod p.274 HYMNS
We also have some Russian speaking children in our Primary and so we want to try I Love to See the Temple in Russian!  I'll let you know how that goes :-)

I Love to See the Temple (in Russian):
https://media.ldscdn.org/pdf/music/childrens-songbook-russian/1997-01-0720-i-love-to-see-the-temple-rus.pdf

For LDS songs in different languages check here:
http://singpraises.net

Welcome!

Hi Friends!  So I wanted to start a blog for LDS Primary Choristers since this is going to be my second year as chorister and during my first year I had gotten so much help from you fellow choristers and so I wanted to pay it forward! (whew, run-on sentence).  Last year, it was mostly a week to week planning thing and so I am determined to stay on top of things this year.  So here are my goals:

2016 Song Overview

2016 Monthly Outline

Weekly Lesson Plans

Reviews of Lessons: documentation of disasters (hopefully not too many), and what went awesomely :-)

I also want to include some activities that went well last year and that I'd definitely do again...and again and again.

P.S. I'm on a computer right now and I am so used to typing in my phone that I am having withdrawals from lack of emojis :-(

Alright, well I am going to get to work on that first lesson plan!  Check back soon!