"My Heavenly Father Loves Me"

Ready to introduce the new song this Sunday!??  I remember loving this song when I was in Primary.... "My Heavenly Father Loves Me".

I was moved to tears as I watched This video and thought of what it would be like NOT to be able to see the beauty all around us, thank you, Ashley Burner from Primary Notes 29, for sharing it.

To introduce the song, Im going to have everyone close their eyes and I'll ask them to imagine the most beautiful place that they can think of... 

When they open their eyes, I'll ask what it looks like, and I'll want to hear lots of their answers. :) 

I'll share how grateful I am for all that heavenly father has created for us on this beautiful earth and how much he loves us.

I'm so THANKFUL for an idea Wendy Olsen Buchanan shared, she said her Mom made this earth to teach the song, years ago, and now she's a chorister and gets to re-use this treasure!

I decided to make my own and it's still coming along, (see picture below), but I can tell its going to be a perfect visual aid for the song--- as long as I can get my husband to draw some of the images for me, haha.....

If you're interested in making your own, I just placed white and blue 12x12 cardstock papers together and traced the edge of a large mixing bowl for the circle and placed a brad in the middle. The pie cut piece was 1/8 of the circle, allowing 4 sections for each verse... I'll post a picture when it's finished. BUT if you're like me, and cant draw like wendy's amazing mom did, I found this great blogger who will let you print up her images for the song! The OCD Primary Chorister !

And then, if thats not enough :), I thought this would be the perfect week to pull out my parrot and play the "Parrot Repeats" game. If you haven't heard of it before, you just use the parrot to point to the kids to have them repeat the words that you are learning.
I found this cute little bird at a yard sale, he perches on my finger and flaps his wings, if I turn him on, (Which I'm debating) but even a picture of a parrot works... I just think this game works great with the song.

NURSERY: When it works out, I love tying my singing time in with my nursery plan somehow, so I'm going to take this parrot to nursery and sing songs all about nature, animals and outdoors!!

The rest of the time, if there is MORE time,

I was going to bring lots of things we can see, smell, touch, hear and taste...

perfume, a flashlight, fabric, fruitsnacks, a walkie talkie, etc.

Each song will remind them of one of our 5 senses that heavenly father blessed us with!

Spin the Bottle

Thinking ahead to Valentines Sunday already? So I am! 

Here's what I came up with...

These little hearts (from the dollar store) open up, but it would work just as well,  with envelopes or even cut out paper hearts!

Just fill up what youre using with songs all about *LoVe*,

place them around in a circle and play SPIN THE BOTTLE!! 

Wherever the bottle lands, that's the *love* song we're going to sing! 

Super simple, light and fun! 

Happy (early) Valentines day! :)

Thank you *Primary Notes 29*  for your ready to go list of *LOVE* SONGS!!

Visit her blog too for more super cute valentines ideas! HERE or HERE !!

I Feel My Saviors Love 74
I Love To See The Temple 95
I'll Walk With You 140
I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus 78
Jesus Loved the Little Children 59
Jesus Said Love Everyone 61
Love is Spoken Here 190
Love One Another 136
Mother, I Love You 207
My Heavenly Father Loves Me 228
Oh How We Love to Stand 279
Reverence is Love 31
Teacher, Do You Love Me 178
We Are Different 263
Where Love Is 138

and of course,
a random, pick the song you LOVE!!

COLOR TOSS

This Sunday we're learning verse three of I am a Child of God, I already posted ideas below for this verse, but decided to change it up a little bit...
BUT really this game can be used for any song, any Sunday... 

 I was going to use the idea from Sunbeams Singing blog HERE. Well, instead of printing up action cards (we all know how precious INK can be in this calling) I decided to do a bean bag toss, I happen to have this fabric strip with colored patches already on hand, but even different colored construction paper lined up would work great! Toss the bean bag and whatever color we land on is the song we sing...

I threw in the songs, Do as Im doing-with specific actions and Fun to Do, but changing the first words to specific things to match the verse 3 theme "living with him once more..." (I hope that makes sense?? :)

But really, ANY songs, ANY theme would work!
THEN, If you're in nursery, like me...

BRING IT TO NURSERY TOO! 

Let the kids toss the bag on a color before you sing the song, I actually went as far as to pick sings that remind me of each color (I know, Im ridiculous)...

White: Once there was a Snowman

Black: Book of Mormon Stories (my scriptures are black, lol)

Brown:  The GOLDEN plates, Away in a Manger

Purple: Little Purple Pansies/When I am baptized(rainbows) /Fun to Do---fill in with purple words, ex. "picking purple flowers is fun to do"... :)

Blue: Give Said the Little Stream/ Rain is Falling All Around

Green: In the Leafy Treetops

Yellow: Popcorn Popping/ I am like a Star

Orange: SMILES, If you're happy and you know it

Red: LOVE one Another

I am a Child of God --Verse 4

"His promises are sure"

Why a diamond ring, you ask?? Because a wedding ring symbolizes a promise perfectly, but I also thought it would be fun to have all the kids link pinky fingers together with the person next to them and talk about promises.

 I found the huge ring (above) at the dollar store, but a ring pop, or any regular ring would work too. I thought it would be a fun object to play hide/seek or hot/cold while we are repeating the verse, over and over... :)

I loved an idea found  HERE! Thank you for sharing Primary Notes 29!
After we have become comfortable with all the verses, a great way to remember each verse is to point to yourself;

Verse 1: Point to yourself (I am a child of God)
Verse 2: Point to knees   (sounds like "NEEDS")
Verse 3: Point to pockets (--where you keep your wallet, "RICH" blessings )
Verse 4: Point to ring finger ("Promises")

So, while we're pointing to ourselves and our parts, Mr. Potatohead and all his parts come to mind, lol....

Each body part represents a song!

Hat: HEAD, shoulders, knees and toes

Eyes: Popcorn popping (I LOOKED out the window...)

Nose: Rain is falling all around (...Rain is falling on my NOSE)

Ear 1: The Dearest Names (LISTEN, I'll whisper the name to you...)

Ear 2: Do as Im doing (wiggle ears)

Mouth: Smiles, Love os Spoken here or Jesus Said Love Everyone 

Arm 1: Book of Mormon Stories (Or any arm movement song)

Arm 2: Daddy Comes home (Put my ARMS around his neck)

Feet: Teach me to walk, Stand for the Right, Follow the Prophet

And then, it would be a fun change to bring it to the nursery and let all the kids pick a body part and sing songs with them as well! 

  

I am a Child of God--Verse 3

"I am a child of God, RICH BLESSINGS are in store"...

Just like the Primary kids, when I hear the word "RICH" I'm sure we think of treasure!! 

SO, I thought it would be cute to have a picture of a treasure box and talk about "real" riches and blessings... 

We'll fill it up with images of life's RICH blessings:

Family

Temple

Priesthood

Happiness

Answers to Prayers

Forgiveness

(I just found clip art on the internet)

This would also be a great week to give a back ground history of the song, if you haven't yet (like, me). Years after the song was written, the words were changed from "all that I must KNOW" to "all that I must DO'' so, the rest of the time, we are going to sing songs about what we need to "DO" to 

"Live with Him once more"...

I loved this idea from Sunbeam Singing! 
We'll sing “Do as Im Doing”, but the actions will all be things that can lead us back to heaven-- praying, reading our scriptures, taking the sacrament, picking up toys, listening to prophet (EARS), Being nice (HUGS). 

She has cute cards that you can even print off! 

Songs about living with him---

Teach me to walk 177

I lived in heaven  4

I will follow gods plan for me 164

A Childs Prayer 12

BIRTHDAY DRUM!

I heard a fun idea on on the LDS Primary Choristers facebook page that I have to pass along...

Thank you, Ashlie for sharing it. She said, "We do a birthday drum. They get to drum, while we count, how old they are turning. (It's an oatmeal or formula can wrapped in birthday wrapping paper.)"

I LOVED that idea and decided to make my own!  You can too!!

This one is Christmas tin can (on clearance right now at Walmart for a few cents :) I I covered the Christmas part on the front with birthday wrapping paper and mod podged it on.

Then, I made little drumsticks out of pencils with tissue paper wrapped with masking tape.

 It sounds like an awesome drum and I know the kids are going to love drumming how old they are turning!  

Wiggle Worms

I love the idea of a wiggle worm jar. Seeing different versions on several amazing blogs, was clearly inspiring! But I wasn't sure how I was going to make my own until I ran into the dollar store and they were all out of pom poms and popsicle sticks! :( 

I finally settled on these little hair bands at the $1 store and crossed my fingers...

I actually love they way they turned out and wanted to share!

Here is a list of the songs I used:

The wiseman/foolish man
Head, shoulders, knees, and toes
Do as Im doing
Popcorn Popping

Once there was a snowman
Book of Mormon Stories
Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam
I am like a Star
Follow the Prophet
Hinges
Give Said the little Stream
If Youre Happy
and
Fun to Do!

Wiggle on everyone. Wiggle on. :)

Nursery

Since, I'm only the chorister of the Junior Primary, I get to travel to the different Nurseries during the last hour (yes, more than one nursery, its the biggest ward I've been in)!
I am still trying to get organized for the new year, heres what I have so far...

I purchased a plastic box from the dollar store, my favorite place this week. :)
Here is what's inside:

My list of Songs is taped to the lid and lists the ''regular'' songs I plan on singing each week:

Here we are together

If youre happy and you know it

Head, shoulders, knees and toes

Jesus wants me for a sunbeam

Rain is falling all around

Once there was a snowman

Do as Im doing

I am like a star 

Twinkle, Twinkle little star

Popcorn popping
A happy family

I am a child of God

... and then the fun part! The PrOps!

(For "We are a happy family" I freehanded these little felt people onto popsicle sticks-- if I can do it, trust me, so can you! haha.)

(For "I am like a star" and "Twinkle, Twinkle" I found foam stars, again at the dollar store! Im also bringing a flashlight to shine on the stars as they hold them up!)

("Jesus wants me for a sunbeam" I just googled "sun clipart" and found these, "laminated" them, punched a hole and made necklaces... I actually don't have a laminator (YET), so I used packaging tape on both sides... clever or ghetto? :) IDK but it worked)

("I am a child of God" I shared this link in another post, I love them, thank you Sugar doodle, HERE)

(last but not least... shakey eggs! Beans and popcorn kernels hot glued into easter eggs, Ill use these for lots of songs, but especially "Do as Im doing").

I picked a lot of songs that have hand actions, so you really don't need lots of props! Just energy and enthusiasm! :)

I Am a Child of God --Verse 2

 "I am a child of God" Verse 2

I love this flip chart found HERE to help teach verse 2.

I loved the simplicity of it! Thank you, Mandy Ferris for sharing it on Sugardoodle. :)

Im definitely using it for that first part, but I decided to make our own flip chart for the next sentence, "help me to understand his words". I will tape pictures under a few random chairs that show how we can learn his words through:

Prophets
Personal Priesthood Blessings
Scriptures
The Commandments
Answers to prayers

Ill invite those children who found the pictures to bring them up, show them off and attach them to a blank flip chart for that sentence...


After singing the whole verse through a few times...

The rest of the songs for the day will, again, focus on "help me to understand his words"...

(What can I say, thats my favorite part!) 

Of course, Im throwing the whole verse two of "I am a child of God'' into the rotation several times as well, :), but here are some great familiar songs about "HIS WORDS"...

Book of Mormon Stories

The Golden Plates

Follow the Prophet

I want to Live the Gospel

Search, Ponder and Pray

Nephi's Courage

Come, Follow me

Keep the Commandments

We'll Bring the World His Truth

I'm going to tape the songs to the bottom of these foam footprints (that I found at the $1 store)...

Lay them out in a circle and have the pianist play the chorus of I am a child of God, as one child at a time, follows the footprints, like musical chairs, when the song abruptly ends, we'll see what footprint they are on, take that footprint out of rotation and sing that song!