teaching If I Listen With My Heart

This teaching method can be used for any song but I'm posting specifically what worked well for teaching If I Listen with My Heart.

Supplies

• Printouts of pictures relating to the song and the corresponding lyrics. Email me at jmoore336[at]gmail.com for the PDF or download from here: http://www.easy-share.com/1913990853/If I Listen With My Heart - Flipchart.pdf

Download instructions: You may have to wait up to 30 minutes for the file to be ready to download. Scroll to the bottom of the page that appears, enter the code, and click the "Slow Download" button. Do not click the large, green or gray Download buttons at the top of the page. (You should not have to install anything or pay for the download.)

• 1" binder
• approx. 25 protective sleeves 

Note: You may want to create two binders. See Considerations section below.

Instructions

1. Insert the pictures and corresponding lyrics into the protective sleeves. Store in the 1" binder. I found it worked best when I inserted the pages so that I could hold the binder like a flipchart. When the picture is displayed, the lyrics are facing me so I can read them while the children see the picture. For Senior primary, you can also reverse the way you hold the flipchart so they see the lyrics and not the pictures. Or, another option is to hold the binder flat up & down so that the picture is on top and the lyrics are underneath it - two pages per "flip".
2. Teach the song one verse at a time. We called up volunteers to hold the pictures (or words for Senior Primary). 
3. For Senior Primary, we then had them choose which words to flip around to pictures and sang through the verse several times until they didn't have any words - only pictures to prompt them.

Considerations

• Since my husband and I teach together, we made two books so he could hold one up to one side of the room and I could hold one for the other. You could also ask a member of the presidency or a teacher (even better I think) to help you with the second flipchart. 

• One of our review activities was to "pass" the song back and forth between the sides of the room - which you could do without two flipchart binders.

teaching My Heavenly Father Loves Me (CS p. 228)

One of my favorite Primary songs that I remember learning when I was in Primary is My Heavenly Father Loves Me - although not many people know it by that title. It begins, "Whenever I hear the song of a bird . . . " A song with simple yet powerful imagery that helps children recognize all the beauty around us and have gratitude for our senses.

Our Stake Primary presidency emphasizes using only church-approved pictures and materials. Our Primary president approved use of some non-approved materials if needed to teach a song. Most of the pictures in the PDF below are church-approved. The website sugardoodle.net has a great archive of Friend, Ensign, and other church-approved pictures. The Church's official website lds.org also has the Gospel Art picture kit from which you can download individual images.

Supplies

• High-quality color printouts of poster pictures: Email me at jmoore336[at]gmail.com for the PDF. Or you can download from here: http://www.easy-share.com/1913990724/MY HEAVENLY FATHER LOVES ME - POSTER PICTURES.pdf

Download instructions: You may have to wait up to 30 minutes for the file to be ready to download. Scroll to the bottom of the page that appears, enter the code, and click the "Slow Download" button. Do not click the large, green or gray Download buttons at the top of the page. (You should not have to install anything or pay for the download.)

• Foamboard
• Tape, glue, or photo splits
• Pointer object - I used a fake long-stem red rose I purchased at a craft store to go with the line "Whenever I touch a velvet rose"

Instructions

1. Cut out the printouts. 
2. Arrange the printouts on the poster (best to use the wider sides at the top and bottom) before securing with photo splits, tape, or glue. The first verse should fit on one side and the second verse on the other side.
   
3. The music notes for "song of a bird" and "magical sound of things" can be cut out and taped on using a large piece of tape to cover the entire music note. I arranged the notes to represent music coming out of the beak of one of the birds and out of the row of Primary children. 
4. The picture for "He gave me my life, my mind, my heart" can be colored in since it is a drawing. Also, I placed the heart right next to this picture and then wrote in large block letters with a marker LIFE and then MIND underneath it and then HEART underneath "mind". 
5. To teach the song, I held another posterboard across the poster to hide everything but the first line (so Junior Primary would not get overwhelmed with all the pictures). I said the phrase and then had them repeat it back to me several times. I used the fake rose as my pointer.
6. After we sang through it once, I asked a volunteer to come up and help me point to the pictures with the rose. For Junior, I only taught one verse each week for two weeks. Senior was already familiar with it so we sang it through a few times. You can also easily do actions to the words to help the children remember them.

The Bear Went Over the Mountain

Our Stake Primary presidency emphasizes non-competitive activities in Primary. This singing time activity has many variations but the purpose is to review a song recently learned or potentially review multiple songs for the Primary Program.

Supplies

• Fun magnet - like a bear, cow, sheep, cat, or dog
• Chalk
• Strips of paper with different descriptions - like "Girls" "Boys" "Brown hair" "Birthday in January, June, or July" "Favorite color is blue" "Have been to Disneyland" etc. Be sure to include strips that say "Teachers" and "Everyone". Create 15-20 different strips.
• a bag or box for the paper strips

Instructions

1. Draw a large hill on the chalkboard.
2. Make 10 evenly spaced slashes (or less if you have limited time) along the left side of the hill. Or, make slashes on both sides of the hill. For example, if you have a sheep magnet, you could draw grass on the other side of the hill - showing that the Primary children need to help the sheep get to the other side of the hill to eat the grass.
3. Start the magnet at the bottom of the hill.
4. Have a volunteer select strips of paper out of the bag or box. As you read the descriptions, have anyone who matches that description stand up. Keep selecting strips of paper until the majority of the Primary is standing.
5. Sing the song and have a member of the primary presidency give a 1, 2, or 3 rating based on how well the song was sung (considering things like knowing the words, volume, and reverence).
6. Repeat the activity until the magnet reaches the top of the hill or the bottom of the other side if you have enough time.

Considerations
With a little more thought and preparation, the drawing on the board could be more elaborate or relate to the scriptures somehow. Maybe the prophet Joseph going up the Hill Cumorah to get the Golden Plates. (We happen to have a ton of animal magnets from my son's playset so that's what I used.)

teaching I Will Follow God's Plan (CS p. 164)

This teaching idea can be used for any song, but I'm posting specifically what worked well for teaching I Will Follow God's Plan (CS p. 164).

Supplies

• For Junior Primary: Small papers (about 5x7) with the numbers 1 - 8 (or however many important words you select)
• For Junior Primary: Tape
• Word strips of  the important words attached to different brightly colored strips of paper with string to hang the word strips around the children's necks. I made 8 word strips total and picked 8 important words from the first half of the song and then 8 important words from the last half of the song. I put word strips on both sides of the colored paper so they could be flipped around easily. For I Will Follow God's Plan I chose the following words: GIFT, PLAN, PURPOSE, HEAVEN, CHOICE, EARTH, LIGHT, BIRTH and FOLLOW, HOLDING, LOVE, WORK, PRAY, WALK, HAPPY, ABOVE (to represent "home above")
• Objects related to the important words in the song. For I Will Follow God's Plan I used the following objects: 
• GIFT- wrapped gift box with a large tag that said "LIFE" (empty inside)
• PLAN - a map
• PURPOSE - large picture of boy being baptized (one of our purposes on earth is to be baptized)
• HEAVEN - large picture of the Second Coming - Jesus in heaven surrounded by angels
• CHOICE - foam board sword to represent the choice the 2,000 Stripling Warriors made. I wanted to have a shield with a large CTR printout attached to it but couldn't find a toy shield that was inexpensive. The kids loved the sword though - and remembered it!
• EARTH - I bought a blue plastic ball with white swirls in it that made the perfect ocean and then used a green permanent marker to draw in the continents. You could also use the church-approved picture of the earth or a small globe.
• LIGHT - I used a candle but you could also use a flashlight or lantern.
• BIRTH - Small baby doll

Note: For the last half of the song, I had the children do actions based on American Sign Language for the important words. If you watch the ASL video for this song on lds.org, you can get some good ideas.

• Large box and a towel or sheet to cover it. Place all the objects in the box. 
• For Senior Primary: Strips of paper with scripture references for all the important words - indicate which word within the scripture they should look for in order to find the important word.
• GIFT - Doctrine and Covenants 6:10 – 5th word 
• PLAN - Alma 39:18 – 8th word  
• PURPOSE - Romans 8:28 – 25th word  
• HEAVEN - Matthew 18:18 – 16th word  
• CHOICE - Proverbs 10:20 – 8th word  
• EARTH - Deuteronomy 5:8 – 25th word  
• LIGHT - 3 Nephi 12:15 – 4th word
• BIRTH - Luke 1:14 – 14th word

Documents

• Wordstrips and scripture references: Email me at jmoore336[at]gmail.com for the PDF. Or download from here: http://www.easy-share.com/1913990547/CS 164 - I Will Follow God's Plan.pdf
• Numbers 1-8: http://www.easy-share.com/1913990809/Numbers.pdf  

Download instructions: Scroll to the bottom of the page that appears, enter the code, and click the "Slow Download" button. Do not click the large, green or gray Download buttons at the top of the page. (You should not have to install anything or pay for the download.)

Instructions

1. Before church started, I taped the numbers 1 - 8 under chairs in the Primary room (one for each row) in preparation for Junior Primary.
2. After the wiggle song, I asked Junior Primary to look under their chairs. The children with numbers came up and stood in the order of their number. I collected the number cards.
3. Then I gave them each their important word to wear.
4. I then said the phrase and handed them their object, explaining why I chose that object if necessary. I had the children repeat the phrase after me a few times.
5. We sang through the first half of the song a few times.
6. Then I chose two volunteers. One left the room and the other one got to choose an object to hide in the box underneath the towel.
7. We sang the song while the first child came back into the room and had to guess which important word/object was missing by standing in the row at that spot.
8. The child who guessed the right object got to choose another object to take over from one of the initial volunteers and the child who hid the object got that object to hold.
9. We repeated this for as long as the time allowed.
10. For Senior Primary, I handed out the strips with scripture references to each class and the teacher chose someone to come up and get the corresponding word strip off the table. I then put them in order and we did the same activity as Junior Primary.
11. For the next Sunday, I turned the word strips around for the second half of the song and we added movements to each of the important words.

Considerations

• This would be a great song to teach in ASL - the lds.org website has a full video of the song that it is fairly easy to follow and learn.
• After we learned the entire song, I started placing all the important objects on the floor at the front of the room and we played Hot & Cold with one of the objects that they chose to hide. (Hot & Cold is when one child hides an object and the other one comes back into the room to find it. The Primary children sing loud or soft based on if the "seeker" is close or far away from the hiding place.)

singing time hot potato

The kids loved this review activity. It's a great way to sing the song multiple times and still keep their interest.

Supplies
An object that relates to the song

Note: We did this activity on the Sunday before Valentine's Day so I used a large, fuzzy red stuffed heart. When we learned "Stand for the Right" I used a 5x7 picture of President Monson.

Instructions

1. Discuss the activity beforehand with the pianist so he/she knows what to do.
2. Explain the activity to the children: You're going to pass around this object while we sing [a song you recently learned]. When the music stops, the person it lands on can say what the next word is (or phrase is sometimes easier). If you don't know the next word in the song, we will all help you.
3. Pass the object around while singing, having the pianist stop occasionally (I found that it works best to quietly signal the pianist on when to stop). Keep passing and singing until every child has gotten to pass the object at least once.

Considerations
I didn't want any of the children to feel put on the spot so, especially for Junior Primary, I opened up the question "What's the next word?" to the whole primary at the very first sign of discomfort/embarrassment in the child the object landed with.

pin the note on the song

Use this fun activity to help the children review songs for the end of the year Primary Program in Sacrament Meeting.

Source: Natalie Evans

Supplies

• White butcher paper 4' by 3' or a size of your preference
• Note: If the Junior and Senior primaries know different songs, you may need to make 2
• Music note cut out(s) (preferably laminated if using one or 10-15 music notes if you opt to leave the music notes pinned on the songs each time)
• Tape
• Thick marker
• List of program songs and songs the children know
• Blindfold (optional)

Instructions
1. On the butcher paper, write the names of the songs in a scattered pattern, including the names of the program songs 2 or 3 times each (or split up the verses). Write the page # next to the song title.
2. Post the butcher paper on the wall in the Primary room.
3. Blindfold a child volunteer, spin them a few times, and then hand them the music note with tape on the back.
4. The song that the music note is placed the closest to is the one you sing as a primary.
5. Repeat for the remainder of the time. One option is to have different colored music notes and leave each music note on the butcher paper as it is "pinned" instead of taking it off every time and reusing.