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.)