Virtual Dress Up
Next week, I am planning to do a fun St. Patrick's Day singing time. I love including holiday fun when I can so we can have a week to review things in a different way, and the primary kids seem to enjoy it too. Last year, when we were virtual, I did a virtual singing time where we sang fun songs and I added layers of holiday clothes as we sang. Of course I just dressed up myself, but the kids loved it.
Here is the video of my singing time I did last year. It is a bit long, but you can see a few fun ways to sing songs throughout the video. I did "The Holy Ghost" using a flashlight. I still do this song in primary with finger lights and the kids love it. I also did "Family History, I am Doing It" with spoons. Then my family did "The Priesthood is Restored" with Gatorade bottle trumpets. We did "When He Comes Again" using pop-up images. Then we did "I Want to Be a Missionary Now" with rhythm sticks. We did a stand/sit game with "I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ." A picture rebus song for "I Stand All Amazed." Then we ended with "When I am Baptized" sung with rainbow ribbon rings. At the time I wanted to encourage kids to watch each week, so I had a mystery word "Shamrock" at the end so that if they watched the whole thing, I brought them some fun St. Patrick's Day treats. Of course I didn't video all those songs in one day. Those activities were from previous singing times that I tied together with the activity. It was super fun!
Primary Dress Up Scavenger Hunt
This year, I planned to do another dress up sing, but I planned to have the kids dress up their teachers, because with 5 kids of my own at home, we have a lot of great holiday dress up stuff. As the week went along, people kept sharing so many other great ideas and I decided to combine 3 different ideas! So this is a scavenger hunt, dress up, and also brings in fun gospel themes for St. Patrick's Day. I decided to not put the song titles on the shamrocks, so that I can print out the document, laminate them, and change up the songs each year based on what we are working on. Each song has a category. Since we are trying two primary programs in my ward this year, here are the songs I chose for each one to give you some ideas:
Junior Primary:
Atonement: Gethsemane
Love: Help Me Dear Father
Resurrection: He Sent His Son
Heavenly Father: I am a Child of God
Covenants: I Love to See the Temple
Prophets: Build an Ark
Senior Primary:
Atonement: Gethsemane
Love: Choose to Serve the Lord
Resurrection: He Sent His Son
Heavenly Father: I Know My Father Lives
Covenants: The Covenant Song
Prophets: Follow the Prophet
Gethsemane is our combined Easter song, so that is why we are doing the same for both groups. And I taught "He Sent His Son" to both groups before we decided to do a split primary program. Since it is a perfect song about resurrection, I left that one in for Senior Primary. I like to post the words, but for this activity, I will just have the words of the song posted that I can easily flip in case I want to do an activity with them while I lead.
So far, I am planning to at least do colorful scarves with Gethsemane to symbolize the rainbow and talk briefly about how the atonement is our bridge back to Heavenly Father. If you are doing any of these songs, you could do rhythm sticks for Help Me Dear Father. I posted a video of that on my YouTube channel, and it is also under the "Help Me Dear Father" page on this blog. For "I Love to See The Temple" you could easily hold up pictures of the temple every time you sing the word "temple". I will upload my temple pictures document to this blog after this under the song title "I Love to See the Temple." And for "Build an Ark" you could do egg shakers. I have a video of that under the song title on this blog as well. I have a bag full of all the fun things I use and put it under the teachers chairs to make switching between instruments easier.
Okay, so here is my shamrock document that you can print out. As a tip, if you are viewing this from your phone, click the three dots in the upper left hand corner and select "print layout" for easier viewing:
You will notice in the instructions shamrock, that I am involving the primary presidency. So we will find a clue, read a rhyme about the gospel, sing a song, then the presidency will pick two kids to pick an item to make their teacher wear. Then they will pick a third child to read out to search for the clue with the help of the other kids encouraging them where to look. Then we repeat the process. In the end, we will find treats under the liner of the trashcan. Each shamrock tells you where to place it. I plan to cut that part out and put it on the back (before I laminate it) so I know where to hide it quickly for the next group. I will likely enlist a member of the presidency to write the new songs on the shamrocks and hide them for the next group. My presidency has been so helpful and I feel so blessed for that, so I wanted a chance to include them more this week.
Another note is that you will see there is a blank leaf on each of the clues. I plan to use this spot if I want to add parts of the scripture stories we are reading to it or a fun way to sing like "sing this using scarves to make rainbow colors as you sing." That way I can change up how I want to sing the songs each year as well. I am all for creating one fun idea, and using it each time that holiday comes around again. Anyway, hopefully it is helpful to some of you.
If you wanted to add parts of the story to the Old Testament story we are singing you could do something like this:
Atonement: Joseph must have felt alone at times. Like when he was a slave, or imprisoned. But through the atonement and Christ's suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus could understand all he felt and bring him comfort.
Love: Joseph's brothers sold him into Egpyt, but he showed love by forgiving them.
Resurrection: Joseph went through hard times but the scriptures say, "The Lord was with Joseph." He even raised up Joseph to be a great leader and save his family from the famine.
Heavenly Father: Joseph was taught about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ so he could know to follow them when he was far from home. The Holy Ghost guided him in all that he did.
Covenants: Joseph chose to keep his covenants even when others tried to tempt him with sin. He would rather run from sin, than give up his covenants.
Prophets: Heavenly Father guides prophets to help all of us. He gave Joseph the ability to interpret dreams to help prepare the people of Egypt for the coming famine, and to help save his people from the famine too.
I also found this file for printing out a fun message to attach a treat too. I can't take credit for it, but I am going to put a chocolate coin on each one for the kids. I found it on the Facebook Primary Chorister Page. So many great ideas on that page! Here is the printable:
This year, I plan to do my activity a few days after St. Patrick's Day so they have more opportunities to practice their monthly songs first. Happy singing!
Comments