Choose and Review - Title Toss

Title Toss makes a fun singing time, however it takes a little work to prepare. But then it can live in the closet and be pulled out when you have extra time or when you've had one of those weeks and need to use something you've already prepared. I believe in being prepared for one of those weeks!

Just type the titles of MANY songs into the computer. Adjust the fonts and sizes and then print the titles out. Cut them out and randomly paste them onto a poster board. I say random, but you should mix the rest songs or wiggle songs in throughout the other titles. I also used appropriate stickers to enhance the poster a bit. When you're ready for singing time, put the poster on the floor and hand a child a beanbag. Invite them to toss the beanbag to choose a song to sing. You can adjust the tossing distance according to age or ability.

The only problem with this activity is that it might take the pianist some time to look up the page number of the song. This won't bother an experienced pianist because they often remember where the songs are and can find them quickly. But, to make it easier, you could copy the index in the songbook and have it available so that they don't have to keep flipping to the back of the book to look things up. Or, make an alphabetical list with the page numbers and keep it with the poster.

Music Aid - Category Cube

A category cube is another favorite music aid for singing time. On each side of the cube is a picture representing a category of primary songs, such as Action, Gospel, Jesus, Family, Seasons, etc. A child tosses the cube and then the children are challenged to think of a song to sing from that category. You can ask the child who rolled the cube to think of the song or open it up to the whole group. Younger kids nearly always need help.

You could adapt the idea simply by labeling pictures with the categories and then laminating them. Put the pictures in the pockets of an apron or a sack to draw from. Or, put them face up or face down on the floor and toss a bean bag to choose one. In an emergency you could just write categories on slips of paper and choose them from a basket or can, but the pictures really seem to help the kids. Rolling the cube makes the choosing more random. The same category comes up frequently when rolling the cube, but that's okay because there are so many songs still to choose in each category. If you want to remove that randomness, use either of the adaptations. This way you are sure to have each category chosen.

I have two of these 6-inch cubes with different categories. I keep one handy for when the kids have had enough of my planned activity. The cubes are also useful when I have extra time.

Music Aid - Flower Spinner

Everyday items can sometimes be put to good use in Primary music. This is a lawn decoration that I found in Hobby Lobby that works very well as a spinner to choose songs. This is a good time of year to look for something similar. I'll assign a review song to each color and have a child spin it. The color that points to the black band on the stem will tell us which song to sing.

I spent several minutes checking all the pinwheels in the rack to find one that was well balanced and random. This is important since you don't want to be stuck singing the same song again and again if the same color keeps coming up. Still, even with a well balanced spinner, the odds are high that we'll spin the same color at least a couple of times. I can bring the surprise sack and sing the same song using a different musical aid, such as the slinky or the bell or the baton with a fancy on it. Or, I can assign additional review songs to the color and sing a different song. If we spin the same color three times I could ask the child to choose a favorite song.

If I am reviewing a song that I have recently taught, I could also use the spinner to choose different ways to sing the song such as boys/girls sing, teachers only, sing/hum, stand to sing, etc.

Ideas for Using Discovery Questions

Because I like to use questions to teach a song, I’m always looking for creative ways to ask the questions. In some cases it works best to ask questions in a particular order. So, I just ask them without having the children choose them. Or, one or two questions may need to come first and then the rest can be random. These are some ideas I have used.

The easiest way (other than just asking, of course) is to write them on index cards or slips of papers and have the kids choose them from my hand or from a can or basket or the pockets of my apron. Sometimes I write them on the back of a seasonal shape or picture or even just on cut-out questions marks and post them on the chalkboard. Once I made little scrolls with toothpicks glued to the end of the paper strip and rolled them up. I can’t remember which song I was teaching, probably one about Jesus, but I remember making the scrolls.

When I taught “I Know That My Savior Loves Me” I used cutouts of children gathered around a picture of Jesus.

I often put the questions on the back of parts of a puzzle, building it up as we sing. This picture shows a puzzle of a sun which we built as I taught “Shine On.”

Sometimes I write the questions on the back of the letters of a related puzzle word, unscrambling the word as we sing. These letters spell “family.”

Its easy to put the questions in a little container of some kind like plastic Easter eggs or the Valentine heart boxes, or the glass snowman.

Maybe you all have some great choosing ideas. I’d love to hear them.

New Wiggle Worms

This coming Sunday is the first day of Spring. To honor the occasion I've made new wiggle worms and a bait can. At Christmas, my adult kids had so much fun making new objects for my singing time out of Sculpey clay. I've been wanting to get my hands in some Sculpey ever since, so I made these worms. I used numbers this time so that the worms can be more generic than my other wiggle sticks. I just have to make a numbered list of the wiggle songs to choose when I use these.

I wonder what else I could make with Sculpey clay? Any suggestions?

Choosing Wiggle Songs - wiggle sticks

These are my wiggle worm sticks. They have wiggle songs written on the back and the children can pick one of the worms to choose a wiggle song. They are easy, easy to make - just paint the sticks and glue the wiggly eyes on them. I keep them in a "bait can" and they are handy on the weeks that we're working hard to learn a new song.