Link - A Special Easter Egg

Eggs! Some of you might have prepared some variation of a singing time using plastic Easter eggs. Because I need something truly simple this week, I am (probably) using plastic eggs and "Titles and Tricks". But I am posting this week because I wanted to share a wonderful link to another post that touched me. Our loving Heavenly Father knows and blesses each of us, according to our need and as we are open to his ministering.

Just like most, I sometimes wonder if my own efforts are meaningful or even useful, considering the enormous need to build the Kingdom around the world. I've been feeling especially discouraged about how attendance in our own little primary has shrunk to almost nothing right at the moment. But, I was recently mining the depths of the labels of one of my favorite blogs when I read Michele's post about One Tiny Gift. I knew I wanted to share it with those that I love this Easter weekend. If you have read my philosophical posts, you know that her testimony is my testimony as well. That small efforts combine to bring about the purpose of God. That Jesus Christ loves and appreciates all who bring even one tiny gift, to make His kingdom -even the world, better and brighter. Thank you, Michele for such a lovely reminder of this truth. A Blessed Easter to all of you.

Using Pictures from the Friend Magazine

Regarding the last post and using pictures from the Friend magazine, Becky said...

"I love this idea and can't wait to use it. But, every time I try to find an image on lds.org in the Friend magazines, I get only the accompanying story or activity. Can you tell me how to find these great pictures?"

I thought I would do a separate post so that more people could see the answer to this question.

In you click on the menu at lds.org and then click on magazines, you'll see a button for the Friend magazine. Once you click on the magazines button, look on the left sidebar for "other issues."  You can choose from all the magazines available on the site, including the current issue. When the page opens for the year and month you've chosen, you have text that shows the contents of the magazine. At the top of the contents list is the large month title. To the right of this title is a choice to either "listen" or to "download." You want to click on download and then choose text. This will download the whole magazine in a pdf file that you can save to your own computer. If you choose individual stories or features from the contents list, you can only download that particular feature, but if you are careful to choose the top button, you will get the whole magazine.

I hope that explanation helps you access the fabulous pdfs from the back issues of the Friend. I love the Friend magazine and truly appreciate the effort the church puts into this great resource for our children. And, I love how it helps me be a better Primary chorister!

Choose and Review - CTR Picture Study

This choose and review is a “Picture Study” about making choices. When I searched the blog to link to the post that describes picture study on my master list, I couldn't find a separate post. Maybe I've described it somewhere, but just in case I haven't, here's the scoop. Picture Study encourages the children to study a picture and come to a conclusion about what is happening, etc. In some cases, I might post just one picture, perhaps of Joseph Smith reading the scriptures, or Jesus and the children, or one of the temples. Then I'll ask the children questions about that picture. The children study the picture and we briefly discuss what they see. Then we sing songs based on what I've chosen to emphasize about that picture.

In this case, in order to review making good choices, I’ve prepared two sets of eight pictures. (The second set is for another week. It will come in handy if I need a last minute singing time or even a substitute later in the year.) I'll post the pictures on the board and ask a child to choose one picture. They may need to identify or describe the situation to the other children and we'll briefly discuss what kind of choice needs to be made in that situation. If they get it right away we'll go on to sing the song. If they don't catch on, I’ll ask the children to listen as we sing the review song to discover what choice should be made in that situation. Then we’ll go on to the next picture. I like doing picture studies. You never know what the kids will think the children in the picture are doing or what they will notice about the picture.

Lucky for me, The Friend magazine has all sorts of these "situation" kinds of illustrations. I chose several songs to review and then went looking for an appropriate picture in the digital pdf magazines. I printed the picture directly onto white cardstock, cut out around the picture and put a magnet on the back.

Here are the songs I picked to go with these pictures.

Set 1: “Fun to Do” (Saying hello is fun to do.) “Quickly I’ll Obey” “Love One Another” “Search, Ponder, and Pray” “The Family” “I Believe in Being Honest” “Family Prayer” “Kindness Begins With Me”

Set 2: “To Think About Jesus” “Fun to Do (Making a card is fun to do.) “I’m Trying to Be Like Jesus” “Tell Me the Stories of Jesus” “Repentance” “Dare to Do Right” Quickly I’ll Obey” “Keep the Commandments”

Tip - Magnetic Tape

Okay, I may have to admit to living under a rock, but I am so excited to find magnetic tape! I have been using the thin magnets on the pictures I use to put up on the board, but some things don't really require even that much of a magnet. Lo, and behold - magnetic tape. Of course, I've seen the thicker magnetic tape strip, but this is so thin it comes in a tape dispenser and you rip it off a cutting bar. It is strong enough for one sheet of cardstock - and, it doesn't create bulk in my storage box! Hooray! I found this at Learning is Fun.

I know I promised my plans for teaching the hymn "Choose the Right," but those plans are on hold right now. However, I have scheduled a couple of posts to show you what I've been up to for Choose and Review. Look for them in the next couple of days.

Song Review - "As a Child of God"

For old times sake, I thought I would share with you all what I did to review “As a Child of God.”  I put the phrase pictures up on the board and asked a child to leave the room. I asked another child to choose one of the pictures to remove. We shuffled the remaining pictures around a bit to make it harder to spot, but if the guessing child is young, you may want to leave the pictures as they were. When the child came back into the room, we sang the song again to help them discover which picture was missing. Naturally, I asked the child to give the answer in the exact words of the song. If the children had a hard time, we sang the missing phrase together and then repeated the whole process.

The other review activity I had prepared was a “Pop Quiz” with questions about the song. The questions were written on orange slips of paper and placed in an Orange Crush bottle.  A child shook out a question and then had to answer it in the exact words of the song. Naturally, we had to sing a little to help them out. The pop quiz is just a fun way to help the children review and focus on the words of the song.

This year I have only five older kids and the rest are quite young. I think they need a little more time with our new song, before I ask them to learn a hymn. Since they already know "Stand for the Right," I'm going to trade months and teach "Choose the Right" in March. I'm currently planning a great "dramatization" to teach "Choose the Right," with kids holding props surrounding and singing to a child in the middle of the circle. I'm hoping that the mental images of acting out the song, together with the props, will help the little ones especially. I'll share when I get all the props ready. It will be too late for most of you, but I'll share anyway.

A New Blog - Link

You will have noticed that chorister blogs come and go. That is just the way of things, I guess. We get released, or we post all our good ideas, or we get involved in things other than blogging! Thankfully, when one chorister blog slows down, others appear to fill the need. I can tell that Nalani's new blog will be another great resource among many good blogs out there. She recently posted a fabulous explanation of the melody map that you won't want to miss, and her teaching plan for "A Child of God" is very thorough. I hope you'll visit - say hello for me.

First Week in the New Year

Yup, I'm still here - just not posting much, obviously. My visitors have gone up considerably in the last week. No doubt you all are looking to see what I'm doing with the new song, "As a Child of God."  I intended to post about this earlier, but have been snowed in and then couldn't make it down our incredibly muddy road until today. So this post may be too late to be of help for anyone. I'm sorry about that.

For this first week, I'm actually combining two teaching methods from my master list: Exploded Flip Chart and Choosing Pictures. Since the theme for the year is about choosing, I thought it might be fun for the children to choose the pictures for the phrases. For the first week, I want the children to focus their attention on listening. I don't want them to see words too quickly. So, this first week, I'll have them listen to the song and then choose from a variety of appropriate pictures (Choosing Pictures). The first week of a new year is typically a little chaotic and this method allows me to be flexible with the time. I'm really only planning on getting one verse and the chorus, but maybe I'll be lucky. ;o) I'll use these pictures along key words for the phrases (Exploded Flip Chart) next week.  Brittney's idea for using new year's resolutions is really cute and I'm planning to use a few of these as a back up singing time, in case my time is really eaten up or if we have too many children missing because of the weather. This idea is also easy enough to explain over the telephone to a substitute, so it will surely go on my emergency list.

I'm quite excited about this year's theme, "Choose the Right," because choosing opens up a thousand possibilities for a primary chorister. The remaining songs are relatively simple and we already know them, except for the hymn. I'm looking forward to a great year. I hope you feel the same.