Category Archives: Holiday and Seasonal Music Activities

Jul 11 2016

Three Wagons in a Row: Pioneer Game

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Tic Tac Toe – Three Wagons in a Row: Pioneer Game

Preparation

  • Print nine wagons onto white cardstock. Cut out and put together the wagons with tape or glue. (I used double-sided tape so I can take them apart and store then in a file when not in use.) Cut three long pieces of string or twine and put three wagons on each string (see picture). Tie the ends of the string in knots or loops.
  • Cut out nine 10X10 inch squares of fabric or brown lunch sack paper. Each of these squares will be made into a bag. I plan on putting song titles in some of my bags. Pioneer story titles, treats, game or activity items could also be put in the bags. Choose what to put in the bag and put one in the middle of each cut out square. Draw up the sides of each square into a sachet type bag. Tie each bag with twine or string. Put one bag in each wagon.
  • Draw a large tic tac toe game board on the chalkboard. Put each string of wagons across a row. (Our chalk board has bulletin boards on each side so I plan on using tacks to attach the strings to each side of the board. Duck tape might also work on the edge of the board.) Make sure there is enough room for the wagons to be pushed off the tic tac toe board on each side. Start with the wagons all on the left side of the board (off the tic tac toe board).
  • Print a dice and write the numbers one, two, or three on each of the spaces, or put two sets of each of these numbers in a bag.

 

Game Rules: Have a child roll the dice (or draw out numbers from a bag). The child moves one of the wagons the rolled amount of spaces across the tic tac toe board. Another child rolls the dice and does the same thing. The object of the game is to get three wagons  in a row, diagonally, horizontally, or vertically. This is not a competition. There are no teams. Let each Primary child take a turn rolling the dice and moving a wagon.

When one of the children gets three wagons in a row they get to choose one of the wagons and get its bag out. Whatever is inside the bag is the activity the Primary children will do, such as singing a pioneer song, or listening to a pioneer story, or doing a pioneer game or activity. After the activity, have the children continue playing the game in the same manner until all the bag activities have been done (or until time runs out).

(When there are no spaces where they can move a wagon, they must choose one of the wagons to slide off the game board to the right as their turn. When all three wagons on a string are on the right side of the board, they can start moving them back across to the left side of the board.)

 

 

Jul 7 2012

Fourth of July Song Review Activity

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 Fourth of July Song Reviewing Activities

Decorative fireworks (These fireworks contain poppers at the top opening. Each popper contains a song title.)

  • Items needed: a bag of poppers (these can be found in the party favor area at Walmart), a cardboard wrapping paper tube, a one-inch thick sheet of styrofoam, shish-kabob sticks, string, tape, foil and ribbon (or decorative paper), decorative wire tinsel.

Assembly Instructions – Take off the cardboard top on the popper. Insert a piece of paper that has the song title on it and replace the cover. (I saw this idea on Sugardoodle).  Cut a wrapping paper tube into eight to ten pieces. Cut a strip of styrofoam the width of the tube. Shove the styrofoam strip into a tube, leaving room at the end for the popper. Shove a shish-kabob stick through the top middle of the styrafoam, making a hole all the way through to the bottom. Tie a string to the end of the popper string.Tape the end of the string to the bottom of the stick and shoved it through the hole.Take the string off the stick and gently pull the string down until the round flat top of the popper becomes the end of the tube. Cover the tube with foil and ribbon (leave the top popper side uncovered). Shove a shish-kabob stick into bottom of the firework. Stick pieces of wire tinsel into the top sides of the tube next to the popper. Display the finished firecrackers in a jar filled with black beans.

Fourth of July activities to do while singing the songs.

1. Flag raising: Have a child raise and lower a flag while the children sing. When the flag is raised the children stand up. When it is lowered the children sit down.

2. Party hat: Have a member of the Primary presidency judge the classes as they sing. The teacher of the class that sings the best has to wear the decorative hat until the next song is done.

3. Bubbles bursting in air: The children aim their blown bubbles at a target such as a container. When they get a bubble in the container the next person comes up and tries to get the bubbles in the container. Continue in this manner until the song is done.

4.Patriotic artist: As the children sing the song, a child draws on the board an item related to the holiday such fireworks, a flag, the statue of Liberty, etc., but they have to draw it blindfolded. When the song if finished the other children guess what the artist drew.

5. Flag leading: Several children help lead the song with flags.

Presentation:

A child pulls the “wick”  making sure to point the firework away from people. After it has popped have the child look for the paper with the song title on it. The child then chooses a name of an activity from a container (or the activity items could be numbered and the child could choose a number). The chosen activity is performed while singing the song.

 

Jun 9 2012

Father’s Day Song

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 Grandmother/ Father:  pg 200

I changed the word “Grandmother” to the word “Father” so I could use this song for a Father’s Day song.  It worked great!

Preparation

Print the flipchart visuals.  (The images are from the church media library and from Microsoft Word clipart.)

Presentation

Post the flipchart pages for the first verse on the board. After singing the verse have the children think of actions they could do in to help remind them of the words. Have a child come up and take one of the pages off the board and demonstrate the action they chose for that page. Sing the song again. Continue in this manner until the verse is memorized.

After the children have the first verse memorized do the same activity with the other verses.

 

May 26 2012

Mother, Tell Me the Story

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Mother, Tell Me the Story  – pg. 204

Singing in sacrament meeting for Mother’s Day we put two songs together. We sang the first part of “Mother I Love You“, and then we sang “Mother Tell Me the Story”.  At the end of that we sang the last part of “Mother I Love You” (Mother I love you, I love you, I do). I had the women teachers and primary leaders sing the mother’s part in the song, and I asked a violinist to play their part as they sang.  We also did the combination of the mother’s and the children’s parts. It was beautiful.

Teaching the Song:

I used a visual aid idea that I saw several places on the Internet – I made the song into a story book. The children sang the song a couple of times as I showed them each page, then we started our memorizing activity. I had put the words on the pages with double-sided removable tape so I could remove them. I put black ribbons as bookmarks in-between each page. I had a child come up and choose a bookmark from the closed book. We opened the book to that page and I took the words off that page. They sang the song again. We did this until they had the song memorized.

Assembly:

I used four half sheets of poster board folded in half to make the book. After attaching the printed words and pictures, I laid the pages flat and poked  two holes through the middle of all the pages, one towards the top of the pages and one towards the bottom. I put a shoe lace through the holes and tied the pages together.  I taped the ends of the six black bookmark ribbons to the last page (which was blank)  and then draped each ribbon bookmark in-between a page.

I gave copies of the song to the teachers after the children learned their part, and then we practiced everybody’s parts together. I let the teachers take the words home to memorize them.

Note: The pictures are from Microsoft Word Clipart and the Friend Magazine.

May 12 2012

Blooming Flower Song Review Idea

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Note: I used this idea for Mother’s Day but it could be used with spring, summer, or fall flowers for reviewing songs.

Tell the children they are going to review the songs they will be singing in Sacrament Meeting for Mother’s Day. Show them the flowers and tell them you brought flowers as a visual aid because mothers love getting flowers on Mother’s Day. Point out that the flowers are very pretty, but they aren’t blooming yet or as pretty as they could be. They are like the Mother’s Day songs, they are beautiful but still need a little work. Explain that the flowers will take notice and “bloom” when the children sing their songs with amazing projection, presentation, and word recall.

Preparation

  • Items needed: inexpensive silk flowers that have petals that can fold up, green twine or thin green ribbon, a glue gun, decorative ribbon, a small rubber band, clear tape, and 2×3 Ziploc type baggies (from craft store). (If this item is not available you can make the small baggies using larger Ziploc baggies. Cut a piece of plastic four inches by three inches. Fold it over and tape together the bottom and side with clear tape.)
  • The flowers need to be on their own stem. If your silk flowers came in a bunch, cut the bottom of each stem with wire cutters. Remove the leaves from the stems. Put one flower in each baggie by poking the stem through the bottom of the small baggie and pulling the baggie up over the flower (you may wish to cut the zip part of the baggie off first).
  • Cut a piece of twine for each flower. The twine should be a little longer than the stem. Tie the top of the twine around the bottom of the baggie and then put a piece of clear tape around the tied section. The rest of the twine should hang down the stem. Do this with each flower. Hot glue some of the leaves to the bottom of the baggie where the twine is tied and taped. Gather the flowers into a bunch and put a rubber band around them about two inches down from the flowers. Tie a decorative ribbon around the rubber band.

Presentation

Pull down on a string and the baggie will be pulled off a flower and the flower will “bloom”.  Show the children the top of the flowers when pulling the string. (The above pictures don’t do the effect justice. It is really fun and amazing when the flowers “bloom”.)

Note: The above flowers came in a bunch for a dollar at Dollar Tree, but I think it would be more fun if all the flowers were different. The children would look forward to seeing what each one looks like when they open.

May 5 2012

Mother I Love You

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Mother I Love You – Pg 207

Preparation

  • Items needed: ten clothes pins, ten strips of cardstock to cover each set of words, double-sided removable tape.
  • Print the colored hearts (or print the heart outlines onto purple and red colored paper). Cut out the hearts. Glue or tape a heart to the bottom of each clothes pin.
  • Print the song pages. Attach two heart clothes pins to the left side of each song page. Put the red on top and the purple on the bottom to start off.
  • Optional: Attach each song page to a sheet of colored construction paper. Or trim the pages, attach them to cardstock, and put them in page protectors.

Presentation

Introduce the song words to the children as you put each song page on the board. Have the children sing the song. (You may want to sing only a couple of pages at a time with junior primary, and then put it all together.)

Point out and show the heart clothes pins to the children. Assign one of the clothes pin colors to each side of the room. Explain that the children will only sing the lines that their color of clothes pin is pointing to. Have them sing the song. Afterwards have two children go to the board and mix up the clothes pins. They can put either color on any line. Some pages may have two of the same color. Have the children sing the song again, only singing the lines that their color is pointing to.

Have two more children mix up the clothes pins again. After they are done, cover up some of the words using the cardstock strips and double-sided tape. Have them sing the song again and see if they can remember the lines that are covered up. Continue in this manner, mixing up the heart clothes pins and covering up words, until all the words are covered up. This may be a review for senior primary so more words may need to be covered up at a time.

Another idea would be to change who sings what by assigning the colors to certain groups such as boys and girls, specific classes, blue eyed children and brown eyed children, etc.

Note: The song pages are a combination of a couple of flipcharts from Sugardoodle. Thank you to those ladies for the help.

Apr 7 2012

Easter – Song Review

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Easter – Song Review

This activity is based on the classic game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey, but instead of a tail and donkey a blindfolded child will attempt to put an Easter egg into a basket. Have a child choose an egg and read the name of the song on the back. Blindfold the child and turn them around. Point them in the right direction. Have the other children help the child find the basket by singing the song soft when the child is far away from the basket and loud when the child is close.

A real basket and plastic eggs can be used, or you can print and cut out the eggs and basket visuals. (I used sparkly paper for my eggs.) Write or print out a list of songs you wish to review and put each one on the back of an egg, or in an egg if plastic eggs are used.

Post the picture of the basket on a wall where there is an open space to get to the basket. For safety, stay next to the blindfolded child to help them when they get near any obstacles. Put removable double-sided tape or sticky tack on the back of each egg so it can stick to the basket. (You may wish to move the basket to a different location each time, but move it when the child is blindfolded.)

Remind the children that eggs are used in the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection because for some people the new chick coming from the egg is a reminder of the risen Lord coming forth from the tomb.

Apr 6 2012

Resurrection – Easter, Item #5 – Song

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Resurrection – Easter
Item #5- Song
“Did Jesus Really Live Again?”

Preparation

  • Items needed: removable double-sided tape, a clear page protector, a recording of the song with words and a device to play it on.
  • Print the two small pages of visual aids. Glue the two pages together, back to back. (All parts of the picture will need to have glue on it.) Cut the small pictures apart into individual sections.
  • Note: If using this idea in Primary, print the larger version of the visual aids. You will need to tape four page protectors together, edge to edge, using clear tape, and also tape or glue the four pages of the picture of Jesus together. The song pictures will need to be glued to the back of the picture of Jesus in the right order as displayed in the above picture. Then cut apart the song cards so a part of the picture of Jesus is attached to each piece.
  • Note: The song comes from the Children’s Songbook Pg 64, and the pictures are from the Friend Magazine and Primary Manuals.

 

Presentation

Give one or two of the song pictures to each class or child. Tell them they are going to put the song words in order on the clear page protector. Have them listen to the song once, then ask who has the first part of the song. Have them put it on the page protector.  (The page protector should be horizontal, and the pictures should start at the top left corner and go towards the right. Each row will be a verse.) Ask who has the second part of the song. You may need to listen to the song again if they aren’t sure what comes next. Also have them sing what they have put in order so far as they listen.  Continue in this manner until all the pictures have been put on the page protector. Turn over the page to sing the final sentence. If the pictures are in the correct order, a picture of the resurrected Jesus Christ will be seen through the page protector.

To help the children learn the song, have a child take one or two of the small pictures off the page protector. Sing the song again to see if they can remember the part that has been taken off. Repeat this process until all the pictures have been removed and the children can sing the song without them. The following actions could be used in place of a removed picture:

Did Jesus really live again (hold hands out with palms up)
Yes, when the third day came (hold up three fingers)
He wakened and he left the tomb (walk in place)
He called Mary’s name (cup hands around mouth)
Did Jesus come to those he loved (Put hands over heart)
Yes, people touched his feet (bend over and touch feet),
And of the fish and honeycomb (wiggle hand back and forth like a fish swimming)
He did truly eat (pantomime eating).
And there were nail prints in his hands (point to hand)
And a spear wound in his side (point to side)
Did Jesus really live again after he had died (hold hands out with palms up)
Oh yes! And so shall I (nod head)!

Mar 19 2012

Conference Activity

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Conference Game

Preparation

  • Print and cut out the visual aids. The visuals come from the March 2012 Friend “Getting to Know Our Church Leaders”.
  • Using a utility knife, cut along the dotted line on each chair. Using 15 different colored markers or 15 different colored pieces of paper, put a different color on the back of the bottom tab on each photo. Put a square of matching color on the back of each matching chair just above the slit.
  • Tape each chair to a piece of 30″x20″ foam board using double-sided removable tape or sticky tac. Sticky tac the pictures of the apostles and prophet to a separate heavy sheet of paper.

 

Music Time Game Idea 

The object of the game is to match the prophet and apostle’s pictures to their correct chairs.  Have a volunteer pick a picture. Have them slide the tab of the picture into a chair slit. The child can they check the back to see if it is correct by looking to see if the colors on the tab and chair match. If they get a match they can choose a song to sing, or you may have specific songs you want them to sing written on the back of each chair, or a list of songs written on the board they can choose from.

Note: This activity can be used in a variety of ways for music or sharing time. Check out intheleafytreetopsthebirdssing.blogspot  for the clever ways she adapted and used the visuals.  She also has wonderful visuals for the song “Latter Day Prophets”, which includes the new part with President Monson.

Jun 25 2011

Fourth of July Song Choosing Activity

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Fourth of July Song Choosing Activity

Activity Description: The stars on the flag have song titles on them, and the stripes of the flag have lines from the song on them. A child choose a song title and then a line from that song. The child has to draw a representation of that song line on the board while the children sing the song. The children then guess what line it is.

This activity could be used to sing patriotic songs for the Fourth of July week, or it could be used to review songs.

Preparation

  • Items needed: red, white, and blue ribbon or paper, about 100 straight pins, a 12×18 foam board (3/4 inch thick), masking tape, a container for the pins, and chalk and eraser. (A piece of cardboard, and tape instead of pins, could be used instead of the foam board.)
  • Cut the ribbon or paper  into strips (I used 1 1/2 inch ribbon for my stripes and 7/8 inch ribbon for my star area. Each piece of 1 1/2 inch ribbon was approx. 5 inches long, and the 7/8 inch ribbon pieces were approx. 4 1/2 inches long.)  I had 42 red pieces, 38 white pieces, 23 small blue pieces, and 7 small white pieces. I had to cut a little off the sides of the foam board when I was done to make it all fit.
  • Write the song titles on the back of the small white strips of ribbon, and include the flag stripe row number where the lines for that song will be. Write the song lines on the back of the wide white or red ribbons according to which row they will be on. (I attached pieces of masking tape to the back middle of the ribbons so I could write on them. If you use paper strips you should be able to write directly on the strip.)
  • Make each strip into a loop, and attach each loop onto its place on the foam board with a pin (or attach onto a piece of cardboard using tape).
  • Optional: Attach a ribbon border around the outside edge of the foam board using pins or hot glue.

 

Presentation

Choose two children to come to the front. Have each of them choose a white star loop off the flag. Each of their song titles will direct them to a stripe in the flag. Have them choose one of the loops on that stripe. (Have them put the pin into a container.) Have the child who thinks he/she can draw a representation of their song line, tell their song title to the primary. Have the other child sit down and think about how to draw the line they have chosen.

Explain to the primary children that they will sing the song while the child draws a picture on the board. After they are done singing they can try and guess which line it is. The child who guesses correctly gets to come up and choose either a new star song title, or another stripe from the song they just sang if it needs reviewed again. Have that child go sit down and think about how to draw the line. Have the child who has been thinking about his/her line come up and tell what song title they have, and then have the child draw the line while the children sing. Continue on in this manner until all the song titles have been sung or reviewed.

Junior Primary children may need the help of a teacher to discuss ideas on what to draw, and they may also need help drawing. Also let the senior Primary know that they can get the help of a teacher or member of the Primary presidency if needed.