"Scripture Singing"

I love whenever we can use our scriptures in Primary.  I feel that it is so important for the children to learn to use these valuable tools as much as possible.  I thought it would be fun to do a scripture search with singing time.  I will tell them to find a certain scripture and they are to read it and try to figure out a song that would go with that scripture.  You will have to probably bring extras from your library so that there will be enough for the children to share.  Here are some of the scriptures and songs that I will use:

SCRIPTURE                SONG
1 Nephi 3:7                  Nephi's Courage
D&C 4:3                       Called To Serve
Proverbs 29:9              The Wise man and the Foolish man
Leviticus 2:14               Popcorn Popping
D&C 138:53                 Latter Day Prophets
D&C 33:13                   Scripture Power
D&C 115:4                   I Belong To The Church of Jesus Christ
1 John 4:9                    He Sent His Son
1 Kings 18:34              Do As I'm Doing
I will have for our Opening Song or Reverence Song "Search, Ponder and Pray"
For the Junior Primary, I will have the teachers help the children look up the scripture and work together to think of a song.
Have fun searching the scriptures with the children and singing some of their favorite songs!

"Fortune Cookie Singing"

I thought of this idea using fortune cookies.  Who doesn't like breaking open a fortune cookie and finding their fortune inside!  I thought is would be fun to put different ways to sing inside of the cookies.  Here is what I thought would be fun:
"You will sing amazing if you stand up" Have the children stand to sing, or use the stand and sit signs
""You will make someone happy today"  Sing If Your Happy and you Know It.
"You will be a good leader"  Have the child lead the song, or lead them in Do As I'm Doing
"If you Choose the Right you will be happy"  Sing Choose The Right
"Something sweet is coming your way!"  Have the children sing for a tootsie roll
"You were created in the image of God"  Sing I Am A Child of God
"If you seek, you will find what you are looking for"  Play Hide and Seek during the song
A mission could be in your future" Sing I Hope They Call Me on a Mission, or We'll Bring The World His Truth
Be creative and make up your own fortunes!
Buy the fortune cookies and find the ones that you can easily slip the fortunes out of and then replace them carefully back into the cookie. If you are real ambitious, you could even make your own!

"Thanksgiving Singing"

I made this poster several years ago.  I made the feathers so they could be pulled off.  I tell the children that we are going to pluck the feathers off our turkey for singing time today.  On the back of the feathers I put the name of the song to sing, or how to sing the song.  I also have written something that the children have to say they are thankful for.  For example, "I am thankful for____"
Or, it may say "tell someone in the room why you are thankful for them".  Then we sing the song.   I like to add an element of surprise and one of the feathers may say "sing for a sticker" or "sing for a candy" etc.  Easy and fun!

"Thankful Charades"
Another idea for Thanksgiving that I have done before is to play a game of charades.  In a jar I have different songs that also are things that you can be thankful for.  I choose a child to pick out of the jar and then have them act out the name of the song and the children try to guess what it is.  Whoever guesses gets to do it next after we sing the song. Here are some ideas of songs:
"Scriptures"  sing Scripture Power
"Family"      sing Families Can Be Together Forever
"Food"        sing For Health and Strength
"Earth"        sing My Heavenly Father Loves Me
"Prophets"   sing Follow the Prophet, or Latter Day Prophets
"Temples"   sing I Love To See The Temple
"Baptism"    sing any baptism song
"Prayer"      sing A Child's Prayer
I like to talk about why we should be grateful for these things.  This is a great activity when you need something quick and easy!

"Purrrfect Singing"

Today I decided to do something for Halloween for singing time since Stake Conference is the Sunday before Halloween this year.  I called it "Purrrfect Singing".  I have these cute wooden cutouts that you stick into pumpkins.  I bought them at a boutique years ago.  I told the kids that I wanted them to be purrfect singers today and if they weren't, they would be monster singers.  I pulled out my wood cutouts of the cat and I also have one of a Frankenstein.  The idea is to have them sing good enough to earn a cat piece to put into the pumpkin.  If it wasn't purrfect then they had to put in a frankenstein piece. I used both sides of the pumpkin, or you could use two pumpkins.  On the front side we put the cat pieces on and on the back side we put the frankenstein pieces on.  After each song we would decide with the help of the primary presidency what piece it earned.  Needless to say, they were able to finish the cat before the frankenstein! Yeah!  When we were all done I held the pumpkin up and told them that they were "Purrrfect Singers".  I then turned the pumpkin around and they could see the Frankenstein that said "Happy Halloween".  The children seriously loved this and it is another one of those ideas where you can use things that you may already have around the house.

You can see from the bottom photo that I had them on both sides of the pumpkin!

"Singing Measles"

I have done this several times throughout the years and the children literally never get tired of it.  I buy the round red stickers at any office supply store.  I have used the colorful ones too, but I think red seems more like the measles.  I then tell the children that singing can be contagious just like the measles.  We are going to see if we can contaminate our teachers with your singing!  I then pass out stickers to the primary presidency and then they go and give stickers to the children who are singing really good. (This usually means everyone because they love this).  The child who gets a sticker then has to put it on their teacher.  It is so fun to see how many stickers the teachers have on themselves when singing time is over.  I have them all come up so the kids can see how well they spread their singing measles.  You can't go wrong with this one!

"Billy Bubblegum Singing"

 This is another activity that I use right before the program to practice our songs.  Last week I told the kids I would bring a friend next week.  One of the children said, "I hope it is bubblegum guy"!  They love this!  I made this poster and put a hole where his mouth is.

Then I put a pink balloon, I usually use a 9" balloon, and put it through the hole.  I then have a teacher come up and they get to blow up the balloon according to how well the children are singing.    The balloon gets bigger as the children sing.  If they mess up on words while singing, the balloon deflates some.

The idea is to get the balloon (bubblegum) as big as possible.  The children LOVE watching and will sing their hearts out for this.

If they sing amazing, I have had teachers actually blow it up so big that it "Popped"!  It makes a loud bang, but the kids love it.  You don't actually have to let it pop though if you have little ones that might be scared by the noise.  Senior primary seems to really love it though.  It's fun to have the teachers participate by blowing the balloons. This is one the children will want to do every year!

"Scripture Power"

"Scriptures are like packets of light that illuminate our minds and give place to guidance and direction from high" Elder Richard G. Scott

Scripture Power is one of the children's favorite songs!  They have so much enthusiasm when they sing this song.  We sang this in our program last year, and we continue to sing it as they always seem to choose it as a favorite song.  I think the children in our primary understood the power the scriptures have as many of them participated in a ward goal to read the Book of Mormon within 90 days!  For the program and whenever we sing this song, I have the children hold their scriptures in their hands and each time we sing "scripture power" they hold their scriptures up high in the air!  They LOVE this!  When we sang this song for our program, we had Books of Mormon for each child that they had written testimonies in.  We then sent these Books to the missionaries who were serving from our ward.  I reminded them that shortly these books that they were holding would soon be all over the world!  It was such a "Powerful" experience for everyone!  Being a mother of a missionary at the time, I couldn't express how grateful I was for this experience!

HOW TO TEACH:
To teach this song, have them tell you different things that help make their bodies strong.  Good diet, exercise, plenty of water, etc.  Then explain that the scriptures make their body strong in a different way! Talk about the ways the scriptures make you strong.  Then each time they sing "scripture power" have them hold their scriptures up high!  At the very end of the song I have them open their scriptures as it says, "the power that I get each time I read".  You can then read a scripture that they have opened up too!