All you need to know

I was blog surfing again (Hey! that's where all my time goes!) And I stumbled across I Heart Primary Music (even though, yes, it is in my side bar on at least one of my blogs) and took the time to read the last post - which is a poem that she and her mother wrote titled: "All you need to know you learned from primary music" And it is great! So I took said poem and went all crazy with text effects and fonts and this is what I came up with:

All You Need to Know by Laura Henckel

Now, I haven't gotten her permission to publish yet - but I did so that I can show her what I did. So, I might be deleting this post if need be.
The preview on scribd didn't look quite like the one I have so if you would like a copy of the word doc I have, just leave a comment with an email. And -- remember -- I communicate with yahoo, so you might need to check your spam or trash.

April planning

For me, April will absolutely FLY by! First week, is of course, General Conference. And for our stake, the following week is Stake Conference.

Consequently my plan will be short. But before I realized Stake Conference was the second week of April, I did plan a song, so I just left it on my page.

The third week I plan on introducing the song I have picked for April - I Know My Father Lives. And the next week will be a memory review game where I will put names of songs on the back of memory game tiles that I plan to print up

And again, this fabulous calendar template was made by Sunbeam Singing

APRIL Planning by Laura Henckel

St. Patrick's Day

For St. Patrick's day, I was fortunate enough to find a fabulous idea from Primary Singing Time Ideas for Leaders. I am adapting it a bit and here is how I plan to do it:

Brittney paired each phrase denoting luckiness (or being blessed) with a song and I put them all on foam shamrocks

I found a package of a dozen shamrocks from the dollar store (you know, for a dollar) and bought two packages. In each package, there were 6 plain foam ones and 6 glittered ones. So I combined each group and wound up with 12 plain, 12 glittered and here is what I did with them.

Junior primary - I used the plain foam shamrocks.  I printed the statement on one side and then the song on the other. But I wanted to highlight the difference between blessed and lucky, so instead of saying it, I wrote blessed on the Shamrock, but covered with a sticker that says lucky.
I will hide the shamrocks around the primary room with the statement facing outwards
So a child will find a shamrock that says "We are lucky to have bodies". Then we will talk about where our bodies came from and how Heavenly Father has blessed us with bodies. Then the child can peel off the sticker and reveal the word blessed. Then we will turn over the shamrock and sing the corresponding song (In this case; Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes)

Senior primary - for senior, I used both sets. I wrote the statement out again on each of the glittered shamrocks, but of course on the plain side. I will hide the glittered shamrocks around the room, glitter side facing out. I will post all of the double sided shamrocks on the board with the song facing out. The child will pick a shamrock, read the statement, then try to pick the corresponding song and we will sing it (Also removing the "lucky" sticker to reveal "blessed" on the statement.

In both singing times, the child will have the option to keep the "lucky" sticker if they wish. At the end, I will give each child a "I am blessed" sticker (that they can put over their lucky stickers if they so wish)

Now I completely just pulled clip art off of Google for the "lucky" and "I am blessed"; nothing is original and I really don't have a source to credit. If you are against that kind of thing, I apologize. But I rationalize all of this plagiarizing by keeping in mind that I am not getting paid or making any profit from the work of unnamed others. Hope that is okay in the end.

Lucky vs Blessed by Laura Henckel

March planning

 

In In January, I found this super cute calendar from Sunbeam Singing and I've adapted it a bit, but here is my plan for March in her adorable format: 

March Planning by Laura Henckel

And Check back later for Easter ideas!

My Nursery Bag

Finally, finally, FINALLY! I got my nursery bag finished (actually almost a month ago and am NOW just getting around to post, but that's okay. It's DONE! and I couldn't be happier). I based my entire idea off of Camille's Nursery Bag from Camille's Primary Ideas. I changed it up a bit. NOTICE: I do have two songs not in the songbook. So I'm not sure how you feel about songs not in the book, but one of them is about ducks and I had some tiny "rubber" ducks from the closet and my daughter (in nursery) adores ducks, so I went with it.
Here is my list of songs:

Nursery Songs

1. Happy Family p. 198 (picture frames) (I cut out 5 "frames" from cardboard, spray painted them and the kids hold them and stick their heads through them - {pretending to be in the family picture that you hang on the wall}: now I have a small nursery (no more than 5 children each week), so this was not as difficult as making 12 might be. It was time consuming and quite an exercise, but the kids adore these frames.)

2. Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam p. 60 (sunbeam necklaces) (the ones in the document look like egg yolks with a starburst around them to me. If you can find foam sun cutouts [like Camille did] I would go with that - besides, they were wicked hard to cut out)

3. Popcorn Popping p. 242 (actions)

4. Five Little Ducks (ducks)

5. Itsy Bitsy Spider (actions)

6. Do As I'm Doing p. 276 (shakers)

7. Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes p. 275 (actions)

8. I Hope They Call Me on a Mission p. 169 (tags)

9. Once There Was a Snowman p. 249 (actions)

10. Follow the Prophet, chorus only p. 110 (prophet sticks)

11. I am a Child of God p. 2 (sit quietly with arms folded)

Here is the pdf of the visuals I cut out and then had laminated: 

Nursery Visual Aids by Laura Henckel

Here is the little list I printed up to remind me of my songs

Nursery Song List by Laura Henckel

Ideas for If the Savior Stood Beside me

(Hand in Hand by Greg Olsen)

If you haven't visited Sally DeFord's site - and page dedicated especially to this song - DO IT NOW! You really won't regret it (well, maybe other than spending all that time listening to ALL the different arrangements)
When looking for an image, I found this post - while it's not really a singing idea, it is a great story about how this song truly applies to life. Whether or not I tell it to the kids, I really like that I now have this perspective
Primary Singing Time Singing Magic has a great flip chart and activity

(Image from Primary Singing Time Singing Magic)

And then, something I am really excited about: A Make your Own Scratch off  Word Game!

My description does not do it any justice, so just go over to Notes From a Novice Primary Music Leader and check it out. If I was able to make the Child of God children, I think I can totally do this.

(Image from Notes From a Novice Primary Music Leader)

What do YOU know about "My Heavenly Father Loves Me?"

(This image is from lovemom.com - apparently this is a pillow case that you can buy and it comes with crayons that you use to color it)

Originally, I wanted to write a post about how my 17 year old daughter DID NOT KNOW this song. It made me cry - and laugh at the same time - it was weird. She vaguely remembered the part about "the velvet rose", but that was it. Truly - a travesty.

(from wikipedia.com)

 But that's all I had at the time and I didn't feel that it warranted a post.

However, I also didn't even know the name of the song myself. That seems terribly strange as now, after February is almost over, I have said it, sang it, and written it so many times that it seems like I have always known this song is titled as it is. But truly, when I saw the song in the Sharing Time Outline, I had NO IDEA what song "My Heavenly Father Loves Me" was. I kept on thinking that it was the one IN the outline, but when I looked it up in the songbook, I was like: "Oh yeah!!! The one about birds and roses and that goes incredibly high at the end"

Speaking of going incredibly high at the end: Was that how you learned it? Well, believe it or not, that was NOT how it was originally written. That super high part was the optional part, but was misprinted in the Sing With Me (that fabulously orange and canvas covered book) as the melody and In the Leafy TreeTops has a fabulous post about it that everyone should read.

Did YOU know all these things? I am so very grateful for the internet and the fact that I can find out all these awesome things!!!!