Catching up!

Wow, nothing like taking a 3 month break from the blog! Here are some of the things I've been doing lately:

*Right before the primary program I did the "Primary Music Hospital." I've seen several versions of this and it was SO FUN! I decorated a tri-fold science fair board with red crosses, tongue depressors, cotton balls, a thermometer, a reflex hammer, medicine bottles, etc. I just raided my medicine cabinet and nursing school bag. Then I put the title, Primary Music Hospital, and 3 file folders with the words "patients" "emergency room" and "discharges." The patients were each of the songs we learned and needed to practice for the program. I had an awesome lady in my ward who played the part of the "Musical Doctor." I made her a nametag and she wore my stethoscope. I had a child come up and pull a paper out of the "patient" folder. It had the name of a song on it, which the child gave to the doctor. Then we sang the song and the doctor did an assessment. She rated the children 1-5 in difference categories, like watching the chorister, volume, singing the right words, melody, smiling, etc. If they scored all 4's and 5's they got to send that patient home (the discharge folder). If they were too sick to go home, like they got some 3's, the patient had to go to the emergency room (and then I knew which songs needed some last minute fine tuning). The lady who played the doctor did an awesome job. She was really silly, placing the stethoscope on their chest or head while they were singing for example. It was a ton of fun and a great motivator for the kids to sing their best!

*After the program I had to take the whole 40 minutes, so I brought in some instruments (sticks, bells, empty containers) and we just sang some fun songs while the kids got to tap out the rhythms with their instruments. Also I did a "Stump the Chorister" activity (idea by the Crazy Chorister of course-I love all her ideas!). I had a table full of silly costumes, wigs, hats, etc. and passed out a children's song book to each class. They had a few minutes to pick a song and then try to stump me. Most of them gave me a part of the song and asked me to guess the song. Some classes gave me clues about what the song was about. If I was able to guess the song, they got to pick out something silly for their teacher to wear. If they stumped me, they got to pick out something silly for me to wear. It was super fun. By the end I was wearing swimming goggles, a rastafarrian wig, an indian maiden vest, and a headband with wiggly antennas. The kids were just cracking up! I was too!