Pioneer Day

Sorry I didn't get a chance to post this before Pioneer day, but I'm posting it anyway just in case anyone wants to adapt it for another use.

Since so many people were in and out of town in July (including me!) and we had to prepare a song for Pioneer day, I decided to spend July just focusing on pioneer songs and activities. Our Primary program is not until November so I will have time to teach them the song for July later. So the last Sunday in July I just wanted to finish out the month with one last pioneer-focused activity.

I found a clipart picture of a campfire, printed out 4 copies, and glued one to each side of a box. Then I found several short stories about pioneer children and wrote them on pieces of construction paper. I also wrote a few pioneer songs and other fun wiggly songs on pieces of construction paper. I made a small covered wagon with oxen (found the pattern in an old Friend magazine). When the kids came in, I had set up the chairs in a circle with the "campfire" in the middle. I put the pieces of paper with the songs and stories face down in a line with the wagon at the beginning of the "trail."

I started by telling the kids that at the end of a long day of walking, the pioneers would sit around a campfire and tell stories, sing songs, read scriptures, and pray together. (They were all LOVING sitting in a circle!) I had them pass a beanbag around the circle while the pianist played Pioneer Children Sang as They Walked and when she stopped, the child who had the beanbag came up and moved the wagon to the first piece of paper. Then we would read the story (I brought simple props to go along with each story) or sing the song. The idea was that they would help the wagon move along the trail to the Salt Lake Valley.

I Spy

Update: I did this activity in my primary and it was really fun! I planned to repeat The Handcart Song, which we were practicing for Pioneer Day, over and over but it turns out they already knew the song (especially Sr. primary) and didn't need to sing it that many times so I just let the kids pick their favorite songs. Both Jr. and Sr. LOVED this activity. I highly recommend it. And it's so easy to prepare and carry out! For Sr. I made the changes more subtle than jr. I'll definitely do this again!

I just read about a cute activity on SugarDoodle (LOVE that website) that I definitely want to try! It was posted by Julie Summerhays:

"We played a version of "I Spy". I first had them look at me, my clothes, my hair, everything, then I dissappeared into the hall to put on or took off something that they would have to spy. I then came back in and we sang one of the songs and I picked someone to tell us what I had changed or what they could spy that was different. We were able to sing about 7 songs, so I brought 7 things to change. I took off the item every time, so it wasn't too confusing. We did a review of the program songs and it worked out so well - the children LOVED it. Here are some of the things I did: Change my shoes, put on a headband, put on a bracelet, put a sticker on my skirt that blended in with the pattern, changed one earing, put a barrett in my hair, put on or take off a necklace. For the senior, you could make it much more difficult."

Instruments

I made these instruments for nursery. I sewed 3 bells in a row on a strip of scrap fabric. Then I wrapped the fabric around a piece of card stock and hot glued it in place, then hot glued the ends together. I pass them out for the kids to shake when we're singing songs that don't have visual aids or actions, like ABCs. I considered hot gluing the bells on, since I don't sew well and it took me hours just to do 10 of these. But I didn't know if they'd jingle as well, and I'm glad I sewed them instead. There are kiddos every week that try to pull them off!

Those tubes standing up in the back of the picture are just toilet paper rolls with beans in the middle and wax paper over the ends. But my 2 year old poked his finger through the wax paper and destroyed them as soon as he got a hold of them. That was my Litmus test I guess. If they can't survive him, they're not going to survive the other nursery kids! So for now I just use the bells.

When I had this calling in Provo a few years ago, the previous music leader passed along to me a box full of "instruments" that she used in junior and senior primary all the time. There were bells much like these and wooden dowels (2 per person so they can hit them together). I have also been saving up formula cans and other containers to contribute to my own instrument box to use as drums. The only thing is, you have to make sure they know that the instruments are ONLY to be used for beating out the rhythm of the song. If they get wild or disruptive, they don't get to have an instrument. I'm a little hesitant to start this in my primary because I'm sure it will be so exciting and, more than likely, a little chaotic at first. But what I saw in my last ward was that once the kids knew the drill, they were really good about only using their instruments for doing the rhythm.

Follow The Prophet for Nursery

One of the things I have been doing every week in Nursery for a while is Follow the Prophet. I start by showing them a picture of the prophet and ask them who is in the picture. Most of them by now will say Prophet and then I make sure and have them say his name, President Monson. We talk about why he is special. (Keep it simple, of course: He tells us what to do be happy, He tells us what Jesus wants us to do, etc.) I cut several of the thumbnail size pictures of President Monson out of old Ensigns, put them on cardstock, laminated them, and glued them to popsicle sticks. Each child gets to hold their own picture of the prophet while we sing. I just taught them the chorus only. They usually bounce it up and down while we sing "Follow the Prophet" then shake their finger when we sing "don't go astray" and point to their head when we sing "He knows the way." Then we usually stand and march in place while we sing it a second time.

Everything I do in nursery involves them holding something or doing something with their hands. Little hands need to stay busy or they will lose focus really fast!

I also did this same type thing for the song 3 Little Ducks. I found a clipart picture of a duck, cut out several of them and put them on cardstock, laminated them and glued them on popsicle sticks. That way when we sing 3 Little Ducks, they move their own little duckies around, behind their backs, etc.

Different Ways to Sing

The key to helping children learn is repetition, repetition, repetition. But of course they lose interest real quick if you don't change things up and keep it interesting. I am always trying to come up with different ways to sing the same song over and over without it getting boring. These are some signs I've made up to use for reviewing/repeating songs or just to get the attention back if it's lost.

Boys Sing/Girls Sing

Lion/Lamb (Sing loud/soft)

Stand up/Sit down

Buzz/Sing the words

Ooh/Ahh

Stop/Go
(You can either have the piano stop or keep going and just the kids stop singing)

Children Illustrate

For certain songs which are easy to illustrate, it's fun to have the kids help with the illustrations. I did this with Beautiful Savior. I wrote the first 3 lines of the song on pieces of construction paper and handed them out to each class. I gave them some crayons and a few minutes to illustrate the words. For the younger classes, I had the teachers draw what the kids told them to so it wouldn't be chaotic. The older kids were able to take turns and all contribute to the picture. Then I used their pictures as my visual aids in teaching the song. Here's an example, the first line of the song "fair is the sunshine."

You could also have a child come up and whisper in his ear the words to the song and have him draw it with chalk on the chalk board and have everybody else guess the words.

Memory

Memory is a classic game that's easy to adapt to different situations. For this particular Sunday, I felt like the kids needed to review I Lived in Heaven (3 verses) and Beautiful Savior (3 verses) plus we had just learned 1 verse of Baptism. I put the first line of the verse plus a picture that went along with the words (particularly for junior primary, who can't read as well) on pieces of cardstock. I put them all up on the board face down and the kids took turns flipping cards over trying to make a match. When they found 2 that matched we would sing that verse. Simple and effective for a review activity!