New and refurbished ideas for LDS Primary Music Leaders (a.k.a. Primary Choristers)

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

CHOOSE THE RIGHT FLIP CHART & VISUAL LEARNING

2/5/12 UPDATE: Since there has been so much traffic at the current link that has caused it to be temporarily out of service, here is another link for the flip chart.  Click on this link for a medium res file that should be much quicker to download.
I love singing hymns, but when it comes to translating the song into a Primary flip chart, that can be a little bit of a challenge.  Often times the “grown up” words in hymns are hard to conceptualize into a visual format for the younger minds.  After perusing a myriad of pictures looking for what I felt I wanted in portraying the message of the song, I hopefully, have come up with a flip chart to do the song justice.  I’m happy to share the work I’ve done, so please feel free to use this flip chart if you would like.  I've done all three verses.  Below are some sample pics.





As a side note, flip charts are not the end all in teaching a song to children.  There are so many ways to teach children, but I do think they come in handy depending on what I am doing as I am teaching.  For example, on occasion I may not teach from a flip chart the first time I introduce a song.  I may focus on the melody  first, especially if it is a song they may not be familiar with, then I will move on to learning the words and then the meanings of words and their messages and bringing in a flip chart when needed for reinforcement or review.   Besides, singing the song over and over while they listen to the melody or to whatever I have directed them to listen to through discovery questions helps them to familiarize themselves and feel comfortable with the song.  Here is a link to a wonderful blog that goes into more details on discovery questions.  Kathleen has a plethora of fantastic ideas.

Another great reason I will use flip charts or some other visual, is because children are visual learners.  I for one am a very visual person; if you haven’t noticed yet by my blog.  Emotions are often connected to images.  How many times have you looked at a picture or watched a T.V. show with an image that brought tender tears to your eyes or made you double over in a fitful burst of guffawing laughter or effect some kind of emotional response from you???  That emotion caused a connection with you; thus, connecting that image with your memory.  People link those emotions with the different meanings they extract from what they visually see.  Children especially have a visual ability to “see” a story in a sequence of images.  A BONUS side affect of using visuals is it also keeps the teachers entertained focused and they tend to sing along more readily.  Besides, how often do you see adults singing without a songbook in church?  Catch my drift?!?!  Believe me, it doesn't get any easier the older we get to remember the words to songs.  Also, as a result of the children seeing and hearing their teachers sing, they are getting added support from their teachers.  
A WIN! WIN! WIN! situation.
So, my point here is, learning from visual images is another wonderful way children learn to sing.

P.S. I am planning on posting a few ideas later this week that I may use throughout the month in teaching and reviewing this song as well as a melody map in case you are interested.



31 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for putting this together! This is so much better than the other Flipart options I've seen for this song!

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  2. WOW! That is an amazing flip chart. The pictures really apply to the words. Thank you so much for all your hard work!

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  3. Thank you for sharing this, I have been struggling to find the pictures that I needed to help the little sunbeams understand what they were singing. Looking forward to reading about any other ideas that you have.

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  4. Perfect! Thank you so much for sharing this!

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  5. Love you blog. Where do you find the pictures you use? Particularly the ones that look like they come from the Friend? I have a hard time finding church approved pictures anywhere that are easy to manipulate into a flipchart or other visual.

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    1. I try to use as many church approved pictures as possible, but that isn't always possible and since I am not talented in drawing a picture, I will try and find pictures that are appropriate or pull something together of my own on the computer. The pictures you say that look like they came from The Friend are from The Friend. I peruse the paper and digital versions of The Friend and the other Church magazines looking for pictures that will fit the song. It does take some time. I have slowly been gaining my own personal library of pictures over the past few years, but I still look. I have recently started to keep a list of pictures in the Church magazines as I read through my hard copies. I'm hoping that the list will be easier to to scan over and when I see one that I think might work, then I can easily go to that magazine to take a look at it to see if it will work. I am excited that LDS.org has now started a media library. I have used some pictures from there as well. I'm hoping their files will continue to grow. As for using digital files, it can be difficult to do unless you have some kind of graphic editing program. There have also been times I have scanned an image in just so I can have a digital version of it. I still use a lot of pictures from the Gospel Art Kit or Book that I download from LDS.org.

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  6. You are a fountain of primary ideas for the less creative choristers in the world. Thank you for all of your time and ideas.

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  7. Thank you for this! And thank you in advance for the upcoming melody map! I was about to attempt one of my own but was a little nervous about it! Such great ideas!

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  8. Thanks ladies for all your wonderful comments. I'm glad you like them. It is very encouraging. It can be a bit nerve wracking putting things out in such a public forum, so thanks for your kind words. Happy singing!

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  9. does anyone have flipchart helps for The Articles of Faith songs?

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    1. I have just used the church's word posters for teaching them so I really don't have anything except an interactive type poster I did for the 4th Article of Faith. Someday I thought of doing something more.

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  10. thank you so much for sharing. I'm so grateful

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  11. You have done such a wonderful job on this. Thank you so much for making it available for us to use. I am newly called as a primary chorister and am trying to get the hang of it.

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  12. Thanks for the flip chart - that will definitely save me some time tonight. I love your ideas. I'll be checking your blog often!

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  13. Hey! I just wanted to say thanks as well. I saw the link for this through yahoo groups a few days ago but didn't have what I wanted to do set in stone. Once I figured it out I searched through my history on the computer to find your blog...It's just the perfect flip chart and I couldn't find another one that I liked near as much :)

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  14. Thanks for the effort you put into this. Your visuals for the flipchart match the meaning and are great for the really young kids to pick up on.

    Erica in Alaska

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  15. I can't get anything to download or print. It says the link is creating too much traffic. Will I be able to download later? These are so great!!! Thank you!
    Tina

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  16. I also am unable to access the flipchart for all 3 verses. It is great! Thank you so much. Is there another place to access the information?
    Tracy

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    1. I added a medium res size file so it should download faster than the high res one. Give that one a try.

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  17. Thanks for everyone's kind words. I am so glad you all are enjoying the FC. It makes it worth the work.

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  18. Nalani, thank you so much for this great flip chart. This makes my calling so much easier. I love the pictures that you used! Thanks again!

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  19. I"m trying to download this but it says I have to purchase scribid in order to do it b/c its in the archives? We know the song, But are reviewing it and I wanted to have this to help them remember tomorrow....

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    1. Shannon, Have you subscribed to Scribed? It shouldn't cost anything to subscribe to Scribd, unless it really has been some time and it has been moved to the archive section. I'm not familiar enough with Scribd. It still shows it is accessible. If you have subscribed and still can't access it, email me your address and I will try and email it to you (see the side bar for emailing).

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  20. Thank you so much! you have done a beautiful job! I really appreciate you sharing all your hard work.

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    1. WOW! Thanks for your kind comments. It's been a while since I've posted. Didn't realize people were still checking out this blog after all this time until my music leader (I’m Primary President now) told me she has seen lots of comments around the internet about my blog. Haven’t logged in for some time and was surprised to see so many emails when I did the other day. I have quite a few things I’ve never posted, so maybe I will have to find the time to add to the blog after all these years. Thanks again for visiting the blog and I hope you enjoy what’s there.

      Happy Singing!
      Nalani

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  21. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
    I just found your blog - i'm now a follower!!!

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    1. WOW! Thanks for your kind comments Kathryn. It's been a while since I've posted. Didn't realize people were still checking out this blog after all this time until my music leader (I’m Primary President now) told me she has seen lots of comments around the internet about my blog. Haven’t logged in for some time and was surprised to see so many emails when I did the other day. I have quite a few things I’ve never posted, so maybe I will have to find the time to add to the blog after all these years. Thanks again for visiting the blog and I hope you enjoy what’s there.

      Happy Singing!
      Nalani

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  22. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  23. I love your work!!! The links to the flip charts for "Choose the Right" and "As a child of God" aren't functioning. Are they still available?

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  25. Thank you for assembling and allowing others to download it for free!! These are fantastic!!

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