THE BOOKS IN THE BOOK OF MORMON

Kids cannot live off of program songs alone.  They need a variety of other songs to nourish them.  I try to teach at least one other song each month besides the month’s program song to my JR and SR Primary along with reviewing other songs we’ve learned here and there.  This year in SR Primary the children are learning from the Book of Mormon in their Primary classes, so I thought it would be fun to bring out “The Books in the Book of Mormon” song.

Here is a flipchart I made for “The Books in the Book of Mormon” song.  There are a few ways you can make this.  You can print it onto white card stock and leave it as is OR you can have a little more fun with it and make it into a GOLDEN PLATES version like this:

  

 Here is how I made mine.  I got some shiny, gold card stock from the craft store.  The gold paper is a little pricey but I used 50% off coupons to buy a couple of packages.  The scrapbooker in me just loves paper so I couldn’t help myself, but you could also do it on a yellow-gold card stock.  I printed this file with just the words onto my gold paper then I printed the full flip chart file with the pictures and words I mentioned earlier onto white card stock (you could use paper too).  I cut the pictures out of the white paper and glued them to the appropriate “gold plate” pages.  I didn’t print the colored pictures directly onto the gold paper because the pictures wouldn’t come out as clearly on the darker, gold paper.  I inserted the pages into page protectors and bound them with 3 golden, spray painted binder rings and voilà!  
                           You have your GOLDEN PLATES flip chart. 
WARNING! You do have to flip the pages fast as you sing, but that is part of the fun as the children sing faster and faster.

If your primary is smaller, you could do a mini version like this one by printing two pages of the flip chart to one sheet of paper (select the layout option in your printer options) then cutting them in half to make a smaller book or you could use magnets on the back and post them on your board.  I laminated my smaller version for durability.

I like to use a variety of ways to teach a song.  There are many ways you can sing this song that the kids will love.  

Here are some suggestions:

• Start off slowly singing the song and each time you sing it, sing it a little faster.  Depending on how good your pianist is, your pianist will either love the challenge or shoot you the evil eye. 
• Use a stopwatch and time them each time they sing the song to see if they can beat their previous time.
• Ask the kids if they recognize what melody this song comes from.  Challenge the teachers too. [Ten Little Indians]
• Split the Primary into groups by class with each class taking turns singing one of the books in the song as you rotate around the classes.
• Split the Primary in half or do boys and girls each alternating singing each book.
• Do the following clapping rhythm pattern in order increasing the speed each time you sing it:
• clap hands on the lap
• clap hands together
• snap fingers
• clap hands together
• repeat
• There are a total of four counts per cycle.
• If you want to be adventurous and give a really good challenge, you could have the kids partner up after they have learned the song fairly well and do the following clapping game:
• clap hands on the lap
• clap hands together
• cross right hand over and clap partner’s right hand
• clap hands together
• cross left hand over and clap partner’s left hand
• clap hands together
• clap both hands against the partner’s hands
• clap hands together
• repeat. 
• There are a total of eight counts per cycle.
• Have the flip chart or mini version posted on the board.  Have a child stand up front with their back to the board or you can blindfold them (you can pick up one of those sleep eye masks for $1 at the Dollar Store—great for all sorts of singing activities.)  Have another child remove one of the books from the board making sure the first child doesn’t see.  Sing the song omitting the book that was removed then have the child guess which book was not sung.
• Using the mini version visual, hand out the different books to the children and have them stand up and sing when it comes to their book they are holding.
• Mix the visuals up on the board and have a couple of children come up and put the books in order.
• Have children come up front and give them each one of the books in a mixed up order and have them put themselves in the right order while the rest of the Primary sings.  I would suggest to only do one verse at a time, otherwise, it might get a bit crowded and disorderly.
• Quickly review a story from each of the books after each time you sing it. There are scripture references to a story for each book on each page of the flip chart.

After the children know it a little better, challenge them with the letter code visual from here, see if they can sing it with only the help of the first letter of each word.

Have fun with this song.  The kids will love it!