STAND FOR THE RIGHT & DARE TO DO RIGHT: MEDLEY

At the beginning of the year when I was trying to put together a preliminary plan for the songs for the year, I felt I wanted to do something to refresh the song and maybe even challenge the kids a little more with the  "Stand for the Right" song since we had already learned it for last year's program. As I was blankly staring at the page in the music book  thinking, thinking, thinking, my eyes turned to the page next to it and as I stared blankly at that page too, a small light began to flicker in my brain as I noticed "be true" in both songs....

      ....and then I noticed both songs had the same message 

               ....and then I noticed how the song fell in line with this year's theme

                        ....and then I noticed they were in the same key.

Well,  goodness-gracious!

I started to get excited as I thought that these songs were 

MFEO
(made for each other).

BRIGHT IDEA MOMENT!

Why not do a medley with this song?!?!?! So back in March, although I reviewed "Stand for the Right" I also taught the first verse to "Dare to Do Right".

I never got around to finding time to post this idea back in March, sorry, but if you are still looking at adding something else to your program, here you go! 

My plan for singing this song is to:

1. Start off singing "Stand for the Right" 
2. Then straight into "Dare to Do Right" only singing the first verse
3. Followed by a short pause
4. And then ending the song by singing just a little slower, "Our prophet has some words for you" from the beginning of the song...
5. Followed by "Be true, be true, and stand for the right" from the end of the song.  

Pretty simple, but I think it will help to make more of an impact with the messages of both songs while giving a song we did last year a breath of fresh air.

A couple of months latter after I made this plan, I did discover an arrangement of both of these songs done by Susan Slaugh while I was surfing the internet one night. It is a beautiful medley—duet. Here is a link to her full score sheet music.  Here is a link to the sheet music for the vocal.  I have been actually debating on whether to do this arrangement instead or stick with my original plan. I have had fun challenging the kids with Susan's arrangement and actually, the funny thing is, I have discovered the teachers have had a harder time with it than the children. I'll admit this arrangement is a bit of a challenge to practice when there is not enough singing time to go around, but it actually sounded really great the last time we practiced it.

For the duet section I've tried various groupings like splitting the Primary in half, splitting between boys and girls, but my favorite so far has been the teachers/children split. My biggest challenge though, if I decide to use Susan's arrangement is, how do I group the teachers from the children when it is time to sing it in the Sacrament Meeting program without too much disruption? It just seems easier for them to sing the duet when they are physically grouped in their respective parts. Hmmmm, I don't know. Maybe with more practice it will be easier for them to sing it all blended in one group. Or, maybe I'll just stick to my original plan, or now I'm thinking of going with my original plan but using Susan's music and cutting and pasting it into the format we will sing it. That's probably what I'll end up doing. Either way, it has been fun to challenge the SR kids and let them have another fun and interesting musical experience. 

DARE TO DO RIGHT FLIP CHART

This song fits so perfectly with this year's theme. My Primary will actually be singing the first verse in a  medley with  "Stand for the Right". I'll post that next. Below is a flip chart for the song. I also made an easy and fun interactive  sword & shield for the song that the kids just loved to use. I will post that later.

Dare to Do Right-FC-Nalani

BACK-TO-SCHOOL REVIEW IDEA

Ahhhhhhhhh!

It's that time of year when children's excitement explode with anticipation of school and in wonderment of who will be their teacher, what classes they will have, which friends will be in their classes and of course, the joy of getting new school clothes and school supplies. I don't know why this is, but I just love school supplies. Yep, there is nothing like having a fresh box of 

crayons

with all their little pointy ends just waiting to touch a fresh piece of paper to see what will be created.

Here is an easy "Back-to-School" idea I did a couple of years ago to help review some of the program songs that needed some work or maybe you just have a song or two you need to work on over-and-over again. This can work for that too; just take turns repeat singing the song you want to work on doing the singing activity according to the school item chosen each turn then moving on to another song after you feel they have sung that song enough times and are ready to move on. If you choose to do all the program songs instead of a select few, this activity will probably last you a couple of weeks. You probably have several, if not all, of these school items around the house.

HOW

1. Grab a backpack or a school box that you will fill with some school supplies for the children to pick from.
1. If your backpack has several pockets, put an item in each pocket for the children to select from.
2. Select a school supply for each song you plan to sing or have time to review if you are doing repeat singing on a song. See list below.
3. Assign a song to each school item you've chosen unless you plan on just singing one or two songs for repeat singing. 
4. Take turns having a child pick a school item from the backpack or box.
5. Sing the song according to that item's activity. 

SCHOOL SUPPLIES AND ACTIVITIES (key sheet downloadable below)

Book: A mini Children's Songbook would be great to use for this. Have a few bookmarks placed in the songbook under some selected songs (or written on the bookmark if you are not using the songbook) and have the child pick one of the bookmarks. Then sing that song. Instead of bookmarks, you could have the child pick their favorite song to sing. Another option is to have the children "read" the song by saying the words instead of singing.

Calculator: Choose a word in a song that is used several times and have the children count how many times that word is sung in the song. Have the JR hold their hand(s) up while they sing and count on their fingers. For SR, at the end of the song, have them hold up the number on their fingers when you ring the bell to see how many are right.

Crayons or Markers (set of 8-10 colors): Hold half the colors in one hand and the other half in the other hand. When one hand with the crayons/markers is held up, the children wearing those colors sing while the other children hum, la-la or oooooo and vice-versa with the other handful of colors. Take turns switching between colors. You could just select a few colors for each hand if you prefer.

Eraser(s): "Erase" one or two words from the song by not singing them. Preselect the word(s) in the song you want to omit from singing. If there are 2-3 words to select from, then you could write each of the words on a different eraser and have the child pick one to determine which word to omit. This is a good one for a sign language song; although they would omit singing the word, they would continue doing the sign language.

Flash Cards (Directional Singing Bird Cards): Put several of the Directional Singing Bird Cards in a stack and as you flash the cards over, the children sing according to the flash card. You may want to manually sort them in the stack to help control the order for how they sing.

Glue: Have them "glue" themselves in some pose that they have to hold through the song or for a more reverent song, have them glue their hands together or arms in a folded position.

Magnetic Letters: Have a child pick a letter from the little bag or box you have the magnetic letters in and while singing, they must omit singing each word that begins with the letter that was picked. In preparation for this one, look ahead at the song you have chosen for this activity and select several magnetic letters to put in your container that have several words using those letters in the song. This would mainly be for SR's since this would be a little difficult for the JRs.

Notebook of Paper: Pass out a piece of paper to each child from the notebook and have the children snap the paper to certain words, for example for the song "Choose the Right" you could have them snap the paper whenever they sing the words "choose the right", or they could play their piece of paper by holding it in one hand and hitting it with the fingers from the other hand to the beat of the song while they sing.

Notepad and Pen or Chalk or Small Dry Erase Board and Marker: Give the notepad and pen, piece of chalk or dry erase board and marker to a child. While singing, randomly stop the song and the child must write what the next word is on the notepad, chalkboard or dry erase board. Pick up singing where you left off and repeat stopping another time or two during the song. Have the child write down each word after each stop and check it after you finish the song or you could have a different child come up each time.

Pencils: Have a pencil for each child to pitch lead or conduct with as you sing. You could let the children keep the pencils afterwards.

Pencil Sharpener: Sharpen the words in the song by enunciating each word as you sing while slightly exaggerating the mouth.

Ruler: Who rules? Boys or Girls? Have a boy and a girl come up front. When you point to the girl with the ruler, the girls sing. When you point to the boy, of course, the boys sing. The girl and boy who represent the teams must of course also be singing to help represent their group. Another option is to have the girls and the boys each take turns singing the song separately to see who "rules". Or another option is that you could measure the volume by moving the ruler up and down: raising the ruler to increase the volume (crescendo), lowering the ruler to reduce the volume (decrescendo) or moving it to mid point for normal volume.

Scissors: Have everyone stand still while singing and as they sing you walk around "cutting out" the non-singers and wigglers by tapping them on the shoulder or head to sit down, but they need to keep singing. For SR I like to make it more challenging and to help prevent the goof-offy kids from wiggling on purpose so they can sit down by telling them that any that get "cut out" get the privilege to come up front and be a mini choir and re-sing the song.

Toy: Jump Rope, Ball or Other Small Toy = Recess Time: You will need a bell for this. When the bell rings, the children take a "recess" from singing the words and then when it rings again, they pick up singing the song where the music is. (The music continues playing when they are on "recess", so they have to keep singing it in their heads so they know which word they are on when they start singing again when "recess" is over and the bell rings.)

Remember, if you have the children control these school items for the singing activities instead of you controlling them, give them the rule of 6, 5 or 3 (for short songs). They can't switch more than that number of times in the song and they have to count to at least that number before they can switch again. For JR I don't have to use this rule, but I always do with my SR kids because there are some of them that just think it is so funny to keep switching back-and-forth quickly as many times as possible. (Well, okay, it is funny, but a bit difficult to sing.) I gotta keep ahead of those smartie-pants. 

OTHER IDEAS TO ADD A LITTLE MORE "SCHOOLING" EXCITEMENT IF YOU FEEL LIKE IT

• You can also give them a grade on the song for how well they sang it while doing the activity. Write the song and grade up on the chalkboard to make it more school-like.
• You could ham it up a bit by putting your hair in a bun or clip and sticking a couple of pencils in the bun. You could also put on reading glasses to give you more of a "teacher" look. I also like to throw on one of those eyeglass necklace chains that go on glasses so I don't have to wear the reading glasses the whole time since I don't wear glasses and I would get dizzy if I had to keep looking through the reading glasses; I just like to have the glasses hanging from my neck.
• If you have one of those desk bells, you could ring it before picking the next child to pick from the backpack. You could even tell them that when they hear the bell, they need to sit at attention with their arms folded so you can pick the next child. Just a little extra added bonus to help maintain reverence.
• You could even keep in theme with this month's song by having each child that comes up to pick share something they have done or can do to be like Jesus before they pick from the backpack.
• Have a basket of apples and hand out an apple to each teacher at the end of singing time.
• You could also add the "Spec—tacular Singing Sunglasses" idea to this by having another child guess the omitted word in SR Primary or the loudly sung word in JR Primary. You could even remove the dark lenses on a pair so they look more "wordy—nerdy".
• To help choose the helpers, you could tape numbered cut outs of apples under the chairs and have the children look under their chairs. Those children that get an apple under their chair are your helpers starting with #1. Or, if you have metal chairs, you could put some of those magnetic alphabet letters under the chairs and you would call you helpers up as needed starting with the letter "A". Only use one letter of each in the alphabet though.
• I like to set up my little table I use in Primary (that usually holds all my singing time paraphernalia) like a desk with my bell, finger pointer stick, basket of apples, pencil cup filled with the pencils I will use for pitch leading/conducting, stapler and the backpack.

Well, I hope that gives you some fun Back-to-School reviewing ideas.

8/25/12 9:00 pm
I've updated the key sheet to include one I forgot and I added another. 

Back to School Singing Key Sheet Nalani

I'M TRYING TO BE LIKE JESUS: SPANISH FLIP CHART

So I've had some requests here and there asking if I had my flip charts available in Spanish or if I could make them available in Spanish. Of course, my answer was no since I do not speak Spanish except for a few touristy words; although, I do wish I could speak Spanish. However, it has been kind of marinating there in the back of my mind now and again and was refreshed in my mind when I received another request a few weeks ago. I thought, "Well, maybe I could do it if someone could type it up for me in Spanish."

A few days later I decided to do a little research and see if I could find the Primary songs written in Spanish then I could just copy and paste. I didn't find that option, but I did find that I could download the sheet music in Spanish from the Church's web site which would allow me to see the text and then I could type it up using the Spanish keyboard option on my computer instead of having someone translate. So I thought I would give it a go and type it up along with using my translator program to help me make sure I got the phrases matched up to the right pictures since not all languages will translate in the same way or sometimes they switch places with phrases or sometimes the wording has been changed in a language to fit the flow of the music better.

With that said, here is my first attempt at making a Spanish flip chart version for "Yo trato de ser como Cristo" ("I'm Trying to Be like Jesus" .) I typed it exactly per the songbook's text and I hope I have the pictures matched up appropriately since there are a couple of phrases slightly different than the English version.

I would appreciate any feedback from any Spanish speaking areas to see if you think this is helpful or not or even if I did this right.

Adiós mis amigos. 

Spanish—I'm Trying to Be like Jesus-FC-Nalani

I'M TRYNG TO BE LIKE JESUS: TEACHING IDEAS

Here is my  lesson plan for introducing and teaching the first verse and chorus of the song. I know it looks long, but it should be easy to present. I just wanted to type out the lesson plan so you could have an example of how it flows and how everything ties in. The majority is just repeating the process for each phrase. I am mainly using  Directed Listening Questions to help the children focus on the words and message of the song, but I am also incorporating

movement, rhythm, 

cognitive thinking, & visual intrigue

along with the auspice of some spiritual connection to the message in the song. I've also included below some Directed Listening Questions  for verse 2 and some other ideas for reviewing the song for other weeks. This can be use with the flip chart found here or the visual imagery speech bubbles found here or use pictures you have from the Gospel Art Kit or File. 

LESSON PRESENTATION

Group Discussion & Cognitive Thinking

• Depending on if you are using the flip chart or visual imagery speech bubbles (aka speech balloons), pass out the pictures from your visual for the first verse, one to each class. If your Primary is small, you could hold onto the chorus pictures and then just hold them up for a group discussion when you come to the chorus part. You could also use similar Gospel Art pictures if you want.
• If you are using the speech bubbles visual, you can use the larger pictures from the flip chart to pass out to the classes but then post the smaller pictures on the board next to the speech bubbles or just pass out the smaller pictures for the speech bubbles.
•  Give the classes a minute to discuss in their class group the picture and select someone to be their class representative that will come up later to discuss the picture.

Wiggle Activity & Refocus

• Let’s sing “Do As I’m Doing” and let’s see how well each of you can follow the example of our leader. 
• Sing “Do As I’m Doing” 2-3 times and have a child come up each time and do an action for the children to follow. 
• Since some children may take too long to think of something, have some choices to pick from.
• Compliment the children for following the leaders example.

Directed Listening and Singing: Verse 1

•  Ask the children if they have ever wanted to be just like someone else? Maybe they want to grow up and be just like their mom or dad or even their big brother or sister. Or maybe there is a famous basketball star or a singer they would like to be like.
•  Let a few children share.
• When you are trying to be like someone, you should try and do the same things that they do and act the same way that they do.

Verse 1 Phrase 1

•  Listen to hear whom I’m trying to be like.
•  Sing the first phrase “I’m trying to be like Jesus; I’m following in his ways.” and receive answer. (Might be easier to sing without the piano during the directed listening portions.)
•  Post the picture of the girl in the center of the board if you are using the visual imagery viz. You could quickly describe the girl or ask the kids to share what they see, e.g. The girl is happy. She must love Jesus because she is hugging his picture. Thinking and following Jesus must make her happy.
•  Post the words from the flip chart or speech bubble from the visual imagery for the phrase just sung on the board. And say, “She is saying, (you sing) ‘I’m Trying to be like Jesus; I’m following in his ways.”
•  How many of you are trying to be like Jesus too? Great! If you are trying to be like Jesus, sing this part with me.
•  Have the class representative holding the first picture for the song come up and tell about the picture they are holding. You may have to ask questions to help prod the younger children, e.g. “What is happening in this picture?” “What are they doing?”
•  After they share about the picture, summarize the picture and the phrase and put the picture up next to the words you just posted for the flip chart or the speech bubble.
•  Let’s sing this part again and this time let’s clap the rhythm as we sing only using two fingers on each hand.

Verse 1 Phrase 2

•  Now listen to hear what it is I’m trying to do. [Love as he did]
•  Did you also hear for when you should love as he did? Sing it again if they didn’t catch that. [All that I do and say.]
• Post the words from the flip chart or speech bubble from the visual imagery for the phrase just sung on the board.
•  Have the class representative holding the second picture for the song come up and tell about the picture they are holding. Ask questions if necessary to prod the thought process in the child.
•   After they share about the picture, summarize the picture and the phrase and put the picture up next to the words you just posted for the flip chart or the speech bubble.
•  If you are trying to love others too, sing this part with me, and this time let’s do our two-finger rhythm clap with the two fingers of one hand clapping on the palm of our other hand as we sing.

Verse 1 Phrase 3

•  Listen to hear what I am tempted to do at times. [Make a wrong choice]
•  Post the words from the flip chart or speech bubble from the visual imagery for the phrase just sung on the board.
•  I think we all get tempted to make a wrong choice at times, so sing this part with me.
•  Have the class representative holding the third picture for the song come up and tell about the picture they are holding. Ask questions if necessary to prod the thought process in the child.
•   After they share about the picture, summarize the picture and the phrase and put the picture up next to the words you just posted for the flip chart or the speech bubble.
•  Let’s sing this part again, and this time let’s do our two-finger rhythm clap with the two fingers of one hand clapping on the opposite arm as we sing.

Verse 1 Phrase 4

•  I’m going to sing a part about the Holy Ghost whispering to me. I want you to listen very carefully to hear another name used in the song for the Holy Ghost. [Still small voice]
• Post the words from the flip chart or speech bubble from the visual imagery for the phrase just sung on the board.
•  If you try to listen for the Holy Ghost to help you, then sing this part with me.
•  Have the class representative holding the fourth picture for the song come up and tell about the picture they are holding. Ask questions if necessary to prod the thought process in the child.
•  After they share about the picture, summarize the picture and the phrase and put the picture up next to the words you just posted for the flip chart or the speech bubble.
•  Let’s sing this part again, and this time let’s do our two-finger rhythm clap with both hands on our laps we sing.

Chorus

• Let’s all sing what we’ve learned so far, but when we get to the end of this verse, you stop singing and I will continue to sing what the “still small voice whispers”.  Listen carefully so you can tell me what things the still small voice whispers to me. [Love one another, show kindness, be gentle and loving in deed and in thought]
•  When you sing the chorus part, sing it in a whisper voice.
• Post the words from the flip chart or speech bubble from the visual imagery for the phrase just sung on the board.
•  Have the class representative holding the first picture for the chorus come up and tell about the picture they are holding. Ask questions if necessary to prod the thought process in the child.
•  After they share about the picture, summarize the picture and the phrase and put the picture up next to the words you just posted for the flip chart or the speech bubble.
•  Repeat with the second chorus picture.
•  Let’s sing the chorus, and this time let’s whisper sing it.

• Now let’s sing the whole song but when we get to the chorus, let’s whisper sing it again.

 SUMMARY & TESTIMONY

Heavenly Father knew it would be hard for us here on earth, so he sent us Jesus Christ to be a perfect example for us to follow. (Show picture of Jesus.)

“For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.” John 13:15 (This is the scripture reference for the song.) (You could have the SR primary look the scripture up.)

The way Jesus lived while He was on earth is the way we should all live.  Briefly share your testimony of this.

TA-DA!!!!!

That's about it, but if there is time left, just sing some songs. I don't usually get much time on the first Sunday since the Bishopric Message seems to always go way over.  Next week our Primary will work on the second verse using the same methods as above. Because they will not need to learn as much next week, after teaching the second verse, I will review the whole song with them by using the smaller sized Directional Bird Singing cards found here that I will have children post by each of the speech bubbles. These really help the kids concentrate on the words while making it challenging yet fun.

Directed Listening and Singing: Verse 2

• Listen to hear whom I’m trying to love and serve. [My neighbor & friend]
• Listen to hear for what the day of gladness is. [When Jesus will come again]
• Listen to hear for what I try to remember. [The lessons he taught]
• Listen to hear who is it that enters into my thoughts. [Holy Spirit]

REVIEW IDEAS

• Have the children think of ways they can be like Jesus while they sing through a verse or a portion of the song. Have some of them share what they thought of. Stick a sticker of Jesus on them (optional). Repeat singing and sharing.
• If you don't have stickers of Jesus, cut out heart-shapes for each child in your Primary and have each child's name written on a heart and then tape them up scattered on the outer edges of the board or you could just hand them out to the teachers untaped to distribute to their classes and when a child shares how he/she can be like Jesus, they get to come up and put their heart next to a picture of Jesus you have on the board.
• Or, you could make a paper chain that is already connected to the picture of Jesus and then adding each child to the chain as they share.
• Use the Directional Singing Birds to help the kids concentrate on the words.
• Remove a FC or speech bubble one at a time while leaving the pictures.
• Have the children match the pictures to the words or vice-versa.
• Have the children put the visual or FC in order on the board or themselves in order.
• Gather several pictures of Jesus doing various things. Assign songs to each picture, preferably a song that correlates to the picture. Explain to the children that many of the Primary songs help you know what Jesus would want you to do to follow him. Let a child pick a picture and tell about it then sing the song. After singing each song, ask the children, "What does this song tell you Jesus wants you to do?" Here are some example songs:
• Listen, Listen
• Search, Ponder and Pray
• Love One Another
• When I Am Baptized
• Called to Serve
• I Love to See the Temple
• Choose the Right Way
• Follow the Prophet
• Keep the Commandments
• I'll Walk with You
• Oh, my goodness, these are just the ones off the top of my head. This list could go on-and-on. Just look in the songbook for songs that fit your needs.
• Here is a link to a great blogger's idea for this song too.
• What ideas do you have?????????

I'M TRYING TO BE LIKE JESUS: VISUAL IMAGERY & VIZ ON A STICK

  As promised, here are a couple of other visuals to use for

"I'm Trying to
Be like Jesus" 

instead of the
same ol', same ol'
flip charts.

One is a

Visual Imagery

of a girl who loves and wants to be just like Jesus and I have used speech bubbles to represent her telling about being like Jesus. There are also pictures to represent the phrases that are like the ones in the flip chart. I did not use the picture from the FC for the phrase, "I try to remember the lessons he taught" since the flip chart one was harder to see with the reduced size, so I did a different one. As I go through each phrase of the song with the children, I will post each speech bubble and its picture(s). I will explain more on how I plan to do that in the next post I'll do Saturday morning. Ooooooo, so much to do!

PREPARATION FOR THE VISUAL IMAGERY

1. Print them out on card stock. You may want to print the speech bubbles on colored card stock for some extra fun POP! I just used four different colors of card stock plus white for the chorus. PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE ARE 2 DIFFERENT VISUALS IN THE FILE, EACH WITH THEIR OWN SET OF SPEECH BUBBLES, SO SELECT ONLY THE PAGES YOU WANT TO PRINT.
2. Cut them out.
3. Laminate them (optional).
4. Put magnetic tape on the back (also optional and depends on what type of board you will be using).
5. You may want to number the pictures on the back or cut out and tape the phrases I typed on the pictures in the file for reference to the pictures to help you know which picture goes to which speech bubble.

VISUAL ON A STICK
In the file is another visual you may want to use instead. It actually is what I originally made for singing this song with the children a couple of years ago. It is speech bubbles on sticks or rather tongue depressors. You can use the speech bubbles without the pictures or with. The phrases I have two pictures for in the flip chart, I only used one picture per speech bubble. Verse one has all the speech bubbles pointing in the same direction and the second verse pointing in the opposite direction. Helps to differentiate which belongs to which verse as well as you can put the verses back-to-back if you want. You can add the pictures as well on both sides, but the pictures won't line up the same, so if that bothers you, just put the second verse on their own sticks. Actually, not having them back-to-back is a better idea since the kids that I sometimes had to help hold them up would get mixed up and flip them around. So I revised mine to keep the verses separated. It is kind of cute with the children holding the speech bubbles above their heads.

PREPARATION FOR THE SPEECH BUBBLES ON STICKS

1. Print the speech bubbles on colored card stock for some extra fun POP! I just used four different colors of card stock plus white for the chorus. PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE ARE 2 DIFFERENT VISUALS IN THE FILE, EACH WITH THEIR OWN SET OF SPEECH BUBBLES, SO SELECT ONLY THE PAGES YOU WANT TO PRINT.
2. If you want to add the pictures, print the pictures from the visual imagery portion on white card stock.
3. Cut them out.
4. Adhere the pictures to the speech bubbles if you are using the pictures.
5. Laminate them (optional).
6. Adhere them to a tongue depressor sticks.
7. You may want to code the back of the speech bubbles for easy reference in case you get them mixed up, e.g. V1-1, V1-2, V1-3, V2-1, V2-2 and/or glue the words to the back before laminating them. That might help you if you are holding them up and forget the words.

Now you have a few choices for visuals here. Which one will you use????

I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus-Viz-Nalani

I'M TRYING TO BE LIKE JESUS: FLIP CHART

Well fellow music leaders,
it's time to teach the final assigned program song for the year,

"I'm Trying to Be like Jesus".

This song is one of the many on my 

Favorite's List.

Below is a flip chart I made for the song. Print the chorus twice if you want one for the second verse. I also have a visual imagery version that can be used on the board if you want something different than a flip chart because it's

FUN 

  to change things up now and again. I just haven't had time to print and cut it out (busy-busy week) so I will post that hopefully by Friday night after work or Saturday morning when I will also post some simple presentation ideas for the song. So sorry I haven't had time to get this all posted earlier in the week.

Last year I actually had two children sing this in the program as one of our extra songs we usually add to the program repertoire. One from JR and one from SR and each sang a verse solo and then they both sang the chorus together. I just used the music from the songbook—no special sheet music. I have some fun memories of practicing it with them and pretending my tall candlestick was the microphone. They did a beautiful job. It was so hard not to cry listening to their beautiful voices. Okay, I admit, my eyes watered up, but hey, there were many others too. It is soooooo wonderful feeling these kids' spirit through music.

I just love it!!!

This year, to change it up a bit, I am having a CTR 7 child sing a solo of the first verse of "Jesus Once Was a Little Child" and then the Primary will go into "I'm Trying to Be like Jesus" and my little soloist will finish with repeating "For these are the things Jesus taught."  I'm just planning on using the music from the songbook. However, since both songs are in different keys, I will probably have "Jesus Once Was a Little Child" sung in the B flat key to match "I'm Trying to Be like Jesus". Here is a link to convert it to a B flat version. Just scroll down the left panel until you get to the "Key" section and then click on the "lower" arrow a couple of times until you get to B flat. My pianist might want to play the songs each in their original keys instead and just do a transitional short piece between the two. I'm letting her experiment with that to see what she feels comfortable with. I'm thinking it might sound better and be easier to keep them both in the same key. Just experiment and see what you like best. For the pianist, I will put together a copy of each of these songs and also mark it to repeat the end part "For these are the things Jesus taught" on the  "I'm Trying to Be like Jesus" for when the soloist repeats that at the end. That should make it easier so the pianist won't have to flip back and forth in the songbook. 


Oh, how I love to challenge these kiddos and see them grow in their musicality. I usually don't get volunteers for solos or singing groups, but with a little coaxing and working a little with them and a big friendly smile, they eventually say yes when asked and then they are so proud of themselves afterwards. 

So, there you have a couple of ideas if you are looking for a different way to present the song in the program.

I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus-FC-Nalani