MUSICAL MISSIONARY

I like to have at least one singing time a month that goes along with the monthly theme. For this month's theme "I Can Choose to Be a Missionary Now" I am getting my inspiration from this Month's "Bringing Primary Home: I Can Choose to Be a Missionary NOW" in the Nov. 2012 Friend.  I just thought the speech bubble Q&A idea would be fun to use in Singing Time.  I'm also getting inspiration from the Sharing Time Idea #4 in the Oct 2007 Friend. 


Basically I'm going to tie in the missionary theme by briefly
talking about how the songs we learn in Primary teaches us about the gospel and when we learn these gospel principles, we are able to be a missionary now by sharing these things. I'm also going to read some portions of the preface in the  Children's Songbook to help emphasize this. Keep the talking part to about a minute.  I will be doing the singing portion a little different for my JR than my SR group.

JR

1. (Setup) Have the picture of the boys posted in the center of your board. You can print the one page version or if you have a large Primary, you may want to print only that page larger in poster format. You can click on the "How To Helps" tab above for how to print in poster format. Just make sure you only have that page selected to print so it doesn't try and print all the pages in poster format.
2. (Setup) Have the song/answer speech bubbles posted randomly around the room or on the outside edges of your board for the children to select from.
3. Explain to the children that this boy (pointing to the boy sitting back on the bed-you could give the boys names if you want) has lots of questions to ask us and we are going to help this boy (pointing to the boy holding the scriptures) answer those questions by thinking of which Primary songs will help answer them. Point out you have several songs around the room that they can choose from.
4. Post the first question speech bubble next to the boy sitting back on the bed and ask the Primary the question. Let a child select a song/answer speech bubble to put on the board by the boy with the scriptures.
5. Sing the song. Ask them to listen to the words as they sing to find the answer.
6. Repeat steps 4 & 5 for as long as you have time for.

SR

1. (Setup) Have the picture of the boys posted in the center of your board. You can print the one page version or if you have a large Primary, you may want to print only that page larger in poster format. You can click on the "How To Helps" tab above for how to print in poster format. Just make sure you only have that page selected to print so it doesn't try and print all the pages in poster format.
2. Explain to the children that this boy (pointing to the boy sitting back on the bed-you could give the boys names if you want) has lots of questions to ask us and we are going to help this boy (pointing to the boy holding the scriptures) answer those questions by thinking of which Primary songs will help answer them. Here are some variations of how the SR can figure out the songs.
1. Just let them think of songs from their memory.
2. Give them a list of songs to select from combining the ones you have chosen as well as others.
3. Give each class/group a copy of the topical song guide from the Children's Songbook to find a song.
4. Give each class/group a copy of the Children's Songbook to look through.
3. Give each class one or two of the question speech bubbles (depending on how many you have in your Primary and how much time you have). You could just type the questions on paper and cut them out to hand them out and you post the speech bubbles later as you go through them. Give them a few minutes to find a song to answer their question. Let them know they also need to know the part of the song that answers the question the best. You could also give them a hint by letting them know that these are songs they already know.
4. When time is up, post the first speech bubble question. Have a spokesperson in the class that had that question come up and give their song title and the part of the song that answers the question. You can post the answer speech bubble if you like.
5. Sing the song. Ask them to listen to the words as they sing to ensure they have the right answer.
6. Repeat steps 4 & 5 for as long as you have time for.
7. Your kids may come up with other songs than you and that is all right. You can sing that song if your Primary knows it and/or you can show them another song you thought of.

Let them know that there are many ways to be a missionary and share their testimony and sharing their testimony through song is a wonderful way they can do it.

Another way you could present this is how it is suggested in the Sharing Time Idea #4 in the Oct 2007 Friend, by having someone come in and be an investigator.

For the attached visuals, select the song speech bubbles you would like to use and print and cut out. I've made probably more than what you will have time to sing. For the Book of Mormon question, I've done a speech bubble for a song I taught my Primary for last year's scripture theme.  It is Hand in Hand Together from the May 2001 Friend magazine. My kids really love this song. I'll have to post the visuals for this sometime. If your Primary does not know that one, you can do "The Golden Plates". For the prayer one I've done a separate one for Jr & SR. I've also made blank speech bubbles as well in case you want to come up with your own, or you can print blank ones for your SR kids to write the song titles in to post on the board. Just note which speech bubbles point toward the boy with the questions and the boy with the answers so you have them pointing in the correct direction.

Musical Missionary