CTR GAME

My husband, who by the way is a great support to me and my calling and sings his BIG ol’ heart out in Primary every Sunday, teaches the CTR 4 class this year.  One day as I was perusing through his “Primary 2: Choose the Right A” manual for the year I came upon this black and white CTR game board in lesson 14.  Well, that just turned on the light bulb in my head with the whole CTR theme for this year and of course I thought I would have to somehow implement this into singing time.  The game is a take off from the game Chutes and Ladders.

The color person in me just did not like the plain ol’ black and white version, so I decided to recreate it in living color.  I printed it out in a poster format in Adobe Reader by selecting in my print options “Tile all pages” under “Page Scaling”.  I’m a Mac person so this is how it works for me, but I would imagine Adobe Reader should have the same print option for the PC version.  Just to give you an idea, below is an image of the print screen so you can see where the option is for doing a poster.  Make sure you have the box checked for “Cut Marks”.  That will help you know where to cut off the excess edges.  I printed it at 250%, which printed it out on 9 pages and which gave me about a poster board size game board.  Depending on your printer, you may have to adjust the percentage until you get the size you want.  You can print it smaller or larger depending on your preference.  I printed mine on cardstock, cut off the edges and then butted them up to each other and taped them together on the backside using packaging tape.  This way it was sturdy for my liking yet I could fold it up.  You could print on paper and mount on poster board or just use paper if you prefer.

Print Screen

ITEMS NEEDED TO PLAY THE GAME:

• CTR Game Board
• 1-2 Magnetic Game Tokens
• Dice or Spinner (I picked up a set of 2.5" sized dice from the Dollar Tree store.)
• CTR Sticks or CTR Game Cards or Slips of paper with questions & Container
• Key Sheet for Questions (Word docx or PDF)
• Song Visual Aids (optional)
• Magnets

 

PREPARATION:

Make the CTR Game Board as mentioned above.

Prepare questions by writing them on the back of the laminated CTR Shields on the stick (found here in this post) or just make the CTR Shields without the stick for cards by using either a dry erase marker (may rub off if handled too much) or those wet erase markers like Expo Vis-à-Vis markers that you use to write on transparencies (won’t rub off easily but writing can be cleaned off with a damp paper towel or cloth.)  I’m planning on just numbering the back of the sticks and referring to my question key sheet to ask the questions.  More simple.  Place the sticks in a container to pick from.   If you have already made and used the CTR sticks for other activities, this is another way to reuse something you already have by using them for the children to pick the questions from.  If you don’t have or want to use the CTR Sticks/Shields, you could write or print and cut out the questions and place them in a container to choose from. 

HOW TO PLAY THE GAME:

I don’t split into teams for my JR since they are too young to handle competition, but I do on a rare occasion for my SR.  They are able to handle and do enjoy a friendly competition once in a while.  I have a lot of boys and that just seems to work for them in keeping their interest.

Take turns having a child come up and pick one of the CTR questions for the group/team to answer.  After they answer the question, let the person who answered the question correctly roll the dice to see how many spaces to move, sing the song if applicable.  If they don’t know the answer, give them a chance to discover the answer while the Primary sings the song and then let them answer after singing the song.  If they give the correct answer before you sing the song, tell them we’ll sing the song to check and see if they got the answer right.  Ohhhhh, we music leaders have tricks up our sleeves to get that singing in one-way or the other.  If they land on a CTR shield with a ladder, they get to move their game token up to the space at the top of the ladder.  If they land on a Wrong Choice space, they slide down to the space at the end of the slide or chute.  Obviously, they win when they reach the end at the Big CTR space.

CTR Poster

I plan on starting with having them roll one die each turn and adding a second one if needed to help speed the movement on the game so we hopefully can finish the game before the time is up.  Some questions are WRONG CHOICES! and they will have to roll the dice to see how many spaces they have to move backwards.  Some questions are not song questions so the team has a chance to answer it, if they can’t, the other team has a chance to answer and take the move. 

The game board and questions files are attached.  The links are above in the “Items needed to play the game” section.  I’ve chosen songs to sing that I would like to review with my Primary.  Feel free to adapt to the songs and questions you may want to review with your Primary.

Hope you have fun playingChoose the Right game.

FLIP CARD OR THE ENVELOPE GAME?

WHICH IS IT????

Well, the Envelope Game has been around for some time in the Primary Singing World and is mainly for the SR Primary because it involves reading.  It is a game whereby you make wordstrips for each word in the song grouping the words by phrases and then placing each phrase's group of words in it’s own envelope.  If you have a larger primary, make more sets of wordstrips and envelopes as needed.  The game is played by dividing the children into groups of around 3-8 children per group depending on the average of how many words are in the phrase and/or how difficult the words in the song are, and giving each group one of the envelopes with a phrase of the song.  You then sing the song to them two or three times or play a recording of the song while the children listen and put the words together in the correct order for their phrase (singing to the children is usually better for them to hear the words but sometimes it’s nice to change it up a bit and play a recorded version.)  Once they have the wordstrips in order, sing the song with the children a time or two having each group sing their phrase.  Afterwards, have them place the wordstrips back into its envelope making sure the words are mixed up and then pass it to another group.  Repeat the process letting each group have a turn at putting the wordstrips in order for each phrase then singing that phrase.  At the end, everyone sings the whole song together.

Another variation is to have just the key words to the song in each envelope so that the children are all putting the same key words of the song together.  This is a great teaching method for learning a new song.  You get lots of repetition, the children have to use their little noggins to think and they are actively participating.

Now here’s my little twist to the Envelope Game that I call the FLIP CARD GAME.  I cut up mini versions of the flip chart for the verse or verses I want to teach giving each group or class a set.  I actually won't be putting the flip cards in an envelope.  I’m just going to clip each group’s set together with a binder clip.  I will have the teacher pass out 1 or 2 cards to each of the children in that group.  I’ll probably do 6 in a group so that each child can have at least 2 cards, maybe less for the oldest classes.  As I sing the song, they need to flip down their card in the correct order.  Oh yeah, make sure you clarify what "flip your card down" means, otherwise, some of the kiddos will interpret it differently than you had intended.  Yep, I've got me some lots of boys like that.  So as you can see, it is not a FLIP CHART but a FLIP CARD.  Get it??????? ;-)  Yeah, I know, a little dry sense of humor going there.

Since we have the melody, first verse and chorus down for the SR primary, I plan to work through both the 2^nd and 3^rd verses this Sunday, so each envelope will have a set of both the 2^nd and 3^rd verse as well as one set of the chorus.   After we WARM UP with the 1^st verse and chorus, I’ll start the game by singing only the 2^nd verse and chorus.  They will have to figure out which cards will be played first by each child laying their card down in front of them in the correct order.  Depending on the age of your group and how well they are getting the cards in the correct order, you may want to just sing the 2^nd verse a couple of times and then continue on into the chorus after the 2^nd or 3^rd time through the song.  Some children may like to play this on the floor and others may want to stay in their seats.  I usually bring these chipboard sheets that I once scrounged up from work that are about the size of a piece of paper for those who want to do it sitting down. That helps to give them a flat surface to work on.  After they have the song in order, we will sing the song together.  Then I will have each team select one or two of their cards to remove and give back to the teacher after each time we sing to motivate them into memorizing the song.  I still plan on referencing the melody map and having them help to figure out where the different pictures go on the melody map.  That will help them to not just look down at their cards the whole time but to focus on the melody going up and down as they sing.  Gotta keep them thinkin' so they don't get bored.  Oh yeah, and don't forget about the Faith in God award challenge from the last post!  That will be my Attention Getter at the start of singing time.

I’ve attached the Flip Card files below for each verse and chorus that you can pick from depending on what you would like to work on.  Each file has a set of 4, so if you only plan on having four groups, you only need to print and cut one sheet per verse and/or chorus you will be teaching.  Easy-peasy—not much paper to print, just a little cutting up.

After clicking on the file below, click on the "Download original" button in the top, right corner of googledocs for the best resolution.

Choose the Right verse 1

Choose the Right verse 2

Choose the Right verse 3

Choose the Right chorus

FAITH IN GOD & CHOOSE THE RIGHT

So what does the 

Faith in God for Boys and the

Faith in God for Girls

have to do with the song

“Choose the Right”?

Did you know that it is one of the activity choices to select from in the “Learning and Living the Gospel” section on page 7 of the booklets?  I did not know that!!!  THANKS to Grandmajo for sharing that tidbit of info in a comment she left the other day.

Oh man! I am sooooo going to run with this one in motivating the kids even more in learning the song! 

Here is the link at LDS.org for the girl’s booklet and here is the link for the boy’s if you want to check it out.


I’ll confess, I have been a bit hesitant internally in teaching all three verses just because hymns can be a little more difficult to teach, but I have had this persistent feeling I should teach all the versus and so had planned on it.  Now I have a better understanding as to why I had this feeling I should teach the children all three versus.  A little AHA! moment for me.

This Sunday I am going to take my little booklets and show the SR group and ask them the same question I asked above to see if they were even aware of that.  I want to challenge the children to have this activity passed off this year by having the song learned, hopefully, by the end of the month along with being able to answer the questions about agency and choices.  Won’t that be so AWESOME to be able to pass it off altogether?!?!?!  

I’m not sure if they need a signature to sign off on it or not, but I would think it would be great to initial it or something when they pass it off making it feel even more special and important.  Maybe even have them come up as a class to sing it together to pass it off.

I was also thinking of making a little song booklet or something to give them to take home to help them work on the song.  I haven’t made personal booklets or anything like that before for them, but I thought this might warrant a little something extra this time.  After pondering on the booklet idea, I decided instead that it needed to be something that they could post on their mirror or someplace easily visible so that they could view the song without much effort making it easier to sing and review it.  So, I decided to make a 

one-page cheat sheet 

that has all the different pages of the flip chart on it.  Something a little more fun than just the words, and besides, since I already had the flip chart made, it didn’t take that much more to make it work for a one-page cheat sheet.  Here is the one-page cheat sheet I came up with if you are interested. (Click on the "Download original" in the upper right-hand corner for the best resolution.)  I only have the chorus once at the bottom of the page so I will make sure to point that out to the kids so they don't get confused.  To save on cost, you don’t have to print it in color.  Just print out one and take it to church to make a copy for each of the SR kids in your Primary. 

2/10/12 UPDATE: Chris and Janeil left a wonderful idea in her comment.  You've just got to love the synergy generated out there from everyone!  Anywhooooo, she suggested a smaller size to fit in the children’s scriptures.  What a simple, yet brilliant idea and, you only need to print up half as many when you print 2-per sheet.   I was a little nervous that it might be too small to see, but hey, if I can still read it, it should be easy enough for the kiddos.  So, last night I made this 2-per sheet version in case your printer does not have the capability to print a 1-page version into 2-per page.  (Click on the "Download original" for best resolution.)  This 2-per page version has a lower resolution, but still is readable.   Thanks for the idea.

I just love it when you can accomplish two things at the same time; program song and an awards requirement.  MARVELOUS!

CHOOSE THE RIGHT: Melody Map

2/5/12 UPDATE: Because of the unexpected high traffic volume this weekend, the current links to the melody map and pictures are temporarily out of order.  They should be back up in a day or two.  I have added other links just below.  Remember, the files may take some time to download depending on your internet speed.


Melody Map
Melody Map Pictures  (I would suggest to click on the "Download original" button for better resolution pictures instead of printing directly from the first screen.)


WOW!  This week is going by at a rapid pace.  I can’t believe it is February already.  Didn’t we just have Christmas?????  Well, I’m a little behind schedule on things, but here it is, the melody map for “Choose the Right”.  It was a little bit of a bugger—such a BIG song to replicate in a melody chart format.  The first melody map I posted, “As a Child of God” was a basic melody map.  I thought on this one I would show a more in-depth version.  I wasn't planning on doing a melody map this month since I did one last month, but after looking over the song, I realized this song lends itself nicely to a melody map with it's "rolling hill" pattern.  So, here goes again but with a little variation on the activities we'll do.

On this melody map, you will notice that there are different colors and sizes of the CTR shield, each representing a different type of note, e.g. whole, half, quarter, etc.  I also added a line connecting the “notes” to help more visually show the movement of the notes.  I’ve also included some pictures and words here if you want to use them as an addition to the map.  You don’t have to use all of them.  Use what you feel you want to teach or emphasize in the song.  I just wanted to include a good variety for all three verses.  Click here for the explanation I gave on melody maps last month as well as some suggestions for use.   

I always ask what they notice about the map and receive their responses.  If they are slow on the uptake, ask more questions to help get their thinking going, such as:

• What is the same in these patterns?
• What is different in these patterns?
• [some shields are the same color, there are different sizes of shields, each color is the same size, the shapes go up and down like mountains, there is a dip or valley in this part, there are more orange shields than any other color, there are less blue shields than any other color, there are 11 big purple shields, etc.]

Continue to encourage the children to look for more relationships if they aren’t picking them up by saying “What else?” or “What more can you see?” (If this is new to your children, they may be hesitant at first but will start picking things up with some extra encouragement. The children happily surprised me the very first time I used a melody map--they can be very perceptive.)

Ask the children to listen to you sing the song and tell you what all the "note" shapes have to do with the song. 

• The small blue shields are the shortest notes.
• The big purple shields are the longest notes.
• Essentially, the smaller the shield the shorter the note.

You could put just the pics that say "CTR" on the chart at first and see if they notice that is where you sing the words “Choose the Right”.

Remember, you may have to sing the song 2-3 times before the children discover all or most of the relationships, but that is good because that gives the children a chance to hear the song a few times to become familiar with it.  You can also give hints by pointing as you sing or singing louder on the certain words or areas you want them to notice.

Sing it again and ask the children to sing only the words “Choose the Right” with you. 

Learn the phrases by showing a picture or two and asking the children to listen to see where on the map the pictures should go.  Let the child that answers correctly come and place the picture on the map.  (I am planning on taking a little folding stepladder—2-3 steps—so the JR children can climb up and put it up themselves.  They like that and it saves my back from picking them up.  Maybe you could point out that they are stepping up the ladder and down just like the song.)  Then have them sing it with you.

A few other examples of singing discovery questions you can ask are:

• This picture or word(s) goes where it looks like it is going down a slide.  Listen and tell me which slide it goes on. [various answers like shining, heart confides, etc.]
• What two words begin on the highest note in this 2nd phrase and then slides down? [“Holy Spirit”]
• This word "Evermore" is sung on three different notes in this last phrase. What are the three notes it is sung on?  [the very last three notes] Is it going up or down when we sing it? [down]
• Did you notice a couple of places that the song dips down?  Listen and tell me what words are sung in those dips. [Wisdom and God]
• Do any sections/parts of this map look exactly the same? [1st and 3rd phrase]

Other Suggestions

• Explain the pictures as you go and how they relate to the message of the song.
• Have them clap the rhythm pattern with you.
• Use rhythm sticks to tap out the rhythm or only when they sing the “Choose the Right” words. (I’m planning on using rhythm sticks.  I borrowed them from my sister’s school where she works, but dowels or unsharpened pencils are inexpensive alternatives—and much quieter.)
• Use the CTR shields to pitch lead or just have them hold them up on the words “Right”.
• Have them also stand up when they sing the words “you” or “your”.  (I just thought of something, maybe I should have made a few more "you" pics to place on the map or at least the word "you" and "your".  Maybe I will try and add some to the file and repost the pics Friday night.  If not, Oh, well.)
• Have them use their bodies to pitch lead raising themselves higher as they sing higher and lowering their bodies as they sing lower.
• When you have sung it with them a few times you could sing the first half of the phrase and then have them finish the phrase.  Point out that you are singing the parts going up the mountain and they are singing the parts going down the mountain.
• Don't forget to share your testimony of the message.

I often try and use a variety of activities to keep them interested before they get bored otherwise I could lose their attention.  Children learn by repetition, but they also need variety—sounds like an oxymoron to me.  So, you may sing the song over-and-over again (repetition), but by using different methods as you sing (variety), it helps to keep the children engaged as well as you are sure to capture the different learning styles the various children may have.

HOW TO ASSEMBLE THE MELODY MAP (Also see post for "As a Child of God" melody map and above pic for reference)

• I think this should print in the order of the song this time.
• Cut off about 1/2" on the letter side (the letters are only for reference in making the chart) and cut off about the same on the other side depending on the minimum settings your printer needs for margins, being careful to not cut off any of the shields. 
• Tape them together leaving a slight gap between pages for easier folding.  
• The last four rows on the map are for the chorus.  I put each of the two sections together to make two rows or "stanzas" for the chorus by cutting pretty close to the shield on the right section and then lining it up to the left side and making a tick mark for where I needed to cut (where it looked good for the black line coming into the right side—part of the black line you will cut off.) You could take a black marker to help better connect the black line if you want.  
• Oooo, is this all confusing?    
• So each phrase will be three pages and both sections of the chorus will have 5 pages each with the second page of each for the chorus a smaller width size as well as the third page will be slightly smaller. Look at the picture above for reference.  There will also be 2 blank pages that will print out, but you don't need those.  Just part of the "poster" effect.  Don't forget to number the backside so you know which order to put them up on your board.

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.