TURKEY SPIN

               HAPPY      
     THANKSGIVING!!!

Here is another way to use the  Big Wheel Spinner I made here. I know this wheel spinner isn't something many of you will make, so I do have another option I'll tell you about later.  

This is how I made this Turkey Spinner

• Cut out some small sized feather shapes from various colored card stock and adhere permanently to the back of the turkey so that the turkey isn't so "naked" by the time the other feathers are pulled out.  Laminate the combined body and feathers. Decorate the feathers making a squiggle line with glue and glitter.

• Cut out some medium sized feathers from various colored card stock, laminate and attach popsicle sticks to the bottom of the feathers so they can be inserted into the styrofoam turkey body.  Decorate making a zig-zag line along the top of the feather with glue and glitter.

• Cut out some large sized feathers from various colored card stock and laminate. Decorate making a swirl design at the top of the feather with glue and glitter. Adhere two square pieces of the loop side of Velcro on each of the corners of the feathers on the back side. Leave the hook side attached to the loop so it is easier to know where to place the hook side on the spinner. Attach the large feathers on the spinner equally. Make sure your feathers are short enough to allow a space in the center for where the turkey body will be attached.
• I don't have a template for the feathers to give you. The shape is just a rounded, rectangular teardrop I freehanded at the time. The size would depend on your spinner. I did eight feathers for each size.

Small feathers and turkey

Medium feathers

Large feathers

• Turkey Body
• Print and cut out the turkey body. File attached. Attach the small feathers to the back and laminate. See small feather instructions above. After it has been laminated, you can glue on some large google eyes. It gives it a more fun and animated.
• Get a round styrofoam disk about 6" x 1 1/4". With some brown craft paint, paint around the edges and about an inch into both of the flat sides of the disk—you could paint it completely, but it will be covered with paper anyway.



Back side of disk

• After the paint is dry, glue a circle of brown card stock on each side with a hot glue gun. The paper gives the Velcro something to stick to.
• Take a 2" strip of clear Velcro and cut lengthwise down the center so you have 2 long, skinny strips. Adhere both of the loop sides (soft & white side) of the Velcro strips to one side of the disk.  Leave the hook side (clear & rough) of the Velcro mated to the loop side. Remove the release liner of the hook side of the tape and adhere it to the spinner wheel in the center. The Velcro allows it to be removed so the spinner can be used for other games.
• Take a square piece of clear Velcro and attach the loop side to the front of the disk in the center. Leave the clear, hook piece mated to the loop. Remove the release liner from the hook side of the square piece of Velcro on the front of the styrofoam disk and center and attach the turkey and small feathers that have been laminated together onto the styrofoam disk.

• Insert the medium sized feathers with the popsicle sticks around the styrofoam disk. They will be between the large feathers on the spinner and the small feathers on the turkey.

HOW TO SPIN AND SING

• If laminated, use wet erase markers to write on the back of the large feathers the songs and page numbers to sing.
• On the back of the medium feathers with wet erase markers, write "how to sing" the song, e.g. clap to the rhythm, staccato, fast/slow, your teacher's favorite song, etc.
• Let two children come up and each takes a turn to spin. One spins for the song and one spins for the "how to sing".
• Now, spin away!!!

I've attached a file with a turkey body and some ovally-shaped feathers if you want to just make a turkey that you can post on a board and have the children pick feathers from to choose songs. You could leave the feathers off and scatter them on the board or around the room and have the children pick/find a feather, add it to the turkey, then sing the song. There are colored feathers if you want to print on colored card stock or a black and white one you could use to color them in yourself. Just print how many feathers you want your bird to have.

Instead of a poster, another option, if you want more of a 3-D look, is to get a bigger and fatter styrofoam disk or ball, cut in half and paint, adhere the turkey you've cut out, use smaller pieces of popsicle sticks to adhere to the bottom of the feathers and pluck the feathers out or stick them in the turkey for the songs. You may have to weigh the styrofoam down a little so it won't topple over as easily.

I'll post another way I used this with a Sing-a-Story next.

Turkey Song Pick Pattern

PRIMARY SINGING OLYMPICS: SUMMER GAMES

Of course with the Olympics starting this week, you can't help but think about doing a Primary Singing Olympics. A couple of years ago I had worked on a winter Olympic version, but I think I got sick and had to scratch it . . . so I'm excited for another chance. I have seen a variety of ideas over the years for doing an Olympic Singing Time and have borrowed from the many great ideas out there as well as I have added many of my own twists and turns to it as I am most often inclined to do. This is pretty simple to do and I think it will be a fun way to review the program songs. With it being the 5th Sunday of the month, I do have the whole Singing and Sharing Time, but this can be adapted for a regular Singing Time or you could even take a couple of weeks to do it.


You can't have a Primary Singing Olympics without a torch, so I plan to start off bringing my torch out with a quick blurb about the Olympics and how hard these athletes work for years to come and perform at the Olympics and then tie it in with how hard we have been working on the songs in preparation for the Sacrament Meeting Program. 


Of course, we have to have the all important 
Torch Relay, so I will have the lights turned off while my torch is lit while we sing the song (I will also have a battery powered lantern for an extra light source since our Primary Room is quite dark with the lights out—and don't forget a light for your pianist) and as we sing the song standing up, the children will respectfully and reverently pass the light to each other down the rows. The last child will bring the torch back up to me and then I can set it on the table in its base.

Ignore the garland in the picture. I decided not
to add it to the torch but do if you want some sparks.

Red and yellow cellophane wrapped and pleated
around the head of the flashlight. 

The torch was pretty easy to make with found objects around the house. This is how I made mine with what I had. Revise with what you have.

1. Unroll about 14" of the yellow cellophane roll and cut off.
2. Tape about a 1" piece of double-sided tape to the base of the head of a flashlight and adhere one end of the cellophane to the tape on the flashlight. Then make a pleat and tape it down.
3. Continue taping the cellophane down on the flashlight head and pleating as you go around the flashlight. This will help to puff out the flame a little so your flame doesn't look like a column of fire.
4. Make some small snips in the top to give it some small flames. You should be able to still unscrew the top of the flashlight from the handle in case you need to put new batteries in.
5. Unroll and cut off about a 12" strip of red cellophane and cut out some triangle-shaped flames along the cut edge. Be careful because these can tear off easily. Had to fix a couple that tore on me.
6. Tape and pleat the red cellophane around the flashlight head like you did the yellow cellophane. You could use tissue paper if you don't have any cellophane, but cellophane will let the light show more, but then again, you don't even need to use a flashlight. You could just use a paper towel tube.
7. Leave the flashlight handle as is or wrap gold paper or foil around the handle to give it a more torch-like look and you are done OR
8. Instead of wrapping it in gold paper, put the flashlight in a gold, tall, plastic drink cup. I stopped in the $ Store several days ago when I was running an errand in the same strip mall and I happened upon a tall cone-shaped drink cup there that would be perfect for the torch. I was sooooooo trying to figure out something that would hold the torch upright on the table and this had a base at the bottom that would do it perfectly and I can pull the base off if I want to when I am holding it like a torch. I was so excited by the cheap find. I just spray painted it with some leftover gold paint I had on hand—less than 5 minutes. TIP: put it on a stick while you paint so you don't get paint on your hands.
9. With the cellophane flames on the flashlight, just turn it on and drop it into the torch cup and voilà!  An Olympic Torch! It does look pretty cool with the lights off.

Singing Sport Sign Example

I will have my Primary Singing Olympic sign posted at the top of my board (pictured at the top of this post.) If you want the Olympic sign a little bigger, you could print that page in poster format on two or more pages. I did mine on two pages. Then I will have my Singing Sport Signs for the different sports posted on the board underneath it. The link to all the files I made are posted below. I will have a child pick one of the sports and we will sing the song assigned it while doing the "sport" activity. You could also just post the signs in the order you want to do them in and proceed in that order. I have to admit that I kind of got carried away during my brainstorming session when I was going through the list of sports that are in this year's Olympics and trying to think of names for the sports and activities. I did some "singing" word play on the sport names. I know the kids may not get them all, but the teachers might think they are fun and I had fun thinking of them. During my brainstorming, I ended up with WAAAAAAAAAAAY more sports than you will ever do for your singing time and I created signs for each one as well, so at least you have quite a variety to pick from. Just select the singing sports activities you want to do for the time you have. I've also attached a key sheet file for the sports and songs. Just select which sports you want to do and write in the songs you want to do on the key sheet. You could even just write what the song is and activity on the back of your sign if you don't want to refer to a key sheet. Don't forget to take any items/props, if needed, for each sport activity you have chosen. I've tried to keep the props simple to none. If there are any props needed, I've listed those items in each section on the key sheet.  Here is a list of the songs and sport activities that I am thinking of doing:


TORCH SONG RELAY: If the Savior Stood Beside Me
RHYTHMIC RIBBON: When I Am Baptized
SYNCHRONIZED SINGING: Nephi's Courage
SHOT PUT IN ORDER:  Choose the Right
ARCHERY ARTICULATION: The Wise Man and the Foolish Man
TENNIS WORD: Dare to Do Right
SAILING SERENADE: As a Child of God
TRAMPOLINE TRIPLE TIME:  Stand for the Right
VOLLEYBALL VIRTUOSO:  I'm Trying to Be like Jesus
MOUNTAIN BIKE MEDLEY: Stand for the Right and Dare to Do Right Medley


Probably won't have time to do all 10, but I'll be prepared just in case with the last two.


I tried to use most of the actual olympic pictograms for the signs but many of the sub-categories didn't have any, so I just created my own, so many are not the official pictograms in case you were wondering. Although I don't care for the Olympic font London chose, I used it anyway for a more authentic look.  I tried to do a variety of "sport" activities; however, don't expect them to be these big running, relay type of sport activities for the children to do. I find too much playing around type activities make it difficult to keep some semblance of reverence as well as the children get too busy "playing" instead of singing, so I try to select activities more conducive for singing that the children enjoy doing but still gives them some movement, variety and a challenge. There are a few more "sporty" events on the list just in case you want to throw in one or two for a moment or two of added play time.


I also plan to have someone be a judge; maybe one of the presidency members or maybe take turns having the teachers help judge. This is optional, but kids seem to like to perform well when they are being watched. I will give the judge three paddles: GOLD MEDAL, SILVER MEDAL and BRONZE MEDAL. They are the big medals in the file that I have cut out and attached to tongue depressors. If the children sing the song/verse well, the judge will hold up the GOLD MEDAL after they sing. If they sing okay but the song still needs some work, then the judge would hold up the SILVER MEDAL paddle. If we could really use a bit more work on the song, then the judge would hold up the BRONZE MEDAL paddle. Oooooo, I sure hope we don't earn too many bronze medals!


If the song has more than one verse, I plan on only having them sing the first verse then stop to be scored by the judge, then sing the second verse, stop and be judged and so on. Whatever paddle the judge holds up, I will put up a smaller version of the medal next to the Singing Sport Sign. So, if there are three verses to a song, there should be three medals next to that sport sign when done to reflect how we did on each verse. This will be a fun and incentive way for everyone to see how many gold, silver or bronze medals they have earned as well as it lets you know what needs more work. I've included in the file all three versions of smaller medals as well as a black and white version if you would prefer to print on colored paper instead of in color or print on white and just color them in. Just print and cut out how many scoring medals you might need for the number of songs/verses you plan to sing.


I haven't brought a treat all year, but I decided to for this activity because you just can't have an Olympic event without a medal, so of course I've done the obvious GOLD CHOCOLATE COIN that I hot glued some blue curling ribbon to. If you don't want to do an edible treat, I've included little gold medals that you can print on gold card stock, punch out and tie curling ribbon or yarn to make a gold medal.


Another gold medal option would be is to wrap a cookie in gold foil and then glue ribbon or yarn on it.

Hope you have some

OLYMPIAN SINGING FUN!!!

Primary Singing Olympics—Nalani


Primary Singing Olympics Key Sheet-Nalani

WAGON WHEEL SPINNER

I know many of you probably have your Sunday planned, but if you are still looking for something to do, here is a fairly easy pioneer singing time to do or save for next time. (Sorry, another busy week with so many family get-togethers on top of the extra work load at work—a great employee from my department was rushed to the hospital for brain surgery for a brain tumor, so I didn't get the chance to post all I wanted to this week.) I still have other visuals for more pioneer songs to post...sometime.


Anyway, if you are really ambitious, you can make a wooden wheel spinner that I just posted about here to use with the wagon wheel or if you only have a little time to prepare, you could just draw and use the poster wagon wheel or...you say you have no time at all? Well then, just print and cut the pictures in the file and post on the board or let the children pick from a container.


I did this last year, but with the very busy week I've had, I'm pulling it out this year again, but with a few changes. I'm also going to combine it with the 
Campfire Singing I did another time.  I'll try and post the campfire singing next. I've seen many variations of wagon wheel singing over the years that others have shared. The two main sites I've gleaned from are here and here. This is my compilation of those great ideas along with some changes here-and-there.


HOW TO MAKE THE WAGON WHEEL

• On a poster board, find the center by drawing a light line down the center from top to bottom and and another line from side to side. Then draw 2 more lines in the center between the 2 lines you previously drew to give you 8 pie shapes.
• Make a handmade compass of string tied with a pencil on both ends (the length of the string between both pencils should be just slightly less than half of the smallest width of your poster). Place one pencil on your center mark and pulling the other pencil with the string taut, draw a circle around the poster.
• Untie one of the pencils and then retie it back on about 1 1/2" shorter and redraw another circle for the inside of the wagon wheel rim.
• For the axel circles, just use a small bowl, a glass or some other circular objects to help draw them or reduce the string length on your hand made compass to make the circles. I think I just eyeballed the inside of the axle circle. The axel is about 3 3/4" and the inside circle is about 5/8" in from the outer circle.
• The spokes are about 1" wide. I just drew a line 1/2" on either side of each of the pie shaped lines then erased the middle line.
• I colored mine in with chalk since I like how I can fill it in fairly quickly and blend it. I also like how I can erase any boo-boos if I happen to go over the lines. You can use crayons or markers or whatever takes you to your happy place when you color. If you use chalk, make sure you spray it with a FixIt spray to set the chalk so it won't rub off after you do the next step with the Sharpie pen.
• With a brown Sharpie pen, outline your wagon wheel and draw in some squiggly lines for the wood grain.
• Mounting the wagon wheel to the spinner (optional):

• See the 2nd paragraph under the "OH NO!" in the previous post on making the spinner for the placement of the hook side of the Velcro. 
• Cut four square pieces of the loop side of Velcro. Leaving the protective liner on the adhesive side of the Velcro loop pieces, connect the loop side to their counter hook parts on the spinner placing one at the top, one at the bottom and one on each side of the spinner.
• Remove the protective liner from only one of the Velcro loop squares and carefully place your wagon wheel poster centered on the spinner and press to adhere the Velcro to the wagon wheel poster lining up the spokes with the nails. Repeat removing one of the protective adhesive liners at a time. This will help to only have to fix one section if you place your poster crooked instead of all four pieces of Velcro. 
• Print, cut and laminate the pioneer pictures from the file below. There are 10 pictures but only 8 spots on the wheel which is usually enough to fill the time. The extra pics are just some added options to pick from or if you need a couple of more songs to sing. There are also two versions of a campfire. I couldn't decide at the time I made this which one I liked best so I kept both since I had an empty space to fill anyway. Pick the one you like.
• Place a square piece of Velcro hook side to the center between each spoke on the wheel poster.
• Place a square piece of Velcro loop side to the backside of each of the pioneer pictures.
• Place the pioneer pictures on the wagon wheel spinner and you are ready to go.

HOW TO PLAY

• Select 8 pioneer pictures and mount on the wheel.
• Have the child spin the wagon wheel (or pick a picture if you are not using a spinner) and whatever it lands on or is picked, remove the picture, share the Fun Fact and sing the song according to the picture. 
• Whenever a child spins the wheel and it lands on a blank space where a picture has been removed, let another child take a turn to see if they can spin and land on a picture. This allows for more spins on the wheel. If time is short and it lands on a blank, just do the next closest picture.
• I've attached a key sheet file. The first half is an example key sheet of what I plan on doing and the second half is a blank version to add your songs you would like to do. There are the 10 options to choose from on the key sheet but you will only need to select 8, because like I said, you'll probably be lucky if you even get all 8 on the wheel done in your 20 minute time especially if you end up singing some of them twice like I tend to do on newer ones or the more unfamiliar ones that they may stumble—mumble through the first time singing it.

HERE ARE A COUPLE OF OTHER IDEAS IF YOU DON'T USE THE SPINNER

• Have the pictures placed around the room for the children to select from.
• Use objects like toys and stuffed animals to represent the items and place in a box or basket for the children to select from.

Pioneer Wagon Wheel Ways to Sing Pics-Nalani

Pioneer Wagon Wheel Ways to Sing Key Sheet-Nalani

WHEEL GAME SPINNERS

Who doesn't like the thrill of spinning a wheel in a game and watching it go round-and-round in bated anticipation of where it will stop?????

Wheel Spinners

are wonderful ways to determine how to do something, how many moves you get, what your score can be, etc. So hey, it sounds like a perfect thing to us in Singing Time since singing games are a fun way to add variety to singing time especially for those choose and review times.


I'm sure many will not want to go through the effort in making the following type of spinning wheel, but if you have the desire and are able to, you and your Primary will surely enjoy it. There are other less involved ways to do spinning wheels if this seems a bit much. I'll give a few options later.  


Here is a great tutorial I found that I followed, of course, with a few variations I made to it. Here are some of the things I did differently that worked for me especially to save me time in my hectic schedule.

• I purchased a precut 24" circle from Lowe's home center. It was made from MDF board. I didn't feel like taking the time to cut the circle out and sand it. You still have to measure for your pie shapes. Not all home centers carry round discs, so you may want to call around first.
• I didn't have 2x4s, so when I purchased them, I had them cut to size for me at the home center to save me some time from hauling out my table saw and cutting my own and then cleaning up the sawdust just for a few cuts. Normally, I would have done it myself, but it was worth the 25 cents per cut to have them do it (they cut the first 2 for free.)
• Instead of using the dowels that go around the circle, I just used some finishing nails I had on hand. That was easier and quicker for me. I also put the nails about 7/8" in from the edge since the widest I could make a circle on a poster board is 22" which would then fit perfectly. You could put them closer to the edge, but just don't go in more than the 7/8". Also, to make this more versatile for other games for more choices or points, I used 16 nails evenly spaced around the spinner instead of eight. The picture only shows 8 nails (I added the rest later for another game.)
• I couldn't find a 3"x3" lazy susan spinner, mine was a 4" size, so I had to drill new guide holes in it for my screws so that it would fit on the 4" width of the 2x4.  (Finished wood you purchase is smaller than its named "raw size".)
• Although I originally wanted to spray paint mine bright colors, I chose to go with brown since I thought it would coordinate more with many of the games I wanted to use it for, but of course, any color will do.
• In the pictures I don't have my clickety-clacker flapper thingy on it yet. When I made this quite a while ago, I ran out of time to make it and haven't gotten around to putting it on yet. Although it works just fine without it, there is something to be said about the thrill of hearing the clickety-clack sound as the wheel spins around. Maybe I'll have to get to it today somewhere in-between the other zillion things to do, oh, maybe not, just remembered I have to drive north for a family wedding today. 
• Because of the original lengths of my 2x4s, I went ahead and made both of the base feet 28" verses one of them being 20".
• The overall height of my spinner is 5'. Not much shorter than me.  :-)
• This is pretty sturdy and has held up well. It also has a pretty random spin—doesn't seem to get stuck with landing on the same thing all the time. LOVE IT!

I'm not really experienced in woodworking, so if I can make this, I'm sure you can too. This took me a few+ hours to make with other breaks here and there along with drying time. And yes, I did make a boo-boo or two. TIP: have a helper hold the 2x4s when you have to drill those deep holes down the post so you can get them in straight if you don't have a bench vice or clamps to hold it steady for you.


Of course, I did not want this to only be good for a Wheel of Fortune game.

OH NO!

It wouldn't have been worth it for me to make it for one game. I wanted it to be interchangeable so I would be able to do a variety of games so I use my good ol' favorite Velcro to post different poster wheel games on it. I will post the Wagon Wheel version, that's in the picture, next as well as others I have as I get around to it.


To make it usable for other games, I placed 16 square shaped pieces of the hook side of Velcro around the spinning board centered in each pie shape about 1" in from the nails so they will be hidden behind the poster or visual that is being used. Only some of the spinning games will use them all.  


Yes, the spinner is a bit clunky to carry around, but I'm fortunate to have a very strong manly—man who is always willing to help haul it around for me, not that I couldn't do it myself though—just so you know, I'm not some weak thing, cuz' hey, in this calling, there are no weaklings. ;-)

For now I store it in my guest bedroom since I rarely have many guests anymore with many of my family that have moved back here, but when I am released from this calling and don't need it for another calling or for games with the grand kids, I can quickly unscrew the base and store it under the guest bed.


If this spinner seems like a bit much for you but you would still like to make something similar, here are a few variations. Just adjust to the size you are wanting.


Other DIY Versions:
Lazy Susan Version
Large Wheel
Floor Version

Ones to buy:

Spin Zone Magnetic Spinners (I have one of these I bought at an educational store and it works pretty well. Sometimes they can get a bit out of whack and land in the same place frequently, but you can just remove and replace on the board in a different position or rotate your poster around a quarter turn every now and then.)

Jumbo Magnetic Spinner (looks cool, but a little too pricey for my pocketbook)

PIONEER CHILDREN SANG AS THEY WALKED

Here is a flip chart for

"pioneer children sang as they walked"

If you prefer to post the flip chart on the board, you could cut the feet out so you can make the feet "walk" to the next page whenever the "walked and walked" parts come up spreading the flip chart and feet out in a flowing zig-zagging pattern on the board as if it is a trail to follow as you sing. Depending on the size of your board, you may not be able to spread the feet too far apart. I've included a set of feet that go in the opposite direction if you decide to post the song on the board. Hope that all makes sense.
There are also some blank feet in case you want to use those for something like putting them around the room for the children to walk on. If you are strictly going to use the feet as is in a flip chart, there is a half page at the end for the last "and walked". You cut that page in half and tape it to the end of the set of four feet, so when you flip the page to the last page, the half sheet will flip down at the bottom of the page and you'll have all five of your "walked" footsteps.


MUSICAL WALKING GAME
As the children are learning the song, you could do a musical chairs type thing.

• Write one number on each piece of paper starting with number 1 up to number 6. Repeat numbering 1-6 on your papers until you have a piece of paper for each child in your primary. 
• Randomly place the papers around the room in a circle. It doesn't matter if the same numbers are sometimes next to each other. 
• Have the children walk around the circle as they sing the song. For SR you can have them only walk on the words "walked". JR will have a more difficult time with this since it can be a little much for them to concentrate on when to walk and stop, walk and stop, walk and stop.
• When the song is finished, they should be standing on a number.
• Roll a big die or have the numbers 1-6 on pieces of paper in a container to draw from. Roll or pick a couple of numbers. The children standing on those numbers get to sit down in the middle of the circle if you have moved your chairs out of the way, which I sometimes do for Pioneer singing time, or they can sit back in their chairs.
• Instead of numbers, you could draw simple shapes on the pieces of papers like squares, circles, crescents, triangles, Xs, half circles, etc. so it is easier for the really young kids that can't read numbers yet. Of course, you won't probably have a die with those shapes, so you will need to do the drawing from a container thing.
• Repeat this as many times as you want. 
• Let a child or two that sat down on a previous turn help roll the die or draw the numbers.
• Do not play until there is only 1 child left. Stop when there are about 4-5 children left so it doesn't get into a competitive thing especially for the JRs.
• If you are just learning the song, you could stop after each phrase and do the numbers/shapes or even if you want to speed it up after singing it a few times. 

ACTIONS, PROPS AND MOVEMENT

Another activity is to have them walk in a circle around the room on the words "walked" and when they are not walking, you do the obvious actions in the song or use sign language or just have them walk in place.

This song also lends itself to props as well in teaching the song.

Here is a list of actions and props you could use. Of course, you do the walking action on the "walked" parts. The first under each phrase is the action and the second are props:

• They washed at streams: 
• wash hands
• towel/wash cloth, soap and or bucket.
• And worked:
• digging with a shovel, chopping wood or mixing something in a bowl
• small shovel, hammer, mallet or mixing bowl and spoon
• And played:
• bounce a ball, jump rope or patty cakes
• ball, bag of marbles or jump rope
• Sundays they camped:
• make a tent shape with your arms and hands above your head
• a little lantern/flashlight, small blanket or some other small camping equipment
• And read:
• make a book with your hands together and palms open
• book
• And prayed:
• fold your arms or clasp hands together in a praying fashion
• a picture of a child praying

CHAIR HOPPING GAME

This song is also great to do Chair Hopping with since there is the word "walked" in it several times. This is more for SR, but I have used it for JR. You may not get as much singing out of JR though. Again, it may be too much concentration for them to sing and chair hop, but it is still fun to do it at least once with the JRs unless most of them are really young. 

In case you don't know what Chair Hopping is, the children must move over one chair each time the special word is sung. In this instance, the special word would be "walked". You need to make sure everyone knows in what direction they need to go. Starting in the back and moving forward, the back row moves to the right, the next row moves to the left, the next row moves to the right and so forth. The person at the end of each row will move to the row in front and the person at the end of the first row moves to the back row. Basically, they are zig-zagging in the chairs. If you have an aisle down the middle, you can either bring the chairs together to get rid of the aisle (that could be time consuming to do) or they just need to make sure they know to move to the chairs across the aisle.

Another variation of Chair Hopping is to have enough empty chairs to one side for how many times they will need to move over for each phrase. For example, in this song "walked" at the end is sung 5 times, so make sure there are at least 5 empty chairs at the end of each row on the same side. When the first phrase is sung, they will move over 4 chairs to the left. On the next phrase, they will move back over to the right 4 times and on the last phrase they will move over 5 chairs to the left. This version may be easier to do if you only have a couple of long rows or for JR.

Hope this gives you some fun ideas to use with this song.

Pioneer Children Sang as They Walked

TIC-TAC-SING REVIEW

I'M BAAAAAAAACK!

WHEW! It has been a busy summer already with a new grandchild being born, hanging out at amusement parks with the grand kids, camping with the fam and a zillion other things on top of the every day stuff. 

Since this is the last Sunday of the month, it is time to do a review of the

program songs.

Sometimes, these review times are the only chances we get to sing some of them with so many other songs to sing throughout the year. This Sunday, I am going to do a

Tic-Tac-Sing. 

This is an easy and fun review game to play. I have an old Tic-Tac-Toe poster board game board I'm going to use that I made a zillion years ago before we had a chalkboard in the old building's Primary room—back when the room was originally designed as the "JR Sunday School Room" AND before they had the portable rolling chalkboards in the building AND shortly after they changed to the block time and moved Primary from the week day to Sunday AND when computers filled rooms instead of compactly on top of a desk, so yeah, we used easels and posters a lot back then. WOW! I'm really dating myself aren't I?! The lamination has actually held up well on this poster over the years compared to other posters I made back then. I just cut strips and letters out of red poster board and glued them to a yellow poster board. I did revamp my "X" and "O" markers using my Cricut machine a year or two ago. I've attached a scanned image of the "X" & "O" markers, so if you want to make a poster, you can print at least 5 sets of these markers out on card stock paper, cut them out and laminate them without having to go through the work of making them from scratch. I did add Velcro on the back side of the markers as well as on the game board so they can easily be placed or removed with each game played, but you can use good ol' masking tape like I did back in the day. If you don't want to make a game board, just use chalk and eraser.

Easy and Quick!

To play this game, I am actually going to have them sing one of the verses of the song first before asking and having them answer the question. Since we haven't sung some of these for a while, this will help them review it, hopefully they will concentrate on the song so it will reinforce it in their mind as well as help them so they can answer the question correctly. I will be reviewing the songs/verses in the order I have on the Q&A sheet.


Here are the general game rules to play. I've attached the file and questions below if you want to print them out. I have more questions than can be done in the 20 minute allotment, because I will have the full Singing and Sharing Time this week, so adjust to fit your Primary and time slot. 


HOW TO PLAY

JR: NO TEAMS

•  Sing the song or verse to review before each question.
•  Split the songs into verses so you can focus on each section at a time and to give more opportunities for questions.
• Singing first will help to review the song while giving the children the opportunity to concentrate on what they are singing and to also motivate the children in singing in the hope to be chosen to have a turn to come up.
•  Ask the question for the song/verse just sung.
•  The child that answers the question correctly gets to come and put up a game marker.
•  Rotate selecting a child from each class to have a turn to answer.
•  Alternate the “X” and “O” markers with each question. 
• Warn the children, if necessary, that if they do not participate or are not reverent, you will remove one of the game markers (start with the center one since that is the most strategic spot.)
•  Continue singing and playing until there are three in a row.
•  Start a new game if time permits.

JR optional ways to play with teams

Primary vs Music Leader (you)

•  Play the game similar to the rules above; however, the Primary will be “X” and you will be “O”.
•  If a child answers correctly, they put up their marker. If they give a wrong answer, you get to put up your marker.
•  You do not answer any questions; just the children.

 Teachers vs Children

•  See the SR “How to Play” rules.

SR: TEAMS

• Divide Primary into 2 groups.
•  Sing the song or verse to review before each question.
•  Split the songs into verses so you can focus on each section at a time and to give more opportunities for questions.
•  Singing first will help to review the song while giving the children the opportunity to concentrate on what they are singing and to also motivate the children in singing in the hope to be chosen to have a turn to come up.
•  Let the teachers and children know that their teacher will be watching to see who is participating and paying attention and will be picking who gets to come up and play for their team.  If you are playing teachers against the kids, have a presidency leader help look for the children who are participating or you can just pick.
•  After singing, select a class on each team and have the teachers select a child from their class to come up to be the game contestants to answer the questions. You should have 2 contestants.
•  Ask the question to the song/verse just sung.
•  The first contestant to ring the bell or buzzer and answer the question correctly gets to put up their team’s game marker on the Tic-Tac-Sing board.
• The contestant has 5 seconds to answer the question correctly. If he/she cannot answer correctly within the 5 seconds, the other contestant gets a chance to answer correctly and put their game marker up on the board.
•  If neither team answers correctly, no “X” or “O” gets on the board at this time. Just have any child answer the question 
• OR
•  Sing the song/verse again and then pick someone from the team that was singing the best to answer the question. If he/she answers correctly, that team gets to put up their game token on the board.
•  Repeat playing the game until one team has three markers in a row.
•  Start a new game if time permits.
•  To help keep some semblance of reverence, let the children know that if at any time their team doesn’t sing or gets noisy; they will have one of their markers taken off of the board.

TYPES OF TEAMS FOR SR PRIMARY

• Split the room in half
•  Girls vs Boys
• Children vs Teachers

GAME VARIATIONS

• Play a life-size version by using painters tape to make a grid on the floor or use small chairs and have the child that answers correctly stand or sit in the spot. You may want to have the child hold an "X" or "O" to help visually.
• Play the game to just review one song over and over again as you practice each phrase of the song.
• In reviewing one song, you could take turns for each team to sing the song and if they sing it well, they get to place a marker.
• Do a combo version with "Name that Tune". Have the pianist play a few notes and the contestant that names the song correctly gets to place their marker then sing the song.

Tic Tac Sing Program Song Review Nalani



Tic-Tac-Sing X-O-Nalani