'A child's prayer' with hand motions

This song works really well with hand motions. I will figure out a way to post the motions I used. But it is touching to use the body to express that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers, that Jesus asks that the little children come to him in prayer, and that God loves them.

Teaching about the name of the Church

The following worked very well for junior primary.

Explain: Recently we got some new guidance from our prophet.

Hold up picture of President Nelson and his quote:
“The Lord has impressed upon my mind the importance of the name He has revealed for His Church, even The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

Next hold up the picture showing the Church’s logo. Point out that JESUS CHRIST is the biggest and most important part of the name.

Explain: We are going to practice saying the name of the church… Two children will come up. One is the friend and one is the member. The friend asks "What church do you go to?" The other child responds "I go to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints". Then the piano gives a ba-da-da bum-pa-dum introduction on a G chord (that's really important), and everyone comes in singing song #77:

I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
I know who I am. I know God’s plan. I’ll follow him in faith.
etc...

Optional: give the two children rhythm sticks and shakers during the singing.

Then repeat with a two different children. Really simple, but the children love acting out the parts.

Melody modification

Here's a creative activity for teaching about melodies.

Pick a part of a song that has an interesting melody. I chose the end of "Heavenly Father loves me"... "Yes, I know Heavenly Father loves me."

Arrange some magnets on a magnet board as though they are notes on sheet music, and show how it makes the melody. Then ask a child to come up and move one of the notes. Then everyone tries to sing the modified melody. Repeat with other children.

The new melody could end up sounding pretty silly, so choose a song that it is okay to make sound a bit silly.

Peace like a river

We did a song that is not in the children's songbook.

I accompanied on guitar and had a teacher come up to lead the signs/motions for the three verses.

First verse (Make sign for river)

I've got peace like a river
I've got peace like a river
I've got peace like a river in my soul
I've got peace like a river
I've got peace like a river
I've got peace like a river in my soul

Second verse (Make sign for fountain):
I've got joy like a fountain
...

Third verse (Make sign for ocean):
I've got love like an ocean
...

Then I taught the second part (harmony)

peace... peace... peace... peace in my soul
etc.

(Can't indicate melody here).

Human rainstorm

I got this idea from the LDS primary music leaders facebook page. A post by Tausha Linn (June 4th):

Today for "When I am baptized" we did a human rainstorm...where you start by rubbing your hands together (wind), tapping a finger on your palm (sprinkles), snapping your fingers (getting louder), clapping (loud rain), stomping (thunder), then doing that all backwards til it stopped and the storm passed. We sang the song through, then I used the mist nozzle on a spray bottle to spray those singing well and reverently with rain (above their heads, light mist coming down)...we talked about how rain is so refreshing...and so is starting each new week at church renewing our baptismal covenants. Etc.

We did this artificial rainstorm before and after singing "When I am baptized". They loved getting sprayed by the mist at the end. It was so simple to prepare -- just bring a mist spray bottle. Worked for both junior and senior primary, as well as nursery.

'Give said the little stream' activity

Made a wrapped present containing 25 Hersheys kisses (at least one per child). After singing "Give said the little stream" once through we sang it again while passing the present around (sort of like hot potato). I also rang a chime every time we sang the word 'give'. The child who ended up with the present opened it became the "little stream", and then went around the class handing out the kisses to every one while we sang the song a third time.

It went well for both Junior and Senior primary. I liked this because everybody got to be a giver and a receiver.

'Every star is different' activity

My daughter and I cut out 32 pairs of paper stars, different colors and shapes. We did this by stacking 16 pieces of construction paper, in pairs of 8 different colors. Then we drew 4 different star shapes and cut them out to make 64 stars as pictured here:

It was fun to then put these in an optimal order to maximize the variety as I handed them out in class. We used a diagonal selection strategy, and then grouped them into paper-clipped bundles of five. That worked out well:

In class we sang the 'Every star is different' song, and then I handed out the paper stars, without telling them that every star had a matching star somewhere. It was a bit hard to make sure that everyone actually had a match -- and that involved making sure that every time I handed out a stack of 5, I also handed out the matching stack of five.

When we sang "Some are bright and happy", I had the children who felt bright and happy hold up their stars. Similar for "Some are a meek and mild". Of course some children might be both!

Then I improvised words and continued that activity:

"Some like church in the morning, and some like the afternoon"

"Some like to eat hot dogs, and some like pizza pie"

etc.

I asked for more ideas and the children enjoyed adding things they liked. "Some like star wars, some like star trek."

The best part of the song is

"Everyone is needed, for just what [they] can do. You're the only person who ever can be you."

On the chorus, all the children held up the stars because they are all children of Heavenly Father.

Then I told them to find the other child (or teacher) who had the same star as them, and then talk about one way they are the same and one way they are different.

It worked well for both Junior and Senior primary.