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Ideas for Songs
IDEAS of Others
	Over the years, I’ve probably used the “A Children’s Songbook Companion,” by Pat Graham, Mary Gourley, Trudy Shipp, and Linda Stewart, more than anything to get ideas for how to teach the Primary songs. There are suggestions, ideas, and graphics for each song in the Children’s Songbook. It can be purchased from Deseret Book or the BYU Bookstore.			Eternal Family Bingo Sarah Hill (SugarDoodle) How Firm a Foundation blocks– Rebecca Jack (SugarDoodle) How Firm a Foundation teaching ideas – The Crazy Chorister Teaching How Firm a Foundation by Ruth Bardsley (SugarDoodle)
DeeAnn’s Suggestions
January 2009—I Lived in Heaven and/or The Family is of God (Flipcharts) Our Primary decided to go ahead and learn both songs this month, since each of them have important messages, and I made flipcharts for both songs. As we sang, I turned the pages of the songs, and would explain what the song was talking about and define any hard words. One week for a couple of activity songs, we sang “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam” and “I Am Like a Star”—to go along with the heaven idea. A few years ago, I made a poster board sun with a picture of Jesus in the middle that has little sunbeams attached on the back with twine wrapped around each of them. They’re stuck on the back with poster putty. Every time we sang “sunbeam,” I’d un-stick one of the seven sunbeams and let it tumble down. Then I’d have seven children hold one of the sunbeams, and we’d sing the song again and raise the sunbeams up together when we sang “sunbeam.” This is a variation of an idea I got from the “Children’s Songbook Companion.” I also made a large poster board cutout of a “star,” with a string of shiny sequins glued on the edge, with a hole cut in the middle for a child to put their face through as we sang “I Am Like a Star.” I had the child smile really big when we say that part in the song, which made the children giggle.
Front		Back
February 2009 – How Firm a Foundation (Flipchart) To teach the song, “How Firm a Foundation,” I thought I’d start off with a story the children could relate to—The Three Little Pigs. I asked them what the first little pig built his house out of, and they, of course, said straw. I asked them what happened to that house. It got blown away. Why? Because it wasn’t strong. What about the second house? The second little pig wanted his house to be stronger than the first one, so he made it out of sticks. But what happened? It got blown away, too. What about the third little pig’s house? It didn’t get blown away because it was strong and made of bricks. I then asked why the three little pigs’ decisions were different. The first pig didn’t want to take the time to build a strong house, so he could play and do whatever he wanted. The second little pig went to Church and read the scriptures, but not because he wanted to. He didn’t really care about helping others. But the third little pig wanted to build a firm foundation, so he read the scriptures, prayed, and went to Church because he really wanted to, and he did his best to help others. So, he had built a firm foundation on what Jesus teaches us to do.
			I had the children volunteer to come up and try to blow a house I made out of cardstock off the table. It took a few of them to do it, but the house went flying off the table. Oh, they thought that was fun! I asked them why it flew off, and they said because it didn’t have a strong foundation. I then put some bean bags inside the house, and had them try to blow it off again. Of course, they couldn’t do it. (Here’s the house to the left with the bean bags I used. I drew the house on poster board from a graphic in “The Friend,” cut it out, and assembled it. The roof lifts up to put whatever you want inside to help teach a song. The bean bags were made out of some material with smiley faces printed on it. I found two with the same face and sewed them together and filled them with old beans, then stitched them up.)
We talked about building a house on a strong foundation and a sandy foundation, and sang the “The Wise Man and the Foolish Man.” Several years ago, I made a roller box with pictures of the song from “The Friend” that I used for the “slide show.” The children really enjoyed watching the pictures of the song, as I rolled the pictures up, and they did they actions to the song.
Then I held up cardstock “bricks,” “steps,” “pillars,” and “roof” (covered with clear contact paper) with the phrases from “How Firm a Foundation” on them. I placed each piece on laminated poster board as they sang the song until we had the whole first verse “built” on a strong foundation. As I started laying the “foundation” with the first “brick,” one little girl raised her hand and wondered why I wasn’t putting the words to the song at the top. I said that we’re making a building, so we need to start at the bottom and lay a firm foundation, so there was method to my madness. I explained how the foundation held up the building, the steps led to Jesus, who was the pillars which held up our roof or “refuge.” I found the basic idea for the building on the internet, and here’s my version at the right, and you can download my chart pieces here to make your own chart. I had the children sing the next two verses from my flipchart of the song in my binder and explained how the Savior is there to help us in our time of need. The Primary president had to leave just before we began learning the song and returned towards the end, when everyone was standing and singing like the Tabernacle Choir. She was so impressed!
March 2009 – My Eternal Family (Flipchart)