Name That Primary Tune

This week I introduced When I am Baptized on pg. 103. For Junior Primary I played Name That Primary Tune. I put ?'s on the board with who/what/where/when/and why underneath them. I then hid questions around the room that they needed to discover. Most of the questions fit under the who/what/where/when/why theme. When they answered the question I put a picture representing the answer under the corresponding question mark. I dressed up in a trench coat with a hat and magnifying glass to represent a detective. The kids had a good time with this. They got slightly out of control with shouting out the answers. I need to make sure they know they are supposed to raise their hand if they know the answer. I needed to be a little more organized with the pictures and where I put the questions and envelopes when they were done with them because they were laying on the table all over the place so it looked a little chaotic when I was done. Also it might be a bit more fun to have a coat for the kid, I gave them a hat, but some didn't like it as much and took it off early. It added to it being a little out of control.


After the game I assigned each class a line to learn to sing and gave them the corresponding picture. This was more difficult than I anticipated. This was my first time teaching a new song and the kids had a hard time learning it. I even had the teachers work on it individually for a while and the little ones still weren't catching on so when we went around the room to sing most of the kids weren't singing. This was too difficult for the junior primary.

For the Senior Primary I handed out a crossword puzzle with words from the song in it. I split up the classes using starbursts which was a good idea because it broke up the talkative kids. Unfortunately I don't think I can use candy all the time because the kids kept begging me for more and I used it all. It was good to mix it up, but I can't do it every Sunday or I'll be in the poor house. I had each group work on the crossword puzzle for 10 minutes and then try to guess what song it was. Everyone enjoyed it and most of the groups were able to figure out the song. It was very big success, it took awhile to make, but it was worth it.

I then used the same idea of assiging each class a line to learn how to sing. This went over much better in the Senior Primary. They caught on very quickly and then we sang it about 4 times, each time I challenged them sing it louder. The problem I have with the senior primary is getting them excited. They know the songs, but they barely move their lips to sing it. I kept challenging them to sing louder than I was. By the end they were almost there and it sounded really good.

Things I learned from this week were that it is hard to teach the junior primary new songs. I need to go over the song several times before I start changing things up with them. It might also help if I explain what some words meant, like ponder. For the senior primary I need to think of things to challenge them. They don't do well with repetition, and they need things that are a little more mature, but still fun.