I Will Be Valiant

A great song to go with the theme for September 2018 is "I Will Be Valiant."  It is a fun, upbeat song that the kids should know.  If you have time to slip in this song while practicing for your Primary Sacrament Meeting Program, this is a great choice.

You can find my flipchart here:  I Will Be Valiant Flipchart

Families Can Be Together Forever

The Primary song for July is "Families Can Be Together Forever" which may already be familiar to a lot of Primary children.  To aid in teaching the new younger children, I created a flipchart.  I plan to cut out the pictures and post them around the room, leaving a blank spot in the pages.  This way they can figure out which picture goes with which page/words.  It should be a fun review for those that know it and a good teaching opportunity to teach the words to those who don't.

You can find my flipchart here:  Families Can Be Together Forever

We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet

May (2018) is another "choose your own song" month for Primary music leaders.  Then in the Outline for Sharing Time they have Helps for the music leader (see May on page 11) and it shows wordstrips for "We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet."

I chose to teach that song for May, but I have so many junior primary kids that don't read, I wanted to use pictures instead.  So I started gathering pictures - but what kind of picture do you get for "we thank thee?"  After thinking about it for a while, I chose a combination of words and pictures.  I realized that it's the same words for each line (almost) - "we thank thee," and that the kids can learn to recognize that repeating phrase even though they don't read.  Anyway, here is what I came up with, I hope it can help someone else too.  Just cut each page into four, or don't, it's up to you.

You can find my "word/picture" cards here:  We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet

You can also find my shortened version (2 page horizontal flip chart) here:  We Thank Thee (flip)

An Angel Came to Joseph Smith

April is "choose your own song" month for Primary.  I chose "An Angel Came to Joseph Smith."  I taught the children some rhythm clapping since this song switches from 3/4 to 2/4 twice in each verse.  Once we got the rhythm down, the song came pretty quickly.  I also had them sing "The Golden Plates" which goes right along with this song and helps the children really understand that the golden plates are the Book of Mormon (see my handout for The Golden Plates).

You can find my flipchart here:  An Angel Came to Joseph Smith

My Mother Dear

A sweet little song for Mother's Day - "My Mother Dear" is pretty quick for primary children to learn.  Be sure to teach them that in this song "bright" means smart (not bright like the sun), mothers have to know and do a lot to raise their children.

This flipchart has pictures for the little ones and words for readers and teachers and any children who come the day of performance who haven't been to church to learn it.  I first used just the pictures (printed bigger and separately) placed around the room and had the kids find the pictures while listening to the song and figure out the order of the pictures. You may be able to sing through it a few times while they work this out.  Then I use the chart to practice once or twice a week until we sing it in Sacrament Meeting on Mother's Day.

You can find my flipchart here (although no flipping is required):  My Mother Dear

If the Savior Stood Beside Me (Sign Language Chart)

After watching this video explanation of how to sign "If the Savior Stood Beside Me," I made myself a chart of very simple signs to teach the primary children as they learn this song.  Mostly the chart is to help me remember.  It took quite a bit of time and some photoshopping (can I use that as a verb now?), so I thought I would share it for those without the time or software to create your own. This certainly is not the only way to sign it, but I chose the easiest signs with what I could find on the internet.

You can find my chart for all 3 verses here:  If the Savior Stood Beside Me (Signs)

If the Savior Stood Beside Me

I love the ideas for teaching "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" that were posted on Sugardoodle , so I made my own flipchart with squares I can cut out and put back to back with the question marks for teaching as described, but can also be used just as a flipchart for performing.  I like to include pictures for the little ones who can't read.  You will need to print some of the pages two or three times as needed for the verses.  I found most of the pictures as free downloads from Susan Fitch Designs and modified a couple of them to fit the song.  Thanks to these people sharing, I too wanted to share.

You can find my flipchart here:  If the Savior Stood Beside Me

He Came For Us (Easter)

I found a sweet song from The Friend (April 2011) that I decided to teach my primary children to sing in Sacrament Meeting the week before Easter since Easter falls on Conference weekend this year.  The sheet music can be found here.

You can find my flipchart here:  He Came For Us

Because God Loves Me

A perfect song to teach the primary children to go along with this year's theme of "I Am a Child of God" is the song, "Because God Loves Me."  It's only two short verses and goes perfectly with this month's theme of the Creation.  I usually do my flipcharts landscape, but this one fit much better in portrait.  I had fun teaching the first verse one week, then asking the kids if it sounded like we were through.  They had to listen again then I received a resounding "no." But then I told them they had to wait to hear the rest of the song next time.  Awesome cliffhanger of sorts.

You can find my flipchart here:  Because God Loves Me