Image courtesy creative commons license flickr.com by origamidon June 2004
Hymns #27
Can we get any more difficult and harder words in a song? The following is a list from the song that are just plain big words. I'm not a pessimist in any way shape or form, but a little bit of reality does seep in now and again. Most 4 year olds are not going to remember the definitions to these words.
communed
seer
dispensation
extol
revere
ascended
traitors
tyrants
vain
mingling
conquer
So what's the solution?? Only the Big Man knows. Ask Him. Sometimes it's not necessarily the words, but the feeling you get when you sing. So ask the children what they feel when you all sing.
A couple thoughts:
*Get a giant beach ball. Invite a child to come to the front and every time there is a big word they hold up the ball. Children in the primary can also hold up a big pretend ball. Enunciate and stress and sing a little slower on the big words. Do you ever notice we mumble? Articulate and help the children with proper pronunciation.
* You can have the junior primary hum the tune while the older children sing.
* Challenge the children and offer a small reward to anyone who can recite or sing the words by memory. Perhaps the reward could be the choir director coming in and giving them a music note with the words, "Note-able Singing Leader" that can pin or stick to their clothes. If anyone forgets a word, look to the note-able leaders for help!
* The melody reminds me of a parade. Invite 3 children to hold up pictures of Joseph Smith and 3 children to hold streamers or something of sort and march around the room as everyone sings. Parades usually are to celebrate something and this song celebrates Joseph Smith!
* Sometimes hero's get a medal of honor. Make a giant medal on a piece of posterboard with Joseph Smith written on it. Invite children who are singing boldly to come up to the front and add a little decoration to the medal -whether it's coloring or stickers. Also, you can sing a phrase leaving out a word and whoever can sing that word gets to come up and decorate.
* There's something about the priesthood singing. Invite a young men's quorum (Perhaps the 14 year olds??) in to sing this song and introduce it to the children. Joseph Smith was 14 when he received the First Vision. Invite any of the young men to share their testimonies about Joseph Smith or singing.
9 comments :
Thank you SO much for your insights. When I sat down & started trying to figure out HOW I was going to teach these HUGE words to 150 little kids I wanted to cry. I've decided to do the parade & streamers with the Jr. Primary (I'm having them hum the verse parts & sing the chorus as they parade around with streamers) & for the Sr. Primary, I'm taking all your "difficult" words & making a matching game with their definitions so help them understand better what it is they are singing about. Thanks again for the ideas.
I appreciate all your ideas. Thanks so much. I think I will copy Dani.
Thank you for your fabulous ideas! You've been an answer to my prayer!
Hi there. I appreciate all the ideas on here! Any ideas for a small branch where we combine jr and sr primary together for singing and sharing time? We have ages 6-12 right now but I'm struggling with how I'll teach everyone this. Plus, some of the children speak English as a second language and I don't know how they will ever remember these difficult words and meanings.
Thank you!
We live in a branch with mostly 3 and 4-year olds. We are going to have a priesthood brother sing the 1st verse (possibly with the primary kids humming), and then we are going to have the kids sing the chorus and the 3rd verse.
I LOVE the parade idea! I'm going to wrap up gifts for each of the classes that will go along with each phrase (i.e. consecrated oil, a set of keys, a castle, and a crown, picture of Joseph Smith, a rope with a knot tied around a can, etc) and they have to guess which phrase the item goes with. I also printed all the phrases on large papers to put on the board. I'm going to have the kids cover 4-5 of the words with sticky-notes each time we sing through it to test and see how well they remember the words. Thanks for your ideas, and I hope mine help too!!
I love the last idea about having the men sing it for the children. Too bad I didn't read this in enough time to put it together. Thanks for your ideas and thoughts.
@Mindy,
You just saved my LIFE!!!! I was at my wits end trying to figure out what to do with this song, we too, are in a Branch with mostly 3 and 4yr olds (only 2 Sr. Primary kids and there's a slight language barrier there) and with no YW or YM I was wondering if I was allowed to just replace the song all together. I am stealing your idea and am going to get a Brother to sing the 1st verse.
Thank you!
-a worried Primary Secretary who also does music and Sunbeams... ah!
We have a large junior primary too, so I decided to bring instruments in and large bowls and got them to beat out the rhythm with the piano. They didn't learn all the words, but they know how the song goes. They really liked the activity too. Now to work on the words...
Thank you so much for these great ideas!
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