My WHO? Container

I have a container that I've cut strips of who can sing. I wrote "WHO" on it.  It's my WHO? can.  I use it to extend signing time and keep them singing. Since it's something I keep using it over and over, I thought I'd post about it.

For example, for the song  I Will Follow God's Plan I asked the Primary, "Who will follow God's plan?"  I invited a child to pick from the WHO? Container - and then I make a big deal about those kids ("Yes! people wearing blue will follow God's plan!!!") and only those kids sing. I first used the WHO? Container for the song I Lived in Heaven.  It's the same idea...(see it here!).

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Ideas for WHO paper strips:

• hair color
• hair length
• eye color
• clothing color
• age (older than/younger than)
• girls / boys
• missing teeth
• have had a birthday this year / birthday coming up

___________ Will Follow God's Plan

Choose 9 kids. Use their names to fill in the song  I Will Follow God's Plan.

Abby's life is a gift; Ben's life has a plan.
Cameron's life has a purpose; in heav'n it began.
Dan's choice was to come to this lovely home on earth
And seek for God's light to direct him from birth.
Eliza will follow God's plan for her,
Holding fast to His word and His love.
Gretchen will work, and Holly will pray;
Izzy will always walk in His way.
Then James will be happy on earth
And in his home above.

Broken Hearts for I Will Follow God's Plan

Concerning prep work, there are 2 versions below. Easy and hard. (Hard isn't really that hard, it's just more effort...)

source

EASY:

1. Glue/print song phrases on hearts. Cut them apart.
2. Post them randomly on the board.
3. Invite children to match them up.
4. When a match is made, sing it.
5. When all matches are made sing the whole song.

*I thought I thought of this idea!, but then I found it on Toddler Land (pictured above).  She's already made a printable for it, so go there and grab it!

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HARD(er):

So, here (pic below) is my own version of how I will use the broken hearts idea for IWFGP. Of course, printing the document from Toddler Land (link above) would be the easiest thing to do. Instead, I made my broken hearts to be reusable. I laminated them and taped the lyrics to the front. More work? Yes. Reusable for the future? Yes. (see my hearts blank, here)

How I'll use these hearts for reviewing and cementing I Will Follow God's Plan:

1. I will draw numbers on the board, holding the place for the assembled hearts. (Hearts have coordinating numbers on the back).
2. Heart pieces will be taped to the piano.
3. I'll call a child up to make a match, then we'll tape the heart on it's numbered spot on the board.
4. We'll sing the song. Humming if there are no words taped up yet, and singing the lyrics to the phrases that have been matched and posted on the board.

Broken hearts: Assembled!
With I Will Follow God's Plan lyrics on them.
The white parts will be removed and I can make more if I decide to use these laminated hearts again.

My FLIPCHART for I Will Follow God's Plan

Some day I'd like to upload my flip charts. Maybe. When I have more time (haha, time, what's that?). Until then, here's picture of what I drew for I Will Follow God's Plan:

Oh yeah. The last paper is where we did actions. Yep, good times in Primary!

Follow THE PLAN

This is for teaching the song I Will Follow God's Plan.

POST "THE PLAN" on the board (a big poster board, or a bunch of papers with big text printed or written on it outlining all the steps of what we will do [see list below]).

TELL the kids we have to follow this plan to make sure we learn the song of the Month. We have to do every step in the plan to be able to learn the song. At some points there may be choices in the plan, but we have to do each step. (For the flipchart part I drew my own pictures, as seen here.)

(((    *You have to really interact with the kids to make sure this is going to work and get the point across. This isn't one of those "just singing some songs" lessons, everyone has to feel involved. Have the kids direct you and make them feel like they are in charge of making sure you are following the plan! Make a big deal if kids jump ahead in the plan, or don't follow the plan, or are following the plan. Really point out the plan and make everyone feel involved in it. (I hope this makes sense.)    )))

THE PLAN (check off each thing when you've done it):

1. Listen to pianist play the song
2. Sing only the last part from "I Will..."
3. Jump up and down five times
4. Sit down on your chair
5. Put up all the pictures
6. Sing the whole song!
7. Take down two OR three pictures
8. Sing the whole song!
9. Take down some more pictures
10. Hum or Clap the rhythm the whole song!
11. Take down some more pictures
12. Choose either: pat head 5 times OR pat tummy 5 times
13. Sing the whole song!
14. Listen to Sister Chorister

ASK, How did we learn this song? Did we follow the plan? Yes, we did! - and because we did we were able to learn the song like we were supposed to. Does anyone else have a plan for us? Yes, that's right! Heavenly Father does!

EXPLAIN - this song is about following the plan Heavenly Father has for us. Where does HF's plan for us begin? (in Heaven). And it continues on Earth! We are born to get a what? (a body). We make good choices in our life to stay close to HF. How do we walk in His way? (go to church, baptized, mission, married in temple…).

My "Plan" all typed up is the first few pages (1-8) of THIS GoogleDoc. Pages 9 to the end are this game, The Roadmap to Return
*GoogleDocs reformatted it a little bit from the original on my computer...

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At this point you can end. Or, you can add on;
--- THIS LESSON, where you talk about some beautiful things that Heavenly Father has in store & "paint"a beautiful scene in their life's plan with Primary Music Paintbrushes as they sing I Will Follow God's Plan For Me.

--- "The Plan" Life Size Game---------------------------

UPDATE:
JR was into this. SR, not so much. Maybe because JR can't read, so they were surprised by each thing we had to do. SR read ahead and they weren't impressed, but they did it anyway. I could tell they were bored and tried to go fast through it.

I Will Follow God's Plan - Imagine and "Paint"

TALK about some beautiful things that Heavenly Father has in store for you (getting baptized, married in the temple, going on a Mission, having a future family). Have the children imagine and "paint"a beautiful scene in their life's plan with Primary Music Paintbrushes as they sing I Will Follow God's Plan For Me.

"The Plan" Life-Size Game: The Roadmap To Return

1. Put a game board of colored pieces of paper on the floor - starting at Heaven, leading to Earth, then going back to Heaven.. The pieces will have stuff to read/do on the back.
2. Invite a child to toll a die. Have the same child, or invite another child to move the playing piece.
3. Read the tasks on the spaces they land on. (Have the pieces face down so the kids don't know what to expect.)

START by singing ♫ "I Lived in Heaven".

These are the MUST STOP MILESTONES:

• Birth - ♫ I Am a Child of God
• Baptism - ♫ I Like to Look For Rainbows
• Mission - ♫ I Hope They Call Me on a Mission
• Temple Marriage - ♫ I Love to See the Temple
• Death - ♫ God Be With You til We Meet Again

OTHER Spaces include:

• Happy things, such as eating veggies, adding family members
• Bad things, such as eating too much candy or not being nice.
• Fill-in-the-blanks of the song ♫ I Will Follow God's Plan. They earn moving forward however many spaces they can complete.

When setting up the game pieces, half the spaces lead to Earth, half lead back to Heaven. Hopefully it's somewhat obvious that some spaces need to be planned out so that certain life events happen in life order. You'll have to figure that out, in person, with your own game board.

When a Team gets to Earth they have to sing the whole song (their team only) and if it's good enough, they can start the trek back to Heaven.

When the human playing piece gets back to Heaven EVERYONE in the Primary gets a ribbon to take home. I want to print these on cardstock and put them on a string;

I hope this makes sense! I'm tired-typing right now.  :)~

I've typed it all up HERE.
*1) Scroll down past the few first pages (1-8) which are this lesson, The Plan
*2)Unfortunately, GoogleDocs reformatted it a bit and some things are in odd places...    :/

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*UPDATE:
1) I have pictures of the actual game I will post later.
2) The game took a little longer than I expected, but all in all, it worked out okay.
3) The kids liked the ribbons at the end and looked so cute proudly wearing them in the hallway after Primary.
4) SR Primary thought is was HILARIOUS when they got TWINS!
5) This was a lot of prep to make the document, put the game board together and the ribbons too. I found myself on Sunday stringing ribbons during Sacrament.....  (probably also had to do with a week consisting of Parent teacher conferences, my daughter breaking both arms, my #1 job being a SAHM, my second side job out of the home, and the late Saturday evening performance I was in with the dance team I joined...)