Lead Like the Wind

An on the spot moment I had and implemented while using the Fall Leaves Blow Dryer Box was to have the kids lead the song as if their hand were "blowing" in the wind (in the appropriate time signature pattern, of course).

Autumn Wind Wands

My kids' Creative Dance Teacher is amazing. She came up with these. I thought they would be great Autumn Wind Wands to wave while signing.

They look very easy to make. A bag of fake leaves, a roll of crepe paper;

• Cut two strips of crepe paper
• Staple them together between two leaves.
• Hold the leaf and sway it while you sing!

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*Idea credit to dance teacher, Jasmine C.

Primary Pumpkin Patch

An idea for an Autumn Program Prep Music Time.

Paper Prep:
Cut out some bigger-ish crow shapes. Give the Crows "names". 

Name suggestions for the Crows might be;

• watching eyes - Ms. Attention (Ms. Alert)
• tall bodies - Mr. Stature
• smiles - Mr. Happy
• words - Ms. Melody
• volume - Mr. Loud

Cut out pumpkin shapes and write song names on them, which will be stuck on the board, or around the room to be the "Primary Pumpkin Patch"

Extra Prep:
Straw hat for yourself / Teachers.

  

Getting Helpers:
Before Primary, ask some people to be Crows. The Crows are the judges who will determine how well the kids do.

Instruct the Crows that they will "fly" away when the kids are doing well in their area (which is their Crow's name) for that song.

Tell the Crows to only fly away if the kids are actually doing well in that area. If the kids aren't doing well in that area, the Crow sticks around! And then you and the kids will discuss what they can do better to make the stuck Crows fly away. But let the Crows know not to fly away "just because", but that they are actually helping you out! Making sure that unless the song really is good, you want to sing it 2 or 3 times. You can also help them out by saying things like, "WOW! The kids looks really HAPPY, don't they?!", and such.

Also tell the Crows that they will fly back for each song. So stay around! Don't go to class!

*Extra instruction for one of the Crows - the one for "Volume" will fly down the hallway and stick on the wall at the point where he can't hear us singing anymore. The better the kids sing, the farther Volume Crow goes down the hallway! After church the kids can go see how far down the hallway Volume Crow. This also means you'll have to make one Volume Crow for each song. **Actually, when I do this Primary Pumpkin Patch activity I will be spreading it out over two Sundays. I will use the Volume Crow by himself the 2nd Sunday.

In Action:
Explain that the Primary Room has been transformed into a Primary Pumpkin Patch!

Some times Crows come and try to get the pumpkins. Scarecrows are in pumpkin patches to make the Crow go away, right?! So today we'll be Scarecrows, JUST IN CASE any Crows come.

But! Since this is the PRIMARY Pumpkin Patch, we will be SPIRITUAL Scarecrows. We will sing so Spiritually and so Lovely that the Crows will leave.

**Draw parallels about how the pumpkin patch is like our life and sometimes bad things come into our lives and we have to get them out. For instance, when you have a bad thought - you can sing a Primary song to get the bad thought out. [sing: Hum Your Favorite Hymn 152]**

 But luckily there are no crows in OUR Primary Pumpkin Patch (signal Crow helpers to come in)....

OH NO! We will have to sing really well to scare these crows out of here! Point out each Crow and it's "name", explaining that doing certain things will scare off certain Crows.

1. Choose a Pumpkin to see which song to sing.
2. Sing it until all the Crows have "flown" away.
3. Then choose another Pumpkin and...
4. the Crows come back for the next song!
5. And, repeat.

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***Adding a "competitive" element for Senior Primary:

Give each Song points for how many crows fly away, and see which song they can earn the most points for.

• 5 points each crow that flies away on the first try
• 3 points for those that leave on the second try
• 1 point for any crows the leave third try.

--Sing the song a few times, keeping track of the points, then add them up and move on.


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Making Crows and Pumpkins:

making the Crow template

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*This is a Primary Notes 29 original idea by Ashlie Johansen

WHOOOO Has Seen the Wind?

The song is from the orange book Sing With Me. Who Has Seen the Wind, page G-2.

Introduce an owl puppet* named Christina Rossetti.  Paraphrase "Christina is named after a real person who lived a very long time ago in England. She was very smart. She wrote poetry.... the real person Christina wrote the words to this song!".  Have owl puppet Christina teach the kids the song Who Has Seen The Wind by having the kids echo her line-by-line.

Sing Who Has Seen the Wind a few times.

Then, if time allows, use the WINDY blow dryer box to sing more Fall songs.

***FYI, I just stumbled across a song in the blue Children's Song Book that has basically the same idea and message - and talks about the wind. It's called God's Love, on page 97.****

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*My daughter brought the owl puppet she made home from school. I snatched it up and adopted it into my Primary Music stash. :D

*Wikipedia page for more information about Christina Rossetti

Leaves Were Falling off the Apricot Tree

I improved this song on the spot last week... it was fun!

I looked out the window and what did I see? (binoculars)
Leaves were falling off the apricot tree (leaf falling fingers)
Fall had brought me such a nice surprise (out hands)
Leaves were falling right before my eyes. (leaf falling fingers)
I could take a rake and make a big pile (raking)
and rake, and rake, and rake, and rake for a little while. (raking)
It WAS really so, (pointer finger)
and so it seemed to me (point to self)
leaves were falling off the apricot tree! (leaf falling fingers)

Blow Dryer Box

The idea is kind of like... um.. on a game show where people step into a box full of cash blowing all around. Yeah. A smaller version of that. With a blow dryer.

I made my blow dryer box for fall with an autumn tree in the background and Dollar Tree table scatter for the blowing leaves.

Here's how it's going to work (for me):
I was going to have the names of songs on the leaves. Only.... it's turning out to be a little more complicated than just that. The leaves have a tendency blow out of the box and all over the place. And for effect I am going to put all 50 leaves in the box, not just the 8 songs we'll sing (it was sad with just a few leaves - and it was hard to get them to blow around. More = better). So I WILL have numbers on all the leaves (1-50) - the thing is, the numbers don't really mean anything, even though the kids think they do. The Pianist and I will just be going down a predetermined list of songs. I'll call out "leaf 25! what a great song!" and she'll just play the next one on the list. Or, I'll have the list, too, and I'll eyeball the next song and call out the name of that song when I look at the leaf number - like,"oh, I'm so glad you picked this leaf!  I just looooove I Pray In Faith! Okay, let's sing!". That sort of thing. Sometimes it's the "magic of Primary" at work.

You can also add some movement/teaching conducting with this Lead Like the Wind idea.

Songlist:
*** LEARN, It’s Autumntime 46  - *after learned, sing while picking leaves

1. THANKFUL SONG: I Am Glad For Many Things  151
2. FUN SONG”:  “Leaves” Are Falling All Around  241
3. THANKFUL SONG: Pray In Faith  14
4. THANKFUL SONG: For Health and Strength (round)  21
5. FUN SONG: “Leaves Are Falling From the Apricot Tree”  242
6. THANKFUL SONG: I’m Thankful to Be Me  11
7. FUN SONG: “Once There Was a Tree”  249  *(in the Fall the leaves fell off, leaves fell off, leaves fell off…)
8. THANKFUL SONG: My Heavenly Father Loves Me  228

Big box.
I've seen it done with a diaper box. Mine is from the company I work for (score!).
I made the top of the tree interchangeable with a green top, if I ever want to.
Or, I could put in a whole new scene if I ever wanted to - just make something to place in over the existing picture.

Left side: Hole big enough for an arm to fit into the box, cut in mid-height.

Right side: Side opposite of arm hole.
The bottom seemed to be the best place for the air to come in at. When using the box you have to angle the air every which way to get the leaves to blow around - even have to tip the box to get it to go.

Ceran Wrap the front. Clear plastic tape it on.
Don't seal all the edges - the air needs to be able to be able to escape a little bit - if it can't get out the Ceran Wrap turns into a big bubble... I was afraid it would burst!

...tried to get an action shot.  glare/blurry leaves...
The leaves blow everywhere, even out of the box. Leaves are going to go everywhere.
I can just imagine how silly the kids will think it is. I can hear their giggles now...

Last pic - random! My too-huge box of never-ending ceran wrap.
When we were first married we thought we'd need 3,000 SQUARE FEET of the stuff. What were we thinking?!
11 years later and we're still using the stuff and it still feels like it's never going to run out! We have so much I'm even using ir for Primary projects (Thanks Sams Club! lol.)

*Idea Credit: I found the blowing box  HERE.