Primary Busy Mom Game

So, I was very recently called to be the Primary Chorister for our ward. In case you're not familiar with what I'm talking about here's a quick explanation. I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and in our church we go to 3 different classes on Sundays. The first is Sacrament meeting, which is where we take the sacrament and listen to talks given by members of our ward. Then, we go to our Sunday school classes. People in our church (oh, a ward is the people you meet with at church and have all your classes with and stuff), have callings, which are basically jobs within the church. My calling is to teach music to the primary kids (ages 3-11). I teach for 20min in both jr. primary and sr. primary classes. The kids do performances throughout the year for Mothers' Day and Fathers' Day and a big performance in September of all the songs they learned throughout the year.

So, now that we're done with that little explanation, I want to tell you about a game I did recently with the kids. I just started my calling last Sunday (4/29) and I played this game last Sunday and yesterday to help the kids remember the Mothers' Day songs they're going to sing in Sacrament meeting next week! It worked really really well. The kids learned the songs pretty good and they thought the actions and the mom were all very silly.

We were practicing "I Often Go Walking" and the first verse of "The Dearest Names" both found in the Children's Songbook from our church. However this would work with any song you want to practice.

I called it "Busy Mom"

The first week I had colored a mom on posterboard ( I cut a big piece in half, I didn't need such a big piece and I can use the other half for something else later). She didn't look amazing and I knew I could do better, so I went home and went over her with construction paper.

I wanted her to look a little bit silly.

I made things that represent how busy mom is. You can make whatever you want. I used some shirt cardboard that I had saved for projects like this, paint, paper plates, all kinds of things that I just had on hand. I have a huge stash of craft stuff. 

I used blue tacky stuff to stick it up. 

                    

 Clock - Moms stay up all night with sick children, sing without blinking.
 Weight - Moms keep us in shape and healthy, sing while lifting invisible weights/jumping invisible rope/do jumping jacks, etc
 Book - Mom reads us stories, sing through a hand puppet
 Key - Moms drive us, sometimes in a hurry, sing fast while "driving a car"
 Ipod - Moms like good music, sing with your ears covered like headphones
 Heart - Moms pray for us, sing revrently with arms folded
 Apron- Moms cook for us, sing while jumping up and down like popping bacon
 Smile - Moms make us happy, sing while smiling the whole time
 Swimming mask - Moms take us swimming, sing with your nose plugged
 Music Note - Some moms play the piano, others don't, sing without the piano
 Pom-poms - Moms cheer us on, clap to the rhythm while singing
 Hammer - Moms can solve problems and fix anything, sing while patting your head and rubbing your belly

I put all the objects in a bag and used popsicle sticks to draw their names. If they were sitting reverently, they could come up and pick something out of the bag and put it on. Then we all sang the song the way that went with what they had picked. We did the same thing for both songs. At the end of Sr. Primary yesterday, we sang the song while plugging our noses, smiling the whole time and with a hand puppet. I saw some kids trying to not blink as well. It was fun and I think that the majority of the kids really liked it.