I’m finally doing something that I’ve been meaning to do for a long time . . . a brain dump of all the music teaching ideas I used when I was a music leader for Primary children at my ward for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I taught music to about 100 kids religious music every week for about 2 years, and it was so much fun! I loved having fun with the kids each week and I tried to do different activities often because children all learn in different ways. I decided I wanted to keep track of a bunch of my favorite teaching activities and so I am dumping it all here in one big list of primary singing time ideas and sharing it with you. If you are a primary chorister, I hope these ideas will inspire you when you are in a slump or help you know how to construct some of the ideas you may have already heard of.
*This post may contain affiliate links. Clicking on these links help me earn a small commission to support my blog, at no cost to my readers.
Primary Singing Time Activities
1. UNO Singing Review Game
With this game you use an UNO card game to help kids review a song they are struggling with. It helps with songs that need lots of review with phrases and big words. Use UNO cards and have the kids pick a card. If they pick a yellow card, they would sing the phrase in the yellow box the number of times that is on the card. So if it was Yellow 5, they sing the yellow box 5 times. You can add fun things with Draw Four (let them choose a color), Reverse (have them turn around toward the back of the room and sing without looking), etc. And, as any good teacher would do, feel free to put in the cards that correspond to the verses that need to the most practice. If the green area needs a lot of work, put in a lot of green UNO cards.
In order to use this UNO game board over and over for multiple songs, I used page protectors so I could switch the word helps out. I taped page protectors to the board on both sides to make more use of the board.
2. Musical Chime Pipes
This is something I found out about AFTER I was done being a music leader, but I wish so much I had it when I was. These music pipes are so much fun to play as a group and almost any age can play them. Kids learn how to do them very easily. The company Musical Pipes has a bunch of Primary songs, and Christmas songs that you can get to make it easy. I’ve heard of people making their own, but you can also purchase them from Musical Pipes, for a very reasonable price. There’s also enough pipes for a lot of kids to get a turn to play. {See my post about these pipes here}
3. Songs Around the Campfire with Indoor Campfire
One of my favorite primary singing time activities was to sing songs around the campfire with the children. I made this easy DIY indoor campfire, plugged it in and turned out the lights. The kids loved watching the “fire” and singing sacred songs. There’s many ways to make it, but I made campfire using an old grapevine wreath, wrapping paper and tissue paper, white Christmas lights, and paper towel rolls.
Place some cardboard over the hole of the grapevine wreath (secure with glue if needed), then pile the lights on top, making sure to leave out some length of cord to plug it in. The cover the lights with tissue paper and/wrapping paper. I used some spray paint to give it a nice look. Add paper towel rolls as pictured and secure with glue.
4. Mad Gab Singing Game
This game is a fun one, and very easy too. Mad Gab is a game where you say a bunch of words together to create an actual phrase. The sentence doesn’t make sense when you just read it, but when you say the words out loud, it starts to sound link a different phrase (or in this case the title of the song) that makes sense. I tried this with both junior and senior primary and actually the junior primary kids were better at it because I had to read it out loud to them, and their listening skills were better since they were not distracted by the words. It was so fun!
Song titles pictured here (in order from top to bottom):
Once There Was a Snowman
I Hope They Call Me On a Mission
Nephi’s Courage
Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
I Love to See the Temple
Seek The Lord Early
Scripture Power
I Feel My Savior’s Love
I put another poster board on top and only showed one song at a time (so they couldn’t figure out all the rest ahead of time). I showed one song at a time and after they figured it out, we sang that song.
5. Primary Singing Snowball Game
This was a simple and fun game too. I simply passed out a piece of paper to each child and had them write down their favorite “testimony song”. I talked to them beforehand about how some songs really help us feel the Spirit and make our testimony stronger. Those songs become special to us and remind us of our testimony every time we hear it. So each child wrote down their favorite testimony song. Then I had them crumple up their paper into a ball (lots of surprised kids at this part!). Then when I gave the word, I told them they could all throw their “snowball” at me all at once. THEY LOVED THIS.
Then I gathered all the songs and kept them in a container. Whenever we had extra time, I would choose a testimony song to sing making sure we got through all of them by the end of the year.
6. Primary Singing Olympics Activity
For this singing activity we were reviewing songs for the program so we had a lot to get through. I gave each song an Olympic-type activity and then I would give them a gold medal if it was ready for the program or a silver medal if we needed to still work on it, based on those 3 smiley face points in the picture — eyes on me, loud & clear, and singing with their hearts. Here’s some Olympic activities you could use to help you. For the more reverent song, The Miracle, we passed a homemade Olympic torch around as we sang. I turned out the lights for reverence. See below how I made the DIY flashlight torch.
7. Pass the Torch Activity
I made this torch pretty quickly using a flashlight, a paper cup, and some gift tissue paper. For singing time we would pass this torch around as we sang a song. I turned out the lights to make it brighter. We used this in an Olympic singing game (see above) but you could also just play that when the music stops, whoever has the torch gets to pick the next song or activity. You could have the pianist just stop playing at random times.
Cut a hole in the bottom of the paper cup so it fits snuggly around the top of your flashlight. Add tape to secure if needed. The add pieces of red, orange, and yellow gift tissue paper around the paper cut to make it look like a torch.
I stuffed some tissue inside too, to make it less wiggly and feel more full. Such an easy way to create a homemade Olympic torch!
8. Pioneer Trek Singing Activity
I got this idea from another blog, but I can’t find it (so if you know, please share with me). Anyway, I just drew this map on a piece of white posterboard. You could use a real map. We had our little handcart family start in Nauvoo and then trek west to get to Salt Lake. At each point a long the way, we stopped and sang a song and I would tell a short story or some info about what the pioneers did in that location. Our goal was to get to Zion before Primary ended!
The MAGIC of this game is that it looks like the handcart family moves all on their own and the kids loved watching them move along the trail after each song. I simply did this by using 2 magnets. One magnet is stuck to the little handcart family, and the other one is on the back side of the poster and they stick together. Put your hand behind the poster and slide it along magically!
9. Easter Egg Singing Game
This singing activity was funny. I filled a bunch of plastic Easter eggs with different ways to sing a song and some fuzz balls from the craft store. I picked a child to come up and choose an egg. After they chose one, I would crack the egg over their head, open it up, and let all the stuff fall out. Kinda silly, I know, but the kids got a kick out of it, especially if it was a teacher’s head. Then we would sing the song. EASY prep and EASY to carry out.
10. Weather and Seasons Printables
I created these printables to use for singing time or preschool. This set includes rainbows, flowers, trees, rain clouds, sun, etc and work for so many songs. Sunbeam, Rain is Falling, My Heavenly Father Loves Me, When I Am Baptized, etc. You could use them in nursery singing time too. Simply print, cut, and laminate to use over and over again. {click to see more}
11. Lucky Leader Primary Game
This is a fun game for March and St. Patrick’s Day. I explained it better in another post, so go here to read more.
12. Primary Punch Game
This game is an all-time favorite!! I figured out how to make this game easy to reuse for more than one singing time, so go over to this post where I give you all the details and explain how to make this baby. With this game you can put songs or ways to sing, or words in each line if you are learning a new song inside of each cup and let the kids punch to get it out. Kids in both Junior and Senior LOVE this one.
13. Peek-a-boo Puppet
The peek-a-boo puppet was fun for getting kids to sing louder. You could also use it as a reverence helper (the puppet only comes out if you are quiet because he’s really shy . . . ). Or the louder they sing the more he comes out. Or sing loud when he’s up and quiet when he’s down. So many options. {See how I made this DIY Pee-a-boo Puppet HERE}
14. Singing Time Sing-O-Meter
How boring singing time would be without the occasional use of a classic Sing-o-Meter. There are many ways to create one of these. This one may help motivate the kids to sing better. Let kids help hold it and decide what they get after a song or have the meter going as they sing. I made this one with stuff from Dollar Tree but you can easily copy this. {Here’s how I made this Sing-o-Meter}
15. Nursery Singing Time Helps
I also wrote a post about how I do nursery singing time in between junior and senior. I keep everything in an easy-to-see and grab bag. See this post for all the details of each item in this bag.
16. DIY Musical Toys
I loved using instruments with the primary kids. It was an easy way to teach them rhythm and timing. Plus, it was just fun! Songs like Follow the Prophet and Book of Mormon Stories worked very well. I had a huge primary and I wanted a lot of kids to get a chance to help. So I created this cute little set of instruments for super cheap using items from Dollar Tree and things I found around the house or at the craft store. {See this post for more details on how I made them}
17. Giant Dice for Music Games
I used this homemade game dice many times. I created it using a cube box from the post office. I used numerals instead of dots so that the junior primary could easily know the numbers right away. I would have a kid roll this down the aisle and what number it landed on was how many time we had to sing the chosen song. Or use it for how many times to sing a certain phrase they are struggling with. It can get more creative than that too . . . use it to see how many times they have to turn around (in place) during the song, or something like that. I covered it in clear packing tape so that I could easily cover the numbers and attach a picture that represented a song. When we sang Follow the Prophet, I put pictures of the prophets and whichever one it landed on was the verse we would sing. {See how I created this dice HERE}
18. The Hilarious Hat Game
For this game go around your house, or the Dollar Store and collect all the silly, cheap dress up hats and items you can find. Search through your costume box and see what you can find. My primary children loved this game!! Set out all the items on a table in front of the primary and have them sing the song. Whichever class seems to be trying the hardest gets a chance to pick a hat or costume item for their teacher(s) to wear all through the next song. Then repeat until every class has had a turn to make their teacher wear a silly hat. This is a very fun activity, and kids love it–but I don’t recommend it for when you are teaching a reverent song about the Savior.
I hope these ideas help someone else out there! Please pin and share this! I’ll try to add more if I think of anything else!
