How to do it all??

I ALWAYS take one week every month and do something that has nothing related to the program.  It’s usually something seasonal.  So, for instance, in February I theme a week around Valentine’s Day (find my Valentine’s Day lesson plans HERE).

Most of these lesson plans incorporate a variety of songs that we {hopefully} are unfamiliar with. Since the kids don’t know some of the songs, I post words to everything so those who can read, can sing along. See how I post words HERE.

The non-readers will be listening to me and the teachers!  If I feel the need, I’ll take it one step further and play the song on CD (or phone with a speaker) as well so the kids are reading and singing along.  With this activity, the kids will become familiar with a variety of songs that they otherwise wouldn’t have been exposed to.

This “seasonal week” in singing time is when we are able to work on something to sing in sacrament meeting when we are asked including Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc.  You can find all my seasonal lesson plans by going to my Lesson Plan tab under my Index tab HERE (which is also at the top of the page).  I’ve got a column titled “Lesson Plans by Topic” section.

Then near the end of the month, I take one week and try to do a fun review activity of all the program songs we’ve learned so far for the program.  If it’s January and we’ve only learned one song for the month, I have Sing-A-Long videos to preview or introduce the songs that we will be learning.  Find all those HERE.

You can find my running list of review activities HERE (also underneath my Index tab at the top of the page).

If there is a 5th Sunday, I usually do another review activity or get caught up from missed Sundays due to Stake and General conferences (or try to get ahead knowing they are coming up).

Not only do I divide my weekly singing time lesson plans, but I also utilize transition time and my 20-minutes of singing time to try to incorporate more into singing time.

With the new block schedule, there are 10  minutes of transition time between sacrament meeting and primary.  This is quite a bit of time for most of the kids to just be sitting there after they arrive in primary.  So why not use the last 5 minutes and sing?  I choose a welcome song and an opening song.  My opening song is either an Article of Faith song or a Books in the New Testament, Books in the Old Testament or Books in the Book of Mormon.


Find details on implementing Article of Faith songs HERE.  We’ll sing these when we eventually study D&C with Come Follow Me.

And details on implementing Books in the New Testament HERE (I plan on doing the same thing for the Books in the Old Testament and the Books in the Book of Mormon when we eventually study those).

If sacrament meeting runs long, we just omit this.

We sing for maybe 5 minutes each week either right after our scripture song or sometimes at the end of singing time if I’ve got a few extra minutes (just depending on my time that day).  It’s a great way to get everyone involved, get wiggles out or save a failing lesson plan (tell me I’m not the only one to occasionally have a flop!). When I first started it, it was intended for Jr. only but Sr. saw the jar and wanted to know what it was…needless to say, Sr. primary does it too and LOVES it!

With the new curriculum, we’ve stopped singing birthday songs to birthday kids.  Instead we now recognize them with a Golden Birthday ticket.  You can find more details HERE.

In September, when we have finished learning all the program songs, we spend the month reviewing all the program songs.  It’s a great time to really reinforce what they’ve learned all year.  I usually incorporate a big review activity.  You can check out my program review activities HERE.

What is fabulous is when the program is over and you have a few months with no program pressure! We have our program usually mid October.  This gives me the rest of October, November and December to sing whatever I want and I love it!  October I usually pick non-holiday songs that I want the kids to learn.  Check out some of my After-The-Program posts HERE.

November is obviously focused around Thanksgiving and fall.  Find those lesson plans HERE.

And December is Christmas.  Find all those lesson plans HERE.

Just in time to start over with the next year’s program songs!

So I ask you, how do you do it all? Please comment if you have more ideas!