Every first Sunday in January, I LOVE to introduce all the newbies (those sweet Sunbeams and new teachers in Jr. Primary and then the Jr. kids who advanced to Sr. and teachers in Sr. Primary). This is also a great activity if you are a new chorister trying to learn the names of all the millions of kiddos in Primary!!
**This song is also a wonderful welcome song to sing to visitors! Have the visitors shake hands with the rest of the primary as you sing all the primary kids’ and/or visitors’ names.
To do that, I pass out a label to everyone:
(there are 3 or so to a sheet in this package and I will cut each label before primary to make passing them out easier)
I bought mine from Amazon here:
Any office store, or Wal-Mart carries them too.
I pass out markers and everyone writes their name on their name tag and puts it on their chest (myself and all other adults in the room as well). Teachers help where needed.
Then we sing Here We Are Together and go through each child’s and teacher’s name. To start, I call up 4 children/teachers at a time as the song will fit 4 names pretty well. Before we sing, we introduce the 4 and maybe have them say something about themselves like favorite primary song, hobby , etc. (favorite scripture hero is what I’ll be asking and having our secretary jot it down for my bulletin board and bookmarks found HERE and HERE!!) As we sing each name, the individual can make a funny move (like bowing, or a “rock-on” sign, etc.). For an example I usually start with introducing myself, the pianist and a few of the Primary Presidency members. Make sure to change the word “family” in the song to “primary.”
After you’ve introduced the entire primary you can go through the entire primary at once by repeating the 4 or so measures of music until you’ve gone through everyone – you will probably want to give your pianist a heads up!
If your primary is very large, I’d suggest only introducing everyone new in primary (Sunbeams, new Senior kids, any new teachers, etc.).
Time permitting, repeat several times – try singing it with the lights off or with eyes closed to see if everyone can do it without looking at name tags, or sing it facing the back wall.
For Senior, I’ll tell them that there will be a quiz at the end and they will need to name every child and teacher when we are finished!
To provide added movement, try singing “here we are a”…
- STOMPING and stop your feet
- CLAPPING and clap your hands
- POUNDING and pound your fist into your other palm
- SWISHING and rub palms together
- LAPPING and clap hands on legs
For Jr. Primary I’ll most likely cut the reviewing at the end and pull out my Wiggle Worm Jar (find that HERE) to introduce it the Sunbeams:
My jar is convenient in the fact that half the songs are the same ones we sing in Nursery (see my singing time in Nursery HERE):
If I need more time in senior I’ll pull out my Hot-N-Cold Note (find that HERE) and sing I am a Child of God or something else that’s simple while we play. You can also find my list of similar, simple activities HERE.
8 thoughts on “Here We Are Together”
this is very helpful, thank you! one question: do you have everyone sit in a circle, stand in the front or just stay in their seats. i'm just wondering how everyone will see their name tags…
thanks!
I'm probably going to have them stay in their seats and have them stand and turn toward the group during their turn. I figure most of the group already knows all the kids.
just curious, how many kids are in your primary? I have about 40 in jr. and 35 in sr. Do you think that we would be able to get through all the kids names?
Eliza
We have about 25 in our Jr. Primary. I did it today and it was fun. I just ran through it about twice with the group. I'd say if you have a bigger Primary, maybe just run through it once then move on to another activity (my wiggle worm jar was really fun). I'm probably too late to be of any help on this – sorry. What did you decide?
~Camille
ended up just doing the names for the newbies. So jr we did the sunbeams and new teachers. And sr we did ctr7 and new teachers. We ran through it as many times as I needed to get them all strait. Then I had them sit down and asked them one at a time to tell me something great about themselves and their favorite primary song. Then we sang that. It was great and we got through a bunch of fun songs, and got to know them a little better ( the kids and the songs). Thanks for your help and great ideas!
This was so fun! Thank you for the great idea!
Hi! I just got home from church….we did the "Here We Are Together" in both jr and sr. It was awesome! I had four kids at a time come up for both jr and sr and included teachers and the presidency. The kids absolutely loved it! For senior, we finished the song by having the pianist repeat the notes over and over again so we could say the entire sr primary in one long list which meant the song went from 4 names to 36 names which the kids absolutely loved…it was an awesome encore!!!! I also introduced the "posting word" binder so the teacher's would sing along and they loved that! Thank you for such great ideas-I am excited for this year! This is not my first time as the chorister, but this may be my best!
Hi Jolene!
I'm so glad it went well – I won't lie, I have the occasional lesson flop! Thanks for your nice comments, I really appreciate you taking the time.
~Camille