This is my follow-up post for my “Putting the Feeling into He Sent His Son” lesson plan (found HERE).
The purpose of these is they help others, going forward, tweak plans for their primaries, stray away from lesson plans that flopped {yes, it happens to everyone…even me!!}, and give feedback (don’t be too harsh!) about how it went in general. You can find my response below. These posts will be linked back to the actual lesson plan so they’ll be easy to reference.
So, I ask you…
If you taught my lesson plan for “Putting the Feeling into He Sent His Son,” how did it go, what things did you change, what do you wish you would have done differently, would you do it again? Leave a comment below!
Here’s my response:
This was probably, by far, my BEST lesson plan for senior primary! They responded SO well to all the musical theory! There are a handful of kids who take piano, but even my non-players knew a few musical terms (my little trouble-maker boy knew what TEMPO was!). The favorite for the kids was pulling out the metronome. They had a great time singing the song fast, then slow, then the right speed. Conducting with the wands was great too.The only downside was I didn’t get through it all! I rushed through the “slurs” and never made it to the harmony in the end. But, I’ll be adding that in before our program so no real loss. I’d definitely do this again with another song!
Here’s what choristers had to say on Facebook:
I used this in Senior today, and it was probably the best singing time I’ve had to date. Thank you so much for sharing!
I did this today as well. It went well. Everyone was involved. They learned and sang so well!! Thanks for the idea!!!Here’s what Facebook commenters said:
I did it. The Sr. Primary was very engaged and I believe they learned quite a bit. They sang so expressively and lovely. I didn’t get to the leading with the wands and they were disappointed. The spirit was felt. Jr. Primary loved the wands, singing and freezing!! Overall I felt it went pretty good.
I didn’t get to it this week because we had another song/activity that went over. But I’ve got it all prepared for next week and will come back and let you know. I thought it looks like a fabulous idea. Tagging myself so I can find this post next week.
I did it this past week, and it was a big hit. Thank you!
See more comments below as well!
6 thoughts on “Putting the Feeling into He Sent His Son – Follow Up”
I used your idea of HSHS Q & A with WAYS TO SING and it was so awesome! I've never left feedback before so hope this is the correct way to do so.
Did you do this for junior, too? How did that go?
I did this yesterday for Sr Primary (not Jr) and it went great! They loved the challenge of trying to take the song to the next level. I printed sheet music for all of them and they LOVED being able to refer to the music (even though they already know the words). I brought my Hoberman sphere and had one child use it to "direct" the crescendos and decrescendos. They LOVED that. Thanks for the lesson plan!
Used the theory lesson for senior and had them engaged the WHOLE time. I think they really enjoyed learning something about what and how they actually can sing. I didn't think I could get through all of your ideas – but the ones we did get through were great. Thanks for the fabulous idea. We were still working on learning the words for junior primary- so I didn't actually do it with them. I think it may be a little advanced. But could easily be simplified and work mostly with crecendo/decrescendo and then speed of the song. Super fun!!!
I think I'm in the minority, but this actually did not work too well for me. I only did it for Sr, as others have mentioned as well, but I am not a very good conductor, and my pianist is hesitant. Asking the pianist to play at different tempos didn't work well (she needs to play really slow). We marked up the paper, highlighting the dyamics and other symbols, we didn't sing it after each principle due to time constraints, so I basically was teaching a music theory lesson with the kids getting very bored, and then we sang it twice at the end. I should have just focused on a few theory principles instead of trying to plow through the whole plan.
I think using wands would have been a great way to engage the kids, but I don't have them. It would have been nice to have them not only conducting the 3/4 time, but also the dynamics.
Also, one kid asked if the song should be piano or forte, so we looked through the sheet music for the 'mp' 'mf' and other loud/soft parts
So, my suggestions for other people is if you plan to do this lesson plan, you need to devote the entire 20 minutes to it. I tried to do a more upbeat song first (Sing a Song as a round) and then leave time for a reverence song to transition to Sharing Time, so it was not enough time to do this at all.
Also, having wands for them to practice what you taught would also be nice.
I did it only for Sr. primary as well and I added a little spin to it and put on some glasses, used a conducting wand (just a small craft dowel) and at the beginning of singing time, tapped the wand to my music stand and announced in a singsongy accent, that I was Melody Music, the regular chorister's twin sister and they were now in "Ms. Melody's Music Class". The kids loved it!
I do agree with the comment about the primary pianist. We had a problem singing the tempo at any rate different than the norm. But, my pianist struggles a little with the song also. Other than that, it was great!