What’s Different About Mother?

This week I wanted to sing through a lot of the songs in the Children’s Songbook on mothers with a fun dress-up activity called “What’s Different About Mother?”. What’s great is this activity can be done with ANY song(s) so feel free to review your program songs or even tweak it so it fits for Father’s Day! 

The songs we’ll be singing are: Grandmother p. 200, I Often Go Walking p. 202, My Mother Dear p. 203, Mother, Tell Me the Story p. 204, Mother Dear p. 206, Dearest Mother, I Love You p. 206, Mother, I Love You p. 207, The Dearest Names p. 208

 

 

But that said, you can sing any songs that you like with this activity so feel free to review all of your program songs you’ve learned for the year if need be.

 

To prepare, bring LOTS of items that moms use like:

 

What am I missing?  Help add to my list by commenting below!

 

Then you’ll need to find yourself a “mother.”  Someone who’s a good sport in your ward (may be the primary president) – or simply dress up yourself!  Before primary, put most of the items on!  Keep items off that would be good to switch (like a purse for a cookbook, heels for tennis shoes, rubber gloves for gardening gloves or eventually adding lipstick).

 

Before primary, you’ll want to have a place where you can swap items – either out in the hall, or behind the chalkboard.

 

For the activity, tell the primary there are LOTS of songs in the songbook about mothers that we don’t regularly sing!  Today they will be using their eyes and ears to watch for what’s different in “mother’s” wardrobe as they listen and sing all the Mother’s Day songs in the songbook.

 

Post all the words like I do HERE:

Play the first song on CD or phone/speaker OR the LDS sing-along app (details HERE) and have the primary sing the song as you (or your “mother”) step into the hall to change something on your wardrobe (choose something more subtle for the older kids and something easier for the younger).  If you are the one dressing up, ask for assistance from a presidency member to lead the song for you while you change or even ask a primary child to be a helper.

 

When you come back into the room, have the primary finish singing the song.  Then ask the primary, “What’s different about Mother?”  Once guessed, repeat with a new song (optional) and new items.  Repeat until all the songs have been sung.

 

If you want another idea that incorporates dressing up, check out my post HERE.  Make sure to scroll through all of my Mother’s Day singing time lesson plans HERE for more ideas!