Okay, this is by far the MOST fun I’ve had doing a singing time. Not that I have a ridiculous amount of experience or anything. But really. I loved doing this with the kiddos yesterday-and I think they loved it to.
But before you go thinking that this is just a Primary singing time, let me tell you this. It’d be really easy to adapt for a great Family Home Evening or youth activity.
About two weeks ago, I emailed all of the Primary teachers, the Primary Presidency, and the Bishopric and asked them to email me/bring me/tell me to come pick up a picture of themselves back in their elementary school days. I also gave them a short questionnaire and asked them to answer at least a few questions. (The only question they had to answer was #1-because that would determine what we would be singing!)
1. What’s your favorite Primary song?
2. What was your favorite color?
3. How many brothers and sisters do you have? Where are you in the order?
4. What did you love to do as a kid?
5. What was your favorite subject in school?
6. When you were in elementary school, what did you want to be when you grew up?
7. Where did you grow up?
To put together the game, I had to scan all of the hard-copy pictures I received so I could work with them digitally. Then, I resized everything to be a 5×7 print (in my beloved PicMonkey) and printed them out in black and white on my printer.
I made two different poster board-sized tic-tac-toe boards (one on the front, one on the back) with the pictures I collected. (Pictures and answers from the Primary Presidency, the Bishopric and mine were great because I could use them in both Junior and Senior Primary.) So, you’ll want to have 9 pictures (one for each tic-tac-toe box)-but if you don’t get 9 (and I didn’t end up getting 9 for my Senior Primary board) you can easily make a box or two a “Challenge Box.” The Challenge Boxes are the ones with question marks in them.
(I made my question marks and the Xs and Ox with our Cricut Explore. It’s such a handy machine to have around. Seriously-if you think it’s just for the big-time-crafters, think again.)
So, I split the room down the middle to create two different teams (Xs and Os). I had them do a sing-off to see which team would get to go first. (I had them sing the song we’ve been learning this month without any visual aids. The side with the most actively participating singers got to start.)
One person (selected from the oh-so-handy pick-me box of names on popsicle sticks) would come up and try and identify someone on the board in the box that they wanted to put their X or O. For Junior Primary, I let teachers help the little ones. In both Junior and Senior, if someone looked really stumped, they could “phone a friend” or get help from their class. Once the person in the photo was identified, we put the X or O up and I told the kids just a little bit about the teacher or Primary Presidency member or Bishopric member from the questions I had them answer when they gave my my picture. Then, we sang that person’s favorite Primary song. Then it would be the next team’s turn.
With Senior Primary, I had to implement “Challenge Boxes” because I didn’t get enough pictures. If a team wanted to put their X or O in the Challenge Box, their team accepted a singing task. For example, one of mine was have that just that side stand up and sing and do the sign language we’ve learned to I Stand All Amazed.
For a Family Home Evening, I was thinking how fun it would be to collect pictures of grandparents, great-grandparents and other family members from their early years and play a similar game. A really cool way to tell the stories of the past! From my Young Women’s days, I think this could work using baby pictures of the young women or have them play using early childhood pictures of the leaders and Bishopric. (You could totally omit the singing part and it could still be a really fun part of an activity.)
Hope you enjoy!! It made for a really fun 20 minutes with the kiddos-definitely a hit! I wrapped it up by telling them that the things they learn and feel while singing Primary songs will stay with them and bless their lives for a long, long time. These simple songs really do contain many of the most precious principles of the gospel.
Thanks for yet another great idea. Our family reunion is coming up in four weeks, so I’m trying to think of interactive activities. I think we’re gonna do the Minute to Win It and possibly KOOB. How do you think this would work as an old photo bingo game?
I think it could be really fun!! I would just make sure that your pictures are big enough that people can actually identify them. Let us know how it goes! Sounds like a great time!
Thanks!