January

Here is my plan for January.

The first sunday we sing a lot of songs that the nursery kids are familiar with, and we sing them throughout January. This helps the little ones acclimate, also when they are having fun, the crying slows down. We already knew Families can be together forever so we reviewed that on the first day and I crossed it off the list, then we sing that about once a month or so until the program. The second Sunday I began teaching I lived in Heaven (a song I taught in primary in the 1990's) I taught the first and third verses, and the third week we learned the second verse. This year we are learning four new reverence songs so on the last sunday of the month I teach a reverence song. I had one of the classes make the visual aids for me, the kids love to see thier own drawings. Then we sing the song as the opening song for the whole next month to make sure they know it. You can see that the song for January was Reverence, and we sang that every Sunday. The closing song is just listed once, and it's the same for each week as well, our primary tends to run long, and we don't always get a closing song (although I wish we did), I use opening and closing songs as a great time to review songs without having to do it in singing time.

Each singing time is divided (loosely) into sections:

1. Activity songs: They have to wiggle, so I plan to wiggle every week.
2. Gospel Review songs: What's the point of teaching program songs we never sing again, we review one previous year's program songs, or a gospel review song (such as Book of Mormon Stories) each week.
3. New song or program review: We are learning a new song each month, so we at least go through it once or twice, without overwhelming the children.
4. If there is time left over, I choose out of the reverent children to pick a favorite song.

I always incorporate some kind of eye catching activity, just to be interresting. If I am bored, I know they are ten times more bored than I am. The more I put into it, the more I get out. I'll find a way to make February's calendar better.