2015 Primary Sacrament Meeting Program Ideas, free printable program cover: I Know My Savior Lives

Yay, it is about that time that wards will start practicing and presenting the Primary Sacrament Meeting Programs.  What does this mean???  It is one busy time of year.  I thought I would share some little tips to help alleviate some of the stress....

First off  here are some program cover that could be used:

Free Image Download

For the Program Cover in Spanish please click here: 2015 Primary Sacrament Meeting Cover Printable in Spanish

For the Program Cover in Color Click Here: 2015 LDS Primary Sacrament Meeting Cover in Color: I Know My Savior Lives

Tip #1:
The key thing to remember is that it is the "Primary Children's" program.  The programs that I feel that the spirit is felt the most, is those where the program is written by the primary children.  How does one do this??  I can share with you what I did when I wrote the program.  Here is an example of what could be used for this year:

This is just a sample of the 1st page. If you would like the full outline, email me at lifesjourneytoperfection@gmail.com or leave a comment below with your email address and I will send it to you. 

Tip #2:

So, once you've wrote the questions and assigned the question to a child. You will need to ask the children the question, I have done this a few different ways.  One way, is during class time I have gone into the classes and asked them their questions and wrote down their answers.  Once they have given you their response, it is really easy to write their part.  For example, if the question was, "Who did you live with before you came to Earth?" and the child's response was, "Heavenly Father and Jesus."  Then their part would be, "I lived with Heavenly Father and Jesus before I came to Earth." Or "Before I came to Earth I lived with Heavenly Father and Jesus."  Another way I have done this, mostly with the kids I didn't catch in primary was I sent a text or email to their parents with the question.

Tip #3:
Music....  Boy I love music, it brings the spirit into the room, especially when those beautiful children sing.  Their testimonies just radiate as they sing the songs!!  The best thing I found was the primary presidency coordinating with the primary chorister. Together decide on what songs you are going to sing, how many verses of the songs you are doing to sing and if their are any special arrangements.  We always tried to use our primary children's talents.  We had violins, harps and cellos. You have to work with what they feel comfortable with and what sounds good.  Sometimes it is they are just playing the interlude, or a verse by themselves. Or sometimes it sounds great for them to play along as the children sing.  You just have to find what works.  We also usually included something special in our songs. One year the children learned sign language to one of the songs. Another year they learned the first verse of "I am a Child of God" in Spanish.  We have had songs where we had parts where the girls sing, parts where the boys sing, parts where the teachers sing, or even a class or group of kids sign.  Don't feel bad about not singing all of the verses.  We had one year where the plan was to sing all of the verses of a song and then we got into practicing it and decided that we would only sing one verse instead, and it turned out great.

Tip #4:
More about music... make it fun!!  The best times my kiddos sang was when I made it fun.  Some ideas, several times I would wear my super singer detector glasses (silly glasses) and have a pair of some other silly glasses.  During the song, I would look for the primary child who was singing the best, this meant they were singing every word of the song and singing loudly (beautifully, not yell singing). Then that primary child would get to wear the silly glasses through the next song, when I would detect another child and the glasses would be passed on.  Another time, I had a construction hat and pieces to build a temple. On the temple pieces were the songs.  We would start with one and then while we sang that song I would be looking for the best singer that could help me build another piece onto the temple.  I can tell you those type of things really get the kids singing!!

Tip #5:
Handing out Parts!!  The best way I found was to staple all of the children in the same family together. I usually had a little note attached that said when we would be practicing, when the primary sacrament meeting program would be, and an invitation to the parents to help their children learn their parts.  Then I would give their family bundle TO THE PARENTS!!  I also e-mail the program parts to the parents also.  Send reminders via email and text, reminding them when the program is, etc.

Tip #6:
Seating Chart:  For me a seating chart was a must!! It helped with keeping things organized. I gave a copy to each of my presidency members as well as all of the teachers.  When writing the program, think about who might not be able to handle sitting next to each other and don't put their parts right next to each other.  My seating charts were always in the order the children would speak. Here is a blank sample seating chart that I used:

Tip #7:
The reason why I have the teachers reading the scriptures, is so the teachers can lead their class up to say their parts. It really helps so much with the flow of things. Then the teachers also lead them back to sit down.

Tip #8:
When to practice???  What I have found that worked best for our primary was we help practice during sharing time or class time on Sunday. For example:  Junior primary is in sharing time first and Senior is is class first.  The first week of practice, everyone would meet in the chapel or if the chapel is not available, then they would meet in the primary room for practice during the first hour. Then during the second hour, Junior primary would have sharing time and Senior primary would have Class, or vice versa.  Then next week it would be opposite.  You just have to find what works for your primary.  I found that 3 practices were ideal. The first practice is many spent finding where everyone sits and running through the songs.  The next two practices are spent doing a complete run through.  There were some Sundays where we practiced the whole time and didn't have class or sharing time.  Again whatever works for your primary.  Why not a practice during the week??? I found that the kids as well as the teachers have very busy lives!! It was hard to get everyone their during the week.

Tip #9:
DO NOT GET DISCOURAGED, from the practices!! It is a proven and known fact that the practices have not refection on the program ;)  Come program day, those little angels are going to shine!!

Bonus Tip:

After typing up the script, I give a copy to each of the teachers, music leader, pianist, and primary presidency members. I write their name at the top and highlight when their part and their classes parts come up. Also stapled onto the script is the seating chart as well as typed up words to the songs. The teachers loved having the words to the songs. It is really easy to do as well. Just look up the songs on lds.org and cut and paste :)  Here is the link to the test for the songs in the Children's Songbook.


Good Luck!!