Life's Journey To Perfection: Fun Primary Singing Time Idea: Smash the Bug Song Choosing Activity

Fun Primary Singing Time Idea: Smash the Bug,

This month, I've been able to sub as music leader in a couple ward's Primaries (I serve in our Stake Primary Presidency, so when a primary needs some help & is short handed, we love to be there to help them. Plus, I 've subbed a couple times in my own ward). Is there anything greater than listening to Primary children sing their testimonies of Christ and the gospel?!?

In one of the wards, we were reviewing the songs that they have been learning this year. So, to choose which song we would sing, I brought some bugs and a fly swatter. We began by singing the song, "I am a Child of God". Before we started to sing the song, I told the Primary children that my special fly swatter could sense who was singing the very best and that, that person would be who would get to come up and swat a bug on the board.

I used the printable below to print the bugs onto card stock, I then cut them out and laminated them and cut them out again. So I can reuse the bugs, I used masking tape and wrote the songs on the masking tape, then taped it onto the back of the bugs. With the bugs being laminated, I should be able to easily remove the masking tape. I've also done it where I have used erasable markers to write on the back of the laminate. If you don't care about reusing, you can just write on the back.

Click Free Download button for Bug Printable:

I then taped the bugs with masking tape onto the board. The primary child would come up and swat one of the bugs with the fly swatter. We would then sing that song that was written on the back, as we sang that song I did a few things. One, my fly swatter would be watching for the best singer (whoever you could tell was really trying to sing the song). I also before hand asked the primary children to put a thumbs up if they felt they knew the song really well, side ways if they kind of knew the song, and thumbs down if they didn't really know it. Then we would sing and after I would ask the teachers to rank how they thought they did. Thumbs up really well. Side ways, was that they could use some work. Thumbs down was that they really didn't know they song. I tried a couple other things. With the first primary I let the primary child that was chosen to come swat the bug, I let them use the fly swatter to help me lead the song. The second time, I just used the fly swatter to lead. It really went better with me just using the fly swatter to lead.

Another thing you could do, is wear some silly glasses. This is one of my favorite things to do. You explain to the primary children that the silly glasses are your super singer detector glasses. That they help you to see who is singing really well. I've done this several times and it's surprising how well it gets the primary children to sing.

Anyways, back to the activity. We just continued, choosing someone to come up to swat the bugs and sing the song, until time allowed. We were able to go through all of the songs in the allotted time. It was a great way to gage, how well the primary children knew the songs and what they needed to work on. Since, I was just subbing, I forwarded the information onto the music leader of which songs they could use more work on.

The kids loved this activity!! They also sang so well :) I also feel like it is so important as you sing each song to point out the doctrine found in the song. For instance, I brought items that would go with each of the songs. We sang, "Search, Ponder and Pray" so I brought my scriptures and shared my testimony of how we can know the scriptures are true as we search them and ponder and pray about them. I also had a picture of Christ being baptized, that we talked about how we follow the Savior's example when we are baptized. I think that if we are not discussing the doctrine in the songs as we sing them, we are missing out on a big opportunity for the spirit to teach the primary children. I love hearing them share their thoughts and testimonies about the songs as well!

These Primary songs will stick with these primary children all of their lives. I remember clearly standing when I was a primary child and singing, "The Lord needs valiant servants".

If you'd like another fun singing time idea, check this out: