Happy Memorial Day everyone! From my family, to anyone serving in our armed forces and their families, we would like to say...
Yesterday for our Primary singing time, I wanted to do something a little Patriotic so I thought it might be fun to sign the first verse of The Star-Spangled Banner. I think it went pretty well and it was great to talk a little bit about the background of the song and what each line meant.
{Here} is the flip chart I made for the first verse of "The Star-Spangled Banner".
For Junior Primary we talked a little bit about Memorial Day and why we celebrate (and why it's not just a day off from school!); then I told them a very simplified version of the story of how our national anthem came to be. Then we went over each line of the song, I would stick each flip chart page up on the board, and explain what it meant. Sometimes I would ask them questions and I was so impressed with some of the answers that these young, sweet children gave! After I was done explaining it, we sang the song and they did pretty well! And I loved it when one of them told me they had gone to a baseball game a few days earlier and had heard the song, you could tell they were so excited that they recognized it!
I figured that Senior Primary would know a little more than the Junior Primary did so I asked more questions and "told" them a lot less then I had told the younger kids. After talking about Memorial Day briefly we went into the song and I would ask for volunteers to give me each line, then ask for another volunteer to tell me what it meant. Then we sang the song and they did great! I mean, I know most of them knew it pretty well to begin with, but I don't think I'd ever heard them sing so loudly, clearly, and with more power behind their words; it was beautiful.
{Here} are the questions I asked and a brief summary of the story of the Star-Spangled Banner. I put things in my own words of course.
Linked to: 52 Mantels, Somewhat Simple, Skip to My LouLabels: holidays, lds, Primary singing time
