November: Week Four.

Monthly Theme: My family and I can serve others.
Scripture: “By love serve one another.” (Galatians 5:13)
Weekly Theme: I will prepare now to become a mother or father.

Songs:
Love One Another (ASL for Love One Another)
For Thy Bounteous Blessings

Remember how last week, I showed the Senior Primary kids the pipe chimes? Well, as promised, we started learning a song on the pipe chimes. Since we have been singing Love One Another so much, and learning the ASL, I decided this would be the perfect song to break them into the pipe chimes.

I wrote out the words to the song on the chalk board, and then above each word I wrote the number to the corresponding pipe chime. The chimes have both numbers as well as their musical letter note, so maybe next time I will try using the actual note, so they get a little more accustomed to the chords, etc.

The chimes were a hit. I handed out the eight chimes needed for Love One Another and explained how to strike the chime for the best sound and how to hold the chime to make the sound stop. I let them have 20 seconds to practice striking their chimes, then another 20 seconds to locate the number on their chime and then had them find their number on the board, so they knew how many times they needed to strike their chime during the song and with what words their chime corresponded.

As with the conducting batons, we talked about tempo and rhythm. I pointed to the chalkboard in rhythm, so they knew when it was their turn. Those who didn't have chimes, were instructed to sing as well as sign the words. We practiced over and over again. At one point, one of the kids whined a little, "This is really hard." We talked about how playing an instrument takes time and effort and lots of practice, but with diligence, they will see results. We continued to practice, phrase by phrase. They were finally starting to get it. About halfway through, we traded chimes, so a few more kids who wanted a chance, were able to have the opportunity. We practiced some more. The last couple of times we did it all the way through, we had only the chimes, and the ASL, no singing. It was SO cool and the kids with the chimes had really gotten it down and it sounded perfect!

I was so proud!

I praised the kids and we all cheered. They knew they'd gotten it. Diligence pays off... even in twenty minutes.

They did so well and were very well behaved the whole time, so I told them that they had earned the privilege of learning some more songs. Next week, we'll be all together with the Junior Primary, so they are going to "perform" for the younger kids, but then we'll put them away and sing other songs since the chimes are strictly a privilege for Senior Primary. The week after that is Stake Conference. So I promised them that we'd learn a couple of Christmas songs on the chimes beginning again the second week in December.

Then with Junior Primary, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, we learned the very easy round For Thy Bounteous Blessings. We talked about each of the words and what they meant since there are some "big" words in the song. They had fun singing it in a round.