Junior vs. Senior Primary

Children ages 3 to 11 is a very wide range when it comes to stages of development and learning ability, so it should come as no surprise that effective teaching techniques also vary.

It did not take me long after being called as a Primary Song Leader to realize that some of the lessons I taught did not work for the young Junior Primary, and yet some that were super successful for Junior Primary only made the kids in Senior Primary roll their eyes and completely check out. It might have been a little discouraging at first to think that I needed to plan, not one, but two lessons every week for Singing Time, but when I was able to pinpoint the key difference between Junior (approx. ages 3-6) and Senior Primary (ages 7-11), lesson-planning came a lot easier.

In a nutshell, young children like to challenge their bodies; older children like to challenge their minds.

Junior Primary

Keeping Junior Primary moving seems to be key in keeping them attentive. Whenever I seem to be losing the children's attention, a direction to move always reels them back in. If I can keep them moving through the entire lesson, that is best, but if I am teaching a song that doesn't lend itself as well to movement, breaking up singing time with short 15-second wiggle songs (piano accompaniment not needed for this) at least every few minutes should keep the youngsters happy and engaged.

Another note about Junior Primary: sometimes the young ones just don't sing. This doesn't mean they aren't learning. I am always pleasantly surprised when the parents of kids who don't sing in church say that their children belt the songs at home and know all the lyrics! Sometimes teaching Junior Primary can feel like you're putting on a show for a stone-faced audience, but don't be discouraged! If they're watching you, they're learning. If they're mimicking your body movements, they're memorizing. That qualifies as success in my book!

Senior Primary

If you've tried doing wiggle songs in Senior Primary and received a chorus of moans and groans, you're in good company. Though there are physical activities that Senior Primaries tend to really enjoy, I have found that older children (especially the boys) respond best (and most reverently) to lessons and activities that involve a mental challenge of some kind. Of course, competition easily captivates them, but after dealing with too many tears shed from losing teams, I have decided to steer clear of activities that could detract from the Spirit and instead come up with ways to reward good singing with the opportunity to participate in a mental challenge (the reward is just to play, without a win/lose factor). The only time I use competition in singing time now is when challenging Senior primary to do better than Junior Primary (i.e. "I just finished with Junior primary and they were able to learn the first two lines of the song in 5 minutes - let's see if you can learn it faster!"). Funnily enough, Senior Primary seems to love knowing just how much more "advanced" they are.

Likewise, Senior Primary always seems to focus in when I say that we're about to do something advanced. For example, I might ask a question about the song lyrics but I preface it with "This is a teenager-level question, so you may not know the answer..." or give a note about the singing itself like, "Let's do that last line again and this time I'm going to cue the end of the song with my hand like they do in professional choirs, so when we hold out the last note, watch my hand for the cut-off and then we'll all end at the same time." If I did this all the time, the kids might think this was a little gimmicky, but every once in awhile I'll do this and they seem to get extra attentive. If you ask me, I think Senior Primary children like feeling "mature" just as much (or more) as they like being entertained.

What if my Primary is Combined?

If you're in a combined primary and you are teaching children ages 3-11 all at once - first off, my heart goes out to you! This is by far the situation I have struggled with the most in this calling - with most lesson attempts catering to one age group while the other feeling totally left out. The only observation I have to share for those in this situation is that older kids like to mentor younger kids, so involving the older children in simplifying lessons for the younglings can be a good way to engage all ages (i.e. "We are going to do hand motions but I need help coming up with ideas. What should we do to when we sing 'Don't go astray?' What does 'astray' mean?"). When the older kids are asked to do body movements under the guise of "help me teach the young kids," they can be more cooperative.

Let me know if you have found any other techniques that have worked well!