Little-to-No Prep Review Games

These fun activities will work for any song that you need to practice over and over.

It can sometimes be easier to engage children during singing time when teaching a new song, but practicing is important too! These activities require little-to-no preparation and will work for any song. Your kids will memorize songs in no time!

ABOUT JUNIOR PRIMARY: In my experience, Junior primary tends to respond best to activities that involve moving their bodies to the music - making anything more complicated than that has typically resulted in loss of focus. Some of the activities below may be too much for Junior primary. I have found that using hand motions for the songs and then, in between each repetition, asking a question about the song and/or doing a short wiggle song, is usually enough for Junior primary when you need to sing the same song over and over. You can also emphasize one of the actions each repetition for some variety (i.e. "Let's do it again, and this time when we make our hands "grow," let's not just start from our laps, instead, let's start from our feet and then "grow" all the way to the ceiling, as high as you can!").

Low/No Prep Review Games

Heads or Tails

Need:

• A quarter OR literally anything durable with two different sides

How to Play:

Have all the children stand up. Have each child choose heads or tails by placing their hands on their heads or on their hips (for Senior primary, I just tell them they need to decide before we flip the coin). Before we sing the song of choice, I remind the kids that I will choose someone who was singing really well to flip the coin. After the song, I choose someone who was singing to flip the coin. If it lands heads up, all the children whose hands were on their heads remain standing, and everyone else sits down (if it lands tails up, those with hands on their hips stay standing instead). Repeat the game until you run out of time or you have one child standing. NOTE: I make it clear to the children that even if they have to sit down, I can still choose them to flip the coin if they are singing well.

The Alphabet Game Need:

• Something to write on, like a chalkboard, dry erase board, or poster board, and something to write with

How to Play:

Write all the letters A-Z on the board with space to the right of each letter. Explain to the children that the goal is to come up with as many words that fit a theme of your choice (preferably related to the song or the gospel lesson of the week - i.e. for "I Feel My Savior's Love," the theme could be "things or places that help me to feel my Savior's love"). Sing the song of your choice and after every time, choose a few children to share their answers and then write their answers with the corresponding letter (i.e. "Temples" to the right of the letter "T"). The time it takes to write out the answer on the board could be an opportunity to affirm the gospel lesson and add your testimony (i.e. "Temples is a great answer! I definitely feel my Savior's love when I'm at the temple. I feel so good when I am there.") Repeat the song and try to get as much of the alphabet completed as possible.

Variant: Questions & Answers

I have done another version of this game where the alphabet is not involved and I just ask for answers to one question I pose at the beginning of the game. i.e. in celebration of Valentine's Day, I asked what people loved about being a member of the Church or coming to church. After each repetition of singing the song, I chose people who were singing well and raising their hand to share their answer, then wrote it on a simple heart I'd cut out of colored paper (though you could just write it on the board). This variant will work better with Junior primary than the regular version of the game, since the littlest ones may not understand how to come up with answers that start with a certain letter.

One Word Stand Up

Need:

• 5+ slips of paper with 1 word from the song of choice written on each paper (preferably words that are found multiple times throughout the song)

• A bag/hat to put the slips of paper in (optional, you could also just hold them in your hand)

• Tape or a magnet to attach slip of paper to chalkboard or wall

How to Play:

Sing the song of choice all the way through, then choose a child who singing well to choose one word from the bag (or your hand). Tell the children that they are going to stand up every time they sing that word during the song. Attach the word to the board/wall so they remember. When you finish singing, choose another child to pick the next word. When you sing again, you will stand up for that word as well as the first word that was selected. Repeat as often as you want. WARNING: Your calves will be sore if you choose to play too!

Roll the Die Need:

• A game die

• Something to keep score on (or just keep track in your head)

How to Play:

Tell the children that in this addition game you collectively are trying to get exactly 21 points. After singing the song of choice, ask a child who was singing well to come up and roll the die. That is your starting "score." After each repetition of the song, ask a child to roll the die and add to the score (i.e. one child rolls a 6; the next child rolls a 4 so now your score is 10). If you go over 21 points, score "22" now becomes "1" and you try again (i.e. your score is 20 and a child rolls a 5, so now your score is 4). See if you can get exactly 21 points before your time is up! If you do win the game and have extra time, you can play again and choose a different number to be the winning score.

Hangman Need:

• Something to write on, like a chalkboard, dry erase board, or poster board, and something to write with

How to Play:

Draw a hangman platform on the chalkboard (if you'd rather, you can also just draw a long line that a stick figure will eventually "stand" on). Choose one word from the song of choice as the "mystery word" and draw a short line for every letter of that word underneath the hangman platform. Tell the children that the best singers will be able to guess a letter that is in the mystery word. After singing the song, choose a child to guess a letter. If that letter is in the mystery word, write that letter on the appropriate short line. If the letter is not in the mystery word, write that letter off to the side and then draw one element of a stick figure (head, torso, right arm, left arm, right leg, left leg) on the hangman platform (or on top of the long line). The goal is for the children to guess all the letters that spell out the mystery word before the stick figure is completely drawn.

TIP 1: You do need to stop the game if the children blurt out the word before all the letters are figured out. The challenge is not just in figuring out the mystery word but in knowing how to spell it!

TIP 2: This is a great opportunity to also ask what the word means and gain a deeper understanding of the song. Furthermore, you could also choose a mystery word that is not in the lyrics but could still prompt discussion on the meaning of the song (i.e. "Yes, the mystery word is 'Nephi'! What does that have to do with the song 'Dare to Do Right'?" When did Nephi dare to do right?)

Music Maestro Need:

• 2-6 pieces of paper illustrating the following opposite music notations: forte (f) and piano (p), staccato (notes with a dot on top) and legato (notes with a slur over the group), and/or crescendo (<) and decrescendo (>) - (CLICK HERE to visit the download page for print-ready visual aids, search for "music maestro")

How to Play:

1) Tell the children you are going to teach them some musical notations and explain only two at a time for each repetition (don't attempt to teach all 6 notations before singing). For the first, practice singing forte (strong, but not too loud) and piano (soft): While you sing, flip between showing the forte paper and the piano paper and have the children change their volume accordingly. You can choose to stop here and just do this over and over, rewarding children who are singing well to be come up and lead with the two papers to switch between.

2) For a little more challenge, teach staccato (pronounced "stah-CAH-tow"), and legato (pronounced "lay-GAH-tow"). When they see the staccato card, the children should sing very pointed and "plinky", without drawing any notes out at all. Legato, the opposite, is very smooth, with all the words meeting each other in a long slur. You can choose to stop here and just do this over and over, rewarding children who are singing well to be come up and lead with the two papers to switch between.

3) For even more challenge, teach crescendo ("creh-SHEN-doe") and decrescendo ("day-creh-SHEN-doe"). Crescendo means to gradually sing louder and louder, while decrescendo means to gradually get softer and softer. I found this to be the most challenging of the 3 pairs because children want to get loud or soft very quickly. This can take a lot of discipline for kids to do change volumes gradually and my kids have seemed pretty proud of themselves when they do it successfully.

Variant: Music Maestro Extreme!

This may be a next-level challenge for children who know the notations pretty well: Take all 6 of the cards and allow a child to put them in any order they want up on the chalkboard/wall. Point to each card in order as you sing the song of choice and follow the direction of the music notations.

Dance Cards

Need:

• 4 pieces of paper with stick figures drawn on them, each one portraying a different movement - (CLICK HERE to visit the download page for print-ready visual aids, search for "dance cards")

• Magnet or tape to attach to the wall/chalkboard

How to Play:

Sing the song of choice all the way through, then choose a child who was singing well to come up and select a dance card. Attach the card to the front so everyone can see it, then sing again while doing the movement portrayed on the card. Choose another child to select another card. This card will go next to the first one, but when you sing the song again, follow the first dance card for one line of music, the new card for the next line, then repeat throughout the song. Continue on until you cycle through the 4 movements throughout the song. If there is more time, you can start to choose children to come up and move one of the cards to a different spot in the lineup.

Variant: Simon Says

For this more advanced game, have all 4 dance cards posted at the beginning, then tell the children they are not in the order they'll dance in. Make sure everyone is watching as you point to each card in a random order (remember the order for yourself!). Then sing the song and see if everyone was able to remember the order you pointed to the dance cards in! This is definitely too advanced for Junior primary, but it seems to be an intriguing challenge for Senior primary!

Word Jumble Need:

• All the lyrics of the song on separate pieces of paper (I recommend 2-4 words per paper)

How to Play:

Mix up all the papers with the lyrics and put them in a line (or 2 or 3) on the floor or on the chalkboard. Tell the children the words are all mixed up and you need to put them in order. Sing the song of choice and then choose a child to come up and move one piece of paper to what they believe is the right spot (or swap the placement of two papers). Don't worry about if it's actually the right spot, the kids will change it again if they need to. Repeat until the song is in the right order. NOTE: This will even work when teaching a new song! Just sing it by yourself while the kids study the mixed up lyrics. After you sing, invite a child who was paying attention to try and correct the placement of a paper. After 2-4 times of this, invite the children to sing along with you, as knowing the song will obviously make the game easier (some may have already started to sing with you). They may memorize the song in one singing time!

Variant: Follow the Bouncing Ball!

Start with all the lyrics in the right order, and then sing the song while pointing along. Then, choose a child to switch two pieces of paper so that it's not in the right order (make sure everyone is watching this happen!). Choose another child to point to the correct words as you sing the song again. If they were able to keep up, choose another child to switch another pair of papers. If they were not able to keep up and point to the right words as you sang, have another child come up and try (don't switch more papers unless the pointing child is able to complete the "challenge.") This will keep the game from getting too hard too quickly.