I love this game because it’s a “one and done”. Print, cut, place in jar or bag and call it good…and it can be used over and over. I asked the kids recently what their favorite games were that we play and this one was mentioned by multiple kids. It really is a winner! I included some other signs and cards that I use as well. Another thing I love about this game is it is so easy to adapt to whatever you’re working on in primary. We sometimes use it as a way to review a handful of songs. If they choose a SING card, or have one of the DARE cards that actually still have you sing, then they also choose a song to sing. Sometimes these are printed and taped on the chalkboard and they just choose a paper to turn around or even better have a jar or bag of popsicle sticks of all the songs you have been learning that year and have them choose from there. This takes some upkeep because you add a new popsicle stick each time you work on a new song but it doesn’t take any additional set up time before primary starts which I’m always a fan of. Then you can pull this jar/bag out all throughout the year when you have a week to review songs, no matter which game you’re playing, or even if you just have some extra time one week.
I originally had mine in jars but then switched to bags because I could just store them in my accordion file. It would also work to tape the SING and DARE sign to the chalkboard or a poster board and then have the cards taped under each title and they can flip them over. I would laminate them if you do that of course.
I made this so after printed you can just fold it in half and tape/glue a popsicle stick in between the fold. If you want it to be a little more indestructible you can fold it in half and laminate it and they can just hold the sign and flip rather than a popsicle stick. Whichever works best for you!
I made the STOP and GO sign be on two separate pages A) so they can be nice and large, and B) so you can print each page on a different color. Or you can take the easy approach, as I usually do, and print on white paper and then have one of your children color in the STOP letters with red and the GO letters with green. 🙂
As you can see, I left a page blank so you can add some additional cards or switch our some of mine for your own. The kids choose DARE way more than SING so I put in a couple DARES that would have the kids still sing. Sneaky teacher 🙂
This up and down arrow is not part of SING or DARE but i use it frequently when teaching so I figured I would include it in this post. We use it at times for standing and sitting and sometimes for volume up and volume down. I cut mine out and taped each one to a popsicle stick…having them on the same one seemed hard to see so I kept them separate and the kids just hold one per hand.
Again, not a part of SING or DARE but I use them all the time. I do have these laminated because of how often I use them and I wanted them to last. Depending on the song we’re working on I will sometimes pull some of them out of the pile. For example, if we are learning a brand new song, I take out NO PIANO and that only seems fair 🙂 These are great to have on hand at all times because when I’m losing their attention, I grabbed them out to make it fun. When I have a little bit of extra time after finishing what I had planned for the day…I pull them out! Forgot to plan something? Choose a child, let them pick a song of their choice that most are familiar with, and pull out the cards for a fun way to sing their song. The options are endless of how you can incorporate these!
If you’re new to this calling just know that it takes some time up front to put some things together but it gets easier! Especially if you just have a handful of games like the above that are easy to use again and again. If you have been in this calling for some time now: I hope you are still loving it and hope adding something new to your growing pile of activities will help you not feel burned out…it happens to all of us from time to time! Happy singing everyone!
xo,
Jenny
Homestead Creations 