Follow The Prophet - Week 1

It took me quite a while to figure out how I wanted to attempt to slay this beast. There are lots and lots of fantastic ideas out there.  I finally settled on an idea from the Primary Singing Ideas blog.  I liked the interactive maze idea....made out of footprints.

Before I go any further, let me take a sec to say THANK YOU!!!! to all you creative people out there who make my calling as primary chorister so much FUN!  People think I'm brilliant because of you.  So....if I see a great idea, I'll be sure to give the author the credit....like I've done on this post.   Now....moving forward.... 

The goal of this maze thing is to follow the"right" path, and not get sidetracked on our way to following the prophet.  Each footprint has a phrase printed on it.  Some phrases are incorrect, that is, they don't go with the song.  I placed the footprints face down on the board.  A "reverent" child comes up and picks a footprint, reads it to the children, and decides if it is correct or incorrect.  If it is incorrect, it gets set aside. At the end, a clear path shows the way to following the prophet.  The kids REALLY, REALLY liked it!  This is how to set up the footprints.  The red line is just to illustrate where to place the "correct" footprints.

This was a blast to do, and it helped the kids learn the words to the song in a fun way.  I started out by teaching them the new President Monson verse found in the February Friend.  I wanted to use this verse because all the other verses are about prophets from waaaaaay back.  This one would give the kids someone to relate to....and realize WE have a prophet today. 

That said, I found the verse to be rather tricky, taking some extra thinking and some quick pronunciations.  So if you teach this verse, start sloooooow.......  I tripped up a bunch of times.  The kids seemed to really enjoy the verse though.  It's a little more snappy with all the additional syllables.  You'll see what I mean....

Some of the incorrect phrases on the footprints are pretty hilarious.  You can download the footprints here. The kids and teachers laughed at them.   I love when we have fun like that.  Here's a sampling:

I taught the verse to the children, BEFORE playing the game, by using these visuals, found on the flipchart on the Singing Ideas blog here.

To keep all the "Follow the Prophet" stuff together, I created a three-ring-binder just for this song....with all the flipchart visuals I'm going to teach the children.  I placed the footprints for the President Monson and Adam verses in the clear protectors with both those verses.  The inside pockets make great places to keep game pieces and instructions.  This is important because I'm going to be out of town next Sunday, and I wanted to have everything available for the substitute chorister - in a way that makes sense. 

This Sunday I want them to review the Adam verse the same way, except Adam will probably be at the end of the maze. Nothin' wrong with doin' the same thing twice - if it works - right?

Sorry the lighting is a little on the yellow side.  I think the camera was set wrong....