Last Singer Standing
I first told the children that HUGE breaths were needed in order to hold the notes for this song. We are talking 11 beats to sustain the word, "again," as an example. We then played a game that encouraged the students to hold the notes as long as they could.
All of the children are supposed to stand up, the pianist holds an easy note for the children to sing, and the kids stay standing until they run out of breath from singing that note. When someone runs out of breath, they are to quickly take a seat. EX: If the pianist plays a "G" the kids sing "Geeeeeeee" as long as they can. We played to see who could stay singing/standing the longest. It was fun and prepared them to hold the notes during singing time.
All of the children are supposed to stand up, the pianist holds an easy note for the children to sing, and the kids stay standing until they run out of breath from singing that note. When someone runs out of breath, they are to quickly take a seat. EX: If the pianist plays a "G" the kids sing "Geeeeeeee" as long as they can. We played to see who could stay singing/standing the longest. It was fun and prepared them to hold the notes during singing time.
Count while you Sing
I used pictures from the Media Library section of LDS.ORG to make a flip chart for this song. I taught what whole notes, half notes, and dotted half notes were, and showed the numbers on the chart. This helped them count with their fingers while we sang. They actually tried to hold the notes for the correct amount of time because of the "Last singer standing" game we played.
The Volume Game
You can also pretend that the increase of volume when they sing blows you away, even out the door of the classroom while they sing and hold the notes. This game was one of my BIGGEST HITS with Junior Primary. So many smiles and laughs from that :) Oh, and LOTS of singing!
Hope you have a great singing time!
Hope you have a great singing time!