Are you a great singer? I wish I was, but I just wasn’t born with it!

Are you a musician? I can play some songs on the piano…

I may not be the most musically gifted person, which is why I was super surprised when I was asked to be the Singing Leader to all the children where I go to church. It turns out that I do have 2 skills that come in handy- I used to be a teacher, and I love to craft. I kind of wing it with the musical aspect, but I do try hard at that. I absolutely love that I get to work with the sweet children at church. It is seriously the best job. I remember when I was a kid, learning the same songs. They have always stuck with me, and brought me comfort in times of need, and helped me learn about my Savior. 

At the end of October, the primary (what we call the group of children) is putting on a big program, and singing all the songs that we’ve been working on since January. September and October are the months where we review and polish up all the songs. One of my friends (hi Margo!) helped me think of a fun idea to keep track of all the songs we’re practicing, and to motivate the kids to do a good job.

If they earn it, (and I know they will), we’re going to have an ice cream sundae party!

The idea is called, “I Sing, You Sing, We All Sing for Ice Cream… Sundays!”

Scroll down for the tutorial!

*I taped a ziploc with all the songs written on an index card- I use those a lot when playing games. The bag also has the extra ice cream scoops and sticky tack so we can add them to our board.

Here are a few notes how I made it:

*This is made on a cardboard trifold display board, which is 40×28 inches. 

*I bought it for $3.99 at the grocery store of all places, but I have seen them at Hobby Lobby and Michaels too.  

*Every thing else I had on hand… I used scrapbook paper, cardstock, musical note die cuts, a glue stick, scissors, paper cutter, computer, and a pom pom garland.

*I didn’t use any fancy tools… I hand drew and cut all the ice cream scoops and cones. I used my simple paper cutter for everything else.

*I printed all the words using a huge font size on my computer (fonts are: My Own Topher and CK Becky).

*I thought it would be fun to use the “primary colors,” red, yellow, and blue.

*The only thing I didn’t cut on my own was the musical notes. I purchased those at a teacher supply store a while ago, but they would be easy to free hand draw and cut from black paper.

*This took me about 3 hours to make (3 hours for 2 months of singing time lessons = not bad).

*I couldn’t decide if I wanted the play on word to be spelled “Sunday” or “Sundae.” I went with the first.

*Under each song title, I wrote the page number and key signature, for my quick reference. (remember, I’m not super musically-inclined)!

How it works:

*We have 9 songs to practice. Each song represents a different ice cream topping. 

*As the children practice and do a good job on the song, they can earn a scoop of ice cream. Once they reach the top of the row, they will “earn” that topping at the ice cream party.

*We have 2 groups of kids- the junior and senior primary. So there are 2 columns for each song, and there will be 2 columns of ice cream for each song.

*We play a different game each week (I’ll post a few ideas soon). The game determines what song we’ll work on that day, or it helps us review the song.

I hope this helps anyone out there who needs a fun activity to review! In addition to primary and church, this can be used for many different types of groups and ways to review! I’m going to save it and possibly use it to motivate my kids to do something next summer 🙂