Envelope Game (O)
Envelope Game is a great activity for older children ages 8 to 11.
Beforehand Preparation
Look through the song. Choose the major words of the song and type them in two columns in 16 or 18 font. (Hopefully they will all fit on one page.) Run off enough copies that every 3 children in your older Primary will have one. Cut up one copy of words so that each word is separate. Put the words into an envelope. Label the outside of the envelope with which song is inside.
Activity
Hold up an envelope. Challenge the children to put the words to the song in order while you sing the song five (choose a number) times. Tell them that not every word to the song is in the envelope, and that they might want to do this activity on the floor so that they can spread out. Ask the children to get into groups of three of four and hand out an envelope to each group. Say, "Ready, Go!" Sing the song over and over as they work together to put the song words in order.
In my experience, one group will race to finish and declare themselves the winners. My response is to ask them to be the singers to help the other groups. I give that response to every group that declares themselves done. It changes the feeling in the room from competition to cooperation.
Activity Extender
Once each group has finished putting the words in order, ask everyone to turn over every other word and try to sing the song. (By this time they have probably heard the song at least five or six times.) Another challenge would be to have the children sing only the words that are NOT on the word strips, and to sing the words they can see only in their heads.
Benefits of this Activity
Good for learners that use word, logic, and musical intelligences (See Chapter Five). Great for active participation in the learning process (See Chapter One). Great for learning Whole to Part to Whole (See Chapter Nine). Good for learners that use the people interaction intelligence (See Chapter Five).
Envelope Game is a great activity for older children ages 8 to 11.
Beforehand Preparation
Look through the song. Choose the major words of the song and type them in two columns in 16 or 18 font. (Hopefully they will all fit on one page.) Run off enough copies that every 3 children in your older Primary will have one. Cut up one copy of words so that each word is separate. Put the words into an envelope. Label the outside of the envelope with which song is inside.
Activity
Hold up an envelope. Challenge the children to put the words to the song in order while you sing the song five (choose a number) times. Tell them that not every word to the song is in the envelope, and that they might want to do this activity on the floor so that they can spread out. Ask the children to get into groups of three of four and hand out an envelope to each group. Say, "Ready, Go!" Sing the song over and over as they work together to put the song words in order.
In my experience, one group will race to finish and declare themselves the winners. My response is to ask them to be the singers to help the other groups. I give that response to every group that declares themselves done. It changes the feeling in the room from competition to cooperation.
Activity Extender
Once each group has finished putting the words in order, ask everyone to turn over every other word and try to sing the song. (By this time they have probably heard the song at least five or six times.) Another challenge would be to have the children sing only the words that are NOT on the word strips, and to sing the words they can see only in their heads.
Benefits of this Activity
Good for learners that use word, logic, and musical intelligences (See Chapter Five). Great for active participation in the learning process (See Chapter One). Great for learning Whole to Part to Whole (See Chapter Nine). Good for learners that use the people interaction intelligence (See Chapter Five).
