Happy July, all!
I’m lucky to be the chorister for the children’s singing time at our church. Right now, Maegan and Tara are the choristers where they are living, too! I love hearing activity ideas from other people and wanted to share one I put together this week.
I knew I wanted to do a 4th of July themed review to practice some songs for an upcoming program. When I saw a tutorial for making confetti poppers, I knew I had to incorporate them. Check it out here.
I have about 25-30 kids (ages 3-11), and 20 minutes for singing time each week. You can easily adjust this activity according to your group/time needs.
Rocket Review
I set up a “fireworks” stand with 3 small confetti poppers (aka “fireworks”) and a big one. The goal was to earn fireworks for the “show” at the end of singing time.
Each of the 3 small fireworks represented a song I wanted to review. I had the names of the fireworks on the table for the kids to see. (The names were based on the filling inside, such as Shining Sea for a glitter firework.) I let a reverent child pick one of the fireworks to try and earn. We’d review the song attached to it. Then, we picked a teacher to be our judge. After singing again, the teacher would rate the performance by holding up 1-4 stars. If the kids got 3 or 4 stars, they would earn the firework.
If the kids earned all 3 small fireworks, the big one was “free”. This was a great incentive and helped keep everyone focused.
In the last few minutes, I stood a safe distance away, turned sideways, and “shot” the fireworks. My little singers loved seeing what was inside the poppers!
Tips:
- I filled my “fireworks” with different fillings to make each one unique. Some ideas: Shining Sea (silver glitter), Purple Mountain Majesty (purple balloon filled with purple hole punch circles), Star Falls (patriotic star confetti), Spectrum Shower (multi-colored glitter), Fruited Plain (Starbursts), Rocks and Rills (mini marshmallows), Patriot Dream (little bit of every filling)
- If you want more of a firework sound effect, try filling balloons and popping them instead!
- For transport, I wrapped the tube tops with cling wrap and secured that with a rubber band.
- The heavier the filling, the weaker the launch. Try doing a couple trial shots at home to perfect the effect you want. I found filling the tubes just under halfway gave me decent distance and substance.
- I recommend having a broom on hand, because the floor gets quite sparkly! If you do singing time in a carpeted area and don’t have a good chance to vacuum, you could lay down some plastic or a blanket beforehand to catch the confetti.
We’d love to hear how this activity goes for your group! Let us know in the comments!
-Mariah
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