Singing Lips

Years ago, when I was first called to be Primary chorister, I had a good friend share this idea with me.  When you are introducing a new song, especially one that the children aren't familiar with, you can use these singing lips.  The first one is Ah, the second one is hum, the third one is Ou, and the last one is la la la.  

First, I would have the pianist play the song and have the children listen so they can become familiar with the tune.  Next, I chose one of the lips (usually the hum) and have them hum the tune with the piano.  Then, I would introduce another, like la la la, and have them hum and la la la the tune.  I would pick a child who was doing well to come up and hold up the lips the third time exchanging them during the song.  I continued this until the children had repeated the tune a number of times.

The Primary children really like doing this, especially when they had a chance to be in charge of the lips.  It made it a lot easier to teach a new song once they already knew the tune.  Usually we did this the last week of the month in preparation for learning the new song next month.