Primary Song Review Game: Magic Messages

Kids love magic and this fun LDS Primary Song review game will absolutely delight and captivate your Primary children during Singing Time!

The Magic Messages review game is super easy to prep, fun to implement, and perfect for reviewing a mix of songs leading up to the Program or when introducing new songs for the upcoming year!

Try this Primary Song Review Game Magic Messages activity! Write out secret messages and the kids reveal clues for LDS Primary Singing Time Music Leaders.

Magic Messages Primary Song Review Game

I’m planning this activity as the perfect way to introduce our new songs for the upcoming Old Testament Primary year! I’m so excited for this activity as I know it will let me involve a ton of kids and included a lot of learning styles in one activity!

Since it’s a review / introductory activity, I’ll use this one lesson plan for the entire Singing Time. I usually include 3 shorter activities, like in my Typical Singing Time Example, so it’s nice to once in a while have something that just focuses on ONE activity.

Primary Song Review Game: Magic Messages Singing time ideas for Primary Music Leaders Magic Messages5

Supplies Needed:

  • Printer paper, cardstock, or poster board
  • White crayon
  • Markers, paint, or crayons (for Singing Time)
  • Pencil – optional

How to Create A Magic Message

1. Decide on a Song List for what songs you’d like to introduce or review.

If you haven’t planned your songs out for the year, you can head over to our Come, Follow Me Primary Songs Rotation printable to help you plan and coordinate with this handy chart that looks at all 4 years at a glance!

2. When you have your list of songs you’d like to include, decide how you want your messages to look. You might try one of the following:

  • Use first letters of the song title
  • Pick a keyword from the song
  • Draw a simple picture to represent the song
  • Write out the song title
  • Make a Rebus (See my ideas from the Baptism song Rebus here for inspiration!)
This fun Baptism Rebus activity for the popular LDS song is an easy low-prep activity for Primary Singing Time. Great resource for music leaders and parents!

3. Use a sheet of white printer paper, cardstock, or a large poster board to create your magic messages on.

Primary Song Review Game: Magic Messages Singing time ideas for Primary Music Leaders Magic Messages1

4. Grab a white crayon and write, draw, or color your message on each page. If you have the right lighting, like a lamp or daylight coming in at an angle, it will help you see your marks to plan spacing accordingly.

5. When you have all of your posters ready, you might write a small faint note on the back with a pencil of what song it is, to help you when you’re setting them up or if you want to play this game in a particular order.

Using the magic messages in order can help your pianist be ready to go and help you be ready with the solution, should the kids need any help!

How to Play Magic Message Song Game

Post a magic message on your whiteboard.

Tell the children this poster represents one of the songs you will be learning this upcoming year (or one of the songs they’ve already learned if doing a review).

Ask the children questions such as:

  • Do you think you can help me help figure out what the poster means?
  • What do you think is on the poster?
  • What activity do I have planned today?
  • Do you think we might need help from some other items?

By asking them questions you start getting them involved and interacting with you. I love seeing how brilliant the kids are! They always surprise me with their answers and ideas.

Eventually, you’ll lead them towards the idea that there is something hidden and these are MAGIC POSTERS!

You’ll need to reveal your chosen art supplies to complement this lesson. Either crayons, markers, or watercolor paints.

Crayons work okay. They are the hardest to read the message through. Markers are my personal preference. They are easy, no mess, and work great! Paint is really, really fun and the kids will love it, but it’s definitely more of a mess!

Primary Song Review Game: Magic Messages Singing time ideas for Primary Music Leaders Magic Messages3

Have 1-2 children come up at a time and color a poster. You can set a timer for :30-:60 seconds and have them tap on the shoulder of another child to switch when the timer is up.

Or, have them coloring during the song you’re singing and switch for the chorus!

After they’ve guessed the first poster, you’ll sing through and continue to repeat singing that first song until they guess the solution to a second poster! You should sing through each song 1-2 times and then give the children hints (such as a few notes on the piano) if they need help. You can also sing the chorus, if needed, to guide them to the solution!

Repeat coloring, guessing, and singing through all of your Magic Message Song posters or until you run out of time in Singing Time.

If you plan on 6-8 songs, this lesson should take up the 20 minutes of Singing Time. Try to limit transitions of the children by just having the children automatically know to pass off the job to the next child in line and you’ll have a lot more time for singing!

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Alternate & Extension Ideas:

  • Post all of the magic messages posters up at the same time. Let the kids color on any of the posters. After any song is completed, let the kids try and guess until they get ONE poster correct. Then sing that song next and flip it over or take it down to mark it as complete!
  • Let the child who guess the song correctly pick a “way to sing”. That could be teachers, boys/girls, right/left side of the room, eyes closed, stand up, like a mouse, like the Tabernacle Choir, etc, etc.
  • SKIP singing any words in the title of the song for the duration of the whole song! Sing all the other words, but try to be completely silent during the title words or complete phrase.

Combine with Emojis!

We’ve created another really fun and easy review game. You can pair it up with this idea for the letters and symbols to use, or use one idea to introduce and the other to review at the end of the year!

Primary Song Review Game: Magic Messages Singing time ideas for Primary Music Leaders Emoji Song Review Game5

We’ve created a list with the Old Testament Primary Songs in Emojis here!

Join INSTANT Primary Singing today for immediate access to monthly printable singing time ideas!

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