Give 'em 10!

Another simple, no-prep motivational activity is "Give 'em 10!" This one was born out of necessity. You know the situation... you've taught the song, you know the kids know it, but they've lost their gumption. Give them a goal and suddenly they find their gumption!

Have a teacher or leader come up front to be the judge. Using their fingers, they give us a running score on how well we are singing: 1 finger being the worst, 10 fingers being the best. It's important that they are updating their score as we sing. You can set your own criteria: remembering the words, everyone trying, standing together, following dynamics, sitting together, quiet at the end, etc.

It helps to have the judge give feedback on what we did well, and what we need to improve on. We can also tell quickly what parts of the song we need to review. I always rotate through the teachers for judges, the kids love seeing their teacher be the judge!

Turn this into a whole Singing Time by recording the scores on the board next to the different songs you sing. Set a goal for a high total score.