Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Wordles


My daughter introduced me to Wordle.net. So fun. It's a website that allows you to create your own Word Art for free. You get to choose the words, fonts, colors, direction, etc. The program puts it all together and then you can print it. The Wordle above uses words from As a Child of God. You could make a Wordle with titles for a bunch of songs or words from several songs.
It's kind of a random thing, but we had fun coming up with the words and ways to use Wordle creations in Singing Time. I haven't tried any of them yet, but when I do, I'll print my 'Wordle' on poster sized paper (probably at Costco) so everyone can see it. I usually don't do word type activities with Junior Primary because most of them can't read, but I'll adapt by having the older ones help the younger ones. Here are some ideas.

Using WORDLES with Words from Different Songs

GUESS THE SONG Choose a child to cross out a word of their choice, then have everyone guess which song it's from. Tell the children beforehand which songs they can choose from and even put up a picture to represent each song. (For example: A child crosses out 'strengthen.' Another child answers that we sing 'strengthen' in verse 3 of "As a Child of God." Then sing the song. You could have them stand when you sing the 'Wordle' word.)

FIND A WORD Announce the song you will sing and ask everyone to look for a word from that song while you sing. Choose someone to cross out a word from the song. (For Example: "While we sing "Choose the Right" let's all look for words from the song in the poster." After singing, a child crosses out 'Holy.') For more of a challenge, announce the song but don't sing it until a child crosses out a word and then sing the song leaving out that word.

TEACH THE WORD Announce the song you will sing and ask everyone to look for a word from that song while you sing. Choose a child to cross out a word from the song, then teach us what they know about it. (For example: Look for a word from "Stand for the Right" while we sing it. After singing, a child crosses out 'prophet' and tells us that a prophet speaks for God and we should follow Him.)


Using WORDLES with Words from only One Song
SNAP THE WORD Have a child cross out a word, then sing the song but snap instead of singing the crossed out word. For a challenge you can accumulate the words, snapping on all words that are crossed out.

GUESS THE PHRASE A child crosses out a word and the other children guess the phrase the word is in. For an easy version use a Wordle with words from only one song. For a harder version use a Wordle with words from multiple songs.

I SPY THE WORD A child tells us the word he/she sees on the poster without pointing it out. While singing the song the children look for the word. When they find it they put their hand on their head (or some other predetermined signal) and continue to sing.

TEACH THE WORD Choose a child to cross out a word, then teach us what they know about it. (For example: A child crosses out 'Prophet' and tells us that a Prophet speaks for God and we should follow Him.)

Using WORDLES with Song Titles
CHOOSE THE SONG This is the most obvious thing to do with a poster full of song titles. A child crosses out a title and the group sings it. Use a Motivational Activity to help them do their best singing.

I SPY THE TITLE Use a Wordle made of song titles. While singing the song have the children look for the song title on the poster. When they find it they put their hand on their head (or some other predetermined signal) and continue to sing.

COLOR CHOICE Have a child wearing 'green' (for instance) choose a song title printed in 'green.' Or have anyone wearing that color sing the song.

NAME THAT SONG Play this like Name that Tune where the pianist plays a few notes and the group guesses the song.

You get the idea, lots of things to do with Wordles. I'm sure this is just the tip of the ice berg! Please add your ideas in the comments section!

TIPS ON MAKING WORDLES: In the word list I used the ~ between words to keep the words in the titles together. I copied and pasted my list of words into Advanced options and added numbers after each word to get a variety of sizes of fonts. I used the "Snipping Tool" (coolest tool ever, can't believe I didn't know about it until last week!) on my computer to copy and past the finished product into Word or Paint to save and use later. 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.