I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus - Focusing on the Savior

I mentioned earlier that I was waiting until this upcoming Sunday to teach "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus," and that this time, I would like to use the excellent recommendation given in the primary manual, especially since the manual rarely suggests how to teach that month's song. This month's recommendation follows a lot of the music teaching principles I've read about and even learned about in our stake primary chorister training (which hardly anyone attended - it's really a pity because even though I heard a lot of things I was already doing, every tiny small thing I didn't know has been a BIG help in improving how I teach music and the gospel to these children).

I sent people to the PDF online last time but there's a good link that's not in PDF form here:
http://www.lds.org/manual/2012-outline-for-sharing-time/august?lang=eng

To what I've taken a screen shot of here:

I realized the link I posted previously had a link that didn't work so if you want to teach the manual-recommended lesson for this song, you can print the images here:
http://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/content/images/gospel-library/manual/08710/08710_000_aug-04-shapes.pdf?lang=eng

It's nice because the images are offered in black and white AND color so you can print according to your print preferences.

I have been having so much fun with elaborate Olympic activities though that I think I need to go back to some basics and keep it simple this week, especially for a song like this where I really want to focus on the Savior.

I will simply put up various pictures of Christ and depending on time, share a couple of short stories of things that Christ did and how we can be like him. I might liken them to at least one modern-day example in the news. I am tempted to ask children to volunteer their own stories but we have done that twice recently just with the regular sharing time, and frankly, it's kind of stressful because the children ramble and throw out really incoherent stories sometimes. I think it might work better if the child is asked in advance and has time to prepare their thoughts with a parent.

I will delve further into the meaning of this song the following week. I also want to play Helmet Hero again soon (a previous post of mine, taken from a great idea that's made the round on various blogs, and that was very effective for reviewing songs before the program last year).

P.S. I had two blog comments mentioning that they incorporated the American Icon singer, David Archuleta, (who is serving a mission right now) by playing a video of him singing this song. I think that's a great example of a way to tie something current that the kids can identify with to the gospel. You can read the comments from Connie and Michelle about this here.