I Am a Child of God - Lesson 3

My tentative plan for Singing Time, week three of January:

Junior Primary

1. Today's "wiggle" songs will be "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam" (stand up every time they sing "Sunbeam" -with a reminder to do it reverently), and "Hinges," complete with the obvious, matching motions.
2. I have also started incorporating a fun birthday candle idea that someone shared with me - all the children pretend to be candles while we sing Happy Birthday to the child. The birthday children get to "blow out the candles." (I do this in Senior as well - am just planning to do it for 2013.)
3. Junior Primary is a bit behind Senior Primary on learning the sign language for "I am Child of God" so I will finish teaching them verse 2 and 3.
4. If there is any time left over, I am going to have everyone form a circle so that they can see each other while they sign the song. This will be fun for them because they get to enjoy the excitement of standing up and forming a circle, while encouraging them to sing the verse another time.
5. Pass out the drawings to go with the signs that I have taught them (shared in my previous post).

Senior Primary

1. Ask the children if they feel like they can remember all the signs that they learned. If they feel they haven't, review some of the signs with them. Maybe "pop quiz" them a little bit.
2. Have all the children stand up and form a circle around the room. Tell them we are forming a signing circle so that we can see each other sign the words of the song.
3. Have them "listen" to "I am a Child of God" the way a deaf person hears the song. I will choose either verse 2 or verse 3 since they have sung verse 1 so many times.
4. Singing time bells. I will let them play my hand bells, choosing a child that has not received a bell yet for each verse of the song. I have had them play the bells 2-3 other times, and every time, I try to do things a little bit differently so this time, to mix it up I wrote out the chords instead of just the melody. I will teach them a little about what a melody is and what a chord is in a song, and then have them try playing chords instead of just the melody. I know this will be tough because the children won't all play their bells at the same time, but it will be fun to try, and a nice way to teach them a little more about music theory.
   
   
5. If there is any time remaining, I will teach them a bit about descant and possibly have them sing those lines of the song.
6. Pass out the drawings to go with the signs that I have taught them (shared in my previous post).