"My Heavenly Father Loves Me" - Lesson 2 - "I Spy with My Primary Eye"

Since the children will have just learned this song the previous week, I want to take at least one additional week to reinforce the words in their minds in a fun, engaging way. Well, two engaging ways ...

I Spy with My Primary Eye

Gather items that represent the words of the song. I want them to match the objects I chose to highlight in my flip chart as closely as possible, as I think it will be easier for the children to match up the objects that way.

I think this will be more fun if the images are three-dimensional but of course, the easy option is flat images. (You can print off any of the images below in place of finding a three-dimensional object.) I'm still looking for objects around my house so I'll post them as I find them ...

Bird - "Whenever I heard the song of a bird ..."



Sky - "... or look at the blue, blue sky .."
Cotton glued to blue paper

Rain - "whenever I feel the rain on my face ..."
Umbrella or rain coat if it's obvious enough

Wind - "or the wind as it rushes by ..."
Handheld Fan (was going to use chimes but that might be too much of a riddle for them)

Rose - "whenever I touch a velvet rose ..."
(I found a rose labelled "Velvet Rose" at the dollar store. How appropriate! February is a convenient month for finding velvet roses.)

Tree - "or look at a lilac tree ..."
(I am using an image for this one so the children know what a lilac tree looks like ...


World - "I'm glad that I live in this beautiful world, Heavenly Father created for me."

Eyes - "He gave me my eyes that I might see ..."
Sunglasses (I use these for other primary activities. Perfect way to re-use.)


















Butterfly - "the color of butterfly wings ..."

Ears - "He gave me my ears that I might hear the magical sound of things ..."
Ear muffs or ear phones (I bet I could find some giant fake ears at the dollar store ... guess I need to make another trip back.)

Life / Mind / Heart - "He gave me my life, my mind, my heart ..."
Drawing of a body with a drawing for the brain and heart

Gratitude - "I thank him reverently, for all these creations of which I'm a part ..."
Picture of someone praying, or statue of someone praying ...

1. First, I will spend a little bit of time on the flip chart from the previous week, either singing with it or reviewing it once just to refresh their memories.

2. Next, I will tell them that I hid items around the room, which I will do in advance. I will ask the children to look around and then tell them that we are going to find the objects and bring them up to the table in the front of the room. There are so many fun ways to do this. Right now, I am leaning toward going class by class, so we will sing one line of the song, then I will ask the class to send a member or two to go retrieve the object, and on and on until all the objects are on the table.

3. Once all the items are on the table, I'm going to mix them all up, then have the children come up and try to put them in order while we are singing the song. We will do this one or a few times depending on interest level and time.

I then want to share a quote from M. Russell Ballard (source info in the next blog post):
He said:

To truly reverence the Creator, we must appreciate His creations. We need to take time with our families to share the miracle of buds changing into fragrant blossoms, to sit on a hillside and feel the tranquility of the sun casting its last golden glow over the horizon, to smell the roses.

When we look at the evidence of creation all around us, from a grain of sand to the majestic planets, we begin to realize that we are the greatest of all God’s creations; we are created in His image.

Pictionary 
Wendy Buchanan shared that she is having the primary play Pictionary with this song, and really, it's the perfect song for it, because the song is so full of imagery. She is having teachers draw one line of the song, and children guess and sing the line. I don't plan to have enough time for this but it's a nice add-on activity If I do ... or to save for a future song as the main activity.

Or ...

Move Over Senses!
I'm going to ask the children to pay attention closely, and move one seat over every time they hear a sense described. I'll go into detail to make sure they understand - like "whenever I HEAR the song of a bird or LOOK at the blue, blue sky ..." This might be tough but I will direct them to help them know when to move. I will use this opportunity to emphasize how blessed we are to have sight, hearing, etc.

After this, I will move onto another song so they don't feel like they are just drilling away at one song, over and over:

Song Review Fun
Our ward does a special Missionary Month every February, which affects what we teach out of the primary sharing time manual as well. Therefore, I will take the extra time remaining to have fun with some review songs combining missionary topics and other recent songs:

I Hope They Call Me on a Mission - I have little objects for the children to hold up for this song, which I made in the past (a tie, a mission badge, two rulers, and then I ask a volunteer to bring up their scriptures)

I Want to Be a Missionary Now
Flipchart here: http://c586449.r49.cf2.rackcdn.com/I%20Want%20to%20Be%20a%20Missionary%20Now.pdf

We'll Bring the World His Truth

Praise to the Man

I am a Child of God