Easter Sunday: Easter-Themed Song Review Game AAAANDDD a New Mother's Day Song

For Easter Sunday, the Primary Presidency has given me their regular teaching time to use for music in addition to my regular time. You could easily use this in a 20-minute lesson or a 35-minute lesson though.

I have three objectives:

1. Focus on Easter, our Savior, and the resurrection

2. Begin work on one of our Mother's Day songs

3. Review all the program songs to date

Honestly, I feel we know our three songs well now, and I personally need more variety, let alone the primary children. Also, I need more time to teach the children two extra songs for Mother's Day next month so I'm most interested in #2, but I want to do it in a way that very respectfully focuses the children on #1. So with that said:

Attention activity: A jar full of eggs

Children will reach into a jar for a plastic egg. The egg will either have a song/activity or a very specific Easter scripture, quote, or story.

What's in the eggs: (either a song + activity OR a quote/scripture/question about Easter)

What	Activity
Sing "If the Savior Stood Beside Me"	I have two versions here because I didn't have a chance to do version #1 the previous Sunday. I made a second suggestion in case you want to follow this plan but already did #1 last week or the week before. 1. Stand in a big circle around the room and have each person say or sing (depending on their comfort level) the next word of the song. If they can’t do it, then you go around and tell them the word they have to remember. This is a nice way to reinforce lyrics in every child’s mind in a subtle, fun way because they will be paying attention to each other’s words, even if they are not thinking about it. I expect my primary children to have little difficulty with this activity by now but it will be a nice way to test them out, make them think, and help to reinforce. - or - 2. Sing this song with crescendo and decrescendo, waving your arms "big" make them go louder and more softly to make them sing more "softly." It's fun to hear their volume go up and down especially when you do this in places where it would naturally sound good in the song to add more emphasis. Or sing the song in staccato.
Sing "My Heavenly Father Loves Me"	Pass out Popsicle stick images for the song and have children hold them up when they hear their line of the song. This is from a previous activity (scroll down to #5 here).
Sing "I Am a Child of God"	Sign Language – roll a dice to see which class will come up to sign a verse of the song. If your class doesn't know the song in sing language then have them sing the song in a different, interesting way. This is a very reverent song so I might even turn off the lights, tell them to close their eyes, and think about what it means to be a child of Heavenly Father while they sing the song.
Sing "He Sent His Son" (Great Easter song. The children know this one since I taught it last year for the Christmas program. If they don't, you can use a flip chart ... which I have but I haven't uploaded it anywhere yet so for now, if you want it, send me your email address. I mentioned it in this post.)	Sing by color – take turns either standing and singing or everyone sings but people have to stand when their color goes up.  This was from another activity I didn't end up doing that Sunday. If I had, I would switch to using a boy drawing and a girl drawing and just having them alternate between singing as boys, girls, or everyone.
Start Learning "I Think the World is Glorious"	I am teaching this song for Mother's Day so the first time I'll: Sing the song and ask the children to raise their hand if they recognize, and also to listen carefully to what word is sung the most. See post
Start Learning "I Think the World is Glorious"	The second time I'll: (if there's time) Put up pictures that show: the world, birds, bees, blossoms, a child singing, and other fun objects. Ask the children to watch the picture carefully and look for the ones that are illustrated in the song. See post
Start Learning "I Think the World is Glorious"	The third time I'll: Sing the song one time through first, and ask the children to get up and spin one time every time they hear the word “sing.” I was going to have them get up one row at a time and say "I Sing" but our guest teacher did the exact thing I was planning last Sunday so I am considering having them spin one row at a time instead of singing louder and louder just so they don't feel like they are doing the same thing too soon. OR, I might ask them if they remember what they did with "Shine On," getting louder, and louder, and tell them we are going to do the same thing, except they stand instead of making big arcs with their hands. See post
Haircut activity	I decided not to do this part this time but it's cute enough to share. I was originally going to have the child that picked this egg come up and give a grass egg a haircut, based on this inspiring post from iheartprimarymusic.blogspot.com. Then, I decided to make dolls out of yarn and toilet paper rolls, to have the children give the yarn dolls haircuts instead. I thought this was an original idea but of course, when I Googled it, someone else had already made one, and it was perfect. So Google it if you need help making this from household items :) Then, I decided this was such a fun activity that I didn't want the children who didn't get to do it to feel bad, plus I didn't want the Sunbeams to go home and give themselves ugly haircuts as a result of their primary activity. SO ... I think it's a fabulous idea and I might do it another year but I decided to go with something a little less stressful. The fabulous idea from the iheartmusic blogger ends with this scripture that I am almost certainly going to incorporate into the lesson on Sunday. Alma 40:23  The soul shall be restored to the body, and the body to the soul; yea, and every limb and joint shall be restored to its body; yea, even a hair of the head shall not be lost; but all things shall be restored to their proper and perfect frame."	Green

Easter egg scripture	Everyone look up this scripture:  Alma 40:23. Person who chose the egg can pick someone that has their hand raised to read it. Then ask what the scripture means.
Easter egg scripture	Person who chose the egg can pick someone that has their hand raised to read it. Then ask what the scripture means.  Everyone look up this scripture: Luke 24:5-7 5And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? 6He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, 7Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.
Easter egg quote	I thought this one was especially appropriate because of the themes I have been touching around “My Heavenly Father Loves Me” about how nature shows us how God loves us: "Contemplating the wonder of the Atonement wrought in behalf of all mankind, the Prophet Joseph Smith declared in words descriptive and beautiful: “Let the mountains shout for joy, and all ye valleys cry aloud; and all ye seas and dry lands tell the wonders of your Eternal King! And ye rivers, and brooks, and rills, flow down with gladness. Let the woods and all the trees of the field praise the Lord; and ye solid rocks weep for joy! And let the sun, moon, and the morning stars sing together, and let all the sons of God shout for joy! And let the eternal creations declare his name forever and ever! And again I say, how glorious is the voice we hear from heaven, proclaiming in our ears, glory, and salvation, and honor, and immortality, and eternal life; kingdoms, principalities, and powers!” (D&C 128:23)." - This Glorious Easter Morn, April 1996
Easter egg quote	This is Easter morning. This is the Lord’s day, when we celebrate the greatest victory of all time, the victory over death. Those who hated Jesus thought they had put an end to Him forever when the cruel spikes pierced His quivering flesh and the cross was raised on Calvary. But this was the Son of God, with whose power they did not reckon. Through His death came the Resurrection and the assurance of eternal life. ... He is our King, our Lord, our Master, the living Christ, who stands on the right hand of His Father. ... He lives ... the living Son of the living God. Of this we bear solemn testimony this day of rejoicing, this Easter morning, when we commemorate the miracle of the empty tomb, in the name of Him who rose from the dead, even the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. President Gordon B. Hinckley, - This Glorious Easter Morn, April 1996 (This was a deep cut as there were many paragraphs between the first part of the quote and the second - you should read the whole thing before primary! It's a great way to get in the right frame of mind to teach through music on Easter Sunday.
Easter fact	In Russia people often greet one another on Easter by saying, “Jesus is risen.” The other person replies, “Truly, He is risen.” In Albania the tradition is similar; they click red egg rocks together and say, “Christ is risen.” Ensign, March 2013
Easter egg question	Q: What does the Easter egg represent? A: The egg has become an almost universal symbol of Easter to represent the Savior’s breaking the bands of death through His Resurrection. Thus coloring and hiding eggs for an Easter egg hunt and giving Easter baskets are common traditions around the world. Creating Christ-Centered Easter Traditions, Ensign, March 2013

I decided to save this one for a future year:

Make each child this book as an Easter Present – Plan of Salvation from Friend 2005.

http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=c2b79f161371c010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=21bc9fbee98db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

... since last Easter, I gave each child this book that I had made: I Think When I Hear that Sweet Story flip book.

I may still do this one:

Pass out these "Children of God" that I made last year and never gave out.

I could put them in Easter eggs and talk about the atonement and how we are all Children of God. I haven't used these yet because there are so many ways to incorporate them into an activity that I keep holding back on just giving them as a gift, when I can use them as part of the activity. I may still do that for an upcoming song.

I want to end with my testimony of the power of the atonement.

I am so grateful for a Father in Heaven who loves me so much that he sent his only Begotten Son to earth to die for us, that we might live with him again. I know that no matter what happens to us while we are on earth, our Heavenly Father loves us and is watching over us, and has provided a way for us to return to him and to our perfect bodies.

Song Review - Rhythm and Beat Robot/Machinery with Egg Chute

** Post-singing time review about the post further below :)
I had so much fun in primary today. I made some modifications to my original plans. In Junior Primary, I didn't think we would have enough time so I just worked with them on the third first of "If the Savior Stood Beside Me," but I brought out all the percussion eggs I had made (see bottom of post) and told them that I would pass them out once the children could show me by volume that they knew all three verses. Great incentive, and a lot of fun! I had different types of beans in different eggs and let them hear how they made different sounds. This was a great way to grab their attention, practice rhythm, beat, and lyrics.

In senior primary, I had five volunteers come up to do the human machine together. Then, after the song ended, I had the last person flap their wings or make a bird sound, and dropped an egg through my "chute," before I had the classes get together and plan their own machines. I told them that the machines were operated by reverent voices to encourage everyone to sing. It was a lot of fun, and a nice break to make sure we don't unintentionally fall into bad patterns when teaching. The key to keep it reverent was to have the fun bird/egg part AFTER they were done singing, but to relax and let them giggle a little.


++++++++++++++++++



I ended up slicing up a bunch of my Singing Time plans this month and only have had two weeks to work on  "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" so I want to work on it again this week. This plan could easily be adapted as an overall song review to sing a lot of different songs, which is how it was originally designed, but I am focusing it on mostly to review this one song.

First, some background on this idea: I have two good friends, Rob and Chris(tine) Davis that are married to each other and very creative. They have several children, and both parents have or do teach children in various church jobs and professionally over the years. The children love them. They taught primary music for a while, and in a conversation with them when I was first given this calling, they mentioned this as one of their all-time favorite singing time activities. This is their original idea.

This is an interesting way to engage the children and focus on repetition without feeling like it's repetition!

Explain to the children that they are going to be singing robots/machinery today. Then, have the primary presidency work together to give an example of how you can work together to move like a robot/machine.

It will work like this, for example:

Person #1 pretends to be a human hammer and  repeatedly (gently) pound their fist on the head of the person in front of them to the rhythm of the song.

Person #2 pretends to be a spinner. Every time the "hammer" hits them, they spin but with one hand out that gently smacks the person next to them - again to the beat of the song.

Person #3 has one hand sticking out. Every time the "spinner's" hand hits their hand, they jump up and down once, or kick their foot out, etc.

You basically have a chain of actions, to the rhythm of the music, and when it gets to the end of the song, the person at the end clucks and waves their arms like a chicken. The chicken lays an egg, which happens when the teacher drops the plastic egg down a chute, which is a wrapping paper roll that comes out from the stool that is sticking out from under the chair that the "chicken" is sitting on. The egg is a plastic Easter egg that when opened will have some direction or message in it, like what song to sing next. I'm going to have the message be which class goes up next, and if all goes well, have the children sing the same song each time. If they get bored, we'll change it up.

After giving the children this example, have each class get together for a few minutes to discuss and plan out how they can pretend to be one giant human robot. You can even give them general suggestions to help them with their planning.

Then, take turns with one class in the front being a giant robot together. When the song is over, drop a plastic egg down the robot chute. When it gets to the end, open the egg to reveal what it says inside the egg.

Back-up

I made egg rattles that I will use to help the children practice rhythm and beat. I will probably save these for the following week but I like having a back-up activity.

Guest Teacher: Teaching "Shine On"

For Ward Conference last Sunday, the Stake Relief Society Primary Presidency came and taught our primary lesson and music lesson. I love watching them in action. It's amazing that they can teach so much in so little time. I feel like it's difficult to make time for one presidency member to teach the lesson and for me to teach the music.

They teach the way I believe is recommended by the church, but rarely implemented because it is so difficult to coordinate and plan this out every single Sunday, where you go back and forth between lessons and music. I have done this a few times in the past but it is generally easier to teach my whole section at once ...

The main song that our stake primary chorister, Megan T., taught, was a lovely song called "Shine On." She implemented several teaching techniques (including a couple I was planning for Easter Sunday!) but here's a highlight of what I remember a week later. I should have written this down the day of so there may be some slight inaccuracies but this is basically how it went.

Intro: 

1. First, she did an activity that encouraged them to listen to the words of the song. She did this differently in junior primary vs. senior primary.

Junior Primary: She said this song talks about a special kind of light. In fact, I think she may not have even said it was a light, but to listen carefully to something she describes three times. She then sang the first verse (without the chorus line), A cappella (without the piano). (If I did this, I would either sing it with the piano, or in my early days, pass out the music to the teachers and ask them to sign with me.)


She then asked the children to list the kinds of light. Some children raised their hand but their answers were wrong, so she said something encouraging and then asked them to listen again.

Senior Primary: She said this song talks about something important and the answer happens to this beat, and clapped out the beat of the song, which is the same for each of these lines.

She then asked the children to list the answers that came on that beat. I can't remember if the children were able to get at least one answer, but regardless, she said she'd do it for them again.

2. Second, she sang the song again and asked the children to listen carefully. This again of course encouraged the children to listen carefully.

In Junior, each child that answered the question correctly was called to the front of the room, and asked to make up an action that described the kind of light that they identified. In our class, this translated to:

"My light is but a little one" - everyone crouched down into a tiny ball

"My light of faith and prayer" - everyone folded their arms reverently

"It glows like God's great sun" - everyone held their arms up like a giant sun

In Senior, she clapped and said the words more emphatically the second time to help them catch the key points of the song.

3. The third time, we all sang the song together now that Junior and Senior primary both knew the lines after hearing them twice.

4. She then moved onto the chorus line. She said that this part would tell us to do something, and we would know what because she would say it over and over. She than sang it (again A cappella) and asked us to listen closely. Afterward, she had the children raise their hands and tell us what phrase she had said over and over. She then asked "What does it mean to 'shine on,' and talked us about that for a bit.

5. Next, she had us listen and tell us how many times she sang "Shine on." She did this twice in junior primary because they all gave different numbers.

6. Next, Megan showed the children how she wanted them to clap their hands together and then burst them outward like a sun, first one row, then the next, so that the song would grow in volume until the end. In Junior Primary, she asked, "What do you think will happen if one row sings the first time, then two rows, etc." In Senior Primary, she asked a girl that she knew could play the piano what it was called to get louder and louder, or something to that effect. Once again, asking questions helps children to pay attention and learn faster by keeping them engaged and making them think.

7. We then sang the chorus with each row adding onto the previous row.

8. We then sang the song all the way through - completely memorized by then.

“Shine On,” Children’s Songbook of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 144

Happily

1. My light is but a little one,
My light of faith and prayer;
But lo! it glows like God’s great sun,
For it was lighted there.

Chorus 

Shine on, shine on, shine on bright and clear;
Shine on, shine on now the day is here.

Words and music: Joseph Ballantyne, 1868–1944

Matthew 5:14–16

Teaching "I Think the World is Glorious"

I am planning to introduce "I Think the World is Glorious" on Easter Sunday, ultimately to sing in sacrament as part of the Mother's Day program.

I chose this song for a number of reasons. Mainly, it was so fitting with this year's theme, and what I have been teaching the children about how our Heavenly Father loves us and created this world for us. However, I also love that it is a very Spring-oriented song, and appropriate for Easter.

I will have the whole hour for Easter, and have an overall Easter theme that I am working out right now, which will include some time spent on learning this song. 

Image from: http://www.123rf.com/photo_6580958_animal-planet.html

We will hear and sing this song three or four times on Easter Sunday:

1. Sing the song for the children. (Invite anyone that already knows it to sing it with you. Give teachers the page number so they can look it up on their phones! Or write it up on the board for them and specifically ask them to help, if you are worried about singing alone. I have gotten over being worried about singing solos after so much time in this calling.) Ask them to raise their hand if they know the song. Ask them to listen carefully to what word is sung the most. This exercise makes them listen carefully to the lyrics of the song.

2. Put an illustration on the chalkboard (see above), either one drawn in advance, a collage cut out from magazine pictures or printed off the Internet, or even just a doodle on the chalkboard. I may just do the latter, and will have the drawing up before class comes in. I will use the free-standing chalkboard that we have in the room, so I can wait until Singing Time begins to flip the drawing around.

I found the image above though, and think it would be fun to try for something similar. Even if I don't have the time to draw this myself, I could easily cut out pictures and place them around the world in a similar presentation.

Sing the song again. (Invite anyone that already knows it to sing it with you.) Ask the children to look at the picture and see how many of the words in the song are illustrated in the picture. This exercise makes them listen carefully to the lyrics of the song again.

(I wouldn't want to have quite as many pictures because I want to keep it simple enough for the children that the children are learning the song, not being distracted by the items that AREN'T in the song!)

I was thinking if I hand-drew the image right before class started, I could do something easy and fast like this:

3. Have the children help sing the song. This time, have the children take turns, one row at a time, standing up and singing "I sing!" so that by the end, all the rows are standing. (Assign the rows beforehand.)

4. Do the same as #3 except this time have the children hold the notes out until the end of the song.

Lyrics:

1. I think the world is glorious and lovely as can be.
The birds and bees and blossoms bring sweet messages to me.

I sing, and sing, and sing, and sing
A song of joy and love.
I sing, and sing, and sing, and sing
My thanks to God above.

2. I think the world is glorious and lovely as can be,
For I have teachers kind and true, and parents who love me.

Words: Anna Johnson, 1892–1979. © 1962 IRI

Music: Alexander Schreiner, 1901–1987. © 1962 IRI

“I Think the World Is Glorious,” Children’s Songbook of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 230

"If the Savior Stood Beside Me" - Week 3 - Fun Song Review Games

Now that we've spent two weeks learning both the gospel doctrine and the lyrics of the song,  I want to find a fun way to lock those lines in our minds. Senior Primary is far enough along that I will mix "I am a Child of God" and "My Heavenly Father's Love" into this activity, but for Junior Primary, I will primarily stick with "If the Savior Stood Beside Me."

I found these these cute little green St.Patrick's Day hats at the dollar store - 5 for $1!

Little Leprechaun - Putting the Green Hats to Use
I will put a fun game under each hat (the games listed below). A child will come up and choose the hat. Depending on the hat they choose, we'll play a certain game for a single verse or the song or two if necessary depending on how much lyric time we need for each game. After the game is over, the teacher for the class that was singing the best has to wear the hat for the rest of primary. (This could be substituted with hand-drawn clovers taped to the wall, etc.)

Every Other Lyric
Just to make this more exciting, I'm going to have everyone stand up and form a big circle. We're going to go around the room and have everyone take turns saying the next word of the song. That's it! If they are horrible at it, then I'll go around and say all the words and point to each person. This will have the effect of secretly making everyone listen and commit the words of the song into their memories better than before! (The hat prize mentioned above obviously doesn't work for this game.).

Hot Potato
I will bring a fun object into the room. Maybe something squishy. I have done this spur-of-the-moment before and used whatever objects I had used for the lesson that day. The children pass the item to the person next to them, and if the pianist stops while they are holding the object, then they have to say the next word of the song. If they forget, they can ask the person on either side of them. Teachers have to play, too, but I always tell the children that it's easier for children to memorize than adults, so they have to be prepared to help their teacher!

Beware, this is not the most reverent game. I have to warn them not to THROW the item at people but to be gentle, and that they need to all sing, sing, sing! However, they love it, and used sparingly, it is a fun, effective way to keep the children enthusiastic.

Singing or Standing By Color
I don't want to bring out all the favorite games at once so I'll add this one as a safe filler. I'll bring five popsicle sticks with a different bright color attached to each in a big round circle. If they are wearing that color, they have to sing. OR, maybe I'll have everyone sing but they have to stand up while their color is up, so I get to see children bopping up and down. They will still have the incentive that their teacher may end up wearing TWO of the green hats if they sing the best. I'll add a picture once I've made these pieces.

Helmet Hero

One child is called to the front of the room. The child has some lyrics of the song written on their "helmet." The class will sing the song and skip that line. Then, the child has to tell us what lined we skipped over. For junior primary, because they can't read well, I would send the child out of the room so I could whisper the words that we are skipping over to the children.

I made my last version of this helmet by folding a half-sized poster board into a paper hat. I used paper clips to change out what it said on the hat, by clipping the sheet in. It worked great! I am considering painting it with chalk paint as well ... I'll add some pictures if I do this approach.

Even my most reluctant singers love this game. It's so great to have them come up and realize they really are memorizing the words of the song!

Beat it!
I will have half the class clap out the beat of the song, and have the class clap out the rhythm of the song while we sing it. 

"If the Savior Stood Beside Me" - Week 2 (Memorizing, continued)

I had a great time teaching the children the music to "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" this week, asking them specific questions about my flip chart, e.g., "Why do you think I used this picture of the Savior being baptized for this line about being an example?" or "Which child in the picture do you think is behaving like the Savior is standing beside them? Why?"

The Junior Primary was generally not familiar with this song at all, but since it was taught in 2008, most of the Senior Primary knew most of the words. Therefore, we made it through verse one with the Junior Primary, and we made it through all the verses with the Senior Primary, but both classes need some work.

Week 2 will go as follows for Junior Vs. Senior Primary:

Junior Primary - Junior Primary memorized one verse and discussed the lines of the song. We will hopefully be able to learn about and memorize the remaining two verses, following the same method. The children were able to raise their hands and interact with me a lot, so I had a high level of participation and interest. So, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," right? Well, not if it's only for two weeks. After the third week, I'd be worried that they felt like I was drilling them.

I may ask them to listen for "Savior" and rhymes, depending on how the lesson goes. See below for further details as I will be doing this in Senior primary.

Backup for Junior: I will bring my Super Singer Glasses and put those on if my junior primary need encouragement singing. (Purchased at dollar store - reward good singers with the opportunity to wear them, and to pick out the next super singer.)

Senior Primary - Senior Primary already knew most of this song but I could already hear some "problem" lines that they were a little less confident about, so I'm going to do three things, time-pending.

Verse 1

1. First, put up the flip chart for verse 1 only. Sing it with them one time through.

2. Turn over the entire flip chart for verse 1 only. Sing the verse one time through again (with no flip chart). Ask them to count how many times they hear "Savior." Write that tally up on the board. The intent here is to get them to focus on the words, but also give them something to motivate them to really listen and sing, where they don't feel like they are singing the same line over and over.

3. Sing the verse one time through again (with no flip chart). Ask them to use their hands to go up and down on the melody (they see me doing this with the Articles of Faith every week, since I rarely spend time on them).

4. If they are still struggling with some of the words of the song, which I doubt, I'll spend a little time singing that line with them.

Verse 2

1. Put up the flip chart for verse 2. Sing only verse 2 with them one time through.

2. Turn over the flip chart for verse 2 only. Ask them to count how many times they hear "Savior." Add it to the tally on the board.

3. Sing the verse one time through again (with no flip chart). This time, ask them to listen carefully. There are two sentences that end in a rhyme. I will give them the example that the verse rhyme is "... would I do the things I do? Would I think of his commandments and try harder to be true?" Then ask them to listen for the rhyme in the second verse.

Verse 3

1. Put up the flip chart for verse 3, except the last line, because they should know that for SURE by now. (And I will say that to them.) Sing only verse 3 with them one time through. I will point out the parts where I know they were a little fuzzy this week.

2. Turn over the flip chart for verse 3 only. Sing the verse one time through again (with no flip chart again). Ask them to count how many times they hear "Savior." Add it to the tally on the board.

3. Sing the verse one time through again (with no flip chart). This time, I will ask them to clap out the rhythm of the song (the variables of "fast-fast-slow-fast-medium-medium-medium-slowwww- fast-fast-slow-fast-slow-slow-slow-slowwww") as we sing, pointing out that it ends differently.

Combine it all together

Sing all three verses together as a final review, especially to hear the interludes between the verses and how the third verse ends a bit differently.

Backup for Senior (which I honestly don't think I'll use so I hope someone does, ha! I might do a bigger song review with a more carefully elaborate crossword puzzle, where identifying the word is a hint to identify what song we will sing. Might as in - I am planning on it for a future song review, as long as I don't end up doing this one! More after I teach next Sunday.)

This was quickly designed and very easy to make. I took what was essentially a piece of butcher paper (I started saving packing paper from packages in the mail) and folded in half, then in half again, etc so that I had a grid. I then drew boxes to match the number of letters per word, until I had my little crossword puzzle. I sketched lightly, in the corner, the letters that the boxes represent so that I don't have to worry about making mistakes during Primary.

Hints:
The tricky part with this crossword was that I used two phrases "watchful care" (4a and 4b) and "always near" (5a and 5b). so, I'm going to explain that to the children but I also put in some letter prompts for those ones.

If I made this its own activity, then after we identified the words of the crossword puzzle, I would have some fun with them and ask them to identify a primary or hymnal song that sings about this word. For example, for "commandments," they could say, "Keep the commandments." For "kind," they could say, "Jesus Said Love Everyone," and for "Reverently" they could say, "Reverently, Quietly."