Did I already mention that I love how beautifully this song lends itself to strong visuals?
I was thinking about how to better tie the song into the lessons for this month, and with this month's song, it is particularly easy to do ...
This month's lessons for sharing time are:
Week 1 - Heavenly Father has a plan for his children.
Week 2 - Heavenly Father commanded Jesus Christ to create the earth as home for His children.
Week 3 - My body is created in the image of God.
Week 4 - Agency is the gift to choose for myself.
So, keeping the lessons for the month in mind, I see the weeks breaking out as follows:
Week 1 - Introduce the song (last week)
Week 2 - Review the song with the "lovely home on earth" part of the song.
Week 3 - Review the song with the "body is created in the image of God" aspect of the song.
Week 4 - Take a break - Review Month 1 song, Month 2 song, and all the songs from Year 2013 so they don't forget them!
Week 2 - Reviewing a lovely home on earth
Make this a game by having the children assemble a picture of a home on earth. Either a house or the earth ... or even make the earth a backdrop and assemble the house on top of it, but I think it's easy to make the parts for a house.
I was thinking about how to better tie the song into the lessons for this month, and with this month's song, it is particularly easy to do ...
This month's lessons for sharing time are:
Week 1 - Heavenly Father has a plan for his children.
Week 2 - Heavenly Father commanded Jesus Christ to create the earth as home for His children.
Week 3 - My body is created in the image of God.
Week 4 - Agency is the gift to choose for myself.
So, keeping the lessons for the month in mind, I see the weeks breaking out as follows:
Week 1 - Introduce the song (last week)
Week 2 - Review the song with the "lovely home on earth" part of the song.
Week 3 - Review the song with the "body is created in the image of God" aspect of the song.
Week 4 - Take a break - Review Month 1 song, Month 2 song, and all the songs from Year 2013 so they don't forget them!
Week 2 - Reviewing a lovely home on earth
Make this a game by having the children assemble a picture of a home on earth. Either a house or the earth ... or even make the earth a backdrop and assemble the house on top of it, but I think it's easy to make the parts for a house.
You will tell them that they are putting together the line of a song by finding pictures about the whole song so part of their interest here will be the challenge of trying to figure out what they are building (which is why the house works better for this than the earth.) Children take turns coming up to the front of the room and pulling an object out of a bag. If they pull out an image, they get to find the matching number on the poster board to finish putting together the image. If they pull out a "dud" image they have to finish the sentence for a line of the song. However, they can call on a "lifeline" - someone else in the primary - to help finish if they don't know the missing words to fill in the blank.
For this song/activity, I like keeping the images very geometric and using bright colors. I used a program to quickly draw a few shapes or this post, but I would just use colored construction paper. Part of the appeal here is that it will take them at least two turns to figure out what they are assembling if the images are subtle enough (by being so geometric).
Another way to do this - if you have Lincoln Logs, it would be fun to just have them add a log to the house (get them started with a base to save them time). Each child that comes up gets a log for answering a question correctly. You can make up simple questions (Fill in this line of the song -or- Is this picture of xxx something that helps us follow God's plan -or- True or False ...).
Sample questions:
1. My life is a __________?
2. What did I choose to do? Hint: "My life has a purpose, in Heav'n it began. My choice was to come __________________"
3. What does this song tell me I need seek to direct me from birth?
4. What two things does this song say I need to hold fast to?
5. This song says I will work, and I will ______?
Of course - you want to make sure the children sing - so have them sing the line of the songs that they pull out of the bag. If they don't know the answer to the question, have the class sing it, while they listen for the answer. Throw in singing the song staccato or legato or get them moving by having them stand up and spin every time they hear the word "life," and clap their hands above their heads every time they hear the word "I." You can sneak this in bit by bit by adding one new motion every time they pick a new card but only having them sing every third card so that they aren't singing the song a million times in one day.
Sample questions:
1. My life is a __________?
2. What did I choose to do? Hint: "My life has a purpose, in Heav'n it began. My choice was to come __________________"
3. What does this song tell me I need seek to direct me from birth?
4. What two things does this song say I need to hold fast to?
5. This song says I will work, and I will ______?
Of course - you want to make sure the children sing - so have them sing the line of the songs that they pull out of the bag. If they don't know the answer to the question, have the class sing it, while they listen for the answer. Throw in singing the song staccato or legato or get them moving by having them stand up and spin every time they hear the word "life," and clap their hands above their heads every time they hear the word "I." You can sneak this in bit by bit by adding one new motion every time they pick a new card but only having them sing every third card so that they aren't singing the song a million times in one day.
You have some really great ideas! Thankyou for sharing them with those of us who are not quite so creative. I really like the lincoln log house idea for jr primary. THanks again.
ReplyDeleteThanks David :)
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