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.  

I Think When I Read that Sweet Story - song about Jesus for April selection

The primary song for April was an optional song about Jesus. I wanted to sing one that I have heard less often, but that is beautiful, so after combing through the Children's Songbook numerous times, I felt good that  "I Think When I Read that Sweet Story" was the appropriate choice.

I have been so excited to teach this lesson ever since I decided what I wanted to do for the activity, a couple months ago. I had too many other songs on my agenda that I needed to get to first, though, so I had to be patient. In fact, I am still going to need to wait until after General Conference but I thought that this might come in handy for primary choristers that are ready to introduce the April song. Therefore, if you teach this lesson before, please give me feedback so I can make adjustments!

In short: a giant book for the whole class, and miniature books for everyone!

This is what the mini book looks like:

                                 

The obvious idea for this song is to create a theme around a storybook since the song starts out, "Tell me the story," so of course, I wanted to make a giant storybook by printing large pictures and text. I liked the idea of an over-sized book the best but I also wanted to keep the budget and time in mind so I also had three-ring binders in mind that would do the trick. I also thought about gluing into an existing book that was of no value (e.g., an outdated manual, a poorly written book, etc.).

I haven't made the giant book yet but I have the pages ready. Here's a sample, which I saved as a PDF for fellow choristers to use.

The part I'm super excited about is that I thought, "Why not give the children each their own book?" I did some research and learned about how I could use a simple 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper, and with the proper folds and a few simple cuts, turn it into an eight-page book. The trick was knowing which direction to print the pictures. I pulled the art off the church free art sites so this art is legal to use for appropriate personal and church use. That means, print it free for your primary and your family but please remember this is for personal use.

I plan to pre-fold these for junior primary, but in senior primary, part of the fun will be letting them fold their own books. Some of them will struggle, but I will just take it slow and help the ones that are struggling. Then, we'll sing using our little books, which I will send home with them. I hope they will play with their new books and that it will help them memorize this song.

What do you think?

Here's how to fold it:

1. Fold it the long way (like you are about to make a standard paper airplane.)

2. Now fold it again, so that you now have two images on each fold.

3. Fold it again so that you now have one image on each fold. Don't worry, the pictures will not be in the right order at this point.

4. Unfold your sheet. You should now have eight rectangles.

5. Fold your sheet as shown below, and then place one cut down the center so that it goes between the images shown below.

6. If you cut your sheet according to instructions, you should now have a cut in your paper like below. Note that the cut goes between two sets of pictures.

7. Here's the part that can be a little bit tricky. You want to fold your book so that the pages are now in a certain order. All you need to remember is that some of the folds will need to be folded in a different direction then you originally folded them, so you might need to crease them in the other direction. This is really easy once you get the hang of it. The first time I folded it, I thought I messed up on my template. Just hold your paper like below and then slowly push the book so that the creases go the right way.

8. Do this first, then fold again to "close" the book so that these two pages make the front and back covers.

9. Your finished folds should be in the order seen below.

You can print this sheet to turn it into a book and share it with your primary kids and your families.

1. In the document at the bottom of this page, click on the arrow in the upper right-hand corner to open the image in a new window.
                                              
2. Once the image opens, click on the Print button in the new Google document window that will open. The print button will be at the top of the page that opens (NOT THIS PAGE).

3. A Google printable document will  then open after you click on the print button. It will look like the below image. Just click the word Print to print the document.

Okay, here's the embedded PDF file. Go ahead and start your print job by clicking on the little white on black arrow in the corner of this image:




If you want the full-size flip chart as well, please send me your email address so I can send you an invite.