Caden sat looking out the window of his dad’s car. His dad glanced over at him with concern. “Are you okay, Caden?” he asked. “What are you thinking?”
“Well, my teacher said that if you have rain and sun, you might be able to see a rainbow, but I can’t see one!”
(sing)
I like to look for rainbows whenever there is rain
“Why don’t you roll down your window so you can get a better view?” replied his dad. Caden rolled down the window. He could smell the rain, and the smell of the earth in the rain.
And ponder on the beauty of an earth made clean again.
All of the sudden, Caden’s dad pulled the car over to the curb and stopped. Caden looked over surprised, hoping he hadn’t done anything wrong. “What are you doing, Dad?”
Caden’s dad got out of the car and came around to Caden’s door. “Let’s go up that hill to see if we can see a rainbow!” his dad exclaimed.
I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain.
Caden hopped out of the car, grabbed his dad’s hand, and they started climbing the hill together. Their feet swished through the wet grass. Then, at the top of the hill, there it was: a rainbow.
I want to be the best I can and live with God again.
Caden’s dad turned to him and smiled. Caden smiled back. It was kind of amazing to see the colors light up the sky in the rainbow.
Tell this story to the children, singing the lines of the song in-between each section of the story. This activity is not so much about memorizing the words of the song. It is more about deepening the children’s experience with the feeling of the song, and understanding the message of the song because of the feeling of the story.
Jennifer Stenquist
When using the sing a story would you only sing through it once that week or combine it with another activity to sing it more times? I love all your ideas and methods. Thank you so much for sharing them with us.
Sharla Dance
Dear Jennifer, I often will do a movement activity with the same song after the story song if I do the story at the beginning of singing time. If I do it at the end, it just leaves a sweet feeling in the room. Thanks for asking.
Sharla Dance
You can actually do either. If you use it as the last activity, you just sing it, give the children the experience of a story they can relate to, and move on. If you use it as the first activity, you can then give them a pattern to move to or some other activity. They key is coming back to the song each week in an interesting way. Thanks for asking.
Jodi Parrish
I love you Sharla Dance. 🙂
Reva C
I’ve tried to do a story song before and it didn’t go over well. The children stared at me in confusion. ;-)I think they were expecting to sing, and didn’t know what to do with the story song. Do you do the story just one time? Do you ask the children to sing with you? I’m sure what you do is very simple, but I’m just having a hard time picturing how it actually goes.
Michelle
Reva, I’ve done this activity of Sharla’s before, and I love it! I just told the kids I was going to sing them a story, and they could listen. I didn’t ask them to sing with me, and because I told them what to expect, they didn’t seem confused. My kids love stories, so they paid really great attention.
Lynn Hardy
Thanks for the great ideas.
Sharla Dance
Thank you for saying something!