I Am a Child of God: Color Code for Older Children, 3rd Verse

Color Code, 3rd Verse

Show the chart and ask the children, “Can you crack this code?”

First question:  “What do you see?  What do you notice? Receive the children’s answers.

Then ask: What does this song have to do with this code?”   Sing the song (verse only).  (You might want to emphasize the words you have represented with a color as you sing.)

Ask:  “What does the color purple stand for?  What does the color orange stand for?”

Receive their answers.  Tell them you will sing the song again to give them some more hints.  Sing the verse.

Ask:  “What does the color red stand for?  What does the color blue stand for? What does the color green stand for?”

Receive their answers.  Sing the verse again.

If the children are struggling and don’t have a clue, sing the song a little more slowly and point to each color as you sing, emphasizing certain words from the chart.

 

Extender:  Once the children have figured out the code, ask the children to sing ONLY the words represented with the color yellow.  (It is a great challenge!)

Or

Ask the children to sing only the words represented by the red, blue, and purple.  Don’t sing any of the other words/colors out loud.

 

Here’s how to make the chart:  Find the first letter of each word.  Find at least two letters that are the same.  Assign a color to that letter.  I found I, A, B, and H all had multiple words that started with those letters.  I assigned the color red to the letter I, the color purple to the letter A, the color orange to the letter B, the color green to the letter L, and the color blue to the letter H.  Because God, His, and Him all refer to our Heavenly Father, I put a gold ring around them.  All the other letters (blanks below) are the color yellow.

I   A   A   ____  ____    God

___   B   A  I    ___

I   I   B   L   ___   ___   H   ____

I   L   ___   H   ____   ___

 

When you do that in colors, it will be like this:

Red  purple  purple  yellow  yellow  yellow with gold ring

etc.

18 Responses

  1. Amy Neal

    I’m so glad you’re still actively blogging! I just got called back to primary music after a long two year break!

  2. Heather

    This is such a fun idea! I am a brand new music leader…you website is heaven sent. Thank you for sharing.

  3. Rebecca

    I did this last year but as an added challenge I took off all the circles for the last phrase and just left ___ __ __ . Then I passed out little baggies with different colored circles and asked them to complete the code for the last phrase. they really loved it!

  4. Annie Hatala

    My older kiddos LOVE it when we do Crack the Code; thanks for sharing this variation!
    On another note, my Primary President has asked me to teach the children the Articles of Faith songs, one each month. These songs make me want to stick a fork in my eye! Do you have any suggestions for teaching songs that are so tricky? I have done Beat vs. Rhythm which seems to lend itself to this kind of song, but I’m feeling at a loss.

    • Kristina Chamberlain

      I’d love some ideas for the AoF songs as well. The middle ones, 4 through 9, are awesome, and I’m excited to teach them in a few months. I probably like them because those are the ones I learned when I was in Primary myself (or maybe that’s why my original music leaders taught them, because they are awesome)! But I can’t handle the first three songs and the last four songs.

      So here’s what I’m thinking: I’m hoping to just use claps and rhythms to learn the first three verses, using very little music, if any. I don’t know what I’ll do for the last four, but I figure that by then, it will be Primary Program Review Time, then Breathe After the Program Time, then Christmas Time, so we my be less interested in learning those verses anyway! Besides which, I don’t know if there is any way to teach a couple of them, particularly 10 and 13, in a way that the Sunbeams will really get them. So I may just teach them to the older kids, and probably just go back to rhythms and claps rather than the songs.

      Just thought I’d throw in my two cents, hope it’s worth that much!

      • Melissa West

        We have used simple sign language to teach the Articles of Faith songs. The leaders before me were really diligent in teaching the songs at the end of prelude right before Primary starts, and the kids have them almost all memorized. They did one article per month. So there was enough motion to engage the little ones and the repetition, motion, and music together has really helped in learning the songs.

  5. rachelle

    Im going to try this on Sunday. you could do this as well to learn the 4th verse too right?? like teach them the 3rd and then flip the poster over and have the color code set up for the 4th verse. It wouldnt be as hard because they would understand the concept but they would still need to figure it out and then you could sing it using the extender activities? or do you think that would not really work? thanks

    • Kristina Chamberlain

      Hi Rachelle! I can’t speak for Sharla, but I believe she usually says that we should use a different activity for different verses, at least as first. This helps to keep the verses from getting mixed up in the mind! I usually don’t move on to a new verse until the current one is pretty well learned.

  6. Sherri

    I am not understanding how this works, so you make these different colors and they are guessing the words to the verse?

    • Sharla Dance

      The children are trying to discover the pattern to the code (one of the developmental tasks of this age). So you are singing the song and perhaps giving emphasis to all the words that start with one particular letter, maybe even pointing to them as you emphasis the word as you sing. The focus is trying to figure out the code as they listen to you sing, not really to guess the words to the verse. You will be singing the song about two to three (or four) times as they discover the different parts of the color code. Because they are engaged in working out the puzzle and because they are hearing the song several times, the words and the melody to the song are going in the back door of the children’s brains without them even knowing. Thanks for asking!

  7. Annie

    So, if I were to do this with AofF#4, could I do…..a color for numbers, a color for the principles, and a color for the ordinances?

    1 color – first, first, second, third, fourth
    2nd color – principles, faith in the lord jesus christ, repentance
    3rd color – ordinances, baptism by immersion, laying on of hands
    4th color for everything else
    maybe a special one for Jesus Christ too?

    Anything you’d do differently?

    I might even do “We believe” in it’s own color because we’ve been highlighting that in blue highlighter tape on our AofF posters each week. I always say, “What do you believe?” And then they recite back that month’s AofF while referencing the poster.

    • Sharla Dance

      I like the blue for I believe. Be ready to give them lots of hints (emphasizing words as you point to a color, stopping on a word as you point then moving on, etc.). Let me know how this goes!

  8. Annie

    AofF #4 went great! This is how I did it:

    Colors:
    Dark Blue (B): We Believe
    Green (G): Numbers
    Red (R): Principles
    Yellow(Y): Ordinances
    Light Blue(b): all the other words

    I made the rows so that the green numbers were emphasized at the beginning of each row as a hint.

    We believe that the first principles and ordinances (B,B,b,b,G,R,b,Y)
    of the gospel are (b,b,b,b)
    first faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (G,R,R,R,R,R,R)
    second repentance (G,R)
    third baptism by immersion for the remission of sins (G,Y,Y,Y,b,b,b,b,b)
    fourth laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost (G,Y,Y,Y,Y,b,b,b,b,b,b,b)

    They first listened to the AofF and noticed the patterns while wondering what they have to do with that AofF.
    One child pointed out that there were 4 green circles in a vertical row. I had them listen again to figure out what the green represented while pointing through the first line, emphasizing We Believe and first, and the other first right before faith. They caught on quickly to the numbers. Then I challenged them to crack the red. Some thought they might know already, so I told them to think about the yellow while the others were thinking about the red and I emphasized principles and faith. They caught on quickly and finished the rest. Next week I’ll bring it out again, see if they notice anything different and have Lord,Jesus,Christ each circled in gold, and gift, Holy, Ghost each circled in gold and have them figure out the special words.

    All of their teachers had subs this Sunday because we were holding a teacher council meeting just for primary teachers. Next week when the teachers return we may do a shortened review and challenge the teachers to see if they can figure it out while checking the children to see if they remember. When the teachers are listening, I’ll probably have the children saying certain colors while I say other colors and switch that up a couple times if needed. The children can also be figuring out the special words while we do this.

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