Who Is a Child of God?
Picture Concentration Game
Make two copies of each of the pictures below of children. (It would be fun to include a picture or two of the children in your Primary, too!) Post them at the front of the room with some kind of covering that the children can lift up and take off to reveal the picture.
Tell the children you are going to tap someone on the shoulder to come up and lift two of the covers trying to match two of these pictures. If they don’t match, they put the covers back on the picture, and I will tap someone else on the shoulder to come up to the front.
Start to sing the song “I Am a Child of God,” and tap a child on the shoulder. Continue to sing as the children take turns trying to match all the pictures.
Note: For younger children, I only use 4 or 5 of the pictures. For older, I use at least 7.
After all the pictures have been matched, ask the children: “Who is a child of God out of all these pictures?” Receive their answers. Ask: “How do we know they are children of God?” Receive their answers. Bear your testimony about being a child of God and what it means to you.
Sing the song all together.
Extender: As you sing the song, I recommend using hand signs as the leader while you sing. It is very visual and is a great way to add meaning because of the kinesthetic signs to the words in an unspoken way.
This activity allows the children to hear the song over and over again, yet gaining new understanding of the words by what they are seeing. It matches the gentle mood and testimony of the feeling of the song.
Holly Taylor
What do you mean,(in the extender) “hand signs”? Is this keeping time by leading as a music leader, or other kind of signs?
Hillary
The children will likely start singing along with me. Do I want them to do that or should I ask them at the beginning just to be listening to me since we should sing all together after the matches are made and we discuss being children of God? Also are you repeating the first verse or singing through all the verses?
Sharla Dance
I love it when the children sing along. Yes, that is great. I only emphasize one verse at a time and hardly ever combine verses into one activity. By giving each verse its own activity (or two or three activities), the brain does not have problems cataloging which words go where, or mixing up the verses! You can use any verse for this activity… They all work… just not all together .
Hillary
Thank you!
Renee Hart
Are you talking about solfege hand signs in the extender?
Sharla Dance
No, American sign language, which is a concrete way for the children to envision the words. Thanks for asking!
Jean Walker Faison
Thank you for your ideas, I am just called as Primary Music Leader, and am scrambling to find ideas.
Sharla Dance
Dear Jean, Are you close to any of the workshops I am presenting this year? I present over 20 different ideas for the year and the principles behind why they are good for the children’s brains. (Seattle, Bay Area CA, and Atlanta Georgia) If it’s too hard to attend, you can wait for the post about a video we are trying to make of the workshop.
Lynn
Hello Sharla. Thank you for the great ideas for I am a child of God. Ideally, should we teach all 8 different learning styles with each verse?
Sharla Dance
I only use two or three of the different learning styles for each verse. Thank you for being aware that need different learning styles!!!
Any
thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!
Francesca
Thank you for your bright ideas, Sharla, it helps so much. I will use it this week.