There are 32 puzzle pieces put up around the room and 8 pieces of paper up at the front. I tell the children that there are lots of puzzle pieces around the room. I will tap a person on the shoulder to go pick one of the puzzle pieces and put it up on one of the pages up front. The goal is to put together all of the 8 puzzles. (Each of the puzzles are only 3 or 4 pieces each.)
I start to sing the song and tap a couple of children on the shoulder. They choose a puzzle piece and put it up in the front. More and more pieces come up to the front with different children as I tap their shoulders, and eventually those coming up have to figure out which puzzle piece goes to which puzzle, and how they fit together. (This activity can also be done with younger children, except with about 3 puzzles.)
I am singing the song the entire time the children are putting the puzzles together. I carefully chose the pictures to be images that support and encourage the message of the song. (For this song, I chose pictures of Jesus Christ, children with Jesus, and pictures of children reading the scriptures.
Because the children are concentrating on the puzzles and the images of the puzzles, those images are linked in their heads with the song. They don’t seem to notice the song going on around them, but their subconscious brain does notice. In fact, I have had children be able to sing the song at the end of the puzzle activity even though we did not concentrate on the song. (It depends on how that particular child learns best… another reason to present the song in multiple ways!)
Laura Bickmore
So many wonderful ideas! Now to choose which ones for which verses/months…! Thank you so much for sharing your talent and ideas. I’ve been using your methods off and on this past year and your posts really help me to plan and keep remembering to teach in different ways.
Kristina Chamberlain
I’d love to do this idea! Do you just buy the pictures from LDS Distribution, or use magazines, or what? Do you laminate them? What do you use to stick them up on the wall (we can’t use tape on our blackboard)? Do you reuse these same pictures later on for a different song, or make new pictures if you want to do this activity again?
Sharla Dance
Dear Kirstina,
I ran off my pictures from the lds website under images. I also googled “children reading the scriptures” and found some beautiful pictures. I run them off on glossy picture paper so I don’t have to laminate them (being careful to use masking tape.)
If you don’t have a whiteboard or a wall that you can use at the front for the pictures, you can use magnets on the blackboard. I have a stack of them that I bring and hand them to the child as they come up while I’m still singing. Great questions!
I keep the pictures in a folder labeled Children Reading the Scriptures or Jesus Christ with Children, and yes, I often use them for other songs later on in the year.
Kristina
Thank you for your quick reply! And thank you so much for your wonderful ideas, you are such a blessing to thousands of music leaders and children in the church!
Debie Miller
What size do you print them off as? Are they 8 by 10 or how do you do this?
Sharla Dance
I print off 8 x 11 pictures so that all the puzzle pieces are the same size, just the images are different.
Pamela Friske
Thank you for this terrific idea and for asking answering the exact questions I had.