Nephi’s Courage – Verse 1: Envelope game for Older Children

Copy the following words. Make enough copies so that every 3 to 4 children in your Older Primary have a set. Cut apart the words of each set and put them in an envelope…(thus the name envelope game). If you have 30 children, you should probably make 9 or 10 envelopes, each with a set of words.

Lord commanded Nephi

Go and get the plates

Wicked Laban

City Gates

Laman and Lemuel

Nephi was courageous

I Will Go

I Will Go

I Will Do

I Will Do

The things the Lord commands

The things the Lord commands

The Lord provides a way

The Lord provides a way

He wants me to obey

He wants me to obey

Tell the children to find two or three friends and get into groups of three or four people. Tell them their task is to put all of the words in the envelope into order before you sing the song through 5 times (or however many times you want to name). Give them a hint that it might be easier to put the words from the envelope in order on the floor. Also, alert them that not all of the words are in the envelope... only the major words. A hint for the adults: you might want to alert a teacher or presidency member and ask them to help the younger children or a specific group, giving a little adult help as you are engaged walking around singing the song and checking each group’s progress.

Sing the song through over and over again while the children put the words in order. When one group finishes first (always triumphantly because somehow they think they are competing <grin>), ask them to be your singers to help the rest of the groups hear the song again so that they can finish (turning the activity into a cooperative feel).

Bringing order to the words of the song visually like this also brings order to the words of the song in the brain. For the child that needs to see the words in order to learn, this is a fantastic activity that helps cement not only the order of the words in the song, but unconsciously helps them attach specific words to the melody and rhythm. It’s a win- win!

Extender activity: When the groups have finished putting the words in order, ask the children to only sing the phrases in front of them that have the word Lord or I as part of the phrase (there are some phrases that are not printed out with those words in them… ). Hum the other words. This is called audiation (hearing the song in your head), a really strong way to learn a song.