Songs For Baptism Questions

Have the Bishop come in and discuss the baptism questions with the kids. Talk about preparing to get baptized.

Make a life-sized cutout of the Bishop. Cut slits where the pockets are. Have little slips of paper sticking out of the slits. Invite children to pick a piece of paper. Each paper has a question and a song.

Questions + Songs:
1. Do you believe in Heavenly Father? (I am a Child of God pg.2 & My Heavenly Father Loves Me pg.228)
2. Why do you pray? (For Health and Strength pg.21)
3. Who is Jesus Christ? (If the Savior Stood Beside Me - in the Friend)
4. What is a covenant? (The Church of Jesus Christ pg. 77) - talk about what a covenant is and that we make them as members of the church
5.What does it mean to be baptized? (When I am Baptized pg. 103)
6. Who was Joseph Smith? (The Golden Plates pg. 86)
7. Who is the prophet today? (We Thank Thee Oh God For a Prophet pg.19)
8. What is a commandment? (Choose the Right pg.239)
9. What is the Holy Ghost? (The Holy Ghost pg.105)
10. What is the Sacrament? (Before I Take the Sacrament pg. 73)
11. Do you read the scriptures? (Book of Mormon Stories pg. 118)

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*Idea from Nan Egbert on the LDS Choristers Facebook Group

Rainbow Equation For Eternal Life

First, ask the kids if they know how a rainbow is made. (When I asked my Primary, JR didn't have a clue. They had some funny answers, but didn't really know. SR got really close to knowing. They had some trouble defining reflection/refraction, but we worked it out.)

Second, tell them there's an equation to make a rainbow. Put up the blue signs (well, mine are blue, yours can be whatever you want) and say "You need sun... plus rain.... to make a rainbow!" (I taped them to the chalkboard and drew a plus sign after "sun" and an equal sign after "rain"). Go however in-depth you feel appropriate on how refraction works and whatnot. It's not a science lesson, so I gave it a proper skim-over.

Then tell the kids (I'm paraphrasing what I said)...

"Aren't rainbows beautiful? I sure think so! Did you know that you can have something very beautiful -even more beautiful than a rainbow?! Yes, you can! Here, let me show you. To get something even more beautiful than a rainbow you need sun.... OH! but not this kind of sun! Nope. You need THIS kind of Son! (flip over sun/Son). Who knows who this is? Yes, that's right! It's Jesus! He is Heavenly Father's Son!  And let's see.... you also need water. But not rain! Nope. (flip over rain/baptism). You need the waters of Baptism to have something very beautiful.  And when you have these things you will get something very beautiful... (flip over last one)... Yes! You can have eternal life! Eternal life and the chance to live with Heavenly Father again is a very beautiful gift that we are given. We can be baptized and we can keep Heavenly Father's commandments so that we can live with him again."

I then read this quote from Sister Elaine Dalton's (YW General President) talk, "Now is the time to Arise Forth and Shine", April 2012 General Conference. I told the children who she was and then I read --->

"Several weeks ago I stood in the celestial room of the Reno Nevada Temple. The light streaming into that room was brilliant and was made even more so by the crystal chandelier, which reflected the light on its many carved facets into rainbows of illumination everywhere. It took my breath away as I realized that the Savior is “the light and the life of the world,” that it is His light we must hold up and reflect. We are the tiny crystals that reflect His light, and in order to do that, we must be clean and free from the dust of the world."

Lastly, I segued into our activity (which was magic color cups) with something like "now will you help me make the colors of the rainbow with the magic color cups I brought today? The cups will change colors and tell us what songs to sing.... and that led right into our Rainbow Review.)

*I combined ideas from the LDS Choristers Facebook Group (thanks Cheri W and Jessica S).


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UPDATE:

• I could see the enlightenment on their faces. Great lesson.

2013 Rainbow Review

The June 2013 song of the month is When I Am Baptized (CS 103).  Since they learned the song last year and basically already know it our Second Sunday in June will be a review of the 2013 Primary Songs. A Rainbow Review!  I am going to use the magic color cups to help determine which song to sing. My rainbow-zed list of 2013 songs we've learned so far goes like this:

When I Am Baptized 103
I Am a Child of God 2
Pray in Faith 14
My Heavenly Father Loves Me 228
If The Savior Stood Beside Me (sheet)
Holding Hands Around the World (sheet)
Teach Me to Walk in the Light  CS177 or Hymn 304

I'm excited - I've read great things about the magic cups and I can't wait to do them in our Primary! :D

When I Am Baptized - "Clean Again" Lesson

*I pulled out the Child of God Puzzle Posters I made at the beginning of the year for I Am a Child of God (the song is the 2013 theme). I "faux laminated" them and the tape is 'slick' on the front. Beforehand I tested out really waxy crayons to make sure they'd wipe off (they did, whew).*



Here's how the lesson goes:

After teaching When I Am Baptized pull out the laminated paper child. Tell the children that in the song it says that "we can be forgiven" and "our wrongs can be washed away". Tell the children that your "friend" is a good kid, but sometimes even good kids make mistakes. Tell them that he/she said a bad word / didn't share / didn't listen to their parents / etcetera. Each time you say something scribble on the child with the crayon. Then, explain that through baptism we can be forgiven and "our wrongs can be washed away - just like it says in the song!". Get your eraser (or paper towel, in my case) and tell the kids that your "friend" said sorry and asked forgiveness of Heavenly Father and the person they had wronged - each time, erase the crayon mark until the child is clean again. Read Mosiah 22:26 to the kids;

"For behold, this is my church; whosoever is baptized shall be baptized unto repentance. And whomsoever ye receive shall believe in my name; and him will I freely forgive."

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UPDATE:

• In both JR and SR Primary the room got so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Great lesson.

Rainbow Lyrics for When I Am Baptized

I am going to make a visual aide where each "bow" of the rainbow has lyrics on it. I will hide "bows" around the room. The children will find them and then we'll assemble the whole rainbow on the board. Then we'll do a lyric take-away to sing the song over and over again. I'll post a picture when I'm done making my rainbow. I rainbow-color-coded the lyrics like this:

I like to look for rainbows whenever there is rain

And ponder on the beauty of an earth made clean again.

I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain.

I want to be the best I can and live with God again.

I know when I am baptized my wrongs are washed away,

And I can be forgiven and improve myself each day.

I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain.

I want to be the best I can and live with God again.

*Here's how mine turned out. I just did pix and keywords:

Sign Language Inspired Actions for When I Am Baptized

---> POSTSCRIPT <----
After doing all that work (below) I found THIS YouTube video of When I Am Baptized done beautifully in ASL. My work and research is still below, but the video is very nice (and would have been nice to find earlier...)
--------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- *I put together some simple signs for this When I Am Baptized. One ASL class in High School is what I'm going off of, so... feedback from someone who does know ASL would be appreciated. Hopefully there are no inappropriate signs. ;) I'm kidding, there's not.

*Also, here's where I talk about the sign for Heavenly Father (at the bottom of the post).

MODERATE SIGN:

I like to look for rainbows LOOK RAINBOW

whenever there is rain RAIN

And ponder on the beauty PONDER BEAUTY

of an earth made clean again. EARTH CLEAN AGAIN

I want my life flat hand on heart

to be as clean CLEAN

as earth right after rain. EARTH RAIN

I want to be the best I can flat hand on heart thumbs up

and live with God again. LIVE H.F AGAIN

I know when I am baptized KNOW point to self BAPTIZE

my wrongs are washed away MY WRONG WASHED

And I can be forgiven point to self FORGIVE

and improve myself each day. IMPROVE

I want my life flat hand on heart

to be as clean CLEAN

as earth right after rain. EARTH RAIN

I want to be the best I can flat hand on heart thumbs up

and live with God again. LIVE H.F AGAIN

SIMPLIFIED SIGN:

I like to look for rainbows RAINBOWS

whenever there is rain RAIN

And ponder on the beauty PONDER

of an earth made clean again. CLEAN

I want my life flat hand on heart

to be as clean CLEAN

as earth right after rain. RAIN

I want to be the best I can thumbs up

and live with God again. point up toward Heaven

I know when I am baptized BAPTIZE

my wrongs are washed away WASHED (palms up, flip over as if letting go or dropping something)

And I can be forgiven FORGIVEN

and improve myself each day. IMPROVE

I want my life flat hand on heart

to be as clean CLEAN

as earth right after rain. RAIN

I want to be the best I can thumbs up

and live with God again. point up toward Heaven

Lyric Color Erase

image source

For kids who can read, (or mostly SR Primary in my case) -

1. Write the lyrics on a whiteboard in different colors (or chalkboard with colored chalk)
2. After signing the song through, have a child roll a die.
3. Number on the dice = color to erase. (or, instead of a # die, use a colorful-sided die)
4. Erase all the lyrics that color.
5. Repeat. 

*To make this work in JR Primary, do with pictures. Perhaps glue them on colored paper so they have a colored border.

**** INSTEAD OF DICE, YOU COULD USE MAGIC COLOR CUPS to determine the color that needs to be erased.

Rainbow Wands

image source

Attach colored ribbon in the rainbow colors to the end of a dowel or stick.

Use them to lead the music, bounce them to the beat or the rhythm, paint the sky to the melody. Have lots of fun with them!

Rainbow Singing Meter

image source

1. Get a long piece of butcher paper.
2. Adhere long strips of colored paper in rainbow order (They Might Be Giants Roy G Biv video helps me remember rainbow color order).
3. Roll up the paper (with the rainbow on the inside).
4. Enlist Teachers to help you unroll the rainbow as the kids sing.---> The better they sing, the longer the rainbow will be!

*You could make a horizontal graph (7H x 10W) and color it in line-by-line (in rainbow order) according to how well they sing.

*If you were teaching this song in March it would be cute to have a pot of gold as the very last thing that unrolls. Be sure the kids don't see it until the very last time you sing it through. Even better, if it had chocolate coins on it - one for each child to take home.

Glow Batons

image source

Buy a bunch of glow sticks at the Dollar Store. Use them to lead the music - even lead in the dark! You can also use them to drum the beat or rhythm. Each child can then take their glow stick and practice leading the music at home.

*My kids enjoyed the Glow Batons. When I did this my JR Primary got a little crazy (but we kept them mostly under control - I mean who can blame them, by that time they'd been sitting for 2 hours) - my SR Primary was well behaved after I'd warned them they would be taken away if the batons turned into light sabers. Only use them at them end of class when you don't need to round up reverence again, because there's a chance they may lose it and go a little bonkers on ya.

Magic Color Cups

I found the idea here, on Primary Singing Ideas.

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HOW TO DO IT:

1) Fill clear containers (ie: plastic drinking cups) with 3/4 cup water and 1/3 cup vinegar. (the ratio can be varied, but more vinegar= more fizz). PLACE CONTAINERS on a BAKING SHEET. This WILL MAKE A MESS!!!!

2) Place one small drop of food coloring on a metal spoon (don't use clear spoons, since you can see the color on the other side), then place a heaping teaspoon of baking soda on top, or enough to make sure the food coloring is covered.


3) Have a child come up and pick a spoon to stir in a cup of "water".

It will fizz like crazy and remain clear while fizzing, so make sure they keep stirring.

Once the fizz has settled down, the color will show up.

I will be using 6 different colors. red, green, yellow, blue, orange (one drop yellow and one drop red), and purple (one drop red and one drop blue)


(Notice the water on the bottom of the baking sheet? It WILL bubble over and make a mess. Paper towels would be a good idea to bring...)


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WAYS TO USE THIS IDEA:

---AS A REVIEW: Color of the water = a color on the board that represents the song we are to sing.
---LEARNING LYRICS: Color of the water is the color of words written on a white board or chalk board. Erase the words written in that color.
---Would be fun with the song When I Am Baptized (...I like to look for rainbows...)

Rainbow To Go Handout

To make this cute handout go HERE.