The Church of Jesus Christ

The outline actually has some tips for this month's song, The Church of Jesus Christ. I used one of them for Junior Primary. Maybe because it was my favorite and one of the simpler ones, it seems like all the kids know it already. So I thought I was getting a little more advanced than I usually do with the 3-7 year olds, but I severely underestimated them. I asked a question and sang the next line of the song, which answers it.

What do I belong to? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

What do I know? Who I am, and God's plan.

How will I follow Him? In faith.

Who do I believe in? The Savior, Jesus Christ.

What will I honor? His name.

What will I do? What is right. 

What will I follow? His light.

What will I proclaim? His truth. (Follow up: what do you think it means to proclaim something?)

I figured they might be antsy and would need to get some wiggles out, so I used the choir signal for standing and sitting during certain points of the song.  I may use this as a review, too.  The mood indicator in the songbook states this song is meant to be sung with conviction, and I think this helped the Junior Primary sing it that way.  It was less successful in getting the Senior Primary to sing it that way, but they followed the signals much better.  I may try it with other songs in the future..

I belong ⬆️ to The Church of Jesus Christ ⬇️ of Latter-day Saints.  I know ⬆️ who I am. I know God’s plan.  ⬇️ I’ll follow him in faith.  I believe ⬆️ in the Savior, Jesus Christ.  I’ll honor his name.  ⬇️ I’ll do what is right; ⬆️ I’ll follow his light. ⬇️ His truth I will proclaim. ⬆️

http://www.lds.org/manual/childrens-songbook-of-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints/the-church-of-jesus-christ?lang=eng

Then we sang Book of Mormon Stories enough times for all the kids to come be examples and help me re-learn the actions.  And because Sister W. said she could sing it all day.

For Senior Primary, I did another Q&A lesson, but challenged them a little bit.  I asked them to share something we believe in as members of the Church of Jesus Christ.  I forgot to write them on the board as we did it.  But I asked them to think of a song that talks about that belief.  Since the couple teaching Sharing Time had just helped them memorize part of the First Vision, the first answer and song was Joseph Smith as a prophet and Praise to the Man.  Which was great because it hopefully gets them wanting  to sing more in sacrament meetings.  Can never have too many voices there..

Since the kids already know this one so well, I'll either (learn and then) teach them the ASL version or teach them the 2nd and 3rd verses of On a Golden Springtime. They don't know that one, it's the pianists favorite, and the manual mentions using it during a Sharing Time lesson. I'm thinking it might be a good idea since she'll be gone the next couple of weeks, and it would totally give her warm fuzzies to hear Junior and Senior Primary sing that as a special surprise!  I'll bring my iPad and  just play it from LDS Music if Sister E. can't play for us.