I Will Follow God’s Plan
Week 1: Teach 1st half of song
1. Movement activity (3 min)
2. Teach: 1st half of song, from the beginning until “And seek for God’s light to direct me from birth.” (10-14 min)
Share Abraham 3:22-25 with the children (you may need to read/summarize for Jr.). Help them understand what the verses mean. Tell them we are going to learn a new song called “I will Follow God’s Plan”. The first part of this song goes along with these verses in Abraham.
I’m going to sing a few lines and I want you to listen for how many times I sing “life”. Sing and get answers (3).
When we lived with Heavenly Father and Jesus in our premortal life, where we excited to come down to earth? Yes we were! So, everytime we sing the word “life” let’s clap. Sing again and clap on “life”.
Now, listen for how many times I sing “my”. Sing again (continue to clap on “life”). Get answers (4).
The scriptures teach us that Heavenly Father has a plan for us. Do you know what this plan is called? (plan of salvation, plan of happiness, etc).
I’ll sing the first part again – sing any of the words you know—this time listen for the word that rhymes with “plan”. Sing again and get answers (began). So, in the song we learn that our life has a purpose and it all “began” in heav’n—just like the scripture we read in Abraham says.
Can you remember in the song what it says your choice was? (Sing if necessary to get the answer – “to come to earth”). Now listen for the word that rhymes with “earth”. Sing again and get answer (birth).
So, what did we choose? (To come to earth and follow God’s light or commandments). That’s exactly what the scripture in Abraham taught us too!
Now, that you know this first part of the song pretty well I’m going to challenge you. I will sing all the words except the rhyming words. When I point to you to get to sing the rhyming word. Sing again, slowing down at the rhyming word and letting the children sing those words. (If you can, sing without the piano. You can control the tempo more and it’s more of a challenge for the children to remember the words without the melody leading them into it).
Now here’s an extra hard challenge. I want you to sing “my life” and all the rhyming words! How many times you do sing “my life” (3). Ok, let’s try it again.
I bet you could sing all the words now! Let’s try! Sing the whole first part together.
3. Other Activity (3-7 min)
Week 2: Review 1st part of song, Valentine’s Day activity (or other activity)
1. Start with movement activity(You may not need or want this part depending on your ending activity. But, remember that you can never go wrong in Jr with a little movement at the beginning!)
2. Review 1st part of song(4 min)
Do you remember the name of the song we started learning last week? Let’s try singing it and see how much you remember. I will sing all of the words except the rhyming words. You get to sing the rhyming words. Sing 1st half, pointing to the children when they are to sing the rhyming words (plan, began; earth, birth.)
Excellent, now let’s see if you can sing all the words and I’ll sing the rhyming words! Sing again (help the kids as needed. At the very least mouth the words clearly for them).
Can you tell me the 3 things it says about “my life”? (is a gift, has a plan, has a purpose). Why does it say your life is a gift? How do you know your life has a plan? Let’s sing the first part one more time and see if you can figure out what our life’s purpose is. Sing and get answers (to come to this lovely home on earth and seek for God’s light to direct me from birth).
3. MOVE ON to Valentine’s Activity (or other activity)
Week 3: Review 1st half of song, teach 2nd half
1. Movement activity (4 min)
2. Review 1st half of song (2 minutes)
Let’s quickly review the first half of our new song. If you know all the words I want you to look up at the ceiling while you are singing it. Sing.
Now let’s sing it one more time, but this time don’t sing the words “my” and “life”. Sing and praise the kids!
3. Teach 2nd half of song. (9-11 min)
The first half of the song talks about how we chose to come to earth and follow God’s light (or plan) that He has for us. The 2nd half of the song will teach us HOW to follow God’s plan and what happens when we do.
I’m going to sing the 2nd half and I want you to listen for the word “will”. Remember, the 2nd half teaches all the things we “will” do. Sing and get answers (5).
What word came before the word “will”? (I). I’m going to sing it again and I want you to stand up the first time I sing “I will”, then sit down the next time I sing “I will”, then stand up the next time, etc. Sing.
Listen this time for what we need to hold fast to. Sing again and get answers (word and his love). What is his “word”? (scriptures, prophets). What does it mean to hold to “his love”? How do you know God loves you?
Let’s sing it again and this you time you sing all the “I wills”. Listen for the 3 things it says we will do after we hold to his word and his love. Sing and get answers (work, pray, walk in his way). (Sing without the piano or just with the piano playing the melody so you can slow down on the parts the kids sing).
Let’s see if you can tell me all the things that the songs says we will do. (I will follow God’s plan, will work, will pray, will always walk in his way). Great! Now, the end of the song tells us what will happen if we do all those things? Do you remember what the song says? Listen for the answer. Sing just the ending “then I will be happy on earth and in my home above.” If you keep the commandments will you be happy on earth? Why? Does that mean you won’t have anything bad happen to you? What is your home above?
Share Mosiah 2:41. Explain and share brief testimony of following God & Jesus.
4. Other Activity (2-4 min)
Hum the melody of “He Sent His Son”.
Or, if you have enough time, divide the group into two. Have one half SING the questions and the other half HUM the answer (hum the melody line). Then, switch and have the 1st group HUM the questions and the 2nd group SING the answers.
Week 4: Review entire song
This is a fun review (and learning) activity for any song that has many repeating words. In “I Will Follow God’s Plan” the following words are repeated:
My – 5 (4 at the beginning and one time at the very end)
Life – 3
Will – 5
Home – 2
Earth – 2
I – 5
For this activity you will need to prepare ahead of time 6 strips of paper (all the same color) with the repeating words listed above. One word per strip of paper. On another six strips of paper (all the same color, but different from the repeated wordstrips color) write actions. The actions can be whatever you’d like. Some suggestions: clap, turn around, tap your head, jump, slap your thighs, raise arms quickly up & down, etc.
You will have two children come up to the front and one child will pick a strip from the first pile and the second child will pick one from the other pile. (Piles should be face down so they can’t see the words or actions.) Post the wordstrips on the board next to each other. Let’s says the strips say “life” and “jump”. Now, you sing through the song and everytime you sing the word “life” everyone has to “jump”!
Now, find two more super singers, have them pick two more strips. Then add that to the original ones. So, if they picked “I” and “clap”. You would sing again and jump everytime you sang “life” and ALSO you would clap every time you sang “I”.
Keep adding words and actions until they have all been picked! By the end everyone will be laughing and giggling and will know the words!
Some variations:
At the end, have the teachers come up front and do all the actions will you.
Have a dance off! Split the room into two and have one group sing and do the actions, then let the other side sing and do the actions. Let a Presidency member choose who did it best. They could score on singing, actions, no giggles, best smiles, etc. Make it fun and silly!
A real challenge (maybe just for Sr) would be to sing again and do the actions, but DO NOT sing any words you have actions for. So, don’t sing “my, life, will, home, earth, I”, BUT do the actions! Fun and hard!
Instead of strips of paper, you could use petals around a flower (one petal color for words and another petal color for actions), flower stems and flower tops, etc.
Other tips for teaching this song:
1. This is an ideal song to use sign language for. When teaching sign language to the children you only need to pick one or two words to sign per phrase. The following are the words I would choose: life, gift; life, plan; life, purpose; heav’n; choice, home, earth; seek, light, direct (use sign for lead). I, follow, plan, me; holding, word, love; I, work; I, pray; I, walk, way; I, happy, earth, home, above (can use sign for heav’n again).
When teaching a song using signs you can still use the same technique listed above. Just adjust the questions. So, you might ask, I’m going to sing and sign the first half of the song. I want you to watch for what sign goes with the word “life”. Get their answers, make sure they are signing it correctly. Now, listen and see if you can figure out which sign goes with “home”. Get answers, explain “home” sign – hand at your mouth (home is where you eat) and hand at your cheek (home is where you sleep). Now, show them the sign for “direct” (or lead) but don’t tell them what word it goes with. Sing again and have them watch for what word that sign goes with.
2. This is also an easy song to add actions, especially for Junior. They will retain a song much better if their learning method involves movement! Plus, because you will be singing this song all year, if you use movements you ALWAYS have something to do when you sing this song with Jr. You can use the same method listed in the weekly ideas to teach the song. But, just add a few simple motions while you sing it. They will automatically pick up on the motions. When I do this I tend to use some sign language signs and some made up motions. For this song I would probably use the following signs and motions:
Life – sign
Home- (draw house with hands or fingers)
Earth (ball shape with hands)
Seek – sign
Light – either sign or made up motion
EITHER Direct – use sign for guide; OR Birth – use motion of a holding a baby
I – point to self
Follow – sign or motion
Plan – sign
Me – point to self
Holding – sign or motion
Word – sign or motion of holding a book (like reading scriptures)
Love- sign or give yourself a hug
I – point to self
Work – sign or let the kids make up a motion
I – point to self
Pray – sign or let the kids make up a motion
I – point to self
Walk – sign or let kids make up motion or march in place
I – point to self
Happy – sign or point to smile on your face
Earth – sign or hands in shape of a ball
Home- shape of a house
Above – sign for heaven or with palms facing up, raise hands slowly towards the ceiling.
3. If you want to try something totally different, just do a general introduction of the song on the first week. Cover the whole song – maybe count “life” and “my”, stand up on “I”, etc. Talk about the principles in the song, etc. You’ll probably take 10-13 minutes doing this. Then MOVE ON! Now, each week following this you start your singing time by singing this song. You can add movements to it or have them do something on different words, etc. Just sing it one time each week. You’ll need to do this for a few months, but they will learn the song! This is a fairly simple song for the children to learn and you don’t need to spend a whole month on it if you don’t want too. You can use the time to teach another song or get ahead on the summer songs (when everyone is on summer vacation and it feels like you are teaching songs to only half of your Primary!).
General Tips for the Month:
You will probably need to sing the song “He Sent His Son” 3-4 times this month. If you sing it once on 3 of the 4 Sundays you’ll be good. Then, in March and the following months, just remember to sing it 2 times each month. The children remember and retain the songs through repetition. If you teach the song in January and then don’t sing it again until June, they will probably have lost most of the song, especially Junior.
Some ideas for singing “He Sent His Son”:
1. Use the hum/sing idea from week 3 above.
2. Teach the children how to conduct the song – regular beat conducting and also pitch leading. After they’ve worked on leading for a few weeks then let a child come up and lead the group.
3. Use a stop/go sign.
4. Use the slinky.
5. Continue to use dynamics (doing dynamics with your whole body is a great movement activity for the kids, but because it’s a nice, gentle song it will help calm them after doing some more active movement songs.)
6. Use your hand to accomplish the same thing as the stop/go sign. Hold one hand up in front of the kids. When your hand is open they sing the words. When it’s closed, then they sing in their heads, but not out loud. This is great for teaching them to watch you.
7. Sing the song and work on cutting off together, at the end of the song and also after the word “breath”.
Any of these ideas would work when singing “He Sent His Son” as your opening song or reverence song. Remember, the key to getting and keeping the children singing with you is VARIETY!!!! Sing it lots of different ways so they don’t become bored.