Teacher/Mother Do You Love Me

Mother’s Day

Last year we did two songs for the Mother’s Day sacrament meeting, and they turned out beautifully, so I thought I would share them with you. The first one we did was a modified version of “Teacher Do You Love Me”.  We changed the lines to “Mother Do You Love Me”.  I asked a mother and daughter to sing the main lines, and then I had the primary children join them in the chorus. I changed a few things, because I wanted the daughter to sing the questions and the mother to sing the answers each time before singing the chorus. I included a copy of how we adjusted the lines.

Preparation

• Print the visual aid pages and modified music pages.
• Print the small review flipchart onto white cardstock. Cut out the pages and stack them in the correct order. Punch a hole in the top middle of each page, and connect the pages together with a hinged metal ring or a string tied into a loop.

Presentation

I explained to the children that the song starts out with a child asking her mother if she will love her no matter what she does. After the mother answers, we start the chorus by singing to the mothers – “I need your love, I need your light”. (Post these song pages on the board.)

• What does I need your light mean? A light in the darkness can help someone safely find their way, like a lighthouse does for ships. A mother’s light is her righteous example to her children. She shows her children the right way to go by her example and teachings.

The next part says that a mother’s righteous example and teachings will show her children how to be like Jesus. Jesus is who we are supposed to strive to be like.  (Post the song page “to show me how to be like Jesus” on the board.)

The next line is “The Savior’s love will light the path.” (Post this song page on the board.) The Savior loves us and has shown us the way to go by his example and teachings. If we follow the Savior’s example we will be led safely back to our home with our Heavenly Father. (Post the song page “to lead me safely home” on the board.)

(Have senior Primary sing the entire chorus at this point.) (Have junior Primary go over the words again, and then have them sing half of the chorus at a time.)

I tested the children to see how well they were paying attention. I took down the visual aid pages and asked the following questions:

• What are the two things the song says we need from our mothers? (love and light)
• Which comes first in the song? (love)
• What will our mother’s love and light show us? ( How to be like Jesus)
• The saviors what, will light what? (love, the path)
• And lead me where? (safely home)  Point out that the song doesn’t just say “will lead me home”, it says “safely home”. There are many spiritual dangers that can prevent us from returning home to our Heavenly Father, but if we listen to our mothers and try to be like Jesus we will return safely home to our Father in Heaven.

Have the children sing the chorus again. Go over any areas they have difficulty with, and then have them sing the chorus once more. (If needed put the song pictures on the board once again, and have the children choose two at a time to take down after each time they sing the song.)

• After the children learned the chorus, we practiced the song with the mother and daughter so the Primary children would know when they were supposed to come in. Before starting I explained that they would sing the chorus two times, each time after the mother sings. I also explained that the second time they sing the chorus, the words in the last line change slightly. Instead of singing the word me, the word becomes us. The notes of certain words are also held longer and are more drawn out at the end. (You may wish to show them how this sounds.)

Review

I used the small flipchart to review the song the following week. The red pages had the first half of the words to each line on them. The children had to tell me what the remaining words were to each line. I flipped the page for them to check and see if they were right.

The second song we learned was the last verse of “Teach Me to Walk in the Light”.