Category Archives: Gratitude Songs

Oct 29 2016

My Heavenly Father Loves Me: Song

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My Heavenly Father Loves Me

(Children’s Songbook, pg. 228 )

Preparation

  • Items needed: a half sheet of poster board, glue, scissors, drawing compass or ruler, and one brad.
  • Print the visual aid items and assemble the activity using the following steps:
  1. Cut out the earth pieces, and place the two pieces together, with the middle edges overlapping until the scenes on both side match in the middle. Glue the pieces together.
  2. Place the earth on the half sheet of poster board and trace around the outside edge. After removing the earth, find the middle point on the earth picture and on the poster board using a compass or a ruler. (Note: it must be the exact middle in order for this activity to work)
  3. Cut out the triangle pieces inside the blue lines. Place the blank triangle on the earth just left of the top middle, making sure the tip is at the center mark. Trace around the triangle with a pencil and then cut out the piece from the earth.
  4. Place each triangle on the poster board circle outline in the correct order (see above picture). They will overlap each other in order for them to all fit, but the points of all the triangles need to be circling the center mark. Once all the parts are situated, lightly glue down each piece. Place the earth on top of the circle and check to make sure that the opening on the earth shows each picture correctly as you turn it. Cut out the poster board circle, trimming off any parts of the triangles around the edges. Laminate both the earth and the poster board circle. (UPS stores have laminators. They also can enlarge the images and print them bigger if needed.) Cut off the excess laminating around the edges, but do not cut out the laminate on the cut out slice of the earth.)
  5. Place the earth on top of the circle cutout. With a thick needle, poke a hole through the center mark on both items leaving the needle in place. Turn the earth and make sure everything is lined up. If both circles are lined up, put the brad through both holes, opening up the arms in the back. Note: The visual aids were found on Microsoft Word clipart and in the Friend magazine. The idea for this visual aid was posted on Sugardoodle from “The Choristers Corner,” but it didn’t include printable images.
  6. Be prepared to attach the back circle to the board with strong magnets or sticky tack. If you plan on having  the children help with the wheel turning, a tab can be added to the front circle edge to help the younger children turn it. If this song idea is used for family home evening, sing the song with the children throughout the week to help the children remember it.

Presentation

Remind the children that our Heavenly Father loves us, so he had Jesus make this beautiful world for us to live on. Explain that this song reminds us of many of the wonderful things we are blessed with on the earth.

Show the children the earth visual aid.

Senior primary:

Have the children listen for what word each pictures stands for as you sing the song for the children while turning the top circle on the earth visual aid. (See the underlined words below). Make sure the pictures are always at the top of the world. Sing the song again using the visual aid, and stop at each picture and have the children say the word. Sing the song again, two lines at a time, and have the children echo you. Then have them sing the whole song with you using the visual aids as clues.

After the children learn the song, you can use the actions to help remind them of the words instead of using the visual aid.

 

Whenever I hear the song of a bird

Or look at the blue, blue sky,

Whenever I feel the rain on my face

Or the wind as it rushes by,

Whenever I touch a velvet rose

Or walk by our lilac tree,

I’m glad that I live in this beautiful world

Heav’nly Father created for me.

Junior Primary

Sing a line while showing the visual aid. But before singing, tell the children to listen for the word each picture stands for. Sing that line again with the visual aid, but stop at the word and have the children say the word. Sing the line again in parts and have them echo you. Then have them sing the whole line with you. Do the same with the other lines. After they learn a new line, have the children sing it with previously learned lines.

After the children learn the song, you can use the following actions to help remind them of the words instead of using the visual aid.

 

Actions

Whenever I hear the song of a bird. (Cup hand around ear.)

Or look at the blue, blue sky, (Point at your eyes and then point at the sky.)

Whenever I feel the rain on my face (Stroke face, and then put hands up in front of you and wiggle your fingers as your hands move downward. )

Or the wind as it rushes by, (Wiggle your fingers as your hand move side to side.)

Whenever I touch a velvet rose. (Put finger out as if to touch something.)

Or walk by our lilac tree, (Make two fingers move as if walking.)

I’m glad that I live in this beautiful world. (Point to your smiling face, and then hold arms out with palms up.)

Heav’nly Father created for me.

 

Note: Accompaniment can be found at http://www.lds.org/music/library/childrens-songbook/my-heavenly-father-loves-me?lang=eng

Feb 17 2013

My Heavenly Father Loves Me: Verse Two

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My Heavenly Father Loves Me – Verse Two

Preparation

  • Items needed: Colored chalk, timer, eraser
  •  Print the word strips onto heavy paper. Cut them out and fold each one in half so the words are hidden. Label each with its correct number.
  •  Draw on the board a large paper doll shape.

Presentation

Explain that the second verse of the song tells of additional blessings Heavenly Father has given us, and the children are going to draw them on the board as they do an activity to help them learn the verse.

Have a volunteer come up. Give the child the first folded word strip that says “Eyes”. Tell the child to draw it where it goes on the doll figure. Explain to the children that they are going to guess what the person is drawing. Give the child a time limit to draw the item. When the time is up have them choose someone to tell what the item is. When the correct guess is made explain that the first words in the second verse are “He gave me my eyes that I might see.”

Have another volunteer come up. Give that child the slip of paper that says “Butterfly (with colorful wings)”. Have them draw it next to the doll shape. When the correct guess is made, tell the words that go with this part. “the color of butterfly wings”. Have the children sing these first two parts.

Do the same thing with each word, going in order. Be sure to tell the song words that go with each item, and sing the lines after every few that are introduced. When you come to the word “body” have the child draw around the outline of the doll figure, or draw arrows pointing to the doll figure. When the correct word is guessed explain that the words that go with this are “He gave me my life”.

For the words “brain” and “heart” have them draw those items where they go on the doll figure. For the word “prayer” have the child erase the arms and redraw them folded (if that doesn’t work have the child draw the eyes closed or the knees bended.)

For the word “creations” you may need two or three children to draw. Have them draw the items around the doll figure. (You can put a smile on the doll when you mention the words “of which I’m a part.”)

For the word “love”, have the child draw a huge heart around the doll figure. The heart is for the words “Yes, I know Heavenly Father loves me.”

After all the lines have been introduced, have the children sing the whole verse. Point to the items as each part is sung. Then have the children begin to memorize the verse by erasing items on the board each time they sing the song.

Feb 3 2013

My Heavenly Father Loves Me: Verse One

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(I know one of the above pages has a word wrong, but I changed it in the printable file.)

My Heavenly Father Loves Me – Verse One

Preparation

  • Items needed: tape, magnets, items to make a large Valentine card, 15 sheets of pink heavy paper.
  • Print and cut out the visual aids. Put a magnet on the back of each item, but first tape together the word “rushes” with the picture of the woman rushing, and tape together the words “walk by” with the girl walking. Put the words on a word strip chart or tape them to a posterboard. Before Primary begins, hide the six hearts under the children’s chairs.
  • Make a large Valentine card (I taped two sheets of pink construction paper together and added some paper doilies and a glittery heart.) Print these pages  and tape or glue the first two pages inside the card.
  • Cut out about 15 large hearts. I used pink construction paper.

 

Verse One   (The following is exactly what I said to the children as I taught this song. The items in parenthesis are directions concerning what to do at certain parts.)

* What holiday do we celebrate in February? Valentine’s Day. On Valentines we celebrate love.

This month’s song is about love – our Heavenly Father’s love for us.

* What do people give to each other on Valentines to express their love for each other? Candy, cards, flowers…

Our Heavenly Father has given us many things that demonstrate his love for us. Look under your chairs to find some of those things. There are six items. If you find an item put it on the board.

All these items are mentioned in the first verse of the song. Our Heavenly Father has given us….(Shortly discuss each one of the items with the children.)

In the song these items are in pairs. Can you guess which items go together? (Have children come to the board and put the items in pairs. Discuss why the pairs go together and put them in the right order on the board– each pair about a foot apart from the other pairs.)

There are words that go with each of these items too. (Show the children the word strip chart or posterboard) For example, which of these things can make musical sounds? The bird ( Put the song notes near the bird.)  All these things (point to wordstrips) are also things Heavenly Father has given us and demonstrate His love for us. (Quickly read and discuss each word)

Raise your hand if you think you know where one of the words go. One to two words go with each item. (Have the children take turns putting a word strip next to the item that it goes with. If an item gets put in the wrong spot, another children can move it during their turn. Make any necessary corrections after all the words have been placed.)

(Tell the children the words of the first two lines of the verse, pointing to the pictures and wordstrips when you come to those parts, then have them sing the first two lines. Do the same with the other two pairs. Afterwards have them sing everything together.)

(Show the children the homemade Valentine card and ask the following question: )

  • If you were to make Heavenly Father a Valentine card what would you say in it? Answers might include:  I love you. Thank you for all the wonderful blessings.

(Open the card, read the inside, and explain that they might say something like that. Put the card on the board.)

In the last part of the verse we express our appreciation for this wonderful world Heavenly Father created. (Put the last page on board.)

(Have the children sing these last two parts of the song, and then have them sing the whole verse. Point to the pictures as they sing to help the smaller children.)

That is the first verse of the song. Now let’s memorize this verse.

When someone cares about another person they sometimes do a fun activity for that person called a heart attack. They cover something that belongs to that person with hearts such as their bedroom, their car, their house door, etc.

Today we are going do a heart attack and cover the song with hearts –as a way to show our love (for music time, Heavenly Father?) by memorizing this song.

While we sing the song I’m going to go around and see who is singing really well. If I give you one of these hearts (show them the big cutout hearts), you will go to the board and cover a part of the song with it.  I will only give out 2-3 hearts each time we sing the song.  (Attach a piece of tape to each heart as you give them out.)

(After singing the verse, discuss which parts of the song were covered up. Sing the verse again while giving out more hearts. Continue until the verse is memorized. )