A Child s Prayer Preparation Week 1 Frog conducting sticks, Melody maps for verse 2, pictures for verse 2. You are going to make a melody map for the 2 nd verse of the song. You ll need two long sheets of paper. I used a roll of paper and cut two pieces that were each the length of the chalkboard in the Primary room. On the first paper you will be putting the notes from the melody of the second verse from the beginning of the verse until His love now surrounds you. The second paper will have the melody notes starting at He hears your prayer; and going until the end of the song. To represent the notes you can draw circles, use stickers or any other shape you want. I d use the same shape throughout the song so you don t confuse the kids though. The melody map just represents the notes the children sing. If the melody goes up, the notes go up. If the melody goes down the notes go down. It will look like music notes, but without a staff and without the stems. The first half of the song would look as follows: You will also need to prepare for each child a frog to help them conduct. I found frog cut outs at a teacher supply store, then taped them onto popsicle sticks. You will need pictures for these words from the second verse: pray, speak (I used a mouth), listening (pic of ear), child (pic of Jesus with one child), love (heart), hears (ear), loves (heart), children (pic of Jesus with a group of kids) Week 2 Frogs, melody maps for verse 2, pictures for verse 2. Week 3 Frogs, pictures for verse 2, 4 pieces of papers with the numbered 1-4. Week 4 Frogs (if wanted), slips of paper prepared with ways to split up the group. **The children LOVE to conduct and learn something new. For Junior it s also great because they have something to hold in their hands. Senior may not enjoy holding the frogs as much, but then again, they just might! For Senior, you can show them how to hold their hands while pitch leading. **For smaller primaries you might consider just singing through both verses and not worrying about putting the verses together. You could have the children sing both verses and then put them together with the kids singing the 1 st verse as a group and an adult (male or female) singing the 2 nd verse. You could have the kids sing the 1 st verse and teachers sing the 2 nd verse. **Please share your testimony about prayer with the children. Share an experience you ve had with prayers being answered. Ask them if they have one to share. You could arrange for a child or an adult to share an experience each week this month.
A Child s Prayer Week 1 1. Action/Movement songs 5 minutes Wiggle songs for Jr, a hand clapping rhythm for Sr, up/down on certain words, etc. You can probably get through 3-4 songs depending on how long they are. Move quickly from one to the next. 2. Verse 2: 8-10 minutes Post the papers with the melody maps for both parts of the song. Tell the children there are 2 different ways to conduct a song. One is the regular way (that they d see in Sacrament Meeting) where you conduct the beats in the song. The other way is called pitch leading. They are going to learn some pitch leading today. Hand out the frogs. Tell them the circles on the posters represent the notes in the song. The frogs are going to help them move from note to note. So, if the notes go up then the frogs go up. If the notes go down, then the frogs go down. Tell them to follow along with their frogs as you sing the 2 nd verse of the song A Child s Prayer. Sing verse all the way through. Tell them they did a great job and let s have our frogs try it again. Sing through 1 more time. Tape the pictures for the first phrase on the side of the board. Tell them you are going to sing just the first paper (the first half of the song) and see if they can figure out which note the first two pictures go with. Divide room in half and have one half (youngest kids) pay attention for the word pray and the other half speak. Sing through the first half of the song and then ask for a volunteer from each side to come up and put the picture above the correct note. Sing again to check their answers. Ask them to figure out notes the other pictures( listening, child and love ). Sing again. Ask for helpers to put pictures up. Sing again to check answers. Sing 1 st part one more time or if time permits, sing the whole 2 nd verse one more time. 3. Verse 1: 5-7 minutes Tell the children you are now going to work on the first verse of the song A Child s Prayer. Explain that this song has two verses, like a lot of songs do, BUT this song is different because each verse sounds different. You are singing different words and different melodies on each of the verses. a. Sing the first half of the 1 st verse (until but I feel it close around me as I pray ) and have them listen for 2 questions. Get answers. b. Sing 1 st half again, this time listening for a rhyming word that is at the end of each question. (there prayer) c. Sing 1 st half again, this time they are to listen for another set of rhyming words that come after the two questions. (away pray) d. Tell them you will sing all the words EXCEPT the rhyming words. They are to sing the rhyming words when you point to them. (Either do this without the piano or have the piano slow down a little on the rhyming words). e. Now for a challenge can they sing all the words except the rhyming ones and you will sing ONLY the rhyming words. 4. If you have time left over, review another song or use your slinky or stop/go sign to quickly go through another song.
Week 2 1. Sing 1-2 action/movement songs: 3 minutes 2. 2 nd verse: 10 minutes a. Post both melody maps for first and second half of 2 nd verse. For the first verse, leave the pictures on that they put on last week. Hand out frogs. b. Tell them your frogs are going to do some more jumping along the notes today. Sing through the complete first verse. c. Post the pictures for the 2 nd half of the verse. Have them find the note for hears. Post picture. d. Sing again and watch for note for loves. Post picture. Repeat for children. e. Ask them to listen for what word you sing twice. We don t have a picture for it, but you can still listen for the word. Sing second half again. Ask for answers (kingdom). f. Sing complete song 1-2 times through. 3. 1 st verse: 8 minutes a. Review first half of 1 st verse. See if they can remember both sets of rhyming words. Sing and get answers. b. Can they sing the 1 st half of the verse in one breath? Sing again in one breath. c. Now I m going to sing the whole first verse. Stand up/down whenever you sing the word Father. (The first time they sing it they standup, the second time they sit down, etc) After singing, ask how many times you sang the word Father (three) d. Sing the 2 nd half of the song, have the children listen for what Jesus told his disciples. (Suffer the children...) What does suffer mean? (allow) Explain that Jesus allowed the children to come gather around. e. We can t physically gather round Jesus now, but how does the song tell us we come close to Heavenly Father. (Father, in prayer I m coming now to thee) e. The second half only has one set of rhyming words. Listen for the set. Sing 2 nd half again. (me thee) f. Sing WHOLE song one time. 4. If time, sing a different song to end with. Use slinky, stop/go sign, or teach them a conducting pattern. Week 3 1. Action/movement 5 minutes This would be a fun time to do whole body pitch leading. An easy song to start with is When I am Baptized. Before singing time, draw simple hash marks on the board indicating the notes. Then explain to the kids they are going to pitch lead with their whole body. When the notes are low, they ll squat down and when they go high they stand up straight and tall. Sing away! (You could also try The Church of Jesus Christ, Book of Mormon Stories, or Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes-this would be a fun twist on this song.) 2. Review 2 nd verse 8-10 minutes Post only pictures from verse 2. Hand out frogs. Sing through full verse, moving frogs up & down. Pick a super singer to come up and remove 1 or 2 pictures. Then sing again. Pick another super singer to remove another picture. Repeat until all pictures are down.
3. Review 1 st verse 7-10 minutes Divide the children into 4 groups. Hand each group a numbered paper (papers #1-4). Tell the children you are going to review the 1 st verse of the song by singing it in separate phrases. You will go through each group and then you will go through them again. So, they will be singing 2x each time through the verse. Start singing the first verse and just point to each group when it is their time to sing. It will go as follows: 1 Heavenly Father are you really there? 2- And do you hear and answer every child s prayer 3 Some say that heaven is far away, 4- But I feel it close around me as I pray. 1-Heavenly Father, I remember now 2-Something that Jesus told disciples long ago 3-Suffer the children to come to me 4-Father in prayer I m coming now to thee. Switch signs around between groups and sing again. Repeat a couple times, switching signs after each time. After a couple of times, tell them that even though each group is singing different words each time they sing, they are actually singing the same melody (same notes) EXCEPT one group. Sing again and see if they can figure out which group s melody changes. (Group 4) Extra challenge: For group 3 the rhythm does change on some say that and suffer the. If your kids need a challenge, tell them that for group 3 the rhythm is slightly different on 3 notes only. See if they can figure it out. 4. If you have a few extra minutes, have the children sing one of the verses with yourself or an adult leading them and then you (or another adult) sing the other verse on top of it. Sing, then ask how they liked it. Let them know they get to work on this the following week. Week 4: 10-15 minutes Junior: Sing through each verse 1 time by itself. Then, split the group in two and assign yourself to one group and another adult singer to the other group. You could have a child come up and choose a way to sing the songs together. Some ideas for singing together are: each group faces opposite sides of the room, one group faces front the other group faces the back of the room, one group stands on their chairs other group sits on ground, one group sings soft the other sings loud, etc. Senior: Sing through each verse 1 time by itself. Then tell the children you are making one half of the room verse 1 and the other half verse 2. Have everyone stand up and tell them you have written on slips of paper different ways to split up the group. A super singer will come and choose a way then everyone will change seats to either be in verse 1 or verse 2. Then you ll sing the verses together, pick a new way to split up and sing it again. (I would definitely let the kids change seats. It s good for them to move and will help keep their interest.) Make sure to have another adult to help with the other verse. Some ideas for singing together are: boys and girls, teacher and children, wearing white and not wearing white, birthdays from Jan-June and birthdays from July to Dec, brown hair and other hair color, blue eyes and other eye colors, etc, etc. Tips: On the slip of paper, write down which group goes to which verse so there won t be any arguments! Ex: boys and girls; boys verse 1, girls group 2. Let them know you can only move as long as they are being reverent. Challenge them to move each time without talking and let them know they only have 10 seconds to move to the correct side.
You can count backwards or just count it off on your hands. Once the ten seconds are done, have your pianist start the intro. Don t waste time in between the repetitions if you take too long you ll lose them!! Spend 10-15 minutes on this depending on their interest level, then move onto something else. Singing the verses together is difficult for the kids, especially the little ones, so you ll need to keep practicing this. They won t master it in a week!