My Heavenly Father Loves Me

click here to download

A few years ago I came across this beautiful arrangement of My Heavenly Father Loves Me by Lyle Hadlock. He composes and arranges beautiful music, check out his website. This arrangement is for vocal, piano and flute and it's simple enough that the kids won't be confused. I love the key change and the ending, simple and perfect. And it's free. Thank you Lyle Hadlock!

When I've taught this song in the past I've used objects. See the list below. There are a couple of ways to do this.

1) Put the objects on a table. Sing the first line, have the kids repeat. Choose a child to pick the object that goes with that phrase and stand in line at the front of the room. Continue with the next line. This is great for Junior Primary.

2) Just start singing and handing out the objects as you go. Do the first four lines and then have the children sing with you and the kids holding the objects try to get themselves in order at the front of the room. Sing it again to see if they got it right. Then do the same for the rest of the verse. This is geared more toward Senior Primary.

Whenever I hear the song of a bird             stuffed animal bird
Or look at the blue, blue sky,                       blue fabric that can be waved above the head
Whenever I feel the rain on my face            small spray bottle set on mist
Or the wind as it rushes by,                         hand fan
Whenever I touch a velvet rose                   fake rose
Or walk by our lilac tree,                            fake lilac branch or just a branch  
I’m glad that I live in this beautiful world  small globe
Heav’nly Father created for me.                child pointing to himself

He gave me my eyes that I might see          glasses or child pointing to their eyes
The color of butterfly wings.                       toy butterfly
He gave me my ears that I might hear        child pointing to their ears
The magical sound of things.                      small bell or instrument
He gave me my life, my mind, my heart:     mirror
I thank him rev’rently                                 child folding arms as if praying
For all his creations, of which I’m a part.  clear container filled with small toy animals, fruit, plants, etc.
Yes, I know Heav’nly Father loves me.       paper or stuffed heart

Children of God Around the World

One of the things I felt strongly about when thinking about teaching my primary kids with "I Am a Child of God" was that if each of them is a Child of God, then that means everyone they interact with is also a Child of God and should be treated with love. So I used some International Children of God to review and learn some new songs about this. Here's what I did.

click here to download these International Kids

Preparation. Copy, color and cut out cute international kids. Use card stock for durability. I used a book from my school teaching days, but there are several online options. Edupics.com has this great artwork. Click here to download a collection of their cute kids. You can make as many kids as you think you have time for. I made 10, five girls and five boys. My download option has 12.  Also prepare a world out of blue and green paper or print this one. Make a list of songs and/or challenges. I don't assign these to the cut outs, we do the songs in my order regardless of which cut out is chosen.  The list of songs and challenges we did is below. The ones with an asterisk are new ones to my primary but I wanted them to learn them because they go so well with this theme. I did a quick "sing and repeat" and I was amazed at how quickly they picked it up! I didn't get through all of the songs but maybe we'll be able to finish next week.

click here to download

Junior: 
I Am a Child of God vs 1  p. 2
Jesus said Love Everyone  p. 61
I Am a Child of God vs 2  p. 2
*I'll Walk with You (first half) p. 140
Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam  p. 60
I Am a Child of God vs 3  p. 2
*Shine On  p. 144
I Love to See the Temple  p. 95
I Am a Child of God vs. 4  p. 2
*I'll Walk with You (second half) p. 140

Senior:
I Am a Child of God vs 1-3 p. 2  SIGNS
*I'll Walk with You (first half) p. 140
Children All Over the World p. 16
I Am a Child of God chorus p. 2  SPANISH
Jesus said Love Everyone  p. 61
*I Am a Child of God verse p. 2  SPANISH
*Feliz Cumpleanos  p. 282
I will Follow God's Plan p. 164
*I'll Walk with You (second half) p. 140
I Lived in Heaven p. 4

Presentation. Line up the International Kids along the bottom of your chalkboard a place your 'world' in the middle of the chalkboard. Like this:

Junior Primary. I called a child up to pick one of the International Kids and put it on the world, forming a circle around the world. Then we sang a song. I mentioned where the International Kid was from but we spent our time singing.

Senior Primary. We sang a song and tried to earn an International Kid to put on the world. Sometimes we had to sing a song a few times. I let the children make three guesses about where the International Kid was from. About halfway through we had a quick discussion that went like this:
Me: How are these kids different?
Children: Different hair, clothes, skin, homes, language, food etc.
Me: What do all these kids have in common? What do we have in common with them?
Children: We all have bodies, families, spirits, homes. We're all children of God. (Bingo)
Me: Which ones does Heavenly Father love and care about?
Children: All of them. All of us.
Me: So how should we treat each other?
Children: With love, nicely, with respect.

Here's what it should look like when finished.

Happy Singing Time!