Today I taught the Noah verse of Follow The Prophet (Children's Songbook #110)
We had so much fun & I really enjoyed getting this lesson ready and teaching it to the kids! The ideas came to me late on Saturday night, after a super busy week- and after a beautiful rainstorm!
I found this awesome arc print-out HERE, and my kids enjoyed cutting out the pieces and building the arc this morning!
Each raindrop has a question written on the back and we either sing to find the answer or for the BONUS questions, take a guess or ask a teacher! (For senior primary, you could even give them a verse to read the scriptures to find the answer!!) As we would pull off each raindrop to read the question, I would put it under the arc to form the "flood".
So to start out, I told them we would sing "Echo Chamber" style, meaning that I would sing a line and they pretend they're in a cave and get to be my echo! When I first started out as chorister, I was terrified of singing by myself (like super-highly anxious, stomach ache kinda nervous!!) But I watched THIS video one day and it really made me realize it doesn't matter how I sing, but that I do so with the spirit, and of course I always ask for help & have found the Lord has blessed my voice to be stronger and I'm much more confident now!
So, I sang the first line
"Adam was a prophet, called to preach the word"
and they repeated it.
Then I picked a "reverent helper" from the stick system we use to answer the question. (We have a cup of large popsicle sticks with their name on each one. I draw a stick when I need a helper, and if they are being reverent--they get to help!)
-Question #1: Who was Noah? A prophet of God (see, we are going very simple here)
Re-sing the line if they don't know the answer and they will catch on quickly that the answers can be found in the song!!
-BONUS #1: How old was Noah when he built the arc? 600 years old! I had a 9 year old boy *guess* this answer!!
-Question #2: What was Noah called to preach to the people? The “word” of God/gospel.
Then we sang line 1& 2 together, they echo line 2:
"Tried to cry repentance, but nobody heard"
-Question #3: What does repentance mean? To say sorry & stop doing the bad things.
-Question #4: Who listened to Noah? “nobody” (except his family!) His family had faith that Noah was following God, and they went with him in the arc and were protected!
-BONUS #2: How many sons did Noah have? and What were their names? 3 sons- Shem, Ham, Japheth (the child who was picked had a Grandma who was a primary teacher in the room, so she asked her for help!)
We then sang lines 1-3, they echo line 3:
-Question #5: What were the people of Noah’s time doing? "Sinning"- very wicked
& violent. Remeber to RE-sing that line if they need help answering the question! The more we repeat, the better!!
-Question #6: What did the Lord tell Noah He was going to do? Going to destroy every
living thing on the face of the earth because the people were evil & would
not listen. Rain for 40 days & 40 nights. Noah needed to build an arc to keep his family & 2 of every animal safe! (This was a very vague question so I took any answer- a sunbeam gave a great answer!) Pretty much just explain the rest of the story of Noah that hasn't been discussed yet :)
Then we sang the WHOLE song together & the chorus!! The kids already knew the chorus because of learning it this year for the program, but they only knew the first verse about Adam. So we stood & sang together & marched during the chorus. They love doing this!
We had a little extra time so I asked if they wanted to do a couple more BONUS questions and they all said yes!!
-BONUS #3: How old was Noah when he died? 950! (I reminded them that he built the arc at 600 years old, the child guessed 1,000- so close!!)
-BONUS #4: What does the Rainbow Represent? The promise/covenant the
Lord made with man to not flood the earth again. I also reminded them that we sing about rainbows in When I am Baptized because rainbows help us remember that we can start fresh & clean by repenting anytime we need to!
We then sang Rain is Falling All Around (CS 241) with actions-- to get their wiggles out before Sharing Time, and we sang it faster and faster with the pianist. It was super fun!
Anyways, it was a huge success, and I had a blast, the kids loved it and I will be teaching more verses throughout the next few months. I was so happy to read that Follow The Prophet will be a song in the 2015 program too!! I loved the line by line teaching and the questions added a fun twist. Let me know if you find this helpful!!
