The Church of Jesus Christ

In October 2018 General Conference President Nelson gave a powerful talk to the members of the church entitled, "The Correct Name of the Church".  He stated members should call the church by it's full name, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and reminded members that we should not use nicknames when talking about the church.  President Nelson stated, "Thus, the name of the Church is not negotiable. When the Savior clearly states what the name of His Church should be and even precedes His declaration with, “Thus shall my church be called,” He is serious. And if we allow nicknames to be used or adopt or even sponsor those nicknames ourselves, He is offended." With this in mind I will be teaching the song, The Church of Jesus Christ in March.

I will begin my music lesson by sharing some of President Nelsons remarks and linking that to the March Come Follow Me Lessons for Primary.  I will help the children understand that this is the same church today that Jesus organized while he was on the earth.  My comments will be brief and then I will continue with teaching the song.  

This song has a really nice catchy tune with a great rhythm.  I am basing part of my teaching on a post from Camille's Primary Ideas with a few changes of my own and I won't be doing the treasure hunt.  You can view Camille's post Here.  

First I printed this super cute free flip chart from Susan Fitch that you can find Here.  Instead of making a flip chart with it I cut out the picture circles and glued them to cheap paper plates.  Then I cut out the top words that are the lead in phrases to the sentences, I belong, I know, I'll follow... and glued them to the top of the plates next to the pictures.

The rest of the phrases I will hide around the room for the children to find.

 The paper plates will be displayed on the chalkboard in the order that they are sang in the song.

As the children find the phrases they will bring them to the front of the room and match them with the paper plate pictures.  Then either myself or a member of the presidency will help them tape the phrase to the plate with double sided tape.

Once all of the plates have been matched with phrases we will sing the song using the plates to help the children remember the words. If you have a large enough primary you could have children that are singing well come to the front and hold the plates while the primary sings.   If you don't want to use the plates you could also just make the flip chart and use that instead to teach the song.

Once we have sang through the song a couple of times I will teach the children the actions using plain paper plates.  Using the paper plates helps the children feel the very obvious "marching" rhythm that is present in this song and helps them associate the phrasing with movements, which in turn helps them memorize the words faster.  Plus, it's just fun getting to bang paper plates together while singing! You can view my video below to see my actions and how to use the paper plates.  You will need to have enough paper plates for each primary child to have two plates.  I just buy the big pack of thin cheap paper plates and reuse them until they are too bent to hold their shapes.