He Sent His Son: Paper plates and Map

He Sent His Son

This song has the sway of a slow waltz. Three beats, then three beats. It has all the sacredness of a song centered on Jesus Christ and the reasons He came to earth.

How do you find a movement that matches the mood, the gentle beat, and the meaning of this song?

Here's one idea.

Tell the children you are going to do one set of movements for the questions of this song, and one set of movements for the answers of this song.

Hold up the posters with the patterns. (An example is below)

Use a paper plate movement pattern to ask the questions.  Practice this movement pattern with the children.

Use another paper plate movement pattern to answer.  Practice this movement pattern with the children. Sing the song and do the movements.  (A video is below)

The Questions -

Paper plates are gentle extenders that help the children focus on the paper plate instead of being conscious about their body movements.

Swish, tap, tap, with the taps moving from place to place is a great way to move to the gentle waltz beat, yet remain gentle.  

The different placements are the challenge.

Swish (rubbing the plates past one another like picture above)  

tap, tap (on your shoulders).

The swish comes on the beat right BEFORE the first word. The two first taps land on the words "could" and "Fa-."

Swish tap tap (on your knees).

Swish on "tell."

Taps on "world."

Swish tap tap (on your elbow).  

Swish before "of love."

"Taps on the words "love" and "tender-." 

Swish tap tap (on your calves). 

Swish on "-ness."

Notice that each of these movements cross the midline (a pretend line dividing the body in two drawn down from head to feet). Because they go from the top of the body to the lower half, they also cross yet another midline.

(Note:  Why is a movement crossing the midline such a big deal? It affects the brain's ability to communicate with the two sides, it affects fine motor coordination by the hands, and it affects the brain's ability to read. Link to an article about this HERE It is a huge skill for the children to do both purposely and playfully.)

Usually once I start a movement pattern, we just continue it over and over again. Because this is a long song, it will keep the children's interest peaked if they have to follow a pattern that is a little complex.  Instead of just showing them a four step pattern like above, I am going to use a map with more patterns.

The Answers -

Practice the rainbow arc and swishes pattern.

This is a song of questions and answers. For the answers to the questions posed in the song, I will use a rainbow arc back and forth, then swishes on my legs, followed by three plate turns. 

Here is the map:

The End of the Song -

Notice there is a place for the piano to do the little interlude after "rise with living breath." (It says music music music.)Notice after "Help others on their way" the pattern changes again because of the changes in the music. 

The Video

Here is a video that puts it all together.

My feeling is that the recorded music we did this video to is a little slow, but it will give you the idea. 

This activity stimulates the brain in logic ways, kinesthetic ways, musical ways, crosses the midline, and is a whole bodied way to participate with the song.

We practice each pattern together, then we put them together to sing the whole song.  It is such a feeling of accomplishment. I call out "Freeze!" As the children are frozen, I often bear my testimony about how Heavenly Father works with us, like we worked together for this song. I let them know how much I love Jesus Christ.  It is a sweet moment.