Jesus Once Was a Little Child: Sway and Freeze for Younger Children

Move with the children to the song? Check!

Cross the midline multiple times to help development? Check!

Feel the beat and meter of the song in their body? Check!

Have fun together with the song? Check!

Jesus Once Was a Little Child

Was Jesus ever a child like you or you or you? Yes!

Tell the children:

Can your hands follow my hands? (Begin to sway your arms back and forth across the front of your body.)

Link to sway and freeze video HERE

Occasionally at the end of the phrase, call out "freeze" and have your children check to see if their hands are pointing the same way that your hands are pointing, and their legs are the same as yours.  (This helps to keep them focused, and gives a chance for self assessment to see if they are doing the motions.) Sway and Sing again, this time telling the children you will leave out a word and they will sing the missing word.  I would leave out the rhyming words (me, be, I, try).  Make a big deal out of stopping right on the word they need to fill in, then when they sing or say it, continue singing. This is an activity that helps FEEL the sway of the music, FEEL the beat, FEEL the smooth connected notes of the melody, and it crosses the midline to engage both sides of the brain.  And it is fun!