Come Follow Me and I Can Follow Jesus Activity

Here is my flip chart for this Sunday's Primary Singing Time activity.
Come Follow Me.pdf

I have printed it on card stock in story-book form (on both sides of the paper) and had it laminated and bound on the left side.

Introduction:

1.       Ask the pianist play through the melody first while the children listen.

2.       Explain that this is a very special and sacred hymn about our Savior, Jesus Christ.  After they have listened to the melody, ask the children if they recognize the music.

3.       Have the pianist play the introduction, and tell the children you are going to sing the words this time.  Invite anyone who knows the words to sing along. Use the flip chart to sing the story, and point to the appropriate pictures.

a.       Compliment the children for singing along with you.

4.       Show the children the first picture from the flipchart:

a.       Tell the following story: One day, Jesus taught from Peter's boat on the Sea of Galilee. Afterward He told Peter to take the boat to deep water and let out the nets to catch fish. Peter explained that he and others had been fishing all night without catching anything, but he said he would do as Jesus commanded. Peter and his brother Andrew caught so many fish that their net began to break. James and John came in another boat to help. The fishermen were all amazed. Jesus called Peter and Andrew to follow Him and become fishers of men. Fishers of men is another way to say ‘missionaries’, because it meant that Jesus wanted them to help bring people to the Gospel. He also called James and John. They all left their boats and nets and followed Jesus and became fishers of men. (Story adapted from the Gospel Art Picture Kit.)

b.      Sing the first phrase: “Come follow me, the Savior said”, and ask the children to echo it back to you. Sing it again in a whisper, and ask them to sing it back to you in a whisper. Do it again singing very slowly, and again enunciating every syllable. Repeat as many times as needed, until the children have the phrase learned.

5.       Show the second picture on the flipchart: 

a.       “Here’s a question: what does ‘tread’ mean?...That’s right! The word, ‘tread’ means to walk along, or to press your foot into something. So when I say ‘I want to tread in Jesus’ footsteps’, what does that mean?...That’s right, it means that I want to put my footprints in Jesus’ footprints, to follow him, just like the children are doing in this picture. They want to follow his example and do all the things he did.”

b.      “Sometimes when poems or songs are written, the words are very fancy or sophisticated, just like this next phrase, (say it with an air of sophistication) ‘Then let us in His footsteps tread’.  It’s not hard to understand it if you think about it, it simply means, ‘Hey, we want to follow Jesus! We want to do what He did! We want to follow His example!’”

c.       “Everyone say ‘We want to follow Jesus’. Now everyone say, (say it with emphasis on the bold words) ‘Then,…let us in his footsteps,…tread’. Both phrases mean the same thing.”

d.      Sing the phrase “then let us in His footsteps tread”, and have the children echo sing it back to you, the same as above in step 4b.

e.       Sing with the children the first two phrases: Come follow me, the Savior said. Then let us in His footsteps tread.

6.       Show the third picture in the flip chart:

a.       “Did you know there is only one way we can return to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ? It’s only through Jesus Christ, by following his example, and obeying the commandments, that make it possible for us to be ‘one’ with Him, and with our Heavenly Father.

b.      “In the first picture on this page we see these two children looking up at Jesus. They want to be ‘one’ with Jesus. They must follow his path (point to the pathway) and do as he did to become ‘one’ with him.”

c.       Explain what Jesus is doing in each of the five pictures of Christ on this page, and tell how the children might do the same in their lives.

d.      "What does 'thus' mean?...That’s right, it simply mean ‘this way’. So when I say, ‘for thus alone’, it just means, ‘this is the only way’.  When we sing (sing it) ‘For thus alone can we be one’, it means that following Jesus’ example is the only way we can be one with him."

e.      Sing the phrase again and have the children echo it back to you, the same as above in step 4b.

f.        Sing with the children the first three phrases: Come follow me, the Savior said. Then let us in His footsteps tread. For thus alone can we be one.

7.       Show the last picture in the flip chart:

a.       “Who is ‘God’s own loved begotten son’?...That’s right! It’s Jesus Christ. This phrase completes the phrase before it: (sing it) ‘For thus alone can we be one (with emphasis) with God’s own loved begotten Son.’ (Point to the last picture.)

b.      The children in this picture represent YOU! They want to be one with ‘God’s own begotten Son’, just like you do!

c.       Sing: “with God’s own loved begotten son”, and have the children echo it back to you, the same as in step 4b.

d.      With the children, sing: “For thus alone can we be one, with God’s own loved begotten Son”

8.       Sing the entire song together with the children, and compliment them for a job well done!

If time permits, play:

I Can Follow Jesus

(Adapted from Shelley Wille's, Keeping Your Kids Awake in Family Home Evening, Book Two, Self Reliance, page 85.)

You will need:

•        A small table
•       Slips of paper with ways to follow Jesus’ example in a “Mystery Bag”.
•      Play dough

On the slips of paper in the Mystery Bag, write:

Scriptures

Pray

Love

Dish

Pencil

Phone

Toy

Cookies

Bed

Footprint

Play Dough

2 ½ cups flour

½ cup salt

1 tsp. alum

3 Tbs. oil (add to water)

A few drops of food coloring

2 cup water

Boil water and oil. Add food coloring. Add other ingredients to boiling water and mix by hand.

How to Play:

Pick three or four reverent children to come to the table at the front of the room. Give each child a lump of play dough and ask them to set it on the table in front of them, then have each child pick a slip of paper from the Mystery Bag and read silently what it says. (Smaller kids will need you to whisper in their ear what it says on the paper). Ask them to close their eyes and imagine the play dough tuning into the object on their slip of paper. Encourage them concentrate with all their might, and try very hard to visualize the completed object in their minds down to the last detail. After they have given their best effort, have them open their eyes and ask them if the clay actually turned into the object they saw in their imagination.

Tell them that no matter how long and hard they think about it, that lump of play dough will never turn into the object they were thinking about on its own. It has to be shaped and molded with our hands! Just like the play dough, we can think and think and think about how much we want to serve others the way Jesus Christ did,  but nothing will happen until we use our hands to love and serve others.

Explain that everyone is going to sing Come Follow Me.  While everyone else is singing, the children at the front with the play dough have exactly as long as it takes to sing the song to form their object with their hands.

Sing the song. When it’s over, have the children show their play dough objects and explain how they can be used to follow Jesus Christ's example.

If time permits have another group of children form more objects from the Mystery Bag while Come Follow Me is sung.

Have Fun!