During the lesson, the information for you to know is written in regular type, and what we suggest speaking or reading aloud to children is in bold. All resources for this lesson, including the Teacher Guide, Student Page, Family Connection Card, and other resources can be downloaded in a ZIP file by clicking on the following link:
In some lessons you will find "resource articles." These are articles written by experts from around the world to help equip you for your work with children and adolescents. Share them with parents or guardians if you consider it appropriate.
Be prepared to sing familiar songs throughout this lesson. You will need at least 1 familiar happy song and 1 familiar sad song. You may use songs from church or appropriate traditional or popular songs. If you have these songs on a CD or on your phone, you may choose to play these songs for the children during the appropriate parts of the lesson.
So my heart will sing your praises. I can’t keep silent. Lord, my God, I will praise you forever.
Psalm 30:12
Have you ever felt so comforted by your relationship with God or so excited about the thought of who God is that you just had to sing and praise His name? You are not alone. In this psalm, it would seem David was overjoyed by the thought of what God had done for him and how amazing God is.
Life can be overwhelming at times. Things happen that make it difficult to see the good in life and the good in other people. It is in these times that songs can bring fresh perspective to your life. They can also be reminders of the truths from God’s Word.
Think about your favourite song. Is it happy? Is it sad? Does it tell a story? Sometimes a favourite song can help you to better understand the emotions and problems you are experiencing. When you sing with the children today, think about how God uses songs in your life. Allow God to fill your heart with such joy that you cannot help but sing about it!
Encourage families to choose a few songs they enjoy and sing them together. Ask them to talk about how each song makes them feel or what they like about the song.
Teacher Tip: If possible, email or text the Family Connection Card to the families of your students.
Greet the children with a song of welcome as they come to class. You may use a song you know or a song that you create.
Raise your hand if you like listening to music. Keep your hand up if you like singing along to the music. Music can be used for many things. Music can tell stories. Music can express emotions. Music from a certain place can tell us more about how a group of people think and do things.
Since we are learning about music today, let’s create a signal using music. I will clap a simple rhythm. Then you will repeat it.
Create a simple rhythm of about 3–8 claps. Then ask the children to repeat it. If you need to, clap the rhythm more than 1 time until the children are able to repeat it.
Throughout the lesson, I will clap a rhythm when I want to get your attention. You will respond by clapping back the same rhythm. Okay?
Rhythm is used in music to keep a consistent pace. It can also help you to know where you are in a song. When most of us sing, though, we think more about the melody of the song. A melody is made up of the tones, or notes, that make a specific song.
Think of a song you know. When I say, “Go!” start singing your song. It is okay if you are singing a different song than the children around you. Ready? Go!
Allow the children to sing for 15–30 seconds. Then give them a signal to get their attention.
That was wonderful to hear you singing! Now, let’s sing a song together.
Sing a familiar song that most of the children will know. Choose a song from church or a song that most children in your community learn.
Today we will talk about songs and the many ways they are used. Songs can help us to communicate what we are feeling and stories about ourselves and those around us. Songs can also be used to celebrate.
In the true story about God’s people building a holy tent, it talks about creating an ark to hold the covenant law. Remember that this ark is a special box carved from wood and covered with gold. This same ark is in another true story from the Bible about David. David and his soldiers were traveling to Jerusalem after winning a battle and decided to bring the ark with them. As his men travelled with the ark, there was great celebration in the streets! This is what the Bible says:
Read this verse directly from your Bible.
David was celebrating with all his might in front of the Lord. So was the whole community of Israel. All of them were playing castanets, harps, lyres, tambourines, rattles and cymbals.
2 Samuel 6:5
Optional: If you are using The Action Bible, show the children the picture at the bottom of page 318 and the picture at the top of page 319 or if possible use the image from The Action Bible.
The people were playing instruments through the streets because they were honoured and excited to bring the ark to Jerusalem. Imagine what this celebration would sound like.
Music is used as a form of worshipping God all around the world! Some people play instruments while others sing. But the important part of using music in worship is to give honour and glory to God. The Bible gives another example of using song to worship God.
So my heart will sing your praises. I can’t keep silent. Lord, my God, I will praise you forever.
Psalm 30:12
David wrote this psalm. He was so excited and joyful about God and what He had done that David could not keep silent. He had to sing! The book of Psalms is filled with examples of people singing to praise God.
Music can help people to show many different emotions. When you feel happy, your music might be jumpy and light. When you feel sad, your music might be slow and use deep tones. Today you will learn more about music.
In our first activity, we talked about rhythm. When you make the rhythm faster or slower, you create a different tempo for the music. For example, if I have a rhythm of clap, tap, stomp, clap, tap, stomp, I can make its tempo fast or slow. Create this rhythm with me. We will start out slow.
Use the clap, tap, stomp rhythm very slowly and explain that this is a slow tempo. Then speed the rhythm up until the children can just barely keep up. Explain that this is a very fast tempo. Then signal the children to stop and listen.
Tempo is used with a melody to create a song. The melody of a song is made up of different notes or tones that come together to make the song. Let’s use those to create a song to worship God.
How do you feel when you praise and worship God?
Answers may include: joyful, happy, excited, and similar responses.
Let’s make a joyful song. To do this, we must think about what joy sounds like. When you are happy or excited about something, you speak with a lot of feeling. You might talk a little faster than normal and you might speak in a higher tone of voice than usual.
Say the following sentence quickly and with a lot of excitement in your voice.
I am so happy you are here today! I am so excited to teach you more about music!
Just like David was excited when he danced in the streets, we can also be excited and joyful when we praise and worship God! Let’s sing a song of praise and worship to God!
Sing a familiar song to praise and worship God. Use a song that sounds happy and excited.
Optional:
If you do not know a song of praise, you may choose to put this psalm to music. Start by singing the song to the children. Use a fast rhythm with and excited and happy sounding melody. Here are the words:
Give thanks to the Lord, because he is good. His faithful love continues forever. Give thanks to the greatest God of all. His faithful love continues forever. Give thanks to the most powerful Lord of all. His faithful love continues forever.
Psalm 136:1–3
Sing the psalm 3 times with the children. If the children are unsure of the words, you may want to simply teach them the repeating line, “His faithful love continues forever.”
End of Option
Now, let’s use tempo and melody to create a song that sounds sad. When we are sad, we slow down a little. If we are really sad, we might sink down toward the ground. When music is slow and low, it can sound sad.Sing this, or a sad song you know slowly and with a deep voice. Then encourage the children to sing with you 3 times.
That song sounded very sad! When you sing a song, there are many emotions you can hear in the way the music sounds as well as in the words that are used. That is why music is often used to tell stories.
Let’s try writing our own song to tell a story. Our story will begin with everything going well. Think of a place where everything usually goes well for you.
What can you tell me about this place?
Encourage 2–3 children to name a place where things go well for them and to describe their locations.
When we sing about this place, we will sing with a happy and excited melody and fast tempo. Let’s put some of our thoughts to music.
Use a familiar happy song or a part of a song to sing about 1 of the places the children described. Then take about 1 minute to teach the class this song.
Now, we need a problem. Think of a time when something happened to cause a problem for you. Your problem could be something scary, sad, or just difficult.
What was your problem, and how did it make you feel?
Encourage 2–3 children to share a problem they had and how it made them feel.
We will choose 1 problem to use in our song. When we sing about this problem, we will use a slower tempo with deeper tones.
Use a familiar sad song or part of a song to sing about 1 of the problems the children described. Then take about 1 minute to teach the class this song.
Let’s give our song a happy ending. This may not be how the real problem was solved, but we will talk about some different ways we could solve our problem.
If you had this problem, how would you solve it?
Allow 3–4 children to respond. Choose 1 solution to use in the song.
Use the same familiar song you used at the beginning of the song to sing about the solution to the problem. Slow down the song a bit more to represent the calm that is felt after a problem is resolved. Take about 1 minute to teach the class this song.
Now that we have all of the parts of our story, let’s put them together into 1 song.Listen to the differences in tempo and the tones used in the melodies.
Sing the parts of the song together. Sing the song 2 times if there is time.
When you use a song to tell a story, you can change the tempo and tones to show emotions. Our memory verse today reminds us that music can be used to show our joy and to worship God.
If you are using the Memory Verse Poster, show it to the students.
Let Israel be filled with joy because God is their Maker. Let the people of Zion be glad because he is their King. Let them praise his name with dancing. Let them make music to him with harps and tambourines.
Psalm 149:2–3
Read the verses with the following motions. Repeat these with the children 3 times.
Let Israel be filled with joy because God is their Maker—Clap and stomp the rhythm of these words as you read them. Remember your clap and stomp pattern for the other lessons in this unit.
Let them make music to him with harps and tambourines—Pretend to play a harp or tambourine.
Optional: If you are using Student Pages, allow the children to cut or tear out the wavy circle and strips on their pages. If you have glue or tape, help the children overlap their strips of paper by about 4 centimetres on each side and stick them together. Otherwise, you may fold the strips over to keep them together where they overlap. Then place the circles on top. Give them a minute to play their tambourines.
End class by saying this blessing, based on Psalm 30:12, over the children.
Blessing: May God fill your heart with joy and with song. May you sing about your joy to the Lord.
Lead the children in singing this quarter’s song, if possible.
Life on Life ©2020 David C Cook. Reproducible for home or classroom use only. All other uses require written permission from David C Cook [email protected]. All rights reserved.
