"I Believe in Jesus" - teaching resources
- 5 days ago
- 6 min read
"I Believe in Jesus" is a powerful Easter (or anytime) song. I hope you love this one as much as I do!
I like to focus on each part of a song for several practices before moving on. This helps the music sink deep into their souls and come out of them with confidence and conviction. The activities listed below are mostly visual/logic activities, but I love using a mix of movement patterns, rhythm activities, and actions/ASL.
If you are short on time, I would suggest teaching everyone the chorus and bridge and having soloists on the verses.
Children LOVE to watch other children sing. The music video is great to show the children during practice or send the link to the parents to watch during the week. You can also turn on captions by clicking the "CC" at the bottom right of the video.
This free download includes images that go with the entire song. The images match the ones in the video.
Instructions:
1. Put the pictures on the board, symbol side facing toward you.
2. Sing through the chorus, pointing at each page.Ā I encourage the children to do an action that corresponds with the image.
3. Immediately sing through the chorus again, turning over every other image you go.
4. Immediately sing through the chorus again, turning over the rest of the images.
5. Bear a short testimony.Ā
I love this activity because it is EASY and FAST, and the children (even the rowdy ones) are very reverent.Ā It is great to use after a complicated rhythm pattern to close out a singing time.Ā **I suggest printing the picture side first, then laying them out and feeding it back through your printer to print the other side.Ā Use a test page for the first one of the "symbol" side to make sure that you are feeding the pages into the printer in the correct order and orientation.
yellow stars: believe or trust (use this as a lesson to explain what these two words mean, how they are similar, how they are different)
purple arches: Jesus
orange "book": stories
aqua gear: learn
grey speak bubble: promise
green arrow: return
blue hand: hands (they might also say, "feel," both could be correct
orange footprint: feet
pink heart: loveĀ
Note that there are no wrong answers.Ā Each child can interpret the symbols differently.
How to use this color code with younger children:
Attach the pictures to the board in the correct order.
Ask the children what they see. What is the same? What is different?
Tell the children that the shapes have something to do with the song.
Sing through the entire song, outlining the corresponding shapes as you sing.
Ask the children what the shapes have to do with the song.
Collect answers, praise.
Ask the children to outline the shapes in the air the next time you sing the song.
Repeat 2-3 times or until the children can correctly identify the shapes.
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I use this the same way with older children, but I don't outline the shapes or ask them to outline them with me.
How to play eraser pass?
On a large chalkboard or whiteboard, draw a 4x4 grid like the one in the PDF. Write the words in each box.
In as few words as possible, tell the children:
1)Erase one word that is NOT in the song
2)Pass the eraser to a friend
3)No talking
Challenge the children to erase all the wrong words before you sing the verse 4 times. Hand out two erasers and start singing. Do not stop between verses. If a child erases a correct word, quietly write it back in the box and donāt make a big deal about it.
After the children have erased all the incorrect words, ācheck their workā by singing the song again and pointing to each word as you go
.Challenge the children to sing only the words in the box while you sing the other words. Then switch. I like to point to the words as we go to help keep us on track.Ā
Why do I love this game so much?
It gives the children a chance to see the words in an active learning experience. They get to hear the verse sung several times before I ask them to produce parts of the song. If you sing it as many times as suggested, they will get to hear the verse 7 times while their little brains are actively engaged. Active engagement will cut down on the amount of time it takes to learn a song. The three words in each box are related. Seeing these words grouped together helps the children gain a deeper understanding of the message of the song without taking time to explain it. Ā Note: I would only use this activity with children who can read, or I would have something else for the younger children to do at the same time.
How to use this code:
1) Print it out (if you have a large group, consider printing "poster size" with 2 rows and 2 columns)
2) Attach to the board in order
3) Ask the children,Ā What do you see? What do you wonder?Ā What is the same?Ā What is different?
4) Collect answers, offer praiseĀ
5) Challenge the children to figure out what the code has to do with the song, then sing just the chorus
6) Ask the children what they learned, collect answers, offer praise (if they didn't figure anything out, sing again, this time pointing as you go)
7) Continue to sing, ask, collect, and praise until the children have the code figured out or it is time to move on
8) End with a 10-second testimony
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**I would use this code with older children or mixed ages, but not young children on their own
This melody map is for the bridge of "I Believe in Jesus."
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How to use this map:
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1) Pint (if I have a big group, I like to print "poster-size" with 4 sheets of paper per page). Cut out the wordstrips. Affix first pages to the board out of order (you can wait to add the wordstrips).
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2) Ask the children: What do you see?Ā What do you wonder?Ā What is the same?Ā What is different?Ā
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3) Challenge the children to figure out what the map has to do with the song.Ā Sing the song.Ā Ask the children what they learned.Ā If they are still figuring it out, sing the song again, tapping a few key notes on the board.Ā Ask the children to help you put it in the correct order.
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4) Challenge the children to figure out what each symbol represents.Ā Sing the song again.Ā Collect their answers and offer praise.Ā Repeat until they have learned all of the symbols.Ā
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5) Ask them how many times the bridge mentions Jesus.Ā Sing the song again.Ā Collect their answers.Ā Check their work.Ā
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6) Challenge the children to match the wordstrips with their corresponding place on the maps as you sing the chorus again.Ā Repeat if necessary.Ā I like to tap children on the shoulder to go up to the board as I continue to sing. You may want a helper at the board in case they need assistance.
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7) Check their work by singing again.Ā This time, ask the children to sing all of the wordstrips while you sing all the other words.Ā Then switch.Ā See if they can sing the words while you sing the wordstrips.Ā
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If you don't have enough time to do all of this, I would split it up into two weeks (1-4 one week and 5-7 the following week).Ā
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I only use this with children who can read.Ā If I were to use this with a younger group, I would keep the maps in the correct order and only go until step 4.
This download includes a scripture/picture-matching activity.Ā Each scripture relates to an image.Ā Ā This activity is probably best suited for a family activity to accompany the song, rather than as a teaching tool.Ā
Do you have more teaching ideas for this song? Please share them below!
Happy singing!
Angie
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