Primary Chorister | Hubbard's Cupboard

Update #1 7/6/2014 @ 3:00 pm: I just got back from church and I am overwhelmed with how well this worked out. Every child from nursery to senior primary got to baptize Jesus, granted it was a holiday weekend so the primary was small, but I sang the baptism song over 30 times today. I found a better container to represent the river and the puppets survived being immersed so many times. The water turned slightly yellow after everyone dipped their hands in it but someone commented “well, at least it’s a better representation of the Jordan River!” (since the Jordan River is a dirty river)…. LOL! I also made a stand for John the Baptist so he can just stand in the river the whole time. I made it using two popsicle sticks and hot glue. Everything worked out perfect. I felt the spirit so strong today during primary. The kids were engaged and SOOOO excited to baptize Jesus. I asked the kids questions about baptism before we started singing and they had a lot of great insight! This idea came to me after I was praying one night about how to teach the kids about baptism. Update #2 7/13/2014 @ 9:00 am: I’ve added a few printables for the second verse of the song. Scroll down to see it. Stay tune next week for the third verse!

Update #3 7/20/2014 @ 6:00 am: I’ve added my ideas for the final verse. THANK YOU Susan Fitch Design for providing the art for the baptism boy or girl. I’ve also realized after doing this for 2 weeks that this baptism idea works best for Jr. Primary and Nursery. The Sr. Primary is a little bit too old and cool for this. I thought I may be playing Baptism Hangman with the Sr. Primary today. Where I put a lines for a word on the board and then draw a man on the board and every time they get a letter right the guy can be lowered a little bit more in the water until he is baptized.

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I recently got a new calling as primary chorister. I’ve been doing it for about a month now. I haven’t spend much time on social media this month unless it’s looking up ideas for singing time. This month the song is “Baptism” in the Children’s Song Book. I got the idea to teach the kids the lyrics to the Baptism song using laminated stick figures. I couldn’t find the perfect pictures online so I had to make my own drawings and enhanced it with Photoshop. ( Sorry I’m not the best artist but feel free to use these drawings for you own projects and I’d appreciate the link up!) So I’m going to print these out, laminate them, then put them on popsicle sticks. I’ve attached the color and B&W versions. If you don’t have a laminator you can use clear tape.

John the Baptist Cartoon Black and White

I’ll have the kids help with the stick puppets but basically I’ll just go through each line of the song of the first verse:

-Jesus came to John the Baptist (Put the Jesus and John puppets together)

-In Judea long ago, (Put the puppets by a Judea map such as the one below)

-And was baptized by immersion (Put John and Jesus puppets in a container of water and have the kids help baptize Jesus in the water)

-In the River Jordan’s flow. (Label the container of water “Jordan River”)

First , I’m going to ask the kids “why do we have to be immersed in water?” and not just sprinkle or showered in the water. (Because that is the proper way and it’s a symbolism of full conversion, covenants with God and full cleansing).

Then I’m going to ask the kids “why did John the Baptist have to be the one to baptize Jesus?”. (Because he had the priesthood authority and Jesus was being obedient to God).

Hopefully someone else can use these pictures too since I spent the time making them! This also works as an objection lesson on teaching kids about baptism by immersion for FHE or Primary Lessons or Sharing Time.

Please share your thoughts and ideas!

Judea map picture credit: http://bibleatlas.org/area/judea.jpg Second Verse: Use the speech bubbles to tell the story of the second verse. Use these speech bubbles along with the stick figures.

“To fulfill the law,” said Jesus

When the Baptist questioned why

Talk to the children about “What is the law?” (Answer: All the commandments of Heavenly Father such as commanded to be baptized.)

“And to enter with my Father in the kingdom up on high.” Cut out the door and have the Jesus puppet go into the temple. Then talk about why you need baptism to “enter into the kingdom”. The size of this picture is 11″ by 16″ but I’ve divided it into 8.5″ by 11″ below so you can print it on two sheets of paper. You can paste this temple onto a cardstock or cardboard box so it can stand up.

Third Verse:

I found these cute little baptism boy and girl on Susan’s Fitch Design. She is an amazing artist. You can go to her website to download the art for free. The third verse is an application verse. So when I call up a volunteer, I will give them a boy or girl depending on their gender then I will tell them to pretend that the puppet is them when they are 8 years old. This will definitely only work in Jr. Primary. The faith and obedience signs are optional sometimes I think it’s better to keep it simple.

Now we know that we must also (Give a boy or girl puppet to the child)

Witness faith in Jesus’ word, (Hold up faith sign)

Be baptized to show obedience, (Baptize the boy or girl puppet in the water then ask another child to hold up obedience sign)

As was Jesus Christ, our Lord. (Hold the boy or girl puppet next to the Jesus puppet that was used in the previous verses)

Then talk and ask questions about faith and obedience. Emphasize that we choose to get baptize when we are 8 years old so we can do what Jesus did. Remember this is the application verse of the song.

Good luck! I’ve been overwhelmed with all the nice comments. I would love to hear your stories about this activity!