One of my favorite Primary Christmas Songs to teach (and I’ve taught a bunch of different ones – see that post linked for over 100 songs to pick from!), Could I Hold the Baby is one of my favorites so far! I just love the sweet innocent questions from a child as if he were there with Baby Jesus that holy night.
In this activity, you’ll ask a sequence of Could I Hold the Baby Manger Questions that come from the chorus of this song as you learn the song together line by line and think about what questions you would ask, too!
Could I Hold the Baby Manger Question
How to Play:
Ask the children to close their eyes and picture baby Jesus in the manger. Picture his Mother Mary there beside him holding his tiny hand. Picture his strong father Joseph holding a lantern light. Can you see them there? Now, think of a question you would want to ask Jesus or Mary or Joseph.
Have the children open their eyes and raise their hand if they have a question. Take a few of their answers and write them up on the board towards the outer edges leaving space in the middle.
Tell them you have a beautiful Christmas song that asks lots of questions that you might have wanted to ask if you were there.
Sing the chorus together, you can use my Could I Hold the Baby flip chart to help.
Did you hear some questions while you were singing? What questions did you hear? Take a few answers and tell them how good of listeners the kids are!
Let’s learn the questions together I’ll share the question, can you follow after me? Put the first question on the board and say it. Then say it together. Sing it, then sing the question together.
Add the second question to the board. Say it. Repeat saying it together. Sing it. Then sing it together. Now, start from the first question and sing both questions one after the other. Praise how well the kids are doing at following along!
Continue to add questions and repeat the pattern of saying, repeating, singing, repeating, and then singing from the beginning. This pattern helps to build the song up as they learn one line at a time and adds in tons of repetition.
At the end, ask the children again to ponder what other questions they would want to ask Him there at the manger and add more responses up on the board.
Chorus Questions:
- Could I hold the baby?
- Will He smile at me?
- Does He know why He is born?
- And what His life will be?
- Could I hold the baby?
- And tell Him of my love?
- How glad I am that Jesus Christ was sent from heaven above!
Extension Activities:
- Hide the question cards around the room and have the kids hunt for them. Can they put them in the correct order? Does the 2nd question come before or after the 1st one you found? And how about the 3rd – where would it go in song order?
- Match the icon pictures to each of the questions. Hide the icons under the chairs and invite the child who’s chair it was on come up to match their picture to the questions.
- Mix in some silly questions and try to find the right questions from the mix.
For another fun similar activity, head over to see this He Sent His Son Questions & Answers singing time activity!
Could I Hold the Baby Question Search Printable Song Helps
This free in-post printable includes 1/4 page Manger Questions from the chorus of this song.
Join INSTANT Primary Singing for extended printables including full page question cards, questions with icons, icons and silly questions for the extension games and black and white printables. You’ll find these bonus files included in the December Doctrine & Covenants packet.
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Continue on next to see this Could I Hold the Baby Dance Scarves pattern and lesson plan for a great way to teach the verse!
What other fun ways will you use this Manger Questions singing time activity in your Primary room?
