This easy no-prep Help Me Dear Father First Letters singing time idea is an engaging way to help the kids learn the words and challenge them as they work through a code to crack and a puzzle to solve for those logical learners in Primary!
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Help Me Dear Father First Letters
This is a wonderful activity to help focus on remembering the words of Help Me Dear Father (archives) with a little guidance with the first letters and a few fun symbols. There are lots of ways to add in repetition and it’s no-prep!
How to Play:
Sing through Help Me Dear Father (flip chart here) once before introducing this activity.
Post up the first letter poster for the verse you want to work on up on the board. Let’s sing through the song again and this time you can see what you notice on this poster. See what clues you can find.
After you sing through the song, ask for what the kids noticed. Take one of the answers, such as I see a smiley face or there are arrows pointy up. Oh, yes, I see those too! What could that mean? Let’s sing it again and watch for those symbols!
Continue singing through the song and decoding the first letters chart and symbols.
For example, this line is:
H =) D ⬆ 2 F F / Help me dear Father to freely forgive
Code Key:
- =) reference me/my/I
- ⬆ up arrows are references to Heavenly Father
- 2 references to
- # In the colored version, I added one more symbol to up the challenge. The # references “Help”. It looks like an H but also represents that we can’t do it on our own.
Extension Activities:
- Instead, you can start with posting the first letters and see if the kids can guess the song. Give them 3 guesses. Then, have the music leader play the first line of music and take another 3 guesses. If they still need help, hum along and add some hand symbols.
- Cut out the first letters into strips and have the kids help you get them back in order while decoding. Which one comes first? Then, can you find the one that comes next? Do you notice any that are the same? (The repeating chorus).
- Have the kids alternate singing by word strip – right, left, right, left. Now swap and the left side of the room goes first!
- Pop up and back down quickly every time you sing a smiley face word that references yourself!
After you’ve grabbed this fun lesson plan (grab the PDF below), you’ll also love this unique idea for using First Letters with Actions to teach I Know My Father Lives!
Help Me Dear Father First Letters Printable Singing Time Lesson Plan
This free printable includes a 1-page poster of the first letter puzzle for the first verse.
You’ll find an additional larger color version puzzle and the first letter puzzle for the second verse included in the INSTANT Primary Singing membership when Help Me Dear Father is the featured song of the month.
Get more out of singing time with the INSTANT Primary Singing membership that includes printable lesson plans, tons of extended printables and an ad-free experience for each featured song of the month, or get immediate access to the entire song list for the year!
Learn more about INSTANT Primary Singing membership options here!
Have questions or need more help, see this FAQ page here.
Head over next to see this Help Me Dear Father Hand Bells singing time activity!
Did your Primary enjoy this Help Me Dear Father First Letters singing time idea? Let us know how it went in the comments!
