This year in primary, I’ll be teaching I Love to See the Temple. This was always one of my favorite primary songs growing up and I’m excited to teach it in singing time! As I start teaching this song, I’ll be using this I Love to See the Temple Action Words activity!
Using actions can be a great teaching tool in primary! Junior primary children especially latch onto these actions. These actions are simple and can help your primary kids remember the words as they learn this new song!
More I Love to See the Temple Singing Time Ideas here!
You know that moment when you start singing the lyrics and suddenly you’re singing something different than everyone else?That happens to me all the time with this song. It can be pretty easy to get the two verses mixed up.
Hopefully this activity will help you AND your primary children learn and remember the words to this beautiful song!
I Love to See the Temple Action Words
Using action words to teach a primary song is an excellent way to keep singing time engaging AND help the songs stick in their minds. This movement activity uses some easy hand gestures that represent different words or phrases of the song.
For this activity, I just started going through the song in my mind and thinking about what actions would go best. Some were pretty easy and some might be a bit of a stretch. Either way, it’s something the kids can have fun with as they sing about temples!
I created a printable with cartoon pictures of each action I’ll be using in the first verse. If you plan on teaching more than one verse, many of the actions should be similar. Just print and cut out the pictures and put them up on the board while you teach each new phrase!
Here’s a list of the actions I’ll be using for this song:
– Heart: For this action, use the sign for love by crossing your arms at your chest. You can use this action anytime it says “Love” in the song and the phrase “love and beauty.”
– Binoculars: My kids love this action! Just bring your fingers together to form a circle and bring your fingers to your eyes like you’re holding binoculars. Use this action for “see the” at the beginning of the song (you can skip the heart action if you want to do this action longer for “love to see”
– Temple or House: I actually use the same action for both these words. Bring your fingers together and form the tip of a house with your hands. You can use this action for the phrase, “for the temple is a house”
– Arrow: Use both your pointer fingers to point in any direction. This action can be used for “going there someday.” For another fun action, march in place!
– Hug: Wrap yourself in a hug! Use this action for “feel the Holy Spirit.”
– Ear/Listen: Bring your hand to your ear and make a “cup” shape around your ear. You can use this action for “to listen”
– Pray: For this action, bring your hands together like you are praying. You can also have the primary children fold their arms if they prefer to pray with their arms folded, “to pray.”
– Point at yourself: Use this action for the phrase, “I’ll prepare myself while I am young.”
– Show your Muscles: This one is a bit of a stretch! It takes hard word to prepare for the temple, so you can use this action for “this is my sacred duty.”
Activity Instructions:
- Choose a list of meaningful actions that can be made with your hands. Each of these actions should represent a phrase of “I Love to See the Temple.”
- Choose symbols to represent each action. These can be pictures or icons.
- Begin teaching the first verse of I Love to See the Temple (check out our I Love to See the Temple flipchart!), going phrase by phrase.
- As you teach each phrase, teach the hand action that corresponds with that phrase. Have the children copy the actions.
- Once you’ve gone though all the action words, sing the entire first verse using your action words!
- Continue singing while using the action words or encourage the children to think of some of their own!
Extension Ideas:
- Matching Activity! For a review activity, write out each phrase on one side of the whiteboard and tape up all the action pictures to the other side. Match the action to the phrase and do the action together!
- At the beginning of singing time, place all the action words in mixed up order on the board. Using the pictures as clues, have the children guess what song they’ll be learning. Then, have them try to figure out which actions words should be used as you learn the song.
- Have the children come up with their own actions! Split the room into a few small groups and encourage them to think of some hand actions to go with the song!
For another fun and unique way to use actions, see our I Know My Father Lives First Letter Actions singing time idea!
I Love to See the Temple Action Words Video Demonstration
Check out this I Love to See the Temple Action Words Video Demonstration to help prepare to teach these actions in primary. In this video, I go through the first verse and chorus of I Love to See the Temple using the actions outlined in the printable lesson plan below. Just click on the video or link below!
–> I Love to See the Temple Action Words Video Demonstration <–
I Love to See the Temple Action Words Printable Chart
Here’s a simple 1-page printable chart with all of the action words represented with symbols so you can all follow along with the sequence!
You’ll find a printable lesson plan, larger 2-page action words chart, additional actions for the 2nd verse, and even a black and white version for easy printing. All these extra printables are included in the INSTANT Primary Singing membership when I Love to See the Temple is the featured song of the month.
To access the free in-post printables for this post, you’ll just need to create a free account or login with the Grow.me tool. Then, confirm by email and refresh the page and ALL my free printables will automatically unlock in every post!
For more information on why I use a content lock or how to create your account, you can see the FAQ page here.
For another great lesson try out this I Love to See the Temple Touch the Temple activity!
What actions will you be using to teach I Love to See the Temple this month?
