I Need Thee Every Hour Sing & Reply

Here’s a fun and really easy singing time activity to help you teach I Need Thee Every Hour (archives) to your Primary children you won’t want to miss. In this I Need Thee Every Hour Sing & Reply lesson plan, you’ll divide the room into two groups and battle sing your way through lots of singing repetition! Can you alternate singing every other word, phrase, line, or verse?

*See all I Need Thee Every Hour Singing Time Ideas!*

I Need Thee Every Hour Sing & Reply

Sing I Need Thee Every Hour with this flip chart all together once as you begin this activity. This will help you remind the children of the song you are about to sing before adding a fun challenge activity and is a good way to transition to start the activity.

Put the Sing & Reply pattern up on the board with the alternating color phrases. Divide the room into two groups. You can divide the room simply by right and left or front row and back row or let the kids pick a way to divide the group!

Assign each of the groups to which parts they will sing. Then sing along and help the groups stay with their parts by pointing or switching side of the room as you go through the song. You can invite a child to help you switch sides so you’re not out of breath!

Sing through each Sing & Reply style once or twice, then switch to a new way to split up the group and sing again, or incorporate any of the extension ideas.

Extension Activities:

• Use one of these fun alternate ways to divide up the room: Kids vs Teachers, Boys vs Girls, Older vs Younger (by class), Prefers Dogs vs Prefers Cats, Has a Sibling in Primary vs No Siblings in Primary, or any other fun ways to divide the room your Primary children can come up with! The options are endless!
• With a very young Primary, you could hold up a colored sign to help them know when the parts switch. You can even invite a helper to come up and switch which groups will sing using the color cue cards and switching colors when they want to.
• For a fun challenge, especially for Senior Primary, put the color cards up around the room. Invite the kids to pick a color to stand by. They’ll have to pay attention – all the colors sing at different times! Can they keep up and sing for all their colored parts? To make this easier to lead you can put the two coordinating colors on the same wall with their word posters between them and invite a teacher to help you point between each of the groups. Then, let all the kids switch to a new color of their choice and sing again!
• Invite the first group to sing and use their very best singing voice, and then allow the second group to pick a silly way to sing that they would like to use as their reply. This could be singing with an accent, speaking, humming, singing like a robot, adding an action as they sing, etc. See this post with more than 100 different fun ways to sing to help you pick ideas! Then, the roles reverse. The first group gets to sing silly for the replies with their new choice of ways to sing.

For another fun similar activity, head over to see this The Priesthood is Restored Alternate Singing activity!

I Need Thee Every Hour Sing & Reply Printable Song Helps

This free in-post printable includes a 2-page printable poster of the Sing & Reply pattern that uses every other line for the first verse and chorus.

Join INSTANT Primary Singing for extended printables including additional verses and 2 additional sing & reply patterns, plus color cue cards. You’ll find these bonus files included when I Need Thee Every Hour is the featured song of the month. Find the full I Need Thee Every Hour teaching packet in my shop here.

For another great way to help you teach this song, add some fun movement with purpose with this I Need Thee Every Hour Paper Plates lesson plan.

What other fun ways will you use this sing & reply singing time activity in your Primary room?