You’ll love this Jesus Has Risen singing time idea that will get the kids moving and hands on while focusing on the important lesson this song teaches! You’ll find 4 Jesus Has Risen ASL signs cards and lesson plan included in this post.
I think this is a great song to include as part of the 2025 Doctrine & Covenants Primary Songs list! It ties in great with teaching about Joseph Smith’s interactions with the Risen Savior!
** See all Jesus Has Risen Singing Time Ideas here **
Jesus Has Risen Sign Language
How to Play:
Sing through Jesus Has Risen (flip chart here) once before introducing your signs.
Ask the children: What is this song talking about? (Jesus’ resurrection, that he’s alive today!)
Why is it so important to know that Jesus lives? (We can live again too after death with Him)
Because that part is SO important to the song, we’re going to learn 4 signs that emphasize Jesus’ resurrection. Let’s start with the first one – I bet you know this one! Can you make the ASL sign language for Jesus?
Demonstrate the sign and then sing through the song adding the sign language for Jesus whenever you sing the word.
Praise how well they did at including the first sign. Let’s try adding another one! This is the sign for Risen! We’ll sign them together like this Jesus, then Risen when we sing “Jesus has Risen”
Sing through the song making the signs all 3 times for the phrase (plus one bonus reference to Jesus!).
Now, show them the last two signs. We’ll do two more signs in the middle of the song where we sing “He lives again.” They look like this – demonstrate the signs for lives and again. Sing just that line 1-2 times while practicing the sign.
Let’s put it all together! Sing the entire song with all 4 signs. Invite a class to come up to help lead the signs.
Jesus Has Risen Signs:
- Jesus – Take your middle finger from your right hand and touch the center of your left palm and then repeat with the other hand taking your left hand middle finger and touching the center of the right palm.
- Risen – Start with your 1st and 2nd fingers touching your palm. Raise and swirl those fingers up away from the palm.
- Lives – Hold your two hands in fists with your thumbs pointing upward in front of you. Raise them upward.
- Again – Hold one hand out with the palm facing upward. Take your other hand with the fingers close together and bring the fingers to touch the center of the palm with the top of your hand flat, fingers bent at 90 degrees.
Extension Activities:
- Shuffle the sign language cards and let a child come up to pick one. Teach them in the order they are selected!
- Sing through the song this time only singing the sign language words! Now, try again and skip singing the sign words.
- Can you sing the song twice as fast? Try it with singing and signing at double speed!
- For a harder challenge, learn the entire song in Sign Language!
Jesus Has Risen ASL Demo Video
If you want to see the entire Jesus Has Risen song in sign language, there’s a good video for that here.
For another singing time lesson plan using sign language, head over to see this Choose the Right Way Sign Language activity.
Jesus Has Risen Printable ASL Cards
This printable includes 1/4 sheet ASL sign language cards you can use as a visual to help you teach the signs in your Primary.
Members of the INSTANT Primary Singing Membership will find extended printables including a printable lesson plan and full page ASL signs. They will be included when Jesus Has Risen is the featured song of the month in April of New Testament and Doctrine & Covenants years.
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.
Next, head over to this fun Jesus Has Risen Line Match activity for another way to teach this song in your Primary room.
What other extension ideas do you have for this fun Jesus Has Risen ASL sign language activity? I can’t wait to hear how your Primary children enjoyed this activity!
