One fun game I have planned for this month while teaching Keep the Commandments Sway and Freeze game! Since the song, Keep the Commandments, is all about following the commandments we’ll play up that theme with putting a leader in charge!
Movement is wonderful to use in Singing Time, and we have a whole post on how to incorporate purposeful movement in Primary! For more fun ideas to extend this activity, you can also see this He Sent His Son Sway & Freeze idea here.
*See all our ways to teach Keep the Commandments here!*
Keep the Commandments Sway and Freeze
How to Play Keep the Commandments Sway and Freeze:
Take turns having children lead Keep the Commandments and deciding when to “freeze”.
With a large Primary, you can divide the Primary into groups and have one leader for each group. That might look like a helper for each side of the room, or one per class, or even make small groups and spread out around the room and have everyone take a turn!
Everyone will sway with the rhythm of the song slowly rocking left and right in their spot.
When the leader freezes (stops moving completely), everyone else will do their best to stop as soon as they notice the leader has stopped. They’ll hold in whatever position they were in trying not to move again until the leader once again starts swaying.
You can alternatively simply sway for one line and freeze for the next alternating lines if your group needs a little more structure. Or use this frozen words guide!
Sway and Freeze Alternate and Extension Ideas:
- Have everyone walk slowly in a circle together around the room and play “Walk and Freeze” instead.
- In small groups of 4-6 children, have them form a circle. One child will start swaying while everyone else is still. As soon as they stop, the next child moving around the circle will start swaying while everyone else remains still. Keep taking turns with just one child at a time swaying with the rhythm until everyone has had a turn.
- Freeze on the missing words, then fill the missing blanks to jump instead of freeze!
- Switch it up with a different action. Maybe sit and stand, jumping jacks, or dabs and claps. Let the kids help you pick which actions to do next!
- Silently sing in your head for all the “freeze” parts of the song, then pick up singing where you left off in the music when the leader starts swaying again.
For another additional way to use this activity, head over to see this When He Comes Again Sway & Freeze lesson plan for more ideas and a printable sign!
Keep the Commandments Frozen Words Printable
I’ve included a free bonus 1-page printable of the first verse with “frozen” words! This will help give you structure to know when to freeze and when to sway throughout the song.
You’ll find the 2nd verse, a fill-in-the-blanks version, and a larger print size plus a printable lesson plan all included as bonus printables in the INSTANT Primary Singing Membership when Keep the Commandments is the 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.
Your Primary kids will love this hands-on one of a kind Keep the Commandments Taste Test activity! It dives into why we keep the commandments, even when we can’t always see the reasons.
What other fun ways could you extend this Keep the Commandments Sway and Freeze game?
Fun ideas. Thank you. Question. On the sway and freeze, does the music stop when we freeze? Do we quit singing and then start again when music starts
You can do it either way (or both for variety!)