Search Ponder and Pray Picture Swap

If you’re looking for a great way to teach this Primary song, you’ll love this fun Search Ponder and Pray Picture Swap! It’s designed with cute keyword posters and swapping two posters until you get all the posters in the correct order.

You’ll also find some fun flexible ways to use these printables! You could even flip them over as a match game!

** See 15 fun Search Ponder and Pray Singing Time Ideas here! **

Search Ponder and Pray Picture Swap

This fun game is a twist on a dropped pictures game where you hold up a set of pictures and drop them on the floor in a dramatic charade, then ask the kids to help you put them back in order.

You can certainly simply do that with this activity. But I’ve designed it with a different approach in mind.

How to Play:

*Downloads are available at the bottom of the post when signed in!*

Sing through Search Ponder and Pray once before introducing this activity.

Pull out your graphics, and exclaim dramatically “Oh, no! My pictures are all out of order!” Can you help me get these back in the correct order?

Hand out 4, 8, or 12 pictures (1^st verse, add chorus, or 2^nd verse) depending on what you’re working on teaching and how many children you have. I recommend 4-8 for Junior and 8-12 for Senior Primary.

Have the children stand up front in a line in a random order. Sing through the song again while the children look for a match.

After the song, you’ll ask them to pick 2 kids to swap. All the rest of the pictures will stay in the same spot, just switching two kids with their pictures. This builds in tons of repetition and makes it a fun puzzle challenge to find the best two to swap!

When you have them all correctly in the right order, you can start over with the cards mixed up again, switch to a new song and activity, or pick one of the add on activities below!

Extension Activities:

Let 1 or 2 helpers rearrange the children (or simply swap the pictures) while the rest of the Primary sings the song. When the images are all in the correct order, then call up new volunteers to hold the posters and start over from the beginning!  

As an alternate, you can put all the pictures up on the board in a random order and swap 2 pictures on the board. This is a great option if you have a small primary.

When the songs are all in the correct order, you can extend the activity by now letting the kids pick one word to SKIP! Put away one of the pictures and have the kids clap instead of the missing word (like B.I.N.G.O.)

Have the kids help you come up with an action to represent the keyword pictures. Add 1-2 actions per time singing through the song.

Bonus idea: Add the 1/4 sheet cards into an envelope and divide the Primary into small groups. Have them work on it together as an unscramble game!

For see the original way to use the simple and purposeful Oops, I Dropped the Picture singing time idea, see our singing time activity for I Will Walk with Jesus Dropped Pictures!

Printable Search Ponder and Pray Picture Swap Lesson Plan

This printable includes a 1-page overview of how to use this singing time idea in Primary! It includes directions of how to play and fun extension activities.

There are 3 sizes of picture posters included. You can print 4-per page size for small primary groups or to use in an envelope challenge!

Or, choose from the medium size with 2 pictures per page or full sheet images depending on your Primary size and how you plan to use them! The half sheet would work great for up on the board and the full page is wonderful to have the kids hold.

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For another super fun singing time idea to teach this song, head over to our Search Ponder and Pray Team Patterns!

What other fun activities will you adapt to use this Search Ponder and Pray Picture Swap ideas?

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