The Wise Man and the Foolish Man Object Lesson

For a unique way to connect with the message of this song and keep your primary children engaged during singing time, try this The Wise Man and the Foolish Man Object Lesson!

The Wise Man and the Foolish Man Object Lesson

Have you ever made a rainstorm in a jar? With just a few household items, you can create a really cool object lesson to share with your primary children as you introduce or review The Wise Man and the Foolish Man (archives) in singing time this month!

The object lesson I’ll share today was inspired by this indoor rainstorm experiment. I’ve added a few extra steps to incorporate some of the elements from this song specifically, but feel free to skip them and stick with the original experiment if you’d like. Let’s dive in!

Materials Needed:

Quart size jar
Water
Blue food coloring
Shaving cream (the foamy kind)
Sand
Large Rock

How to Play:

Gather all your materials and set them up on a table in the primary room beforehand. At the beginning of singing time, sing through The Wise Man and the Foolish Man with this flip chart once.

Then, tell the kids that you’ll need some helpers for a cool experiment. Do you think we can make a rainstorm in this jar? Let’s try it!

Start by filling the jar about halfway with warm water. Then, pour in just enough sand to cover the base of the jar. The sand should sink to the bottom.

Then, place a large rock or stone in the water. The stone will also sink, but it should cover the sand.

Next, squirt a generous amount of shaving cream on top. *Note: Be sure to use foaming shaving cream. Shaving cream with a lotion texture will work, but you won’t get the same “cloud” effect.

Now for the fun part! Choose a helper to come up and squirt some food coloring into the jar. It will take some time for the food coloring to pass through the shaving cream.

Then, just watch as the blue food coloring passes through the clouds and creates rain! You may even invite a few kids up at a time to watch the rain fall. I’m certain they will be mesmerized! Here’s what it will look like. Pretty cool, right?

As you watch the rain fall, sing the chorus, “The rains came down and the floods came up…” Encourage the children to sing along with you.

You’re probably wondering what to do with the sand and rock at the bottom. You don’t need to do anything at all! Just watch and observe how the large stone remains in place while the sand is moved about by the water.

This is like our testimonies! When we build our testimony on a sure foundation, Jesus Christ, it will not be moved when storm clouds of hardships come in our lives.

Use this object lesson to spark a conversation about the meaning of this song. Invite the children to share their ideas. I am always so inspired when I give the kids opportunities to share their thoughts and ideas.

Although it’s so fun to incorporate a neat object lesson, it’s still singing time! Don’t forget to sing through the song a few times too. Grab a copy of our Wise Man and the Foolish Man flip chart for this song if you are introducing it for the first time.

For another fun similar activity, head over to see this I Need Thee Every Hour Object Lessons singing time activity!

I Need Thee Every Hour Object Lessons - Use a simple object lesson for each verse of this hymn to help your primary children gain a deeper understanding of its meaning. Includes printable song helps for LDS Primary Music Leaders.

Extension Activities:

Create a chart on the board with columns for each of these words: Rock, Sand, Rain, and Flood. Work together to write out what each of these elements can represent within the song.
Are there other comparisons to nature that can be made with this song? Definitely! Watch this Spiritual Whirlwinds video for another cool nature analogy!
During the experiment, have the pianist play the song in the background. At the end, see if the children can guess which song you’ll be learning!