If The Savior Stood Beside Me posters

I am posting this extremely late, but I'm doing it anyway, because I am terribly vain and almost sinfully proud of my posters.

Way back in January, I found posters from Because I have been Given Much. On the post, the author talked about Costco and how, apparently, you can take a document and or file to Costco and they will print it out in poster size. I have also seen that this is quite ridiculously cheap. So for those who have a Costco near them -- that's great.

I am not one of those people. The closest one is about 60 miles away.

So plan B - ask local library if they have an opaque projector. And they did!!!!!!! (For those of you old enough - like me - to remember what opaque projectors are you can skip this part - but an opaque projector is an unbelievably heavy bulky object that you can put a page into and it will project it onto the wall many times the original size - kind of like an overhead projector, but the item being projected can be on plain paper - or in a book {this was obviously way before just converting items into digital form and making a power point presentation out of it})

AND they even let me check it out!!!! So I took every day available to wait around until I hurried up at the last minute and made this poster.

I'm not going to say it was easy - because it wasn't. I also used foam board instead of poster board and there is a size discrepancy that is made very obvious with the projector. But I muddled through the focus issues and then cut out the pictures from the one I printed, enlarged them (found that 265% was the best size - through trial and error as you can see the top pic is a bit small) and glued them into their corresponding places.

So the rationalization for this post and showing off my poster - I did this for all verses and it was great. They look great and are on that sturdy foam board and I can store them at church and believe I will be using them later.

But I am afraid that using these posters to teach the song was not the best idea. The kids who can read just read it and the kids who can't really were lost today when we started going over it again (probably because I took a "break" for St. Patrick's day). So when I taught it today, I feel things went quite better. But I only got through the first verse and didn't have time for my game of filling in the words with senior, but I guess I have a filler activity already prepared. (Like I would ever have time for a filler, but maybe I can use it in the summer for review.)

If the Savior Stood Beside Me Mashup

So, I had decided much, much earlier that I was going to do a scratch off word guessing activity that I was actually quite excited about. But I realized that we just didn't know it well enough to do that.

I was kind of scratching my head as to how to really teach the words. Our first week we just kind of glanced over the song and even though we had fun, I left feeling like they didn't really learn it. I went searching for ways to teach.

And there are LOTS of posts on this song.

Here is what I came up with: Primary Notes 29 had a number of posts on ITSSBM, but this post about a cute Easter egg idea had at the very bottom a link to a document that had this idea(that I have altered a bit):
I made 8 (4 for each verse) pieces of paper with large question marks on them (I printed up 1 question mark, cut it out, glued it onto one of my 8 pieces of paper. I then took the paper that I cut the question mark out of and used it as my template to paint question marks on the remaining 7 pieces of paper - because I am cheap and hoard my ink.)

Ask the children to count the number of times you sing about the Savior standing beside you.  Sing the 1st verse and get their answers (2 times).

Point out that the first time you sang it was at the beginning of the song and the 2nd time you

sang it was at the end of the song.

Put a picture of the Savior at the far left side of the chalkboard and a picture of the Savior at the far right side of the chalkboard.

Tell them that in between these two pictures the song asks us questions. Each question starts with

“Would I”. Ask them to listen for how many times you sing “would I”. Sing the verse and get their

answers (4 times).

Post on chalkboard in between the pictures of Jesus 4 papers that have one large question mark

on each of them.

There are 4 questions between the two times we talk about the Savior standing next to us.

At this point, I printed up the OCD Primary Chorister's pictures for verses one and two. I put magnet strips on the back of the question marks and on the back of the pictures.We will talk about each question that corresponds with the pictures. I also printed up these word strips from teachldschildren.com and will use them instead of the pictures for senior primary, but for junior primary, I may still post the words underneath the picture/question mark. And then we will repeat with verse two. Then, if I have time, I will either mix up the pictures and have the kids place them in the right spot or go over which phrase goes with which picture.

I will do the same thing with senior, but if I have time, I am going to do a different kind of game.

I took each verse and printed it up. I divided each verse into two parts. I then picked six key words from each verse.  Then I created a document with blanks for the words and made the blanks for the key words red (I also sized the blanks according to word size: a six letter word would be 6 underline characters). I put those papers (4 in all) in page protectors. I will ask a child to roll a die and then write that many words on the red blanks with a dry erase marker. 

If the Savior Stood Beside Me Game Sheet for Teacher by Laura Henckel

If the Savior Stood Beside Me Word Game by Laura Henckel

Ideas for If the Savior stood Beside Me

(Hand in Hand by Greg Olsen)

If you haven't visited Sally DeFord's site - and page dedicated especially to this song - DO IT NOW! You really won't regret it (well, maybe other than spending all that time listening to ALL the different arrangements)
When looking for an image, I found this post - while it's not really a singing idea, it is a great story about how this song truly applies to life. Whether or not I tell it to the kids, I really like that I now have this perspective
Primary Singing Time Singing Magic has a great flip chart and activity

(Image from Primary Singing Time Singing Magic)

And then, something I am really excited about: A Make your Own Scratch off  Word Game!

My description does not do it any justice, so just go over to Notes From a Novice Primary Music Leader and check it out. If I was able to make the Child of God children, I think I can totally do this.

(Image from Notes From a Novice Primary Music Leader)

If the Savior Stood Beside Me activity from the Friend

Boo
stinking
Yah
is all I can say.
So I JUST posted a post saying that I need to use the Friend more. Then I find THIS. Oh WOW. 

So, five years ago, this song was learned in primary as well. I'll probably use this diorama if the fabulous ladies in the primary presidency don't have the same idea. I'm going to use this for the last week in March (and may bring a game, just in case someone does have the same idea)

Rebus Quandary

(image from religiousness.net)

So, I thought I was doing GREAT and being all plan-aheady and stuff. I started looking for ideas on "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" and found cute ideas on Sugardoodle. Someone posted a cute little poster that she had made with rebus symbols. The only comment on that poster was kind of snarky and blasted her for using rebus symbols.

This has launched me into a mind boggling quandary: (never knew there was a second "a" in that word)
I know I have used hearts to represent the words love or loving, etc.
Now what I want to know - Is that wrong?

So I looked it up. At first I found a question on Mormon Share that linked to another Ensign article (you have to scroll down a bit), but didn't actually say (or at least that I could find) that their quote for the answer was also directly from the Ensign. (That would have saved a LOT of time - but that's okay) {I looked up "rebus" on lds.org and it is apparent that rebus is okay for other uses, just not this one - as many of the links were actual rebus stories}

Reading Sister Hoole's article, it seems as if the rebus issue applies more to abstract concepts:

"I find that memory aids are appropriate when used with wisdom and propriety, but they can also be misused and confuse children or cheapen sacred things. For example, when we want children to think of the gift of the Holy Ghost, we do not want them to visualize a wrapped present.

Another method that I think is frequently misused in teaching Primary songs is the use of rebus symbols—pictures that suggest syllables or words in a phrase. The following are examples of rebus I find misleading: a head of lettuce and an iron depicting the words let us all press on; a picture of a bee and a leaf for the word believe; a spear being thrust into an object for “spear-it”/Spirit; and a wrapped stick of gum for “chews,” as in choose the right. Not only can these rebus symbols make indelible and erroneous impressions on children, but they can also interfere with the learning process. Children mentally replace the real meaning of the word with the meaning of the symbols. The rebus for the words let us all press on, for example, allows the image of lettuce and an iron to take the place of an accurate image of persevering." Okay, I get that. And with this song in question: the word would comes up quite often. After reading all this I would shy away from using a picture of wood since it is a homophone {and more technically a heterograph} that is NOT spelled the same. And I really wouldn't want to be the cause of years of misspelling words.

A picture of a bee has been used repeatedly in conjunction with Gordon B. Hinkely's "Be's" and that seems to be okay. So is a heart in place of the word "love" okay as well?

My current understanding is that moderate and easily understandable and not "misleading" use of rebus symbols might be acceptable, but to do so, I think I would really get on my knees and pray about it. Which I should be doing for EVERYTHING. I guess I just get so caught up in it being such a super fun calling I forget about that key factor.   

So, with that being said I found this SUPER moderate use of rebus poster set on Because I have Been Given Much

(Isn't it pretty?! from http://blessings-abundant.blogspot.com)

With all this internal debate I have put myself through - I am thinking of printing the second poster twice and then replacing the pictures of eyes on the first poster with the actual letter "I"'s on the second poster. (Sorry for not putting in a pic of the 1st poster - but click the link - it's a great poster set!)

What do you think? Am I wrong? Should we not use a letter C for "see" and a mouth for "say"? Should I use words only at one time and then pictures only at others? I personally feel comfortable with the above poster. Would you?