Liken gardening to growing your faith! This interactive string garden is perfect for teaching for the catchy primary song, The Prophet Said to Plant a Garden in singing time.
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If you don’t have time to put together a string garden. This can easily be replicated using only the clip art images on the board.
Occasionally, it’s fun for me to do a small craft project if I have time … but never feel pressure. There are always simpler ways to convey more complicated lesson plans if need be!
Notice that The Prophet Said to Plant a Garden isn’t on November 2022’s music for singing time’s suggested songs HERE. But it’s a great substitute for Follow the Prophet which was taught earlier this year.
However, if you want to teach Follow the Prophet, make sure to check out my post HERE with lesson plan details!
Make a String Garden
So, back to teaching The Prophet Said to Plant a Garden…
In A Children’s Songbook Companion (more details HERE), it suggests creating a string garden as an interactive visual aid. This is how mine turned out:
I opted for a card stock version rather than a poster board. This way individual kids can hold one in order to operate. It’s also what I had on hand and is easier to store ;).
All the garden images are from Susan Fitch (find more of her work HERE) and are available to download so you can create your own:
Access my printables at my Resource Library. Instructions for accessing my Resource Library are found at the bottom of this post.
Cut out the garden images on card stock and laminate (optional but I HIGHLY suggest!). You then need 6 blue sheets of card stock and 6 half sheets of brown card stock separately laminated (optional but again, I HIGHLY suggest).
I like to keep a package of colored card stock always on hand like this one here (Amazon affiliate link):
Brown is here (Amazon affiliate link):
Or one blue poster board and half of a brown poster board. You also need thick string or yarn.
Punch a hole in the top and bottom of each sheet of blue card stock. Or if using a poster board, punch 6 holes in the top and 6 holes in the bottom of the poster board.
Tape the back of each clip art image to the middle of a long piece of thick string or yarn. Run the yarn through the top and bottom of the holes on the blue card stock and tie on the backside.
If using poster board, make sure to place the images in this order from left to right:
- Rain
- Sunshine
- Seeds
- Carrot
- Tomato
- Corn
Then place the half sheet of brown paper or poster board on top (the soil) and tape the side edges to the blue paper or poster board.
Garden Activity
As an attention getter, show and read this page about President Spencer W. Kimball:
You and the teachers sing the song, have the children listen for words all about gardening. Post the words like I do HERE.
Take answers. The child who answers “rain,” gets to pull the “rain” string garden revealing the rain.
Repeat with the rest of the images, singing the song in between each image being pulled.
Additionally, ask the following directive listening questions. When children answer correctly, they can have a turn pulling on the string garden.
1st Verse Questions
- What did the prophet say to do? [plant a garden]
- What three things has God given us? [soil, rain and sunshine]
- What two things will we have to do to grow a garden? [plant the seeds just right and tend them carefully]
- What will happen before we know it? [good things will grow to feed our family]
2nd Verse Questions
- Why will we plant the seeds? [to fill our needs]
- Then what else will we plant? [a few to spare]
- How will we show we love our neighbors? [with the harvest that we share]
- What do we want others to do? [plant a garden too]
- What joy does a garden bring to happy girls and boys? [health and love]
Bear Testimony
Bear testimony that Heavenly Father has provided us with everything we need to grow a garden. If we treat our faith like a garden, it will grow too!
Check out this quick tutorial video for accessing the Resource Library:
These printables are filed on my Resource Library page under Song Title > The Prophet Said to Plant a Garden.
