What Child is This? Singing Time Activities

I’m so happy the church included this song in the new hymnal! This would be a fun one to introduce to your kiddos at Christmas time.

What Child is This? Bell Charts

This song is chromatic, there’s no way getting around that, but I have harmony and melody here for you! Click the link above to see them.

When doing the harmony version, you can treat the chart like a “crack the code” and ask the kids what they notice while you sing through the song. It is cool to think that the kids would be making connections in their brain to the song while they are looking at the notes on the page, noticing repeated patterns and words!

What Child is This? Waves of the Sea Activity

No prep activity!

This song would be amazing with junior primary and use your hands like “waves of the sea” to show dynamics. Just make small waves when the song is quieter, and grow your waves with the dynamics of the song. A great way to introduce singing at various volumes to the kids!

What Child is This? Living Pictures

Have different children assigned to portray different visual elements of the story:

• A picture of baby jesus
• A child dressed up as Mary
• 2 children dressed up as angels
• 2 children dressed up as shepherds
• A picture of Christ as a triumphant king

Once the children are dressed up/ assigned to hold a picture, you can hold a large see-through picture frame (I made a cardboard cutout – see my picture for Nephi’s Courage) and move it from child to child — or you can have the children move into/out of the frame and keep it stationary. Just depends on your preference. Because some of these elements are repeated in the song