Time
20-25 minutes
Description
This object lesson teaches about how God created us all differently. It uses a little bit of water science to illustrate the different music God put in each of us.
Materials
- Ten identical glasses or jars
- Red, blue, and yellow food coloring (optional)
- Fork, spoon or something else you can tap the glasses with to get a musical note
- Water for the jars
- Scotch tape or masking tape
- Sharp marker
- Note card
- Table for the display
Preparation
· Fill eight glasses/jars each with a different amount of water, and set them up on a table at the front of the teaching area. Space them evenly apart with enough room to tap their sides in-between them.
· Fill the last two glasses with the exact same amount of water, and set them aside for later use in the lesson. Do not color the water in these two.
· Test the sound of each jar by lightly tapping it on the side or rim with the fork, spoon or other implement. Each glass/jar should make a distinct sound like the different notes on a scale.
· Use the food coloring to make the water in each jar a different color. You can arrange them in the colors of the rainbow – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet – but you will need one extra shade of color for the eighth glass. (Optional)
· Number the glasses/jars by putting a piece a tape on each one and writing the number on the tape. The fullest glass/jar is #1, and the least full glass/jar is #8. The number goes on the teaching side of the glasses so that the child will be able to see it to play the music.
· On the note card, write the sequence of numbers for playing the songs (see final page of this document).
· Practice the script and using the glasses/jars to get just the right notes.
Procedure
Use the following script (or modify to suit your needs):
- “For this activity, I’m going to need a volunteer.” (Take volunteer from the group.)
- (To volunteer…) “Look at the table, and tell me what you see.” (Listen to response, and comment.)
- “What do you notice is different about all these glasses/jars?” (Listen to response, and comment.)
- “So, they have differently colored water in different amounts, right?”
- “I think they may have another difference, too. Take this fork (or spoon, or whatever), and lightly tap the side of a few of the glasses/jars.” (Allow child to tap two or three glasses/jars.)
- “Did you hear that? They made different sounds!”
- “Does anyone know why that happens?” (Listen for responses, and comment. You may need to offer a fuller explanation…)
- “Tapping the glasses/jars makes them vibrate, and the vibration produces a sound. The water slows down the vibrations, so the more water, the slower the vibrations will be. A slow vibration gives us a low note, and a fast vibration gives us a high note.” (If you are using jars with a small opening, you can also demonstrate that if you blow across the top of them, they will produce sounds, as well. However, the effect will reverse. The jars with the least amount of water will give you the lowest notes, and the jars with the most water will give you the highest notes. That’s because you are vibrating the air this time and not water or the jars.)
- “Let’s see if we can play a song with them.” (Lay out the notecard for the song(s) you selected in front of the child, and help him or her to play the song(s).)
- “That’s fantastic! Can we get a round of applause for our virtuoso musician?” (Lead applause.)
- “Now, what do you think would happen if al the glasses/jars had the same amount of water in them?” (Take responses from group. Then bring out the two extra glasses/jars that have the same amount of water in them.)
- “I think you’re right – they would all make just one note. Let’s test it.” (Have volunteer test the theory by tapping on the two new glasses/jars.)
- “How fun is that? Could you play any songs if all the glasses/jars played the same notes?” (Take responses.)
- “Nope, you couldn’t play any songs. Wouldn’t it be boring if all your music only had one note?” (Imitate what this would sound like by pretending to sing a song with only one note in it.)
- “Isn’t it much better to have multiple notes to play?”
- “Well, I think that is how God feels, too, and that’s why he made all of us so different from each other.”
- “All of us are like different musical notes: we sound differently, we act differently, we look differently from one another, we like different things, we worship God differently, we pray differently, we have different talents and abilities…the list goes on forever!”
- “And you know what? It’s OKAY! In fact, it’s glorious! It’s God’s plan!”
- “One of the things I know about God is that He loves variety. I know that because of how different all of us are and how different all the plants and tress are and how different all the animals are…”
- “God loves variety. He made you different from everyone else, and He enjoys you that way.”
- “One of the traps we get into is wishing we were like someone else. ‘I wish I were handsome like him or pretty like her or rich like them or popular like those people…’”
- “And then we look at ourselves and think, ‘I’m not as good as those other people.’”
- “But let me tell you, that’s nonsense. The things that are different about you give God glory, because they show how creative He is.”
- “So, even the stuff you may not like about yourself could be part of God’s purpose and plan in your life. It could just be His creativity at work.”
- “Instead of not liking that part of you, you should ask God to help you see it the way He sees it. Then one day you will recognize how cool a thing it is!”
- “You uniqueness is like your own special musical note that no one else can play.”
- “So, anyone want to hear another song?” (Allow volunteer to play one to two more songs and then return to his/her seat.)
Notes for Songs
Mary Had a Little Lamb
321 2333 222 355
321 2333 322 321
Jingle Bells
333 333 35123
444 4433 332232 5
333 333 35123
444 4433 355 321
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
11 55 66 5 44 33 22 1
55 44 33 2 55 44 33 2
11 55 66 5 44 33 22 1
This Old Man
535 535 6543234
345 111 12345
522 4321
Teach Them 