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.
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.