Organize one or several craft sessions in which preschoolers make their own homemade instruments. Students can make drums out of coffee cans and wax paper, or guitars out of cardboard boxes and elastics. Alternatively, students can make tambourines from aluminum pie plates, ribbon and metal buttons, or shakers from plastic cups filled with dried beans. Once the preschoolers finish making their instruments, sing a favorite church song or play a CD with hymns for kids and allow the children to accompany the music.
Teach the song "Jesus Loves the Little Children" (see Resources) both in English and other languages. Based on the multicultural make-up of your class or church, ask adults to teach you the words to the song in another language. Each week, write the words of the song in a new language on the board and teach it to the children. Recruit the adult proficient in that language to help you during the classes. Do not worry if the children are not able to learn all of the words in the new language perfectly; the experience of being exposed to new languages and cultures is valuable in itself.
According to teacher Marianne Sy-Quimsiam, allowing children to paint while they are listening to music encourages self-expression and develops memory. Play recordings of various church songs for kids, while the children finger paint, draw or use tempera paint and brushes. Ask the children to produce a painting or drawing for each song. They should put the song title or number at the top of each page. Encourage children to express to you or the other kids how a particular song influenced their art work.
Combine church songs for kids with basic educational concepts. Place cutouts of different shapes and colors in a circle on the floor. Include one shape for each child in your group. Each shape should be large enough for a child to stand on it. Begin the activity with each child standing on a cutout. All together, sing a short church song like "The B-I-B-L-E" or "He's Got the Whole World in his Hands." As the children sing, they walk from cutout to cutout. At the end of the song, the children stop moving. Allow each child to say the name of the shape and color on which he is standing.