Create a Church With Your Fingers

Using your fingers to make a church with steeple and people inside is fun and easy finger play that is meant to be done while saying a beloved children's nursing rhyme. Children have enjoyed making the finger church for centuries.

Steps

Creating the Church

1. Face your hands toward each other. Hold your hands about an inch apart with your fingers facing upward and your palms both turned inward.
   • The hands will create the church building, and the fingers will create the steeple and the people inside.
   • Your thumbs should remain straight and pointing upward at this stage. They will eventually create the doors of the hand church.
   • Lock your fingers together. As you do so, your fingers should be facing downward. Your thumbs will be the only fingers that are not locked together.
2. Press your thumbs together. The thumbs should fold against each other. They create the door of the finger church. As you do so, press your palms together.
   • Keep your thumbs in straight vertical alignment as you press them together. Your other fingers should still be locked together.
   • At this point, the tops of your knuckles on both hands form the roof of your finger church.
   • There should be no space between your thumbs. Now you are reading to say the first part of the rhyme: “Here is the church.”
3. Point both index fingers upward. Point them toward the sky at first. The index fingers were initially locked together with the other fingers. They will create the steeple.
   • Press the pads of both index fingers together, while still holding them upward. Keep your thumbs still pressed together in a vertical line with no space between them, and your other fingers should remain locked.
   • When you press the pads of your index fingers together, they should form a triangle, with a point at the top. You should say the second part of the rhyme: “Here is the steeple.”
   • Steeples have specific meaning to the church; some historians believe they symbolize Christians’ desire to lift their hearts and minds up toward heaven.

Revealing the People

1. Open your thumbs. While still holding your index fingers together in a steeple formation, swing your thumbs apart.
   • Remember that your thumbs are functioning as the door of the church, so opening them emulates opening the doors of the church.
   • Keep your other fingers locked as you do this. Tilt your wrists slightly upward to show the locked fingers inside your hands.
   • Your locked fingers will be lined up as if they are the people sitting inside pews inside the church.
2. Wriggle the fingers. They represent the people inside the church, who are revealed once you open the thumb doors.
   • It’s more fun for children to wriggle their fingers to show that the people are moving inside the church.
   • You’re ready now to say the final part of the rhyme: “Open the doors, and see all the people.” Moving your locked fingers adds a colorful touch to the “people.”
3. Say the last part of the Write Nursery Rhymes. Many people drop the last part of the nursery rhyme: “Here’s the parson going upstairs. And here he is saying his prayers.” A parson is a member of the clergy, especially Anglican.
   • However, you can add the words at the end if you want. If you do, end your hands with them pressed together in prayer.
   • Press both hands together, with the thumbs pressed together and the fingers point toward the sky. The rhyme is thus a good way to get children to start to pray.
   • The hands in prayer formation are meant to represent the parson praying. If you’re secular, you can drop the last line and prayer hands and just end on the wriggling fingers inside, representing the people.

Learning the Full Rhyme

1. Master the rhyme. Making a church with your fingers is usually accompanied with a child’s nursery rhyme, so make sure you say the rhyme as you make the gestures.
   • The rhyme, in totality, goes, “Here is the church. Here is the steeple. Open the doors and see all the people. Here’s the parson going upstairs. And here he is saying his prayers.”
   • A lot of people leave the last two lines off. It's up to you. The term parson is not familiar to many children, but they will understand this is a leader of the church.
   • Another way to end the rhyme is to say, "Close the doors, and let them pray." Open your hands almost all the way, with your pinkies touching. Say, "Open the doors, and they have all gone away!" This will surprise and thrill small children because it's as if the parishioners have vanished.
2. Learn the rhyme's history. It is part of the Mother goose collection of fairy tales and nursery rhymes.
   • Children in particular love making a church out of their hands while saying this rhyme. It’s also a good way to improve their coordination and use their imagination.
   • The nursery rhyme was probably based on English churches, whose steeples could be seen dotting the skyline of major European cities.
   • The oldest church steeples, sometimes called spires, stand in France on the 12th century Chartres Cathedral.Rhyming is a good way for children to master patterns of speech.
3. Play here’s the barnyard instead. You can use the same finger gestures to make a barn that you open to show the “animals” (your interlocked fingers) inside.
   • The barnyard rhyme is said as follows: “Here’s the barn. Open it wide. Let’s go inside where the animals hide. Here are the horses, here are the cows. They’re eating their dinner and drinking right now. They’ll stay here till night turns into day. When we open the doors, they’ll all mosey away. Out in the pasture, they’ll eat grass and hay. The cows will moo softly, the horses will neigh.”
   • You could shorten the rhyme and simply say: “Here is the barn. Open it wide. Let's go inside where the animals hide. Here are the horses, here are the cows.”

Tips

• Make sure you say the words written above; they are crucial to the overall performance.
• This is a fun activity to show a young child, and they will get a great kick out of it.
• Make sure your fingers are on the inside of the "church", otherwise, it won't work.
• Have clean hands and nice fingernails.

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