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SSTN # 103 - October 11, 2002
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IN THIS ISSUE OF THE SSTN e-NEWSLETTER:
--> Instant Christmas Plays
1) Bus Ministry
2) Used Curriculum-lectionary based
3) Ideas for baby gift
--> FUN-draising
4) Baby Gift Idea
5) Baby Gift Idea
6) Baby Gift Idea
--> God's Top 10
7) Gift for pastor's wife
8) Getting Helpers in Sunday School
9) Ideas for baby gift
10) Jonah ideas
11) Ideas for Baby Gift
12) Jonah ideas
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Instant Christmas Plays
Find easy-to-produce, instant Christmas Plays in our Bookstore-Skits
section. AND, when you purchase two or more books from the BOOKSTORE*
shipping is FREE! For product descriptions, go to this page:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/bookstore_games.html
* Free shipping applies ONLY to items purchased
from the Bookstore section of the site.
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1) Bus Ministry
A church I used to attend had a bus ministry, of which I was a bus
captain. We had lots of contests between the captains...the one with the
lowest average one month had to take home a goat for the day! (it wasn't
me!)Lots of special days / promotions for the kids, too. And we always
included ALL the children who attended Sunday School (whether they rode
the bus or not).
Here is one place to check out info for bus ministries:
http://www.electrosnap.com/Bus/Bus.htm
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2) Used Curriculum-lectionary based
<< I am searching for used curriculum, Whole People of God, or ANY lectionary based curriculum for year A, preferably multi-age or youth oriented.
>>
Are you sure it's year A you want? We're in Year A now, and it ends on
Nov. 24 (Christ the King). Then we start year B. You can reply to me at
belric@compuserve.com and I'll see what I can dredge up from the Sunday
school cupboard for you.
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3) Ideas for baby gift
You could cut out 4 x 6 sections of poster board
then have each student draw a picture or give advise to the new baby.
Then punch holes in the sides, lace them all together to present to your
pastor's wife. Or wait until the baby is born, collect newspapers and
magazine articles or web news articles. Make a collage of things that
happened on the baby's birthday, put into a frame or scrapbook to present
to the mother.
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FUN-draising
This holiday season raise funds for your youth group or school,
or earn extra cash for yourself by selling our popular crafting book,
Chrismon Snowflake Ornaments! There is NO financial risk.
Learn how on this page:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/fundraiser.html
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4) Baby Gift Idea
When my co-teacher had a baby, I sent home a letter to the parents asking
them to purchase one inexpensive baby item ... I gave suggestions as a
rattle, baby lotion, bib, etc. I suggested that many small items can be
purchased at a dollar store, and I asked them not to spend more than $2.
The kids all brought the items in on the same day and we made up a gift
basket ... I brought in a big basket with tissue paper and we filled it
and
wrapped it in colored saran wrap. For "cards" I asked the children to
draw
a picture for the BABY and it could be whatever they wanted but it had to
show the baby that God loves him. The kids had SO much fun creating the
huge basket and also loved thinking up a picture showing God's love. They
did a super job!!! And my co-teacher was SO surprised and loved it all,
too. She's putting the pictures from the kids in the baby's scrapbook.
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5) Baby Gift Idea
Here is a great baby gift idea. I saw it on display in the
fabric department of a large retailer. This is a "no sewing
needed" baby blanket. They took two pieces of polar-tec fleece
fabric and cut them to baby blanket size. One piece of fabric
was printed with pacifiers, rattles and had "baby" scripted in
the print. The other fabric was a solid pastel color to com-
pliment the print fabric. There is no right or wrong side to
fleece fabric. The two pieces were faced together and at the
edge of the fabric spaced every one and a half inches was a three
inch cut into both fabric pieces. This gave the entire piece a fringed
effect. Each piece of fringe was one inch wide. The top and
bottom fringe piece was then tied into a knot. That fastened
the two (top and bottom) pieces together making one very warm
baby blanket. There was also a matching stocking cap on display.
A matching piece of the solid pastel fleece was cut using a small
lamp shade as the pattern. Again at the smaller end of the shape,
narrower fringe pieces were cut into the fabric about three inches
deep but only about 3/4 of an inch apart. The sides were sewn
together and the top of the hat was tied together with a piece
left over fleece. The wide end of the hat was rolled up stocking
cap fashion. This was a real eye catcher on display. It would
seem like it would be a great easy project. Hope this helps.
"Go in peace to love and serve the Lord",
Carolyn Hanneken
Villa Ridge, MO
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6) Baby Gift Idea
Have your children make a scrapbook of pictures for the baby. The pictures
should be colorful and be simply one object on the picture (not a scene).
For example: animals, food, people, sports, etc. Laminate the sheets so it
stays clean. I had a book like this made by someone and my child
repeatedly
loved to look at the pictures. It was great to teach words. Even when my
child could not talk, they could point to the picture on the page that I
asked them to find. Have the kids sign their names and perhaps their
pictures on the last page.
Phyllis
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God's Top 10 - Understanding God's Love In The Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments contain many "Do Nots". They teach us God’s holy
standard and show us how far we fall short of his perfection. But they are
more than this; in these "Do Nots", I believe one can find a positive
message: a message of God’s love. (For Kindergarten to 5th grade)
Click below to learn more:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/curriculum.html
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7) Gift for pastor's wife
How about a set of picture frame christmas tree ornaments that say "baby's
first Christmas", "baby's second Christmas" etc...I don't begin to have an
idea of how to make the frames but there are so many ornament craft ideas
out there that you can look for that it should be easy to come up with.
This way a two or more SS kids could work on one or each child can do
their own depending on how many children are in the class. They can be
given as a set and then each year the baby gets older the parents can put
the child's picture in the next year's frame and hang a new one on the
tree each year. Just an idea that popped in my head as I read your post
and I might use it myself for a shower gift! I am always looking for new
original shower gift ideas. Thanks for inspiring this one in me!
God bless you today and always.
Beth/NY
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8) Helpers in Sunday School
This will not be popular, but God is the helper of Sunday School. I know
that having Sunday School can be a burden for some at times. And yes,
maybe it is a good idea to have lessons ready at times for fill-in
teachers. However, it is better to find the people who are willing to
subsitute then "just pull people from the congregation". If we did this,
then we can just take anyone, man, woman, boy or girl, regardless of
belief to preach in the pulpit. We surely don't wan't someone who drinks
or has sex whenever or other things that are unchristian to teach our
children. Maybe a mom who loves kids and says she loves God and is a
stripper but because she "wants" to fill in at times", then we let her
have her way with the kids. What happens when the kids find out what she
does for a living. I have an example. This happened to one of my SS
teachers at our church. "Her husband before he got saved and lived for the
Lord, told her to go to the store and buy him a beer. Well, she thought
that she would go to a store that noone could possibly know her. But
guess what, one of my bus kids, who was in my Sunday School class at my
church, saw her. Now we teach that drinking is wrong. This child who was
4, asked her if she was going to drink this. She told her "no" that it
was for her husband. The damage was done. Because of this we lost this
family. Now I know that some people who are not saved are trying to find
a reason not to come to church and stop their kids, but this shows how
things work. I don't want to be one when I get to Heaven to be asked of
the Lord, "How come I pushed a child away from church?" This kid may have
grown up to be a Preacher, a Sunday School Teacher or even a servant of
God. I think this would be cool. I am sorry if I am fussing. If you want
to talk, then email me:
thekingskid@comporium.net
Thanks,
Nancy
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9) Ideas for baby gift
Here's an idea if you already know the baby's name. Make a construction
sized banner with the name. let the kids glitter and put sequins on it.
If you don't know the name you could put "a special baby"
-SKL
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10) Jonah ideas
The first thought that popped in to my head was...The new Veggie Tale
movie that comes out in theaters on Oct 4th. What a great field trip to
go along with your unit. I'm sure that there are a lot more creative ideas
out there, but that's what immediately came to mind.
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11) Ideas for Baby Gift
Our Sunday School children love to make quilts for special people. We
cut white squares for them (You can use a sheet for this). Tape the
square on a table with masking tape covering all sides by about an
inch. THis way you have a nice margin to sew. Then let the children
decorate their own square using permanent markers. They could draw
pictures or send messages to the family.
Collect all the squares and hopefully you will have some sewer in the
congregation who could put them together to make a quilt. We are lucky
in that we have a quilters group to do this for us. The quilt could be
displayed in the baby's room if they don't want to use it in the crib.
Linda,
Lord of Life Lutheran Church
Schaumburg, IL
--from SSTN: Hi Linda: I was in Schaumburg, IL last October attending an
Evangelism Conference at Willowcreek. What a beautiful city! AND what a
great experience!
ysic, Sarah Keith
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12) Jonah ideas
I think you may already have found this idea in the archives,
(
http://christiancrafters.com/archives.html
) but I used it
with great success. Make a "whale" out of dark plastic garbage bags ( I
covered both ends of a short hallway with plastic bags, a large closet
would
work too...if you have lots of kids, take turns). Hang "seaweed" (long
strips of soggy paper) from the inner walls of the whale. Scatter wet
cotton balls around the floor (you never know the bits & pieces you'll
find
in a whales stomach!) Get a can of anchovies (Only partly opened, all the
way open is TOOO much!) and stick it just outside the back of the whale.
Have a fan going at the back of the whale (on the outside of course) on
low
setting. This makes it both chilly and carries the smell through the
whale.
Have a spray bottle of water that you (or, ideally, have a helper do this
part) spray into the air in the whale to make it misty. For the lesson,
we
started outside the whale, with the lights all off. Have a few
flashlights.
I began telling the story of Jonah, having the kids act out the rocking of
the boat on the waves, then when Jonah is thrown over board, we climbed
into
the mouth of the whale. The kids loved it! It was smelly, dark, and just
scary enough to be fun. We continued the story once inside, and focused
on
how Jonah felt, what he went through, and how he prayed (we even had each
kid say a prayer). Our point to the story being how Jonah relied on his
faith and trusted in God to get him out of an impossible situation.
Whenever we are scared, alone, and afraid, we have God there with us, and
he
will help us if we trust him. Before leaving the belly of the great fish,
we sang "My God is So Big" and "This Little Light of Mine". For a craft
after wards, I had prepped a bookmark out of fun foam with a fun foam
whale
the kids glued to the top, with "Salvation comes from the Lord" ~ Jonah
2:9
on the bookmark. The kids decorated them with their names & 3D paint
pens.
It was a super fun lesson, for me and for the kids. Lots of prep work,
but
well worth it. I have my supply list & lesson outline if you want them,
email me drkatz@telus.net and I'll send them to you!
May your teachings be blessed!
In Christ's love, Kristine <><
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