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SSTN # 111 - December 30, 2004
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IN THIS ISSUE OF THE SSTN e-NEWSLETTER:
Tsunami Tragedy...help today!
1) Wiseman Costume Solved
2) Seven days of creation
3) Tongues of fire
Premium Club Membership
4) New Year's Craft: Joyful Noise Castanets
5) Burned Out (For Holly)
6) Christmas Under Attack
7) January craft ideas
8) Objection to phrase
9) Decorating preschool classroom?
10) Removing Christ From Christmas
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Tsunami Tragedy...help today!
The magnitude of the Tsunami tragedy requires the entire world to unite to
help the people affected by it. We MUST help! The following links are
agencies where you can send your financial support:
http://www.networkforgood.org
http://www.er-d.org/newsroom.htm
http://www.pcusa.org
http://redcross.org
http://www.salvationarmyusa.org
There are other churches and agencies. Choose one that you can give to
today!
Your webservant,
Sarah Keith <><
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1) Wiseman Costume Solved
Sarah,
Thank you so much. We used your idea of the material with a hole cut out
for the head. We used pillow cases for the head wraps with broaches on
them. Our play was wonderful. It was the first play for our church in 16
years and such a blessing. I enjoy reading your mail everytime I come
online. Thank you for taking the time to offer help and encouragement to
people like me who are trying to do God's will, but need a little help
from others on how to do things. I have never worked with youth/children
before and my husband and I have been youth leaders for the last year and
have thoroughly enjoyed it. We now offer 2 SS classes, Youth on Friday, We
had the first Bible School in 25 years and now the Christmas Play. It is
amazing how God can make a difference in your life and it's also wonderful
to have a place to go to find ideas to keep things fun for the kids.
May God Bless you richly in the coming year.
Love,
Michelle Perry
Piney Grove UMC
Knoxville, TN
--from SSTN: you are welcome. What a wonderful encouragement to know that
SSTN and ChristianCrafters.Com is helping your ministry! There are more
costume ideas pending! Keep reading SSTN and know that all these ideas
will be placed into the archives for future years to come:
http://christiancrafters.com/archives.html
Your webservant,
Sarah Keith <><
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2) Seven days of creation
We just finished teaching creation to our pre-K/Kindergarten class! God
demonstrated His creativity to me personally through the ideas He gave me
for this unit. Over the course of 4 Sundays we made a creation book and
learned a song to help w/ memory retention. Our scripture memory was
Psalm 118:1.
We only assembled the book on the first Sunday--I had folded 4 sheets (22"
by 8 1/2") together to make an 8-page book (11" long and 8 1/2" tall) and
punched two holes in the fold. The children laced yarn through the holes
and tied the book together. They traced around a dessert plate on the
front page and used blue and green crayons to color "earth". Later I
wrote Genesis 1:1 around their earth drawing. Older children could write
it themselves...
The top of the book has tabs: About an inch below the top edge of the
front page, I drew a line all the way across. The children cut that top
inch off the front page. After I realized what a huge feat that was for
the children, I did the rest of the tabs at home! The second page I did
almost the same thing, except that I started cutting about 1 1/2" to the
right of the fold--this made the first tab and on it the children wrote
the number "1" for the first day of creation. The third page was also cut
at the top, except it had about a 3" tab at the left. The fourth page
gets about a 4 1/2" tab; the fifth would get a 6" tab; and so on.
After cutting each page (the last page is not cut at all though) and
closing the book, you can see what looks like 7 even-sized tabs at the
top. The children write the numbers 1 through 7 on each successive tab so
that they can open up to any day they like very quickly.
Before the second Sunday, I drew on their Day 1 page a four-sided
starburst w/ a highlighter pen. If you can think of something better for
indicating that God created light, let me know! I thought about having
them glue in a magazine picture of a lightbulb, but then I wondered if
such literal little people would read their creation books and think that
God created light bulbs on Day 1! So the second Sunday we worked on Days
2 & 3. For Day 2, they colored sky and water w/ blue crayons and then
glued cotton ball pieces (I stretched them into little wispy clouds) onto
the sky. It is hard to resist drawing the sun or birds, so I only put
blue crayons on the table at this time. We talked about God's order and
why He made the sky and water before He made the birds or sun... For Day
3, the children traced around their wrist and hand w/ a brown crayon to
make a tree trunk. Then they glued on foam leaves! They also added
stickers of fruits and veggies to this page.
The third week we worked on Days 4 & 5. They drew lovely moons and suns
and added star stickers all over. At the craft/hobby store I've seen
jewels in moon and star shapes... I bet you could find confetti in these
shapes. For Day 5 we used stencils, stamps/ink, stickers, magazine
pictures, feathers, and foam shapes for the birds and fish.
The last week of the month we finished up w/ Days 6 & 7. Day 6 was a lot
like Day 5, with all the same type media. I had wanted to have photos of
each child to glue in, but that roll of film got lost somewhere and I'll
just have to take their pictures again! I encouraged them to draw their
families and their favorite animals. Day 7 will probably cause them to
think that God created babies on the last day, because I provided magazine
pictures of sleeping babies for God's day of "rest". Maybe you can come
up w/ something better than that too...let me know!
On the back of the book I wrote the month's scripture verse. Of course
they wrote their names on the front.
Now for the song! On the inside of the front cover of each creation
book I wrote: "On the [first] day of creation, God spoke and it was
good..." and underneath I wrote: "(sing to the tune 'The Twelve Days of
Christmas')". On Day 1 I wrote " 'Let there be light'--the first day."
Day 2: "Water and sky". Day 3: "Land, fruits and veggies". Day 4: "Sun,
moon, and stars". Day 5: "Fishes and birds". Day 6: "Animals and
people". Day 7: "Rest from your work". Sing it in the same way you do
the 12 Days... AND we did some hand motions w/ the song. You can make up
your own... This way, I was sure to catch every learning style and was
reinforcing the story week after week.
Hope these directions make sense--I know what I mean! And I don't have
any way of sending a photo, but I have some extra books if you'd like me
to mail you one...
Happy creating!
Stephanie
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3) Tongues of fire
Have you seen the fox tail? Check out http://www.klutz.com/ on their
"outdoor games" page and see if those don't inspire you... I think you're
onto something w/ the beanbag idea. Parachute-type material. Or maybe
even just crepe paper streamers.
Stephanie
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Premium Club Membership
Early release for SSTN members!
Learn how this will help you and your ministry at:
http://www.Christiancrafters.com/PM_learn.html
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4) New Year's Craft: Joyful Noise Castanets
Check out my latest New Year's craft, "Joyful Noise Castanets" at:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/page6.html
Your webservant,
Sarah Keith <><
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5) Burned Out (For Holly)
In response to maybe help the person who have problems with burnout..
We had the same problem. The year that I took over as Director of our
Sunday School every teacher except 1 decided that they were to burned out
and they didn't want to come back. I told everyone who was burned out to
take a break for a year and if they wanted to come back the next year that
would be fine. Of course that left me with only 1 teacher... But, I put
it in God's Hands and miraculous things started to happen....
What we did was change the way we do our Sunday School by incorporating
what our congregation has as a personal passion. We started rotation using
puppets, drama, movies, crafts, storytelling, science, cooking, music and
games. What is really cool about this program is that it allows a
congregation member to use their skills / passions to teach the children.
As of today, we actually have a waiting list of people who want to teach.
If you are interested in finding out more about this program... go to
www.rotation.org and see how awesome this program is. If you would like to
know more or I can help... email me at nfsheltie@comcast.net and I would
be happy to help...
In Christ
Nancy
Sunday Kids Club Director
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6) Christmas Under Attack
Amen and amen. I agree with you. Just this morning I heard that the
voters in Mustang, OK spoke up! The school decided not to have a nativity
in their program this year (although they had symbols for Hanukkah,
Kwanzaa and a Christmas tree. The Christians said "you have every other
symbol, but not one for Christians" The voters voted DOWN a bond issue to
build a new school. Way to go Mustang!
I've noted that even atheists do not turn down a day off on Christmas.
Teresa Bohannon
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7) January craft ideas
I think bird feeders are great January crafts! :o) You can find many
ideas
online~ just type in "bird feeder craft."
Angie<><
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8) Objection to phrase
>I have three children, all very different..from two marriages. I have a
>daughter who went through all the normal
"p--- mom off" stages who is 24
Sarah-do not think this phrase was necessary or appropriate to be on this
site.
Evelyn
Jesus is Lord and is coming again.
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9) Decorating preschool classroom?
After teaching my class of 5 preschoolers in a common room I have been
told that we will be getting our own room after the first of the year. I
would like to have idea's from how to set up my room to how to decorate
it.
Thanks,
Margie
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10) Removing Christ From Christmas
Sarah, I agree with you about what to do next year and am going to forward
this to all my friends. The moment I heard about target stopping the bell
ringers, i sent them an e-mau\il telling them I am boycotting them.
I
will not buy from any store who tries this. If we all stick together, we
can make a difference.
Blessings!
Helen Setser
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