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SSTN # 122 - November 25, 2003


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IN THIS ISSUE OF THE SSTN e-NEWSLETTER:


--> Bloom & Boom - Lessons for Teens

1) Pictures of Jesus, Snowflake Poem, and Copyright Infringement
2) Squanto's Thanksgiving Play   
3) Christmas Bells   
4) Teen Class Tea Party?

--> Christmas FunPak...Order now for the holidays!

5) Happy Birthday Jesus Party?   
6) Classroom furniture?   
7) Story Can
8) Signing / Singing in Sunday School   

--> Christ-filled Ornaments

9) Thanks a Latte?
10) Secret Santa Warning
11) Creation Lessons   
12) Singing In Sunday School   
13) Children of the Lord song:
14) SS director evaluation
15) Ministry Resources?


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--> Bloom & Boom - Lessons for Teens

A girl's and guy's guide to growing up. Practical advice from a Christian
viewpoint about the internal and external changes experienced by
teenagers. Learn more in the Christian Education section of the bookstore
at: http://www.christiancrafters.com/bookstore.html 


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1) Pictures of Jesus, Snowflake Poem, and Copyright Infringement

I have been emailed several times from other teachers regarding the black
and white pictures of Jesus being "shared" on the Internet. What I've been
told is that these pictures are not copyright free and have been illegally
copied and exchanged over the Internet.

Additionally, I was informed that in the last issue of SSTN, the Snowflake
Poem was posted to SSTN without permission from the author, Carolyn White.

Which leads me to make this point, unless an item is marked, "Copyright
Free", then assume that it is a copyrighted work and cannot be shared
unless you have permission from the author, artist, or designer. Even
then, take the time to make sure that the items, songs, lessons, or
artwork you want to "share" are copyright free so that you are not
inadvertently stealing someone else's work.

Thank you for your care in this matter.

Your webservant,
Sarah Keith <><

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2) Squanto's Thanksgiving Play

Check it out on the Skits page at:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/skits.html 

Happy Thanksgiving from SSTN and ChristianCrafters.Com!

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3) Christmas Bells?

Hi, I am a Sunday School Teacher and I am looking for direction to make
bells for the kids to ring out during their Christmas play.  Can you help.
thanks.


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4) Teen Class Tea Party?

I just took over a young girls Sunday School class (11-14).  I remember
reading somewhere about having a tea party to teach manners, etc (bringing
up a young lady).  I had passed it on to my youth pastor, not knowing that
I would soon be teaching them.  Can someone help me find that idea?  Also,
what are some other subject matter that young girls would be interested
in.  I did my first lesson and we discussed peer pressure. I thank you in
advance for any help or website links.
Diane in Washington State

--from SSTN: I seem to remember this book, use keywords, "tea" or
"manners" in the archives:
http://christiancrafters.com/archives.html 
If you find the title, check out the bookstore search box:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/bookstore.html  


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--> Christmas FunPak!

Great for gift-giving or Christmas crafting fun. Click on the "Christmas
FunPak" link in the "Christmas and Advent" section at:

http://www.christiancrafters.com/curriculum.html 


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5) Happy Birthday Jesus Party

>Can anyone give me suggestions for a Happy Birthday Jesus Party for my
>primary Sunday School Class?


We did a Happy Birthday Jesus party last year. We played "Pin the tail
on Mary's Donkey," had a birthday cake, and sang Happy Birthday to
Jesus. We also collected "birthday presents" fit for a baby that we
donated to local families that we found through the local Social
Services office.


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6) Classroom furniture?   

hi,

i need photos or pictures for the above which is suitable for age 3 to 6,
7 to 8, 9 to 10 and 11 to 12 childrens as my church new building will be
ready by next year and we teachers have to find a suitable furniture and
decoration which we can attract the children.

that is why i need some tips and photos.

thank you.
anne
open.@aol.com


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7) Story Can

       Something I have found that my pre school's - 1st graders enjoy is
"story can."  Before class place an object that pertains to the story in a
large tin can. (Example: In the story in the lost sheep, you would place a
toy lamb in the can.) After reading the story pass the story can around,
allow the children to shake the can and  guess what the secret object in
the can is. After everyone has had a chance to guess you open the can and
talk about where and how the object was used in the story.


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8) Signing / Singing in Sunday School   

>hi, I am writing to ask some advices on making singing time more fun for
>the kids ...this is a time were we put all the kids in one room
>(ages 2---13)to sing together before we go each in his class..thanks

We have introduced sign language into our singing class. I contacted the
Missouri Synod Deaf Mission and received VCR tapes that are fabulous. We
have also purchased instruments that the children can play. One more idea,
we found many DVD's  which include the words, music and movements.

Nancy Fidler

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--> Christ-filled Ornaments

Great for Christmas gift-giving or family crafting fun. Get a free sample
and see a video too! Click on "Chrismon Snowflake Ornaments" in the
Curriculum Creatives section at:

http://www.christiancrafters.com/curriculum.html 


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9) Thanks a Latte'?

I am looking for the person who sent in the ideas for teacher
appreciation.  She said she purchased a bottle drink from Starbucks and
attached a note saying, "Thanks a Latte'.
When I was at Starbucks, I only saw the Frappacinos and they had to be
refrigerate:
so instead, I enclosed dry latte' mix packages from the grocery store with
a note thanking the teachers.  Did I miss the boat here or is there a
Starbucks Latte' in a bottle?  The only other suggestion the Starbucks
staff had was a $5 gift certificate.
Any ideas?

   
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10) Secret Santa Warning

The person who wrote in has a very good point.   Believe it or not, I had
this problem when I did the swap with adults!   So after the first fiasco
I (or someone else who was not participating) kept a master list of who had
whose name.   I told the participants that if they did not hear from their
Secret Partner after one month to let me know (if they did not notify me,
then they could not complain).   Then I would contact the person who had
their name and remind them.   Many times it was just an oversight; we
never had a problem after that.   I usually tried to ask each of them
occasionally if they'd heard from their partners, but ultimately it was
their responsibility to let me know.   When dealing with kids though you
might want to make sure the parents know what's going on and remind them
if necessary.
Rebecca

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11) Creation Lessons   

Our class did several different things--for several of the animal/fish,
etc creation days, though, I had the children & their parents find
pictures in magazines & bring them to class so that we could make collages
during Sunday School.

The most fun (& messiest) was the separation of the waters from the land.
I made blue jello in bowls for each child. They then spread chocolate
pudding on part of it for the land, then sprinkles & cookie crumbles for
features of the land & finally coolwhip for the clouds. It was great fun.

Another thing we didn't do but that would work well is to make the black
scratch-off paper (colored crayons on paper covered by black crayon) &
create from the void.

Valerie Heim
St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church
White Plains NY

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12) Singing In Sunday School   

This message is in response to the person who wrote about making song time
more fun. Song time is a great time for young children, and adults alike
to worship the Lord. A good way to keep it interesting for younger
children, is to include a lot of marching or action songs such as I'm In
The Lord's Army, Happy All The Time, Deep And Wide, and so many others. If
you are having trouble coming up with other action songs to see, try
purchasing a CD such as Bible Action Songs For Kids, I do not have a
number available on it, since there are so many with that title, however,
you can search for that title at a music store and you will get all kind
of results. There is also a video tape now (the number on that is:
847400151X) called 25 Sunday School Songs Kids Love To Sing by the Star
Song Communications Group. The cool thing about the video tape, is it
shows children, dancing along and adding the hand motions to all of the
songs on the video tape. This is a great thing to have children dance
along to, or for teachers to watch ahead of time, learn the motions, and
teach them to young children. Hope this helps! Love in Christ, Sarah in
California

--from SSTN: check out the Music section in our Bookstore:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/bookstore.html 


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13) Children of the Lord song

Joyce,
I have that song on an old audio tape from the mid to late 80's. I will
try to find it (I know it is there somewhere) and see if I can get you the rest
of the song. The verse, as I remember it, goes something like "some are
teachers, some are prophets and others sing like angels, but we are all
children of the Lord." That isn't quite right, but close, I believe.

Eric Manlove
Central Church of Christ
Wichita, KS

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14) SS director evaluation   

I received only one evaluation and here it is:

DCE Interview

Looking at Children's Ministry overall for the past year, would you
consider
it to have been generally successful?

Do you feel the families of COS were served in a positive way through the
activities offered by Children's Ministry this past year?

Which activities did you see as most beneficial and why?

Which activities could you suggest improvement or changes and why?

Were the organizational changes made in the Sunday School registration
process, office use, storage use, memory work program, and communications
to
volunteer staff beneficial?

What areas could have been improved and why?

In regards to your CM assistant, overall performance for the year was
poor,
adequate, beneficial, or admirable?

Did your CM assistant improve volunteer staff morale?

In what ways could your CM assistant have better supported volunteer
staff?

Did your CM assistant improve parent/family morale?

In what ways could your CM assistant have better supported
parents/families?

In regards to the education of the children, did your CM assistant improve
delivery or hinder it?

In what ways could she have better brought God's word and the message
contained in it to the children's understanding?

Do you feel that your CM assistant was respected by the volunteers she
supported?

In what ways could she have better reflected serving the Lord to her
volunteer staff?

Do you feel that your CM assistant was respected by the parents/families
that she ministered to?

In what ways could she have better reflected serving the Lord to the
parents
of the children under her ministry?

Do you feel that your CM assistant was respected by COS staff in general?

In what ways could she have better reflected serving the Lord to COS
staff?

If you were to define the ideal CM assistant, what criteria would you use?

Does your current CM assistant follow any of the criteria you listed?  If
so, which ones?

For the criteria that your current CM assistant didn't meet, could you
offer
suggestions as to how she could meet those criteria in the future if
offered
the opportunity?

Do you see some criteria as no way possible in being met by any effort of
man or Gad by your current CM assistant?

If so, which ones? and why?

Do you feel that the future of a positive and growing ministry to the
children at COS is dependent on new leadership?

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15) Ministry Resources?

Dear Sara in CA,

Please share your children's ministry resources with the rest of us. 
I'll take any help I can get :)

TP


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