The Sunday School Teacher's Network Newsletter - Great ideas for children's ministry!

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Issue #12 - March 25, 2008 Previous issues can be found in the Archives.	Home \| Search \| Support SSTN
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"For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." -- Jesus
Scroll down the page to view articles. 1) Encouraging Good Behavior 2) Goals for Sunday School 3) Spring Cleaning theme 4) Spring Cleaning theme *Your participation makes SSTN a success!* 5) Teacher training 6) Spring Cleaning Theme 7) In Christ Alone Music Video 8) Rebirth Lessons 9) A Story About Creation
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1) Encouraging Good Behavior I have a suggestion for you: In my classroom I have, hanging in the back of the room, a bulletin board with a chart of the nine circle of Hell. Next to each circle, there are "mini lists" of infractions which might warrant "students" being remanded to said level. Here are several examples: Circle 4: Incontinence, talking during a lesson, hogging a snack (gluttony!) or giving fellow students of the opposite gender inappropriate looks/glances (lust?). Punishment: A "velcro" figure of the offending student is then placed on the 4th circle, representing his/her place there until a suitable restitution is made. This not only enforces good behavior, but also reinforces knowledge of the commandments and personal accountability which is in dire need of enforcement in our secular society. Also, it should be said that my class is made up of gifted HS students. This would have to be an age appropriate decision on the part of the teacher if they want to use it. Inspired by Edward T. Babinski about "Scientific" creationists, that was, in part, my inspiration for the chart. It started as a discussion about the ways in which the bible describes/presents the heavens and the earth. The students also had a part in constructing it and formulating the criteria of each level. Good luck and enjoy! :-) ~~Josephine

2) Goals for Sunday School > How (do I) set up sunday school and get children to come? Here are a few pointers that might help if you do not have a sunday school up and running. you may want to recruit a few teachers to help with the various grade levels and an alternate person to help them out. we have 2 teachers for prek-k and 2 teachers for 1-3rd and 2 teachers for 4-6th. both teachers work out a schedule that will work for them. you may want to have a rally or kick of for sunday school and invite families of the congregation to attend, they can bring grandchildren, neighbors...at the rally, have sign up sheets with phone number, address and emails. offer some trinkets or balloons to give away. we also started a token reward system with "bible bucks" students get these bucks for attendance, for bringing bibles, for participation, etc. at the end of the month or so they can spend their bucks in the super store (filled with goodies and religious paraphernalia). the kids have been excited about using these bucks. the bucks also encourage good behavior during class time. e. you will need to look into a curriculum (group, augsburg fortress, lifeway are a few). we have also varied up the curriculum by offering crafts on the bible story one sunday, games or movie/drama on another sunday as it relates to the bible story so to reinforce the story and also to make it interesting for the kids. also, periodically send post cards to the children and make calls home to stay connected. hope this helps. --from SSTN: Alternating crafts, games, skits and hands-on activities within the weekly Bible curriculum is the standard used by the Bible-4-Life series. Learn more at: http://www.sundayschoolnetwork.com/Bible-4-life.html

3) Spring Cleaning theme You could use All detergent, maybe Dove soap, Gain (my gains I count as losses, Philippians), that’s all I can think of right now, great idea though. You could also do a google image search with the word clean or cleaning supplies and see what other things pop up.



4) Spring Cleaning theme The "Psalms Series 2" lesson has a Soap Cross craft that would coordinate well with your series. You can find it listed in the Sermons and Object talks section at: http://www.sundayschoolnetwork.com/sermons.html Your webservant, Sarah Keith <>< SundaySchoolNetwork.com

5) Teacher training? I am looking for some material to use in training my Sunday school teachers. Does anyone know of creative, hands on material? Example: Telling the Story hand out a parable and have small groups teach the same story in a different way, impromptu group one: one story telling with props Group two: puppets Group three: drama Group four: draw it out Appreciative, Nancy

6) Spring Cleaning Theme > this month, I want to do a lesson on spring cleaning (cleaning up our hearts, minds, environments, etc). > thought of a few cleaning products to use in the object lesson. Shout (laundry detergent), Joy (dishwashing soap), How about S.O.S.? (you might relate to Save Our Souls!) --from SSTN: there's also a section in the site for "S.O.S.-- Save our souls". Find it at: http://www.sundayschoolnetwork.com/game_send_an_SOS.html

7) In Christ Alone Music Video This is an awesome reminder of Easter. Hope yours is blessed with the appreciation for grace that we all have because of Christ Alone. Click here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=8welVgKX8Qo&feature=related Love, The Browns

8) Rebirth Lessons >One of the teachers would like to cover 'Rebirth' throughout the month of April. >Can you please guide me on this quest, any information would be helpful. I have written a lesson that I used a couple of years ago. I taught this lesson to K-2nd graders. You may adapt it to whatever age group you have. Editor's note: You can access this lesson on "New Life in Christ" in the Easter Season section at: http://sundayschoolnetwork.com/sermons.html

9) A Story About Creation Let's suppose two brothers are on a hiking trail in the wilderness, and what they find along the path is this, on a piece of very thin paper. Let's suppose they had never received any formal education about religious matters. "Brother, what did you pick up a little while back? Why do we stop here?" "I found this piece of paper on the trail. I think it's important." "How so?" "It's about the creation of God." This is what the piece of paper looked like: Chapter I IN the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. " I think it's a part of a book, because at the top it says 'Chapter I'." "Maybe there's more. Let's look around." They looked and looked along the trail. They looked under the brush. They looked in the sunlight. They looked in the shadows. They even looked under some rocks, but found no more. The afternoon sun was warm, the shade was cool. The air was clean. The birds were singing. The mountains were overlooking the sea. The deer had been seen and the elk. They had been fishing the day before. Though they spent time along the trail searching, they found no more. They stopped and read it and thought about what it meant. They studied it there awhile. "I wonder what the light is. Do you suppose it's sunlight?" "I can't tell. I suppose it could be, if God made sunlight before the sun." "Could it be another kind of light?" "I suppose it could, but what kind, I don't know." "Does God need light to see? I think not." "Wasn't it done for our sake then?" "But what can we see?" "I see a pattern." "Does God speak in patterns?" "If he does, I wonder what he's saying." "Is God talking about the future?" "Why do you ask?" "Haven't we seen this kind of thing repeat around us, this 'evening and morning' ?" "Yes we have. Could it mean anything else?" "What do you mean?" "I was just thinking.....'What if this light isn't just sunlight? We've seen sunlight repeat it's task morning after morning, for God gave it that work to do, but what if it's something else?" "Why do you consider that?" "Because we determined already that God doesn't need light to see, and I heard you say once that some people are 'in the dark'. If people can be 'in the dark' as you say, Is it possible that men could be found walking in the light?" "And this light could be something we don't see?" "Yes, in a sense. Didn't we read that it came from the Spirit of God?" "Are you thinking that it could be some kind of knowledge of God, like some kind of revelation of God? Could it be something telling us what God is like, or something about God?" "I wonder what God is like. Is he like a person who walks in the light?" "Yes, I think God is like that." "Is God a person? We determined that he could be like a person." "A particular kind of person." " One who walks in the light." "Yes." "Could this light be a person, or a .....being?" "I suppose it's possible." "What kind of being do you suppose?" "I was thinking about what you said about patterns, as we considered that God might speak in a pattern that repeats." "Do you see another pattern?" "I see another type of pattern, a repetition of life around us, that has been repeated over and over again. It's how men multiplied on the earth." "I see what you mean." "Could God have a Son?" "Might he have been with God from the beginning?" "I suppose, but then again, maybe God was speaking of the future." "...That God would have a Son at a future time?" "Yes, that's what I'm thinking." "I suppose it could be one or the other." "I wonder if it could be both." "Do you mean both 'in the beginning with God', and also one who is born of the water as we all have been?" "Yes. Maybe this one is the light that was born of the water, by the word and spirit of God, like the pattern we've seen here." "I wonder what his name is." "I've heard men talk about Jesus." "Did God foreshadow?"

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