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


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Issue #15 - April 15, 2008 Previous issues can be found in the Archives.	Home \| Search \| Support SSTN
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Scroll down the page to view articles. 1) Decorating the Sanctuary 2) High School Skits? 3) Getting God's Word into Kids 4) Decorating the Sanctuary 5) Decorating the Sanctuary 6) Decorating the Sanctuary 7) Access to All S.S. Resources? 8) Praise Lesson 9) Parent Day?	Your participation makes SSTN a success! Send comments and ideas to: sstn@sundayschoolnetwork.com
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1) Decorating the Sanctuary I assume this is a church anniversary (or maybe pastoral anniv.)? Is there a theme? If so, use the theme, if not use the colors from the matching wedding anniversary (like silver for 25th). Use large numbers (if this is the 35th, use large 35's everywhere) made from poster or foam board. Do a picture collage or better yet, make large scrap booking pages (poster size) of the different church ministries through the years. If anyone has Sunday school awards, take home papers, bulletins, etc. that they have kept through the years it would be fun to use these. Another idea - a wall of pictures (like a time line). Enlarge photos to at least 8x10 for easy viewing. Kinko's has a great machine that let's you copy the pictures and enlarge them and the cost is reasonable. A "Hall of Faith" (or Fame) of former members that have passed on would be neat too. Hope this helps. Teresa

2) High School Skits? I would like some skits for the ages 15-18. Our seniors group wants to put on a program for these ages. We would like something relevant to the years of Middle 80's to mid 90's. Would this be possible? Thank You. Margaret Fess.

3) Getting God's Word into Kids Just wanted to add in a quick comment about the songs. There are some pretty good resources from Group which give you songs with some theological content and moves to go with them. You’ll want to review them first to see which are appropriate, but they are pretty cool. Lacking that, just make up some moves that make sense with the song. Dan Cutchen (hope I got the name right) has done Children’s Ministry for some time and does what it takes to get their attention. He’s done somewhat silly versions of “Jesus Loves Me” with moves that may make sense for each word, but sure don’t fit the song. It’s a good way to get the kids to see what’s going on, though and because it’s so silly they remember the words which is important. There’s also a great free resource from Sovereign Grace about Children’s ministry and getting the word into children. (It links to a store, but the price is $0 and you don’t have to enter any info that I remember.) If the link doesn’t go through, it’s called “Training Children to Worship God” and there’s a link to it straight from the Worship Matters blog. There were quite a few good ideas in this one – talking in different voices, singing, moving, etc. http://www.sovereigngracestore.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=A2246-07-51 -Peter

4) Decorating the Sanctuary To decorate your sanctuary you may want to come up with a theme or bible verse and then build around that. depending on the number of years you are celebrating you may want to have some decor with the actual number posted or hung around the sanctuary. you can decorate the altar to some degree with whatever relates to your theme (shepherds, fruits of the spirit, growing (trees), gold, stars, etc.)...there are a lot of symbols found in the Word so you would gravitate toward that. sometimes we even decorate a big rugged cross for certain occasions, during lent, we had a purple cloth draped around the cross, for easter, easter lilies on the cross...hope this helps! God bless. -jackie

5) Decorating the Sanctuary You could have each Sunday School class make a large banner (cloth or paper) to display in the Sanctuary. Provide them with a theme to inspire their creativity (ie. based on a Bible verse, special anniversary, mission event, etc.). --from SSTN: check out the Paper Quilt too in the red dot section at: http://www.sundayschoolnetwork.com/crafts-christian.html

6) Decorating the Sanctuary It would be helpful to know your denomination as that should be a guiding factor. We have recently celebrated our 125th anniversary. Would be happy to share what we did but want to know your church, size, etc. Our celebration might not be appropriate .

7) Access to All S.S. Resources? Hello' I would to have access to all resources, please tell me how to accomplish that. How much would i need to pay? Suzette Taylor --from SSTN: Many sites charge a fee for use of their resources or they'll only allow you access to a small portion of their site. We do just the opposite! You may use most of our site for free and we only charge a small fee for our curriculum items. Please see the following page for details: http://www.sundayschoolnetwork.com/ministry_support.html If I can help you further, please let me know. Your webservant, Sarah Keith <><

8) Praise Lesson Children could be taught to make up their own praises. A teacher could write the word "Praise" on the board, and explain what it means from a dictionary and verses from the Bible as an example. We could take the letter "P" for example: Who can think of a word that begins with "P"? How about " Promise?" Can we make up a praise with the word "Promise" in it? A teacher could also ask the children to open up their Bibles and when someone finds a verse that has something good in it, the class could talk about what they see in it that is good, or what it reminds them of about God, and say it with praise to God. It's important to guard our praises and to keep them as pure as we can. When we find we have made a mistake, we must repent right away. God has promised many things. (This sentence tells of God's goodness to us and is a short praise.) Can we make a list of good things God has promised to us? God gives wisdom to those who ask, and wisdom is a valuable gift. He gives grace to us when we need it. His love is given to us every day. He gives his Word and heals us. When we put on his Word we are changed. Old things pass away. As we study his word we can always stop to praise whenever we want. God loves to hear our praises.

9) Parent Day? I am planning to have a parent day for the Sunday school parents so they can see what their children have been learning. I want the ss kids to participate in some way, maybe say grace when we offer the refreshments, etc. I'm wondering what the program would look like, any ideas? I'm going to combine K-3rd grade classes and have a different presentation for 4-6th grade classes. -jackie

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