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SSTN - Number 172
March 28, 2001
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IN THIS ISSUE OF THE SSTN e-NEWSLETTER:
1) No Church building?
2) Room decorating
3) First Aid Kits
4) Teacher Appreciation/Songs That Teach:
5) "Problem Child"
6) Communion Ideas
7) Communion Ideas
8) Communion Ideas
9) To reward or not
10) Recruiting teachers/promoting Sunday School?
11) Indian's version of Psalm 23?
12) Teacher appreciation idea
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The Easter Bunny's Story, by Diana Brown
NEW! NEW! NEW!
In the Crafts section: Sun-Catcher Butterfly
(Adapted from Stacy Law's Stained Glass Sun Catchers.)
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1) No Church building?
This is just a few lines to tell how much I appreciate the help I am
receiving from SSTN. I live in the Netherlands and attend a English
speaking church. Unfortunately we do not have our own church building, we
are renting a place. This does not make the work with children easy as we
always have to be creative to make the time of the Sunday School class
enjoyable. It is one things when you can you have a room for them with all
kids material and decoration, it is another when you have to go every
Sunday into a place dry and colorless. In spite of these limitations, we
try our best to make that time enjoyable for the kids. Every Sunday we
always transport a lot of stuff and sometimes it gets tiring, but the kids
response is our reward!
Your web-site brings a lot of inspiration and ideas to me. I cannot apply
them all of course because of our physical/material limitations but some
are really really gold for me. Thanks again for your help. May God
continue to bless your ministry. Lydia Canlas- (I am a beginner in the
children ministry)
--from SSTN: I posted Lydia's personal message to me, so that if anyone is
in a similar situation and has an idea to share on how you've worked this
out...please share your knowledge and experience.
Thank you! Sarah K. <><
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2) Room decorating
>Do you have any neat ideas for decorating our new educational building?
We have an artist in our church who painted adorable little children of
all ethnic backgrounds up and down the hallways of our preschool classroom
area. They are basically just stick figures, with cute little clothing,
shoes, and hats added, and they are holding hands. The theme is "Jesus
loves all the little children." She is going to paint a picture of the
earth, with the theme on a banner above it. We also had a local
college art student, who needed community volunteer service hours, paint
the walls of our children's library. She made it look like scenes from
Bible times, and even stippled the ceiling tiles to look like the sky.
Another church artist painted Noah's ark with all the animals on the walls
of our nursery. Several of our Sunday school teachers have had their
classes work on murals on butcher paper - the murals depict scenes
from the Bible stories they have studied - and they decorate the classroom
walls with them. Hope this helps! Blessings, Kit MacLeod, Children's
Ministry Director, North Palm Beach, Florida.
--from SSTN: Kit is the CE director at my church. I'm going to get
pictures of our walls and place them in the Bulletin Board ideas page of
the site. By the way, the Bulletin Board area still needs MANY more
ideas!! So send them in. ;o))
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3) First Aid Kits
I read about an idea to put together first aid kits for use with the VBS
material, "Jesus to the Rescue." I think there is something about a first
aid kit where each item in it has a Biblical meaning. Can anyone help me?
Any other ideas for this material that would interest 12 year olds would
be helpful. Sherry, Indiana
--from SSTN: At ChristianCrafters.Com in the Archives List (Archive #31)
search for 'Survival Kits'. There are verses with it.
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4) Teacher Appreciation/Songs That Teach
Although I do not have a "skit", I do have a small Sunday School Survival
Kit that we gave to our teachers on Valentine's Day (naturally, filled
with all the stuff):
Tea Bag - Because you're "tea-rrific"
Paper Clip - For keeping things together
Rubber Band - For being flexible
Band Aid - For the Aid you give
Tootsie Roll - For the important "roll" you play
Mint - We're thankful for your "commit-mint"
Crayon - For coloring the days bright
Lifesavers - So you know you're appreciated a "hole" lot
Hershey Hugs - So you know we love you
Happy Valentines Day
Songs That Teach:
Christian Singer Carman has a song called Testimony that teaches all the
names of the Bible in a rap type song (kids love it). The Statler
Brothers have a song called Brave Apostles Twelve that teaches that names
of the Apostles with a few Bible stories made into verses. Have a great
day- Lauren Surprenant
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In
the
Curriculum
section at
ChristianCrafters.Com :
* NEW-LIFE PUPPET patterns! No sewing and easy-to-make!
TADPOLE TO FROG or CATERPILLAR TO BUTTERFLY Puppets...
...once made, these puppets turn inside out to change from a tadpole to
frog, or a caterpillar to butterfly puppet. Children will learn about
becoming a new creature in Christ! Get a free puppet skit to go with the
puppets.
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5) "Problem Child"
We have a program at our church called "Caravans". We pick up via our
church van children from our city, usually consisting of the less
fortunate, single parent, etc. Ages range from 3 - 17. Many of these
children have numerous siblings, one or both parents are in prison,
sometimes a brother or sister, etc.
We love them as much as possible through Christ. They are divided into
classes according to age. (I teach the 3-6 yr. olds). Our curriculum
consists of:
Gather into Fellowship Hall, begin with Pledges of both American and
Christian flags. Any announcements. We have a whiteboard whereby the
yearly scripture is written out. As a group we repeat this scripture,
then
whomever wishes, will raise their hand, turn away from the whiteboard and
repeat the scripture. Their reward for correctly reciting it is "play
money" generally a dollar.
Play money is given for good behavior, reciting scripture, bringing a
friend, etc. Twice during the year (Christmas and Easter), the children
can exchange their play money for items (donated by congregation) they can
purchase for their families. The children look forward to this time.
Christmas was wonderful - - - I don't remember one child purchasing items
for themselves. Their lists were lengthy remembering whomever in their
families with a small gift. The kids love this type of reward system and
we'have found it much better than giving out candy.
We continually praise our children and encourage good behavior. They are
given three warnings. After three, if bad behavior continues, they are
taken home. Doesn't happen too often.
Each class consists of prayer, a Bible related lesson and a fun craft.
Each child receives a nutritious snack, then are back on the church van for
home. We have end of year picnic - many of their Moms and Dads will
attend. Our goal is to reach as many children and families as possible
for Christ.
Another favorite for these children, we have "Back to School Night". Our
congregations donates school supplies and clothing. Sometime in August
right before school opens, we set up our Fellowship Hall in something that
resembles a store. Clothing is separate by size and gender. Volunteers
man each table. Each child will be given a shopping bag and is allowed to
select (with the help of a volunteer) a complete school outfit. We
generally have enough for these children to select 3 complete outfits.
The school supplies have already been separated according to lists we receive
from our local schools by age and what is needed.
Our summer Caravan program consists of a lot more activity. We also
include volunteering these children to our seniors who might need
gardening, yard work, small repairs. We take them and visit our shut-ins,
we have a Christmas in July Program that includes doing aerobics to
Christmas music,decorating cut-outs, and yes we even decorate a Christmas
tree in July.
There are water-balloon tosses, we have a dunking booth and of course our
Pastor is our first volunteer in the booth, we have baking classes,
lessons on grooming and a craft night. Throwing these ideas out there for those
who might need something new. We are always looking for new ideas. Your
newsletter and website are fantastic. Thank you all for sharing. We are
all parts of the same body thru Him. Gloria Taylor
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6) Communion
>I was wondering if anyone out there has any ideas on teaching children
>(k-6) about communion.
Holly, This is my 2nd yr to facilitate the 1st Communion instructions at
our church. (Lutheran) The age is group is 4th grade and up. We use a
booklet called, Come to God's Table, as the resource booklet. (ordered it
from Ausburg Fortress on-line) In researching a resource, the hardest
part is finding age appropriate material. My first thought when I read
your question was, K-6 is quite an age difference. I have set
instructions up as 5-6 evening sessions. The key to success is getting
the parents to commit to getting the child there and being willing to do
the make up work at home for sessions missed. Good Luck, Mrs.Ray
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7) Communion
Our church wrote our own booklet explaining communion. (Actually it was a
parent that wrote it and it was reviewed by the pastors and CE committee.)
It is taught during Sunday School for a few weeks. Then, the parents are
invited to class to partake of communion with their kids. One of the
pastors comes to class to celebrate and give communion to the kids.
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8) Communion Ideas
Cokesbury has a great resource called TOUCH THE WATER, TASTE THE BREAD.
It teaches baptism and communion. There are 3 lessons on each subject. You
can combine parts of each lesson for one class or teach 3 classes in a
row. There are many different activities and they have it broken into
stations, if you want activity centers set up. There are 2 age level books. Ages
3-5 and grades 1-3. Hope it helps!
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9) To reward or not
To reward or not is the big controversy right now. Group Publishing is
against rewards in any form. Personally, they work for us so we use them.
After all, we are promised a mansion, harp and crown if we live right!
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10) Recruiting teachers/promoting Sunday School?
I am looking for ideas for recruiting Sunday School teachers and also for
promoting Sunday School. I am on the Christian Education Committee at our
church and we are doing some brainstorming and planning. Thanks. Meg
Hinrichsen
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11) Indian's version of Psalm 23?
Has anyone come across this. I am doing a program on Psalm 23, and I have
different translations. I read this Indian version somewhere? Gladys
Walton
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12) Teacher appreciation idea
In regards to the teacher appreciation skit - This is not really a skit
and I don't know if it will help you with a theme, but it was something we had
the kids do for the teachers one year. We had nine kids stand up, each
with a small poster board that had one letter on it. The letters spelled
out T-E-A-C-H-E-R-S-! Each one of the kids read what was on the back of
their poster board:
T is for the time you took to teach God's love for me
E is for encouraging me to be the best that I can be
A is for accepting me as God's child who grows more each day
C is for your caring spirit and loving, compassionate ways
H is for helping me learn that I can share
E is for exalting God and engaging us in prayer
R is for being resourceful and relentless in making learning fun
S is for your selfless serving in a job that's been well done!
We thank you Lord for our teachers and their love that shines all year
through. May these lessons be shared with others so that we may honor and
glorify you! Hope you can use it.
Stacey Kay - Pacific Beach Presbyterian Church, San Diego, CA
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