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SSTN # 56 - June 16, 2004
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IN THIS ISSUE OF THE SSTN e-NEWSLETTER:
July 4 Activity
1) One Day VBS
2) Backyard Bible Club
3) Crossword games?
4) Teaching Younger Youth and Inappropriateness
Goin' Buggie For Jesus
5) Getting kids to attend youth night
6) Firey Furnace
7) Construction VBS Skit?
8) Fear Factor / VBS Kickoff?
Chalk-It-Up ... Fellowship Fun!
9) Noah's Ark
10) Keeping Children's Interest
11) Fiery Furnace
12) Tower of Babel
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July 4 Activity
With the "USA Patriotic Catcher" kids will learn the answers to eight
basic USA citizenship questions such as, "Why did the Pilgrims come to
America?"; What is the US Constitution?, and "What does the First
Amendment guarantee?". A great activity for July 4th!
Kids can make it and take it home!
Learn more at:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/curriculum.html
(you may need to copy and paste the address to your browser)
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1) One Day VBS
Another teacher and myself are wanting to hold a one-day VBS. We would
appreciate any ideas and/or used materials that you have to offer. We
have never directed a VBS so we are in need of any help you can provide!
Thank you so much!
April
Mount Ida, AR
--from SSTN: see posting #2, below.
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2) Backyard Bible Club
Check out the Backyard Bible Club resources in the
"Lessons & Sermons" section at:
http://www.ChristianCrafters.Com
They're great for this summer!
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3) Crossword games?
I am looking to use crossword games for a tool during my Sunday school
hour. The grades I presently am teaching are 6th through 8th. Could you
recommend any or have any other suggestions on a style of teaching that
would captivate their interest. They seem to only want to eat or be
entertained.
Thank you for your help
Robin Paris
email rsparis@insightbb.com
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4) Teaching Younger Youth and Inappropriateness
We had that problem with our youth, both boys and girls, and the
attention
they pay to S-E-X and what they are so fascinated with seems to grow with
age. lol You have just a short time to compete with their friends,
school
time, what they see on TV and what music seems to be popular to them right
now (shudder). I planned a class on the fruits of the spirit with mine
when I first started teaching teens, but I was led to back up a little and
first teach the works of the flesh. I used index cards with each word
warned against, had a dictionary description of each word followed by a
modern day example and backed it up with at least three bible verses.
They
had take home sheets to help them remember it. We talked about what they
are seeing on TV and listening to and the fact that it will seem perfectly
acceptable to them if they don't crack their bible every now and then. I
talked about what the girls find cool to wear and why it is not acceptable
according to what a Godly woman should present to the world. You can't
say
it once and let it slide unfortunutely. It has to be drilled into them
until they can start to see the light. I tell them sometimes I feel like
I
am talking to a wall, but we spend alot of time with our youth away from
church so that gives me extra time to talk to them on a normal basis with
them as well as being their teacher. A cool place for bible lesssons for
younger youth that I really liked when I taught them was Curriculum. It
is
found under www.calvarychapel.org/children/site/curriculum.htrr If you
have a scanner you can get christian activity books at the local stores
and
scan the subject matter in and make a half fold card on your print program
that makes a neat little booklet. I now use the curruculum site to make a
youth bulletin each week. Good luck.
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Goin' Buggie For Jesus
What can bugs teach children about Jesus? More than you think!
In "Goin' Buggie For Jesus - I'm a BEE-liever", children will learn
important Bible truths
using hands-on buggie crafts, games, lessons, and yummy devotions. Great
for mid-week classes or a refreshing change of pace during the Sunday
School
hour! Learn more in the Curriculum Creatives store at:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/curriculum.html
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5) Getting kids to attend youth night.
FOOD!! Our kids are bottomless pits of moving parts and sometimes you
feel like you are feeding the masses.
We do games and activities with them every few weeks and they love crafts
even if you won't love the mess they make. Oriental Trading has some
great
christian crafts and of course this site has crafts you can buy.
Danielle's
place on here has a bible section that is great help. There is a site
called Egad Ideas that has some good activities to do depending on your
size
and indoors/outdoors. You didn't say if these kids were coming to church
on
their own or if you come and get them on a bus or something. We probably
wouldn't have very many kids at all if we depended on them or their
parents
to bring them. We run a bus for each church day and that is three days a
week with us as our youth night is on Thursdays. We do choir practice,
feed
them and then do whatever bible lesson or activity we have planned.
Sunday
nights they are in church with the rest of us. We have a large youth
choir
and they sing on Sunday nights and some Sundays we go to nursing homes
with them. This sounds like we have a really large church. We are a very
small
country church that has reached out to the local youth in our very small
county (approx. 7,500 county wide). I was shocked when the kids started
in
the choir as these are the same kids that I couldn't get to read out loud!
lol Just spend time with them. My husband and I spend time outside of
church with them as well and we drive around when we are out doing
something
else to see where they are and what they are doing and we stop and talk to
them where we find them. This may seem like more time than you want to
devote to your church youth, but it works for us. Having said that, our
home is child free for the first time in a week. Some of our youth have
practically moved in with us lately it seems, but they are a blessing and
I
know where they are, so I count my blessings when the music gets too loud
sometimes or the pantry is empty again. We rent movies that we want them
to
watch and our video place has a good selection of christian movies and I
have turned them on the christian music to try to wean them away from what
MTV is playing. Sometimes getting the youth to stay involved, especially
with summer here, is trial and error. Meet with your youth workers and
hash
out ideas and try a few and see if it works. You may stay in contact with
me if you would like at lakeviewbaptist@hotmail.com. I am always
interested
to see what other churches are doing and I love new ideas to try with
ours.
God's blessing to all.
Anita Joshua 24:15
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6) Firey Furnace
Take a look at the VeggieTales: Rack, Shack & Benny video or dvd.
Cartoon rendition, but may be beneficial to you.
ann
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7) Construction VBS Skit?
My church has purchase some items from the Construction Inc. VBS. I am
over the SKIT section and I have to come up with a skit since we could not
purchase the SKIT materials due to finances.
Has anyone purchased the kit and would like to share some ideas I can use
of each of the five days of VBS.
Please email me at lynn_wc@yahoo.com
It will be very much appreciated
God Bless
Lynette Lewis
NBM Children's Ministry
Baton Rouge, LA
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8) Fear Factor / VBS Kickoff?
Dear Karla from Kentucky,
I saw your post about making slime. I noticed that you said in your post
that you did a VBS kickoff, I would love to have more info on this
subject, I have been doing VBS for 3 years now and have never heard of
this. Also, I am doing a "Fear Factor" VBS this year and am in need of
some good ideas for games/crafts, etc that are gooey, gross, fun and all
that entails. I would love to hear from you ASAP.
Thanks,
Christine from West Virginia
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Chalk-It-Up ... Fellowship Fun!
Encourage creativity in kids with 22 Awesome Outdoor Games Kids Draw With
Chalk.
Fun and wholesome activities for parties, icebreakers, and friendship
building!
Use them at church, school, youth groups, or for family-time
get-togethers! Comes with a pack of marble sidewalk chalk, a recipe to
make your own chalk, and directions to make some unique game
accessories. Includes games for older and younger kids
(K-5th grade)! Get two sample games and learn more at:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/curriculum.html
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9) Noah's Ark
>I would like some help with finding things needed to do a summer long
>Noah's Ark segment with 2 and 3 year olds.
For my 3-5 year olds we have done actual hammering and sawing. I bought a
fireplace log (on sale for 50 cents!) but any relatively soft, thick piece
of wood would work. I started nails in the log, and then let them finish
pounding them in. This was the first time they waited patiently for their
turn, sat quietly, etc.! They liked it so much we used up all the nails I
had. We also used a miter saw to saw molding strips. The miter box
prevents the saw blade from being exposed too much. Both of these
required close supervision, but the kids (mine were all boys) really liked
it.
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10) Keeping Children's Interest
I teach this 5-6 grades. Make the classroom very unique and change it
often. We are currently using a Super Heroes theme. I have put brightly
colored pieces of fabric on my walls that depict some of the interests of
the kids in this age group. We are adding super hero pictures as the kids
bring them in. To highlight all the color, I am hanging black lites
throught the classroom. We only turn them on for attention getting, or
very special activities as this is not good lighting for total class
time. I also alter my room setup every week, so tables and chairs are
rarely in the same place two weeks in a row.
I started this group with 4 regulars whom had no desire to be even close
to a Bible Study room. All of them come in anticipating what will happen
today and with smiles. I have specific material I have been given to use
and enhance that with other material I pull from resource books I have and
others available through our Children's Ministry office. I use lots of
games and interactive activites to reinforce the Biblical/life facts being
taught. Questions are asked throughout the lesson time to determine
whether or not the kids are understanding and can apply to their own lives
today. I am amazed at how God is transforming these kids week to week!!
Most importantly, don't limit God by limiting yourself to old teaching
methods; get creatively out of your comfort zone. Know your kids, reach
them where they are now, stretch them to the next level, make them think
and apply what they are learning.
ann
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11) Fiery Furnace
Here is a good way to demonstrate the the fiery furnace, which did not
harm the three Hebrew boys (or Moses' burning bush, which was not
consumed).
Take a piece of cotton material and draw on it a bush, or three figures as
required. Soak the material in a mixture of 2 parts methylated spirits
(Methanol) and 1 part water. Squeeze out any excess liquid. Set fire to
the material. The methylated spirits will burn, making it appear as if the
material is burning. The flames will eventually go out, and the water in
the mixture will have successfully protected the material from burning,
leaving it unharmed.
Maurice Sweetsur
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12) Tower of Babel
Genesis 11:1-9 – The Tower of Babel – 454 Words
The Colors of God’s Love
Soon after Noah’s flood, all the people on earth sounded the same.
Everybody spoke the same language and could understand everyone else.
They even had the same accent.
One day a man said, “Let’s build a big city with a tower that reaches
the top of the sky.”
Another man said, “So we can be remembered for doing something great
even after we are gone. We will be as smart and powerful as God.”
They started baking bricks and mixing mortar. One worker said, “Make
sure those bricks burn thoroughly.” They needed to be hard to make the
tower strong.
The workers pounded each brick into place with a very loud bang. Can
you bang your hands together loudly? At first they were taller than the
tallest oak tree, and then they were so tall the wind blew hard at the
workers ears. Can you pucker your lips and blow like a hard wind?
After a while they were as tall as a mountain peak. Can you make a peak
with your hands?
The Lord came down to see the city and the tower. Then He said
“Enough!” Can you shout “ENOUGH!?” He said, “If as one people speaking
the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to
do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their
languages so they will not understand each other.” Then God began
confusing how they spoke by giving them different languages to speak.
What language do you speak?
Near the top of the tower a mason who was pouring mortar said, “I can’t
understand you,” to his friend who was counting bricks.
A carpenter who was hammering nails said, “I can’t understand you,” to
his friend who was counting wood.
A stonecutter who was carving rocks said,” I can’t understand you,” to
his friend who was counting rocks.
In town there was just as much confusion. A baker asked, “What did you
say?” to his customer who asked for three loaves of bread.
A woman at the well asked, “What did you say?” to her friend who asked
for some water.
A potter asked, “What did you say?” to the man who asked if he had
enough clay. Do you know someone who speaks a different language than
you?
Finally people gathered in groups that talked the same. They left in
their different groups and settled in different lands of the earth. The
tower was never finished but was named Babel because of all the
confusion it sounded like babble.
Even though everyone was living in new homes and had different ways of
speaking, the Lord equally loved everyone. How much does God love you?
*sidebar* The word Tower in other languages:
English: Tower
Spanish: Torre
German: Turm
French: Tour
Russian: áàøíÿ
Chinese:
Japanese: bourou
Italian: torre
Indonesian: menara komando
Copyright 2004 / Rhonda DeYoung
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