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SSTN # 107 - October 22, 2003


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IN THIS ISSUE OF THE SSTN e-NEWSLETTER:


--> Hands On Lessons of the Bible

1) A Harvest Carol - Skit
2) Ten commandments song?
3) Devil's day?
4) Clown Play?

--> Kids Can @ Christmas Time

5) Festival plan thwarted?
6) Halloween Crafts   
7) Teaching Ten Commandments to 4 year olds   
8) Preteen Class?   

--> Instant Christmas Plays

9) Solomon lessons   
10) Commandments for 4 year olds   
11) T-shirt Object Lesson
12) Christians pray for Muslims


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--> Hands On Lessons of the Bible

KID-tested and teacher approved!
Can be used with rotation-type programs.
Learn more at: 

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



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1) A Harvest Carol - Skit

Check out this brand new skit in the Skits section at:

http://www.ChristianCrafters.Com 


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2) Ten commandments song?

there was a posting for the edxact song I am looking for by "Nancy"  it
goes first I must honor God, second honor his name, third honor his day,
keep holy thus must be my aim. Fourth I must be obedient fifth be kind and
true...etc.     Do you know or remember where I could get this?

Aileen

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3) Devil's day?

I am looking for information pertaining to Devils Day (October 31st), I
need websites mostley to research with my students.    Thank you 
Kristina repent777772002@yahhoo.com


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4) Clown Play?   

I will try to be more specific about this old play I am trying to find
from the 70's.  It was called "The Clown" and was a musical.  The story is
about a clown who puts on a happy face, but is really not happy inside.
But eventually, he finds Jesus.  We put together a youth choir to sing the
songs in 3-part harmony, including solos, and there was acting in-between
songs. Songs in the play included "He is the Way" and several beautiful
others I unfortunately can't remember (...His name is Jesus, Jesus, He is
the Son of God - Jesus, Jesus, the precious Son of God...).  I hope there
is someone here who remembers.

Valerie

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KIDS CAN @ CHRISTMAS TIME

An Advent celebration of 31 crafts and recipes. Some of the projects
include: Epiphany Ornaments (a six-sided three dimensional ornament
inspired from the Orient), Ribbon Stars, a Paper Lace Angel, Paper Lace
Luminaries, a Nativity Windsock, a Chrismon Snowflake Butterfly (new
design), an Edible Nativity, Church Window Cookies, and the Jesus in the
Manger cupcake, to name just a few! To learn more, click the link or copy
and paste it to your browser:

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


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5) Festival plan thwarted?

I was preparing a carnival to help get the kids off the street on Haloween
night.  I figured I could get them into a safe environment.  We were going
to have booths with fun things to do and absolutely NOTHING to do with any
pumpkins, witches, black cats, etc. Innocent fun like count the candies in
a jar and try to knock down Goliath, etc.  I was very excited and had
spent a lot of money on this.  I was bubbling over with excitement knowing
that the kids that feel they are being treated "unfairly" because they
can't go out on Halloween were still going to have some fun.  But then
several people challenged me and told me that any "carnivals or festivals"
were just mimicking the world and were substitutions at best.  I know
there are a lot of opionions out there.  These people suggested
having something in winter time outside to let outsiders participate, but
nothing with "festival or carnival" in the name and nothing around any
holiday. Well, I started thinking about that and I remembered that the
O.T. had lots of festivals.

They even went so far as to suggest that decorating with fall colors and
calling things "harvest" was a pagan custom with wiccan practices.  I
looked it up and sure enough, they were right.  But I was looking at it
differently, I guess.  I humbled myself and canceled the whole plan.  Now
I have all these neat ideas and fun things to do, but I guess I have to
admit that I'm a little defeated.  I don't feel like ever doing anything
fun again with the kids.  Need some encouragement.

--from SSTN: In the Old Testament God's people were COMMANDED to celebrate
the Harvest. Check it out: Exodus 23:16 and Exodus 34:22. There are other
references in Scripture too. Harvest-time was a time to show joy and
thankfulness that God had provided for his people. Celebrating the harvest
is clearly not a pagan practice in light of Scripture.
We do not worship the harvest. We worship the God of the Harvest. The One
from whom all blessings flow!  Don't be discouraged, your heart was in the
right place! ysic, Sarah Keith <><

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6) Halloween Crafts   

This message is in response to the person in search of a Halloween craft
for four year olds. Last year my class (pre-k) along with the three year
old class made the cutest scarecrows as a way to decorate our room for
Halloween. I pre-cut out maize colored construction paper (purchased from
Lakeshore) into the basic shape of a gingerbread man (with the rounded
head, arms, and legs). I used a gingerbread coloring page to trace around,
but you could use a cookie cutter or draw it free hand. I then cut out
rectangles of graph paper wide enough to cover the body of the
"gingerbread man" starting from the neck to about two inches from the
bottom of the feet. I made a slit at the bottom of the rectangles, and cut
out a simple square neckline leaving a "shoulder strap" on each side. I
also cut out simple hat shapes in different colors. The kids glued orange
fun foam triangles for noses, googly eyes for the eyes, colored the graph
paper to look like plaid overalls, and glued red fun foam circles (cut in
half) for mouths. I also let them glue on some real hay that I purchased
at a local craft store and glue it on the heads, arms, anywhere they
wanted to make it look like there was straw coming out of the scarecrows
clothes. They then glued black construction paper shoes onto the legs, and
we hung them on the wall on a shiny piece of wrapping paper that I covered
in construction paper corn on the cob, leaves, and pumpkins. You could
print coloring pages of those items and let the kids color them if you
wanted to though. We had ours hanging on the wall for the entire month of
October and November, and I got a lot of compliments on them, all the
parents loved them. I still have the pattern, if you would like a copy of
it, e-mail me at living_life_my_way@earthlink.net and I would be happy to
e-mail it to you. Love in Christ, Sarah in California

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7) Teaching Ten Commandments to 4 year olds   

A really simple print and color activity of the ten commandments is
available on a website known as Billy Bear 4 Kids which you can find on
just about any search engine on the internet. It has really easy
commandment coloring pages that are perfect for preschoolers. The most
effective way that I have found to teach the ten commandment to these
children so that they remember them is through song. There are two really
good songs out there that preschoolers could sing along with, and learn
easily, as they are sung to the tunes of Jesus Loves Me and the Farmer in
the Dell; two songs that most preschoolers already know the tune to
anyway. The first song can be found on the Group Publishing website and it
is called " The Commandment Song" and the other song can be found on the
Kids Sunday School web site and it is called "Commandments Are A Loving
Gift" hope this is helpful. Love in Christ, Sarah in California


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8) Preteen Class?

I currently started teaching the preteen Sunday School Class.  They are
ages 10 thru 13!!!  I'm looking for some fun creative way to bring new
students in.  Attendance has been low lately!!!

Also, this summer 04 we will be doing the SCUBA VBS.  Does anyone have
ideas for this age group using SCUBA?  Hope all this makes sense!

God Bless,
Tina Murdock
Marysville, Ohio

--from SSTN: check out the archives:
http://christiancrafters.com/archives.html 
use keywords, "attendance" and "Scuba". Also check "Group's" website.


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Instant Christmas Plays

The following easy-to-produce, instant Christmas Plays are available
in our Bookstore - Games & Skits section:

The Mouse's Tale,
Operation Baby King,
The Not-So-Silent Night,
Live From Bethlehem,
Wee Three Kings, and
The Fumbly Bumbly Angels.

AND, when you spend $25 or more in the BOOKSTORE shipping is FREE!
For product descriptions, go to this page:

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

Please remember, by purchasing items from ChristianCrafters.Com,
you help to keep SSTN and the website alive! Tell your friends, won't you?

Thank you!
Your webservant,
Sarah Keith <><


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9) Solomon lessons   

For Jeannine:
A few months ago, I taught Proverbs to my Junior Class.  I have many
worksheets I made and if you want copies of them, let me know and I will
get them to you by e-mail or snail mail.
Helen Setser
hesetser@joplin.com
   
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10) Commandments for 4 year olds   

I bought large "marble" tiles and wrote the ten commandments on them to
use as an illustration for the story, then let the children paint smaller
tiles for the craft.  I bought plain white ceramic tiles (about 15 cents
each) and used craft paint I already had.

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11) T-shirt Object Lesson

The story I know that goes with that story is about a drunken sailor
named Horatio.  He drank too much and couldn't sail his ship very well.
He runs into an iceberg that tears off the front of the boat, then
panics and and backs up and hits something else that tears off the back
of the boat and then of course a ship without any front or back sinks.
You hold the damaged ship nose down and then the top tears off and all
you have left is his shirt.  If you didn't want to use the drunken
sailor story you could probably adapt it

Tina

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12)  Christians pray for Muslims

Very few Muslims at present have any chance, humanly speaking, of ever
even meeting someone who can tell them that Jesus loves them. All too
often the Muslim population of the world is viewed as the enemy of
Christianity, instead of persons for whom Jesus died.

But each year many millions of Christians around the world take the
special opportunity provided by the Muslim holy month of fasting, Ramadan
(Ramazan in Turkish), to join in prayer for Muslims. This year Ramadan
is from 26 October to 24 November. This is a strategic time for the body
of Christ to pray for the Muslim people of the world. Let us believe God
for mighty things as we join together to focus on Him during this
special prayer time for the Muslim world.

The 30 Days Muslim Prayer Focus booklets provide guidelines for prayer
for specific issues related to Muslims for each of the days of Ramadan.
These booklets can be ordered online at
http://www.ywam.org/prayer/muslim/price_m.html.

A daily e-mail version, which is an extract from the prayer guide
booklets, is available. To receive it, just send an e-mail to:
30-days-subscribe@archeweb.net

Please join with us in praying for Muslims to come to know Jesus this
Ramadan.

God bless!
Mike and Linda

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--> Help Support SSTN

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resources at SSTN and ChristianCrafters.Com. To learn more, go to this
webpage:

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

Or, mail your US check or US money order to:

Sarah Keith <><
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Lake Park, FL 33403
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(In the memo section of your check write: "SSTN Subscription".
Please include your email address.)

Your webservant,
Sarah Keith <><

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--Copyright 2002 S.A. Keith--All Rights Reserved. ----

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