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SSTN # 16 - February 21, 2006
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IN THIS ISSUE OF THE SSTN e-NEWSLETTER:
1) When to Bring Bibles 2) When to Bring Bibles 3) Special needs Sunday School 4) Prayer with Primaries 5) Behavior Problems: The Wounded Spirit
...Write On My Heart Every Word
6) Valentine Caroling 7) Not Getting Through? 8) Tickle Wand Attention Keeper 9) S- E- X and the Book of Esther? 10) Non Christain Songs
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1) When to Bring Bibles
Just a suggestion. I noticed several people said they had the kids read the verses. PLEASE do not make a child read unless he wants to read. I just read a great article on this subject. It is very embarrassing to a child who has reading difficulties to read aloud. Church should be a welcoming place, not one kids dread because they might have to read.
Teresa
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2) When to Bring Bibles
The children at our church have their own Bible bags that they keep on their seat in church. It contains an AV Bible and head wear along with project information. Teachers should make sure that the children also have a Bible at home. Hope this is some help to other teachers. Billy Dickson, Tyndale Reformed Church, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
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3) Special needs Sunday School
I am a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and in the February Issue of our magazine THE LUTHERAN, there is an article about a church in the Chicago area that has a special needs Sunday School program. For those of you who had posted questions about such a program, it might be something to check out!
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4) Prayer with Primaries
I just wanted to share what I've been doing with my primary (K-3) class. I'm trying to make prayer an integral part of both our class and of their lives.
Two weeks ago, I talked about prayer - what is it? what do we use it for? in a very general manner. Later I asked the group (I have between 3 and 8 children generally) if they had any prayer requests. Three of them did. I wrote each on a coloured sheet and pinned it to the wall. The next week I read the requests aloud at the beginning of our time together (I am making it a point to begin our class with prayer) and asked each of them to choose one item to pray for. We joined hands and I opened with thanking God for them by name and asking his blessings on us and our time together, then we went around the circle with each child praying over one of the requests. They have needed a little prompting and help but it has been excellent. You can see it means a lot to the children being prayed for (William's grandpa just died and we're praying for God to help him feel less sad) and the children are beginning to become more fluent in their prayer language - instead of relying on "God is great, God is good", as an example, they are thanking Him in their own words, even if their words are very few and not fancy.
I'm sure this could be done with any age. I think it's important to instill an outward-looking prayer life (ie prayer for others) and a confidence in approaching God about anything.
Thanks. Hollie
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...Write On My Heart Every Word
"Tell me the story of Jesus, write on my heart every word." Those are the words, from that beloved hymn, that inspired me to write, "Tell Me The Story of Jesus".
This two-semester, hands-on curriculum series contains coordinating crafts, games, skits and enrichment ideas to tell the story of Jesus, from childhood to Pentecost. One book is all you need for TWO whole semesters! And I've value-priced it too!
I wanted to give an idea for all teachers out there who teach 6th - HS ages. There is a movie out there that I used to teach our teens on being a bully. When I planned this class it was suppose to be the 1 hour movie and about 15 minutes of discussion. The class began at 9:30 am and didn't end until 12:30. It really is a movie that is worth the money. It's called "The Wounded Spirit" by Frank Peretti. Just a thought
Just to let some of you know our Valentine project for our God's Kids Wednesday night activity. Our children were taken for a walk at Christmas and sang Christmas Songs for our two adult Wed. evening Classes - they were so excited about doing this that we decided to go “Valentine Caroling”. We completed this activity last week (Feb. 8) and
the children just loved it and so did our church shut-ins. The week before, the children made decorated cups which I filled with M&Ms and then they made cards that we presented at each household.
We had about 15 children aged 3-11 - in three vehicles and we went to 3 of our older church members. We sang: Jesus Loves Me, We are God’s Kids, I am a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N and I have the Joy, Joy Joy Down in My Heart. The children spontaneously hugged the older folks when we finished singing and just had a grand time. The extra decorated and candy filled cups were given to each child to take home.
Am thinking a group could go "Whatever Holiday Caroling" at any time with similar results. (Or could sing at a nursing home.) Well, this is just for everyone's FYI.
Love in Christ, Nancy & Ellen
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7) Not Getting Through?
Friends,
The Sunday School class I teach has recently shifted from mostly 3rd grade girls to mostly kindergarten and 1st grade boys. When playing the review game last week, I noticed that the boys couldn't answer the most simple questions from the lesson - they aren't getting it. Do you have suggestions for teaching this age group? For example, in my lesson about calling the disciples last week, I drew some pictures on the chalk board to illustrate, as well as telling the story and at one point we stopped and played a game where I passed out pennies and pretended to be a tax collector (like Levi). In other words, I felt like I pulled out all the stops and tried to appeal to different kinds of learners...but the boys just didn't hear my lesson. Any suggestions?
Susan Verstraete
--from SSTN: you may already be doing this, but rather than wait till the end of each section to ask your questions, ask for their feedback throughout the classtime whether it's during the game, craft or the actual lesson. Also, see the next posting. ysic, sarah keith<><
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8) Tickle Wand Attention Keeper
I recently started using what I call my "Tickle Wand". It can be a long peacock feather or a colorful stick with long, thin colorful strands of mylar paper attached to the end, which is what I use. However, anything unusual like that can be used.
Before class you ask them what it means to behave well. They know the answers: sit up, don't talk when the teacher is talking, be kind to the people around you, keep your hands to yourself, etc. Then you tell them you have a special "Tickle Wand" and if they behave and get tickled on the top of the head during class they will receive a reward at the end of class. (I have a small box of mini mints that I dole out to them.) Then, when a child misbehaves, rather than focus on the bad behavior, I swirl the wand in the air and look for the child that is behaving well and tickle the top of his or her head.
This has accomplished two things: 1) I am not focusing on the bad behavior of a few kids and rewarding them with my attention. 2) The behaving children are given the attention they deserve. Making sure all the well-behaved children are tickled is the only challenge. I have only used this device a few times, but so far it has worked well.
Thanks for this fabulous website. I have a question about an event that occured at our multi-age SS a couple of weeks ago and i just needed to get your thoughts on it. The children were having a lesson on the book of Esther and they learnt that the King was looking for a virgin and hence all the beautiful young vir g ins were brought before him and he chose Esther.
The children had question about who a vi rgin is and the teachers explained that a virg-in is a woman/ man who does not know a man/woman, who has not shared a bed with a man/woman. And they went on to explain that that is an honourable thing and that is why the King wanted a v irgin. So some children went home and is their nature they talked about it and one child asked their parents if when they share a bed they are having s e x. The said parents were furious and caused quite an uproar about this.
Children are curious and it is inevitable that they will ask such questions especially as the word vi rgin is bound to come up even in the story of Mary the mother of Jesus. How can teachers handle this with both the children and their parents?
In his Love, Cathy
--from SSTN: if you're wondering why it was necessary to put hyphens and spaces with some of the wording in this posting; it is more likely to get through spam filters this way.
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10) Non Christian Songs
Some songs are obviously not from someone who knows the Lord but i'm not sure we can say all non christain songs are written by ppl who dont have a clue about what loving Jesus is. Isn't that judging? Dont u think its possible for a christain to write a song about other things? Just wonding...
C
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