1) Children In Worship Service
2) Patriotic Theme
3) Lava Island Volcano
4) One Day VBS

Chalk-It-Up ... Fellowship Fun!

5) Don't limit God
6) One Day VBS
7) Words to Amen - Lilies of the Field?
8) Fiery Furnace

--> Bloom & Boom - Lessons for Teens

9) VBS Kickoff
10) Preschool Lessons
11) Construction VBS Skit
12) Shining Star Site


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USA Patriotic Activity...Easy Download For July 4th!

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! Download it today.
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) Children In Worship Service

> In your opinion, what are the PROS AND CONS of bringing
>children into the adult worship service?

The obvious drawback is that children can be disruptive. Yet, I think that
we should be welcoming children into our worship services. Having children
spend years doing their own thing, then suddenly expecting them to know
how to behave in church is unrealistic. Besides, I think it is important
for children to be a total part of the church. Here is how I have seen it
handled:
- Offering child care to young children if parents wish to take advantage.
- Having a bag with puzzles, a couple crayons, etc for children to take to
the pews with them. This requires someone to be in charge of filling them
every week. Could be a high school youth group project.
- A children's message at the beginning of the worship service. The
minister or education director tells the Gospel reading in a way that is
understandable to children.Have a picture to color that corresponds. I've
seen one minister who hands out a small piece of candy after the service
to anyone who brings in their picture. Pictures are hung near his office.
- Or, at Sunday School before church have the teacher teach the Gospel
lesson, then have them listen for the reading during the service.
Lori

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2) Patriotic Theme

This is for the woman who wanted a patriotic idea for 20 kids at the end
of June. Why not use Colored bells with some patriotic music.  I use the Kristal
Bell Method. You  could order bells from them, along with patriotic music, and start it
in no time.
Hope this helps.  Lynne  

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3) Lava Island Volcano
 
One of the leaders at my church made the coolest volcano for the stage
using chicken wire and paper mache'. She painted it brown with red oozing
lava "flowing down". It was about 12' high and inside the top she placed a
fan with orange and red tissue paper attached so that it looked like
flaming fire shooting out when it was turned on. It was awesome!
 
Your webservant,
Sarah Keith <><
 
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4) One Day VBS

April, Last summer I made up a one week nite-time vbs. But you can combine
all this in one day. First and foremost, pray and pray specifically for
what you need and your people to provide.  My visual theme was ocean,
water, etc. The biblical theme was listening to God. I had a total of 25
kids attend.
 
Used 4 teachers. Each teacher had one lesson they presented with bible
reading, games, and a craft, the kids went to a different teacher/lesson
each night.(rotation) Friday nite was a game nite.
 
Age groups: 2-5, 6-8, 9-12, teenagers.
 
***Jonah and the Big Fish- instead of a game built a "big fish" with a
table, black trash bags, cardboard fins/eyes, put tuna and wet paper
towels to simulate a belly of a fish,  (2-5 yr olds loved this, didn't
want to come out of there); craft cd fishes
***Noah's Ark- craft rainsticks, instead of game alphabet ups and downs
game ( on this website)
***Peter walking on water-craft a clean meat tray( bottom painted blue to
simulate water/ or use a gel with blue food coloring) with a cardboard
boat and two stick figure men from popsicle sticks; game a basketball
shoot question and answer game 
***Jesus calming the storm- craft a 20/ 16 oz. soda bottle with water and
blue food coloring and glitter, shake the water and it goes crazy, then it
calms down,
 
I gave the teachers mazes, word puzzles, etc.. to give the kids to take
home or to use in the class if they had time.
 
The teenagers crafts were to paint 4 piñatas for every one to bust on
Friday nite, they were supposed to paint something related to what they
learned, but that didn't happen.
 
I made a list and asked everyone in church to donate the cd's (aol, etc
demo's), clean and label peeled soda bottles, and paper towel tubes. And
the specific items like the beans/rice, aluminum foil, etc for the
rainsticks. Then I made a list of what specific jobs I needed done, like
people to lead songs, someone to put out juice and cookies, etc.
 
The basic run down:
A. everyone meet for a general assembly in the sanctuary (15 min)
     - sing some songs
     - give everyone the memory verse
     - prayer requests
     - penny contest ( boys vs. girls, most weight in coinage wins)
     - dismiss to class
B. class room (1 hr)
    - read the story in bible,  (not from a paper or memory)
    - answer questions/ discussion
    - game/ activity
    - craft
C. everyone meet in the gym (15 min)
    - snack time
 
Decorations: I could only decorate in the sanctuary because of day
care. From the dollar store,  shower curtains with fish on them, covered
the doors that were going to be used, then cut up like the bead
curtains over doors. Put nets on the walls with paper and plastic fish,
lobster, clam etc attached. In the front used a blue plastic table cloth
taped against the wall as water and taped paper fish on that. (Printed
then colored with crayon/markers the outlines of fish, crabs, lobster,
clams from the internet) Spray painted butcher paper tan with brown to
simulate sand and laid it on the ground. Made sea weed and coral from
construction paper, ribbon, etc then glued it to a small box to make it
stand up. Made jellyfish from plastic food containers and yarn, clams
from poster board and stringed white pearls, sponges from rolled up and
painted bubble wrap, rocks from spray p ainted styrofoam.   
  
Just an idea from what we did last summer. If you want more specifics,
email me.
alwells_turtle@hotmail.com
  
Amy

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Chalk-It-Up ... Great Fellowship Activities

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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5) Don't limit God

I love what you said ann:

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. 


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6) One Day VBS

We did a one day VBS several years ago.  We started at 9 am.  We had one
teacher, one small puppet team, one director of music, a couple of people
for recreation, and a couple of people  for craft time (One nice craft for
the day).   We had several help with  lunch-time.  We had  a one-half hour
opening time with all students together (prayer, pledges, songs that were
already familiar but not sung recently,  puppet team with skit pertaining
to lesson) Children then broke up into three groups ( with teen helpers as
guides)  at 9:30 am ( k-2; 3-4;5-6) One group went to crafts, one to
teaching time-lesson, one to music.  At 10:00 they rotated.  At 10:30
rotated again so that each group had a chance to participate in each of
the three areas . At 11:00 a good sized meal was prepared and all ate
together;  then went out for recreation time.   They played till noon.  At
that time they met together again for another short puppet skit and song. 
The rotation began again where the craft was completed, songs were
rehearsed and lesson was completed with worksheets or memory work This put
the time at 1:30pm at which time a final gathering together rounded up the
day.  We rehearsed memory work, reviewed lesson and awarded prize bags for
all children.  At 2:00 pm parents were there to pick up their children. We
did not collect money that day,  however we did give children sponsor
sheets two weeks before the Bible School day in which people signed to
donate a certain amount of money for every foot the child could throw a
balsa wood airplane.  (Our VBS was supporting Air Missions and was trying
to collect money for a small aircraft that would help deliver Bibles to
Central Africa.)  We marked the parking lot at 5 foot intervals, wrote the
children's names on the planes and each child threw their airplane.  We
gave them one week to collect the money from their sponsors.  A fun note:
we had a young mentally handicapped girl in our church at the time...two
of her sponsors put down $1.00 per foot thinking she would not be able to
throw very far...........PTL-------she threw it over 40 feet!!!!!!!    
 It was great fun. Dianne, Alabama


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7) Words to Amen - Lilies of the Field?
 
Where can I get the words to the song Sidney P. taught the nuns? 

--from SSTN: you might try the music sites on our links page:
http://www.christiancrafters.com 


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8) Fiery Furnace

To make a fiery furnace I used a hula hoop with long streamers of red,
yellow and orange crepe paper attached to it and then
I stood on a chair and held it up and shook it while I told the story and
my little helpers walked around in the flames! This prop
also works using blue crepe paper for water/rain. The kids loved it and
all wanted a chance to try it!
God Bless,
Teacher Sandee

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--> Bloom & Boom - Lessons for Teens

A girls and guys guide to growing up. Practical advice from a Christian
viewpoint about the internal and external changes experienced by
teenagers. Learn more in the Christian Education section of our bookstore:

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


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9) VBS Kickoff

Regarding: To Karla from Kentucky

Dear Christine,
  Our main purpose for the VBS kickoff is to register all of the children
on the Sunday before VBS begins. The Saturday before VBS several people
and I go door to door in different neighborhoods inviting children to come
to our VBS and we promote the VBS kickoff. After our morning worship on
Sunday morning we go outside and register the children (fill out paper
work) and while we are doing that volunteers are grilling out hot
dogs/hamburgers and getting our lunch ready. I just ask everyone ahead of
time to bring drinks, chips, buns, and side dishes. I go to our local
Wal-Mart and ask for a donation for VBS and they give us the hamburgers
and hot dogs needed. After we eat we play gooey, messy, fun games. This
year we are having a chocolate syrup tug of war, green mashed potatoe food
fight, etc. We will have a syrup scramble ( we give all the kids and
adults who want to play syrup bottles and we chase each other. Also, this
year I have added a relay race where we will climb thr
ough ropes, and different boxes, etc. There will be four small plastic
pools filled with different messy items that each team will have to look
through the filled pools to find their flags. ex. dry dog food with a bit
of water added to it to make it messy, dark jello, green mashed potatoes,
and our green goo. (the instant potatoes only need to have water and food
coloring added) Everything is fun, sticky and messy but it is
environmental friendly. We are also going to have a marshmallow hunt. This
game is played by hiding big marshmallows in cool whip (not small ones due
to possible choking hazard) and trying to find them with your mouth. The
first team to have the most out in so many seconds is the winner and they
get slimed with our green slime. Our VBS kickoff is so much fun and has
given us many Kodak moments. It is great for the children to have the
adults interact with them in such a messy way. As adults we sometimes tend
to be too serious and don't have enough fun. I
don't know what your church budget is like, but I ask everyone in the
church to dontate items and I also go to local stores for donations.
Regardless of what you do for your vbs -prayer is the most important thing
to have. May God Bless you!
Love in Christ,
Karla from Kentucky


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10) Preschool Lessons 
 
Check out "Wee Built Bible Town: 13 Preschool Lessons That Build Faith in
Jesus" You can find it listed in the Christian Education
section of the bookstore at: 
 http://www.christiancrafters.com/bookstore.html  


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11) Construction VBS Skit

>My church has purchase some items from the
>Construction Inc. VBS.  I am over the SKIT section

There is a skit for this theme available at www.daniellesplace.com
under "VBS Ideas". Look for the Construction Theme.
It's for a 3 day VBS but you could probably work out
your own for any further days, following on from the
ideas given. It also has ideas for activities, crafts,
and games if you need them.

Pat Pollard
Perth, Western Australia


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12) Shining star site

Many of you wrote in to say that the website suggested via SSTN is no
longer a Christian resource. Unfortunately it has become a "New Age" music
site.

Your webservant,
Sarah Keith

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Your webservant,
Sarah Keith <><


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