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SSTN # 87- August 23, 2002
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IN THIS ISSUE OF THE SSTN e-NEWSLETTER:
TELL TWO - SPREAD THE WORD!
1) Church Notes for Kids
2) Children's activities during church
3) Old Sunday School Curricula
4) Fruit of the Spirit curriculum
--> Kidzoo-Shuffle Game
5) Children's Church Activities
6) Christmas plays & musicals?
7) September 11 Remembrance?
8) Old curriculum
--> Card Game of Christian Symbols
9) Children's activities during church
10) Church Pals Program
11) Christian Posters
12) Starting a Wed. night program
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TELL TWO - SPREAD THE WORD!
Are you finding SSTN helpful to your ministry? Then, this week tell two
friends, coworkers, pastors, or family members about it. Invite them to
the following webpage to subscribe:
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Help to spread the WORD!
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1) Church Notes for Kids
Today - Sunday - we will have our first "graduates-elect" from JR Church
to begin attending Big Church. As I mentioned previously (and thanks for
adding it to the SSTN) - the children will sit with someone other than
their parent during services for a few weeks. They will have the "Church
Notes" paper to work on during the service. The adult that they will be
sitting with, will help them keep their attention directed to listening to
the message and to taking (age appropriate) notes.
After they complete it - they will be handing it to the Pastor at the end
of service. The Pastor will look at it and make a short comment of
encouragement and/or correction. He will then give it to a JR Church
leader. The Leader will go over the notes and Pastor's comments with the
child before the next Sunday's service and finally give the notes to the
parents. After a few weeks of this preparation, the Pastor will present
the 'Graduate" to the congregation with a short prayer of encouragement.
Thanks again for all that you do for the cause of Christ!
Joyfully Serving HIM,
Emmalea <><
--from SSTN: Emmalea has graciously offered to share this with anyone that
wants a copy of her Church Notes bulletin. You can email her at:
joyfullyservingHIM@nlbaptist.com
Thank you, Emmalea! ysic, sarah <><
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2) Children's activities during church
We had the same dilemma when the person leading our Children's Church
left.
No one wanted to work it every Sunday, but our Pastor's wife found 9-10
people who didn't mind working once every two months. Then she made a
rotating schedule, prepared a "Children's Church" Box the all materials
for
two months lessons at a time, and even recruited some youth to work
helping out. It has worked wonderfully so far.
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3) OLD SUNDAY SCHOOL CURRICULA
I WAS TRYING TO SEND TRACEY FROM MEARYLAND AN EMAIL
AND IT DIDN'T GO THROUGH FOR THE OLD SUNDAY SCHOOL
CURRICULA. I AM A SUNDAY SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT AND
TEACHER, I WOULD LIKVE TO HAVE THE BOOKS. MY ADDRESS IS:
CONNIE R. HILL
C/O ATCO FIRE PROTECTION
3300 KING AVENUE
CLEVELAND, OH 44114
THIS IS MY WORK ADDRESS. MY E-MAIL IS
hillcme@prodigy.net.
PLEASE GET A HOLD OF TRACY SO SHE CAN SEND ME AN E-MAIL
GOD BLESS YOU
CONNIE
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4) Fruit of the Spirit curriculum
A friend and I wrote a summer program for ages 2-6th grade using the Fruit
of the Spirit as the theme. I have a bound copy I would be happy to share
if you are interested. My e-mail address is caschutterop@cs.com.
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Kidzoo-Shuffle Game
Kidzoo-Shuffle helps children develop eye-hand coordination, depth
perception skills and strategy plays. Kidzoo-Shuffle is a blast to play
indoors or out! Developed by Sarah Keith for kids ages 5 and up.
Find it in the Products section under "Children's Exercise" at:
http://www.therapyzone.com
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5) Children's Church Activities
I AM WRITTING IN REGARD TO QUESTION #9. WE ARE ALSO A SMALL CHURCH WITH
ALOT OF CHILDREN. I AM THE CHILDREN'S MINISTRY LEADER AND I HAVE THE
CHILDREN FROM THE START OF SERVICE UNTIL THE END. I NORMALLY START OUT
WITH PRAISE AND WORSHIP. THEN WE HAVE A LESSON ( I HAVE FOUND A LOT
THROUGH THE NET). I THEN DO GAMES, OBJECT LESSONS, CRAFTS. THE CHILDREN
SEEM TO ENJOY THIS AND GO HOME HAVING LEARNT A LESSON PLUS HAVE FUN.
KID'S CHURCH SHOULD BE ACTIVE AND FUN. LOOK UNDER # OBJECT LESSONS,
#PUPPETS SKITS, #LESSONS FOR CHILDREN'S CHURCH. MAY THE LORD BLESS YOU IN
YOUR MINISTRY. SHERREE
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6) Christmas plays & musicals?
I am thinking ahead to the Christmas season. Every year our Sunday school
children put on a Christmas program. This year we would like to do a
Christian Christmas play or musical instead. Does anyone know of any
resources for Christian Christmas plays or musicals? Our group isn't very
big, we have 16 kids in our Sunday school ranging from ages 4 through 14.
Thanks and God Bless!
Lori from Wisconsin
--from SSTN: Yes, in the Skits section of the site and the Bookstore Skits
section:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/bookstore.html
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7) September 11 Remembrance?
I would like some ideas for a meaningful remembrance of September 11th. A
special bulletin board, activity, etc.
Thanks
VL
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8) Old curriculum
SSTN # 83 DTE 8/14/02 NO. 2 STATED OLD SUNDAY SCHOOL
CURRICULA. I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE THOSE. BUT I TRIED
THE E-MAIL AND IT DIDN'T WORK. MY NAME IS
CONNIE R. HILL, SUPERINTENDENT OF SS
12603 THORNHURST AVE.
GARFIELD HTS., OH 44105
E-MAIL hillcme@prodigy.net
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"Card Game of Christian Symbols"
FaithShapes! ® A fun, must-have game for every Sunday School class! For
kids and adults, readers or nonreaders. The 64 cards are beautifully
illustrated with historical explanations and Scripture verses. Use them
for family game night, during Sunday School, or for personal enrichment.
Shape your faith with FaithShapes ®.
In the Curriculum section:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/kt_kit.html
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9) Children's activities during church
You didn't mention how many kids you have exactly or
what the ages, so I'm not sure how much of a help I
will be, but I will give it a try.
Have you thought about simply having a combined Sunday
School class? Maybe you could gather all the kids
from ages 3-11 in one class. If you have quite a few
kids, and 2 teachers, you could split it in half...say
ages 3-7 in one class and ages 8-11 in another class.
You could use a children's church curriculum, since it
is suitable for a variety of ages, and just adapt it
to your needs. Various ages in one class is a
challenge, but it is not impossible. Often, if you
will do activities for the older ones, the younger
ones will love it, because it makes them feel like
they are "big" too.
You can have sword drills, and the younger kids can
cheer the older kids on. You can have games where an
older child is a partner with a younger child. I find
this works pretty well...a lot of older kids do really
well with the younger ones. Older children can be a
great help in this situation. You can have them help
you act out the story, maybe lead in a few songs.
This will keep the older kids still interested, still
involved, while also reaching the younger ones. I
would advise staying away from most crafts in a
combined sunday school with a great difference in
ages, unless it is a special occasion, like Mother's
Day etc, as it is very difficult to find something
that will fit a wide variety of ages. However, you
can have different kinds of activity
sheets...crosswords and word searches for the older
ones and simple coloring sheets for the smaller ones.
If help is a major problem, and you are afraid of
teacher burn out, maybe you could have it every other
week. This would give you two weeks to plan each
lesson, and give you a break in between Sundays. Hope
this helps.
Kari
1st UPC
Trinidad, CO
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10) Church Pals Program
We have a different kind of program at our church. We
have secret prayer partners. At the end of the year
or the beginning . We have a dinner and anyone who is
there that wants to do this puts there name in a
basket. Ladies in one basket men in another. Then we
pull names out of the basket. We exchange birthday
card and thinking of you card. And knowing someobody
is praying for you each day is nice to know. At the
end of the year you can reveal who you secret pal is .
Sometimes others have done it earlier, but still it
nice to know that special prayer partner is there.
Kellie
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11) Christian Posters
I have purchased many beautiful posters at Cokesbury.com
I believe you have to look under curriculum to find them.
God bless,
Joni
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12) Starting a Wed. night program
In response to the request for help in starting a
program for Wednesday nights, I recommend purchasing
material rather than writing your own. I have been
coordinating our Wednesday program for many years and
have tried many different materials and formats.I
always adapt and modify a curriculum to suit our
particular needs and kids at the time.
With your small group of 5, you could keep them all
together, but if it expands (and it will) you can
divide into groups by age levels later. We started out
with about the same size of adults and kids, but the
program has grown. We now have about 15 regular kids
and about 60 to 65 adults plus about 8 youth.
Sometimes more. By offering a kids' program, you will
be able to attract more adults. Offer a youth program
and you can expand even more.
We have dinner from 6 to 6:45. Kids' program 6:45 to
7:30 and our choir rehearses from 7:45 to 9:00.
The format we use now is 15 minutes of prayer requests
and prayers and an introduction to the night's theme
and lesson. The next 15 minutes is for the Bible story
and looking up a key Bible verses that is explained
and memorized. The last 15 minutes varies - the first
Wednesday of each month we work on our church library
which the kids are creating. The other Wednesdays we
either do a craft or a game.
When I have a second teacher, we break into two age
groups and each take a group for the last 15 minutes.
We used to split after the first 15 minutes, each take
a group for the middle 15 minutes and swap for the
last. This was too much moving around for our kids and
not enough time.
I have only had success in getting three or four
people to work each Wednesday night. For awhile we
tried rotating with teams of two, each working for one
month. I volunteered to work every week because I
think it is good to have someone there all the time
for consistency, but you could ask volunteers to each
commit a certain amount of time, say a month, so they
won't feel locked into it forever.
I let the kids earn points which they exchange at our
store the first Wednesday of each month. I started
this when we were doing Team KID and have kept doing
it. I have debated phasing it out,but it's tough to do
now because some kids have accumulated so many points.
I kept the point system to try and increase
enrollment, giving points for bringing friends and we
did get some new members this way.
In the cold months of the year, I let the kids come up
15 minutes early and they do a worksheet or puzzle
page related to the lesson. I let them talk quietly to
each other during this time.
We do Operation Christmas Child as our fall mission
project. This takes about three weeks. We do a fall
festival on the Wed. closest to Halloween and do trick
or trunk with treats for kids as the last activity of
the night. We do a Birthday Party for Jesus near
Christmas and we do a special Easter activity such as
making treats for shut-ins or a variation of the egg
story.
We have used Faith Followers, TEAM KID, Adventure
Club, and a variety of other programs. I am now using
Bold Bible Kids and then will be using Teaching
Children to Live Like Jesus. The Gospel Light
curriculum also looks good. For your small group, I
would purchase a book that has everything in it rather
than trying to get one with workbooks for kids. Our
kids did not respond well to workbooks after doing
similar things in school all day.
I can give you other tips on things we have tried if
you want to email me at lilcarol56@yahoo.com. Good
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