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"For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."
Matthew 18:20

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<>< <>< SSTN-Volume 1-Number 90 <>< <><
September 4, 2000
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IN THIS ISSUE OF THE SSTN e-NEWSLETTER:
1) God's Armor
2) Harvest Party/Alternative to Halloween
3) Harvest party
4) Harvest party/Fall Festival
5) Family Nights/Anniversary -Video
6) Harvest Party
7) Christmas program ideas?
8) Harvest Party/Alternative to Halloween
9) Bibleaire Game/Jr.- Sr. High Ideas?
10) Need Ideas?

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1) God's Armor

I AM A SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER WHO THIS YEAR WAS MY FIRST TIME TEACHING BIBLE SCHOOL. I WAS SEEKING GUIDANCE FOR WHAT I SHOULD TEACH THEM WHEN I CAME ACROSS YOUR WEB SITE. THANK YOU AND ALL THOSE WHO HAVE SENT IN THE GAMES. I DECIDED TO DO ONE CALLED GODS ARMOUR I THOUGHT OF THIS AFTER READING ABOUT GODS ARMOUR.
I MADE BULLSEYES AND TAPED THEM TO THE CHILDRENS BACKS. THIS WAS TO REPRESENT HOW GOD DOES NOT GIVE US ANY ARMOUR TO PROTECT US FROM THE ENEMY WHEN WE TURN OUR BACKS I TOOK STORIES OF BRAVE SOLDERS OF GOD FROM HIS WORD SUCH AS DAVID ELIJAH AND JESUS I THEN TOLD THEM OF HOW JONAH RAN AND HOW GOD DELT WITH HIM I TOLD THEM OF PAUL AFTER ONE WEEK OF REMINDING THEM OF EACH ARMOUR PIECE WE MADE OUR OWN SPIRITAL ARMOUR I TOOK A CAMAFLAUGE HAT TAPED HELMENT OF SALVATION ON THEM I THEN TOOK AND MADE PAPER SWORDS WE CUT OUT BREASTPLATES , I TOLD THEM EVERYDAY ABOUT HOW GOD PROTECTES US FROM THE ENEMY IF WE HAVE OUR ARMOUR ON I THEN TOLD THEM ON FRIDAY TO BE READY FOR THE ATTACK WE HAD A WATER BALLOON FIGHT EACH CHILD WAS TOLD NOT TO HIT THE OTHERS UNLESS THY SAW THE BULLSEYE ON THEIR BACK THAT MENT THEY WERE RUNNING FROM THE LORD AND THEY WERE A TARGET THEY LOVED IT AND HAD SHUCH A GREAT TIME LEARNING ALL ABOUT GODS ARMOUR THANKS FOR THE INSPIRATION
YOUR SISTER IN CHRIST MICHELLE KING

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2) Harvest Party/Alternative to Halloween

> My hubby and I have been asked to plan a "really big" harvest party this year.
> What do others of you do for a Harvest Party/Alternative to Halloween
> parties? Thanks for all input.

Dear Julie, At our church we have a hay ride and bonfire. The youth group is in charge of refreshments, hot dogs, snacks and cider. We invite all the kids in our small community to come and have fun. This is a great outreach to those kids that are leery of coming to church events. We have a short devotional and a prayer, other then that we just show kids that attending church functions is a fun event. Last year we had two wagon loads of kids. Sharon from Fulton, MI - Peace, Joy and Laughter

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3) Harvest party

Our church hands each child a ticket when they enter for the Harvest party. That ticket is redeemed when they leave for a bag of candy. We have church members donate wrapped candies for a number of weeks prior to the event and we will small lunch bags with the treats. The bag also includes tracts that are appropriate for children. We also have a kitchen crew and we provide hot dogs, nacho/cheese, popcorn and candy. These are usually 25-50 cents each. We fill our Gymnasium with "carnival-type" games that we rent, IE: Inflatable bouncing moon walk, tunnel-maze, mini-strength mallet game etc. We also have games for smaller children, IE: small pool with floating ducks that children catch with fishing net, bean bag toss etc. We have face painting, clowns and wagon rides. We have it from 6-8pm and we close promptly at 8. It's a fun and safe night for families.

Kelly
Warren, OH

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4) Harvest party/Fall Festival

Check out this website for ideas: WWW.childrensministry.net and click on forums. Then click on Idea swap. There are a number of good ideas up right now, and you can search the archives for more.
Teresa

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5) Family Nights/Anniversary -Video

I taught a workshop earlier this year entitled "Our Children Need Us." I listed each area they need us and talked about each one. This might be something you could use for Family nights. In our annual Children's Ministry Workshop we did a slide presentation and used the song "who will teach the Children?" You could do a slide or video presentation with a song apropos to parenting.
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For the anniversary-again do a slide/video presentation of the decades of the church. We did this when we dedicated our new church building 18 months ago. We showed the first building and subsequent buildings, as well as the stages of building our new church. It was quite a hit! We plan to do this for our 50th anniv. in 2002, using pictures of the congregation from each decade, and activities the church was involved in during that time. We have old newspaper articles, advertisements, Sunday school promotion fliers, etc., that we will incorporate.

We do a slide show each year at our watch night service in New years Eve. We take slides throughout the year of every church activity, special speakers, camps *& conferences our children/youth attend, each person who is baptized, etc. Someone puts the slides in the slide trays chronologically. The narrator mentions each occasion and the prole involved. It's one of the highlights of watch night. People tend to forget all the stuff that happens in a year and it's fun to look back and remember.

Hope this helps

Teresa Bohannon

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6) Harvest Party

> What do others of you do for a Harvest Party/Alternative to Halloween
> parties?

In response to Julie F., We have a big blast for our Harvest Party. We
also rent some sort of a blow-up Bounce type game every year as well as have
the game booth's. We also have a food tent and the menu varies every year
but it is food like hamburgers, hotdogs, chili, stew and chips and drinks.
We have a cake walk. But the greatest thing we do is pull in a flat bed
trailer and put on a "show". We have tremendous singing talent in our
church and have many "acts" from our Puppets to our youth group to many
local singing groups. It really does pull a lot of people in from the
community. Hope this helps.
Virginia Evans- Location Administrator
(How do I set a laser printer to stun?)

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7) Christmas program ideas?

My name is Natalie.I do our christmas program every year at our church.In our program we celebrate the birth of Jesus.Also we include other little skits,musicals,etc. I am in need of some material. I have been to library and bookstores but haven,t been able to find much new material. I have some ideas that I put together, but could use some help. I have a group of children from ages 3-12 that participate. Our manger scene has the smaller children playing the animals wearing little tails and ears. i have an older group that like to use sign language under a black light wearing white gloves. I am just out of ideas. Can you put me on to something? Your web is an answer to my prayers.
thanks, Natalie

--From ChristianCrafters.Com: Dear Natalie, the blacklight idea is awesome! Make sure you check out the 'Bible Games & Skits' page, and the 'Holidays & Holidays' section of the Bookstore in ChristianCrafters.Com. Blessings, Sarah Keith-Your Moderator

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8) Harvest Party/Alternative to Halloween

> What do others of you do for a Harvest Party/Alternative to Halloween
> parties? Thanks for all input.

Our church has done a Harvest Festival for many years. When each child arrives, they receive a "neck-card" (a decorated "chart" with numbers 1-13 in boxes, yarn tied on to hang around neck). They proceed to each "game booth" - they can play the game or for little ones, try, but no matter, each child gets a sticker from the numbered booth on their corresponding neck-card number. (They also get some candy from each booth.)
Once their neck-card is filled with stickers from each booth, they get a brown paper bag of candy (which also has tracks, scriptures, small christian toys, etc.) to take home. Each booth has a scripture related to the game at the booth. We have many regular carnival games, just downsized. We also have a crawl-through, where the kids take a flashlight, to see the light vs. darkness. We also have a jar full of jelly beans which the kids guess how many there are, they fill out a slip of paper w/their name, age and guess. Then the slips are divided by age group, and someone picks the winner. They receive a door prize from donated toys/games at the end of the night. We also do a puppet show before the door prizes so everyone is gathered in the main room. This
has worked well for us, and we add or change some of the games each year. Of
course the candy and prizes are donated. Hope this gives different ideas.
Mrs. Daryn Rollins, CA

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9) Bibleaire Game/Jr. Sr. High Ideas?

This is a simple suggestion for any one who may be interested. I teach a group of Jr. and Sr. High Students on Wednesday night and instead of playing the Bibleaire questions the way the game was set up we played them in the form of Tic Tac Toe. I divided the class into two teams and took turns taking the questions in their order that way everyone gets to participate.

Also, I am in need of new suggestions on things that this age group likes to do or things they might like to do. If any one can help I would love to hear from them. My email is mailto:kvernatt@intelos.net. I love this newsletter and hope to keep receiving it.

Kara Vernatter
West Virginia

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10) Need Ideas?

I am in need of ideas for activities that 4-5 year olds can do. We use to Standard Publishing curriculum in SS and the next quarter relates to Children in the Bible. It is very hard to keep this age interested in the lesson much less something else. I would also like to hear from others teachers who are responsible for this age and get some ideas my email is kvernatt@intelos.net

Your Sister in Christ
Kara Vernatter

--From ChristianCrafters.Com: If you respond to someone directly, that's quite OK. However, make sure you copy the response to SSTN, and share your knowledge with everyone. Otherwise, our exchange will not be as fruitful, and we miss the point of the newsletter. Thank you! Sarah Keith-Your Moderator.

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* If at all possible, try to post your questions two weeks in advance. That way it will appear in the newsletter in a timely manner, and you'll receive your response before you need it.

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You can access past SSTN letters:
Go to www.christiancrafters.com and click on Sunday School Teachers,
then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on 'Archives List'.

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