The Sunday School Teacher's Network Newsletter - Great ideas for children's ministry!


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Issue #61 - October 1, 2007	Home \| Search \| Support SSTN
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"For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." -- Jesus
1) Holiday Help? 2) Singing Books of the Old Testament 3) Song for Wordless Book 4) Ideas for Children's Liturgy? Pilgrim & Indian Finger Puppets Print out as many patterns as you need. Click here. 5) Halloween: A Reason to Celebrate 6) Preparing a Christmas Play 7) Video of Church in Turkey 8) Halloween idea 9) Halloween Lights, Camera, Action Bible Skits Kid Friendly - Children present the lesson! No memorization required! Click here.	Skit: A Harvest Carol Holiday Fundraiser
	This book tells the Israelites how to offer sacrifices for their sins.
Bible-4-Life Curriculum Gospel Fun Activities Easy Make N' Take Downloads Holidays & Holy Days Christian E-books Premium Club Membership Discount Email a friend to join us at SSTN!	Bible Games Christian Crafts Christian Skits Missions For Kids Recycling Ideas Sermons & Object Talks

1) Holiday Help? Hi - we have a very small church - I run the Sunday School & during the school holidays is my only time off. During the school holidays the kids normally watch a DVD, but some parents are complaining about this. I have asked for volunteers for people to run a session or do some baking with the kids but no-one has come forward. I really need this time off - so does anybody have any other ideas for the kids during these school holidays? Thanks very much, Nicola - New Zealand --from SSTN: Our site has tons of holiday resources (crafts, yummy food devotions, games, skits, sermons, etc.) You can find them listed in the F-R-E-E Stuff section at: http://www.sundayschoolnetwork.com

2) Singing Books of the Old Testament Just a suggestion, singing the books in "Ten Little Indians" tune, using flashcards, large paper with names on each (color coated).

3) Song for Wordless Book Dear Patricia Siew (Singapore - Kam Yam Methodist Church ) I do not know the words or tune to the official Wordless book song - but I made up my own for our club. The words are to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.... See my dark heart stained with sin (Dark heart --brown or black) I need to ask Jesus in, Jesus died shed blood for me (Red heart) So my dark heart could be clean (White Heart) Christ will help me learn and grow (Green Heart) Someday I'll walk streets of gold. (Gold - heart The hearts were big cut outs = larger than a person head. Children would hold them down in front of them as they sang the song Each child held up their special color heart as the song referred to it. I even made small flannel graph boards and cut the hearts from felt in the appropriate colors. This fit is a gallons size zipper baggie. They could take out the flannel board and and display the correct heart to with what they were singing. It was very cute and the kids shared the gospel with people at a nursing homes, with grandparents, and a few other clever ways to tell the good news. The kids really liked them and kept them in their zipped bag and ready to go. Put a sticker with their name on it and you have a nice object lesson in a bag - ready to take into the world to tell others Joyfully Serving HIM Emmalea Butler - In

4) Ideas for Children's Liturgy? Needing Ideas for Children's Liturgy. --from SSTN: you'll find many useful resources by typing "children's liturgy" into the bookstore search box at: http://www.sundayschoolnetwork.com/bookstore.html



5) Halloween: A Reason to Celebrate We have hosted a free Fall Festival for our community for 25 years. It was never done so our children would not feel left out. It was done as a way to have community outreach when we can easily get non-Christians to come to out church. People are going to celebrate that night so we provide non-Halloween related games and prizes. Every year we reach over 1000 people in our neighborhood and every year several people accept Christ and have their lives changed forever. Now there is a reason to celebrate!

6) Preparing a Christmas Play It's about that time of year when everyone will be preparing a Christmas play or pageant. I just wanted to share the one or ones we did a couple of years ago. The adults did a play from the Christmas song "The Christmas Guest", it was wonderful I don't think their was a dry eye in the house and many went to the alter to ask Jesus into their hearts. The first play we did was "The First Christmas" with the children in our church. We had several scenes starting with Joseph and Mary going to Bethlehem as each scene started we read the scripture relating to it, then had music play to suit that scene and spotlighted just that scene. At the end when all was on the stage to see baby Jesus, they sung a song to Jesus and then passed out candy canes with a card attached that told the "Legend of the Candy Cane" and a thank you for coming message to all the visitors. I would love to share any ideas for these plays if anyone wants them. Kathy kat91155@hotmail.com --from SSTN: there is a great selection of plays in the F-R-E-E Stuff / Skit section at: http://www.sundayschoolnetwork.com



7) Video of Church in Turkey It is extremely well worth anyone's taking the few minutes it takes to view this great video from the Batıkent Church in Ankara, Turkey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFHjXbcueSE Except for the music this video is either in English or has English sub-titles. So don't give up after the first bit, which is mainly music.

8) Halloween idea How about this for a Halloween idea? Parents can take their children out without masks or costumes, for true Christians have no need of them. They can ring the doorbell and say something like: "Do you know God....Always watches over us and cares for us, even as a hen watches over her young chicks? " I remember how in Psalms I read about the mercy seat and how God shelters over his own who come to him for refuge. "We're not out trick or treating, we just wanted to give you a blessing." RB

9) Halloween I'm sorry but I must say that I think we Christians tend to take ourselves too seriously frequently. Halloween is one of those times. There is nothing wrong with having fun! I do object to the gruesome horror garbage that is so prevalent in stores and television but we can counter that by offering some gentle seasonal activities. The history of the observance would go far to teach our kids reasons why we don't go "gung ho". When I was teaching church school I always "took a day off" from regular church stuff - decorated my room with "cob webs", baked a "Witch's Cake" (a spice cake), I told silly gently scary ghost stories ending with the origin of the festival - and we had fun. None of the kids on those classes has turned into a ghoul or a serial killer or a child molester!

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