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


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Issue #68 - October 25, 2007 Previous issues can be found in the Archives.	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) Mustard Seed 2) Halloween in the United Kingdom 3) Halloween Apology 4) Halloween Debate 5) Fishers of Men Pilgrim & Indian Finger Puppets Print out as many patterns as you need for $4.99. Click here. 6) Wonders of God 7) Favorite Song From Long Ago 8) Life of Paul? 9) Parable of the Lost Coin 10) Wall of Jericho Idea	Fall Flip-Card Tract
	How many authors wrote the Bible? (The answer is in this newsletter)
Bible-4-Life Curriculum Gospel Fun Activities Easy Make N' Take Downloads Holidays & Holy Days Christian E-books Premium Club Membership Discount Support the SSTN Ministry! Email a friend to join us at SSTN!	Over 1400 pages of: Bible Games Christian Crafts Christian Skits Missions For Kids Recycling Ideas Sermons & Object Talks
1) Mustard Seed Way back in the day when I taught children's bible study, we did a summer of parables. For each parable lesson, we included a craft. For the mustard seed parable, we found some die cut crosses at our local christian bookstore. I found some packets of mustard seeds and we used clear fingernail polish to get the seed glued to the cross and used some plastic string to make them into necklaces. Most of my kids from that summer are now in their late teens and they can still remember some of the classes and have their crafts. I found most of my class curriculum online. Just type what lesson you are interested in and perhaps include children or youth as well in a search engine and you can put together a decent class and find lots of suggestions for visual displays, crafts, puzzles, etc. as well. There is also a small booklet of parables for children that can be found at most christian bookstores. I cannot remember the title at the moment as I gave my curriculum to one of the teachers who now took over that age group as I moved up. Ebay is a good place to find affordable used books and curriculum as well. We are a very small church and sometimes the books are kind of high to buy in the stores or sites online new, but someone on Ebay is always trying to thin their collection down and it is a good way to help build up your own collection when needed.

2) Halloween in the United Kingdom I live in the UK and the American Trick or treat craze is, unfortunately, now gaining a foothold here. As a Christian Community, our church provides an alternative celebration for the youth by holding a 'Light' party. We have all the fun, but witches, ghouls etc are banished... and we ask the kids to dress in bright clothes. We still enjoy the fun, activities and games, but with a Christian slant, explaining why we don't want to 'celebrate' the darkness. There are many good leaflets in production that can be given out to 'trick or treaters'... notably those produced by CPO. If you don't have access to these, why not produce your own? Denise Coomber Kenilworth, Warwickshire UK

3) Halloween Apology >Halloween is not a "holiday" that should be recognized by Christians, simply on the basis of what it is all > about..not for the reasons you mentioned which are confusing, and don't seem relevant to the issue. ~~ My apologies for not making it clear that I'm from a small island country where the natives are now less than 50% of the population and where crime is on the rise & where it was safe years ago for children to trick-or-treat but not so safe anymore. I'm not going to keep arguing back and forth since I've already stated my opinion. Just to say again that other holidays also have pagan sources associated with them. For example, "Easter", however, as Christians we have used it as an opportunity to celebrate Jesus'' death and resurrection. In the same way, Halloween can be an opportunity to witness. Christian trick-or-treaters are always well behaved, as opposed to non-Christian ones!

4) Halloween Debate Our bible bookstore had a book that I purchased called the Unhalloween Book. It had ideas for activities to use to do a small festival or carnival for christian children in place of Halloween. It also came in handy for VBS ideas as well. Just FYI to all Teachers - I am really fond of a site from Calvary Chapel when preparing lessons for youth. http://children.calvarychapel.com/site/curriculum.htm It has lessons on most of the Bible stories you would use and each one has a memory verse, coloring page, word search and crossword puzzle that can also be used. Just make sure you work out the answers ahead of time on your copy to make sure everything fits in whatever translation of the Bible you might be using. It takes minutes to do so. I use a print program (printmaster or anything like it) and made the lesson into a booklet; coloring page on cover, inside left lesson, inside right word search and back crossword. When I didn't teach the smaller children anymore, I used the site to create children's church bulletins to go with the adult ones. They became quite popular and don't take long to make or copy.

5) Fishers of Men When I taught 8-11 yr. olds and we reached the Fishers of Men section, I remember doing a bulletin board. I enlarged a full length picture of Jesus and also added a pic of our pastor on the left side. I took our digital camera to church a few weeks and go the kids to pose against a wall. I used a print program (printmaster or anything like it) and found a picture of a fish and added each child's face to one and then put them all on the bulletin board. The night of the class we had little goldfish crackers as well.

6) Wonders of God I realized that some are unaware of how the numbering of the generations in Matthew 1 add up correctly, and wondered how many others have not seen this. As my KJV is written, some questions present themselves. 1. Why is Joseph the "husband" of Mary listed in Jesus' genealogy? Was Jesus the son of Joseph biologically? The answer to that question is "No." (Matt ch 1) 2. Why does Matt 1:16 say that Joseph the husband of Mary had a father named Jacob, while Luke 3:23 gives the name of Joseph's father as Heli? 3. Why is it that the numbering of the generations in Matthew ch 1 don't add up as it is written? I know my KJV has questions as it is written. To deny that fact would be to deny the truth. Years ago I had a catalog from a cigar company which showed on it's cover 4 men holding cigars. What it said in large print was "Four Generations Of Fathers And Sons." That's how we count in America. I first saw what I am about to show, in a book that was published in the early '80's. I believe it to be good information being supported by scripture. I believe the Bible helps us receive the interpretation of it with the help of the holy spirit. Here is a counting of the generation of Jesus Christ, from the first chapter of Matthew. Let's remember that Abraham is one generation and that Isaac is another, and that we are going to count ALL the generations listed, leaving no one out, and counting no one twice. 1. Abraham 2. Isaac 3. Jacob 4. Judas 5. Phares 6. Esrom 7. Aram 8. Aminadab 9. Naasson 10. Salmon 11. Booz 12. Obed 13. Jesse 14. David the king. (notice that all the generations from Abraham to David are 14) 1. Solomon 2. Roboam 3. Abia 4. Asa 5. Josaphat 6. Joram 7. Ozias 8. Joatham 9. Achaz 10. Ezekias 11. Manases 12. Amon 13. Josias 14. Jechonias (verse 17 of Matt 1 says that about this time they were carried unto Babylon) 1. Salathiel 2. Zorobabel 3. Abiud 4. Eliakim 5. Azor 6. Sadoc 7. Achim 8. Eliud 9. Eliazar 10. Matthan 11. Jacob 12. Joseph (father of Mary) 13. Mary 14. Jesus (Everything good in the word of God, here we see him as The Last Generation) So when Matthew 1:16 says that " ...Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary,...I wrote in my margin a note reminding me that this Joseph is the father of Mary rather than her husband. That way it adds up, and fits with all the rest of scripture. And I wonder, Did God know that our Bibles would be printed as they are, and so did he count the generations as he did, and also list Joseph's genealogy in Luke for those reasons as well as others? Now I realize that all the generations listed are called "the generation of Jesus Christ". Every one here is part of his generation. Maybe the whole book of Matthew is called the "book of the generation of Jesus Christ" because it's written by him, for him and through him. RB

7) Favorite Song From Long Ago To Patty regarding her favorite song from long ago.... it is set to the tune of Chopsticks... and is from Standard Publishing V.B.S. program during the late 70's or 80's) (Come Follow Jesus) Betty

8) Life of Paul? For the past year, I have been writing my own teaching material for our Sunday Club, ages 6 - 12 years. I have covered a lot of Old Testament heroes and many stories of Jesus, but somehow I seem to have left Paul out! I would like to do a series on his life to give the children a background to the development of the Church. Does anyone have any material they could share with me? My email address is kenjackson@absamail.co.za Thanks for this wonderful site. I have benefited often from the comments. Val Jackson Hout Bay, South Africa

9) Parable of the Lost Coin Idea Send the kids on a treasure hunt and have the prize at the end be one penny. I told the kids that when they found the prize at the end to look at it, leave it for the others to find, and then return to the classroom and wait for everyone else to return. After everyone had returned, I asked them: "Did everyone find the prize? What did you find? Did you know that Jesus told a story about a woman that searched all over just like you did looking for one coin?" Then this lead into my story.

10) Wall of Jericho Idea Our budget is limited so for a couple of years I have used egg cartons for blocks. For the Wall of Jericho lesson we built a wall out of egg cartons. I told the story and we marched around the wall. Then at the end we knocked it down. We have also used the egg cartons to build a tower when doing the Tower of Babel lesson. We had a contest to see who could build the tallest tower (even measured them). The kids love the egg cartons and beg to build with them. We have also used styrofoam cups to build with (which is fun too). Blessings :) Mary Beth
This issue's Bible Trivia answer is, "The Bible was written under the inspiration of God through as many as 40 authors". Used by permission. From the game, Bible Stack-O!
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