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Welcome to THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER'S NETWORK
**** A service of ChristianCrafters.Com ****
"For where two or three come together in my name,
there am I with them." -- Jesus
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SSTN # 81 - July 9, 2003
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IN THIS ISSUE OF THE SSTN e-NEWSLETTER:
--> "His Name Shall Be Called..."
1) Armor of God Lesson
2) Snake Ties
3) Children's Directors
4) Under the Sea craft?
5) Children's Directors, Are You Paid
6) Activities for 0-2 year olds
7) Activities for 0-2 year olds
8) Lord's Prayer skit?
9) Paying C.E. Directors
10) Children's Ministry-paid
--> Fruit of the Spirit - Bingo
11) Praying For Others
12) Lighthouse Activities
13) Clicker Training
14) Activities for 0-2 year olds
15) Jesus Feeds 5000
16) Street Talk
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--> "His Name Shall Be Called..."
The God of the Old and New Testament is known by many names. These names
help us to understand his nature and reputation. They define him as
Protector, Defender, Friend, Advisor, Judge, and Savior to name just a
few. The Third Commandment says, "Do Not Misuse God’s Name". "His Name
Shall Be Called..." contains fun crafts, games, and lessons to teach
respect and honor for God to the children in your ministry. Free USA
shipping!
To learn more, go to this page:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/curriculum.html
(you may need to copy and paste this address to your browser)
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1) Armor of God Lesson
Some discussion questions have been added to the lesson at:
http://christiancrafters.com/game_armor.html
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2) Snake ties
Dear Trudy:
You can make snakes out of men's ties by straigthening a wire clothes
hanger and inserting inside the tie. Stuff the head with batting, add
eyes, and a tongue. Hot glue it together. Great for creation story with
Adam and Eve and the serpent, or Noah's ark, or Moses's staff into a
serpent. Wire allows you to bend the snake to stand upright and the wider
end of the tie makes the head of the snake look like a cobra.
Good Luck!
Lynn Anderson
Theme nut
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3) Children's Directors
Dear Cindy - Yes some Children's directors do get paid but that will
depend on the size of your church and its budget. Our church used to have
a full time director and when the giving was down, her position was cut to
half-time and half-pay. She is now at another church and I was hired to
work the position of "Director of Children's Ministries" part time for
pay. For three years, I had been the Children's Coordinator doing much of
the same work but that too was a volunteer position.
Most churches use volunteers, if possible, because part of the
Christianity involves proactive volunteerism or servant hood. And some
churches can fall prey to having "too much" paid staff; and that will
actually discourage members from stepping up and taking over a specific
duty, believing that are enough paid people to do the job.
However, if you really are doing a full time job, you have several
options. First see if there could be a budgeted salary (even part-time)
that would help you out. If not, then divide up some of your
responsibilities and find wonderful volunteers to take SMALL parts. I
have one person who handles "children's church" (including staffing and
curriculum), another one who handles our week-long Vacation Bible School
(which caters to 350 kids annually), one more who handles our Angel
Breakfast at Christmas, and yet another who is charge of all the Sunday
school classes (making sure teachers are there, trained, etc.). Your job
as Director (paid or unpaid) is to find people willing to help you and
delegate some responsibilities to them. It's THEIR church and they should
be involved in the ministry that involves their children. If they don't
know it, then tell them. But don't do it all yourself. It's wonderful to
be involved in everything but you may be missing out on assistance from
some great folks who are just waiting to help but don't know it.
Hopefully you're not being taken advantage of and know that your church
may not realize that you are feeling "burdened". Talk to the appropriate
people - that could be your pastor, office or business manager if you have
one, maybe even Staff Parish Relations Committee (if you have that). God
bless your efforts and remember to pray. God will give you the answers.
Reesee M.
Virginia Beach
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4) Under the Sea craft?
Our church is having a VBS week with "under the sea"
as the theme. I will be doing craft night. Does
anyone have a good craft that will take about 1 hour
to do? Thanks.
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5) Children's Directors, Are You Paid
I am not the Director of Children's Ministry for my entire church
(I'm middle mgmt - wink). My director does have a paid position
(plus vacation and benefits) and works 40 hours a week. I put in
probably 5-8 hours per week of volunteer time on top of that. She
also has another middle mgr for another age group who puts in the
same as me. Our church is fairly large, but I would think that a
director/children's pastor of any size church other than 20 folks
would require lots of time, volunteer or paid.
Blessings,
Steph
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6) Activities for 0-2 year olds
When our children's pastor recently came to our church, we purchased
curriculum from Gospel Light for the newborns to two year olds, as well as
most of our Sunday School children's program. The newborn curriculum is
very simple, however it is excellent. The curriculum revolves around
bright posters, and encourages single word recognition of Biblical faces
and themes. For instance a bright poster with a young child sitting on
Jesus' lap says Jesus on it, the poster is continually pointed to and the
teacher says Jesus and those within talking ages will eventually learn
Jesus from all of the repetition. Some of the other posters include things
such as the large fish with Jonah that teaches both the words fish and
Jonah, and other simple themes and people of the Bible such as that. You
can buy posters through any major curriculum company, or you could make
them yourself by enlarging coloring sheets and coloring them by hand with
markers (for the brightest colors), or you can print them in color on a
color computer, using any standard paintbrush program to color them in.
Make sure to laminate them before you hang them on the wall, as they will
last a whole lot longer that way. Any simple cd with Bible Songs For Kids
on it will work for music, keep it simple, keep it fun. Songs sung by
other children will appeal most to newborns to infants, and songs such as
Jesus loves the little children, Jesus loves me, etc will catch there
attention especially when they are sung by other children. A good series
of cd's for that age group is called: Bible Songs For Kids, and I
purchased mine at Wal Mart (all three cd's, Volumes I-III for only $8.88,
but I have seen it online also) The ISBN numbers on those cd's are Volume
I: 0-7786-1473-5; Volume II: 0-7786-1474-3; and Volume III: 0-7786-1475-1.
A large set of recognition cards (which you can make on standard 8 x 10
paper and laminate) with Biblical people, places, stories, themes, etc can
be used in picture book format to tell easy stories, and to encourage
further recognition. Activities such as bubble blowing and coloring sheets
(for those old enough to not eat the crayons) with jumbo crayons for
smaller hands are great things that will substitute for crafts for the
youngest children. Additionally, jumbo lincoln log style building toys,
which can be made inexpensively from covering toilet paper rolls in
contact paper, and putting a slit in each end, jumbo plastic toys such as
kaliedoscopes, etc...will be a good education substitute for craft
projects until the kids are older. Stories told with fun puppets
(preferably the same one or two hand puppets each week so that the kids
begin to make friends with and recognize the puppet and associate it with
story time. Lastly, when telling the story, use Bible Board Books, as they
are made at a level that infants and young toddlers can understand. Some
good ones are: Stories of Jesus Baby Bible Board Books Collection 1 ISBN:
0972554645; Crest Publications produces an entire set of Bible Board
Books. My First Bible Board Book by Dorling Kindersley Publishing (sorry I
do not have the ISBN on that one); Scratch and Sniff Bible Story Books
ISBN: 0842369961; Away In A Manger Board Book ISBN: 0849959330; and My
Mini ABC's set of 24 Bible Board Books ISBN: 0849958318.
Hope this helps! Love in Christ, Sarah in California
--from SSTN: you can find these books by typing the individual titles, or
"Bible Board Books", into the bookstore search box:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/bookstore.html
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7) Activities for 0-2 year olds
There is no much around for newborns. But you can start some kind of
activity for them after their first birthday. They are most interest in
things that is around them especially after they started to walk. You
can't do any simple crafts but there are big story books with lots of
pictures for them to see and touch (Pat the rabbit) There are cassettes or
CDs for them to listen to.
YSIC
Rev. Penny
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8) Lord's Prayer skit?
I am looking for a skit on the Lord's Prayer. I know there is one out
there somewhere, we used it when I was a youth in church. Basically, it
is a one person dialogue with God where the person is praying the Lord's
Prayer and God is responding to what is being said. If anyone knows of
this skit and where I could find it I am hoping to use it in a children's
camp worship service. In HIS service, Vikki
--from SSTN: you can find this in the Archives. Type "prayer + dialogue"
into the search box:
http://christiancrafters.com/archives.html
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9) Paying C.E. Directors
Hi Cindy T--
Here's one opinion. I am not paid as the director of
children's ministries. We are a growing church, and I
just took over 6 months ago. I plan on a several year
stint. But--assuming we continue to grow, I was going
to recommend that my position change to a paid
position when I leave. (I can't imagine that my church
could afford to pay me enough to make it worth the
bother at this point.) I do have an 'office'--which
doubles as the supply room. We have one service now
and about 60 kids birth through 5th grade. We're
going to two services in the fall, and I'm assuming
we'll have at least double the kids when I leave. My
church is planning on hiring a youth pastor soon.
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10) Children's Ministry- paid
HI , this is a reply to Cindy T. re: a paid CM director. I am the CM
director at our small church. I put together the entire program two years
ago. At this time, I do not get paid.Our pastor has mentioned that as we
grow he would like to make it a paid position. Right now, I make sure all
the teachers have all their supplies and the Hands On Curr. from Group
Publishing makes it very easier to plan. I feel fine about not being
paid right now as I see it has a ministry to be a part of and the church
pays for all of the supplies so I don't have to . I would say that some
churches do pay and others do not. If you feel you should, then talk to
your pastor or elders and see if they agree. Hope this helps and
remember: by serving in this way, you are serving unto the Lord.Make sure
your heart is in the right place and it will go a lot more joyfully.
In His service,
Julie Richardson
Vancouver, WA
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--> Fruit of the Spirit - Bingo
A fun way for players to learn the Fruit of the Spirit characteristics.
Players score using real fruit candy! FREE SHIPPING!
Learn more here:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/curriculum.html
(you may need to copy and paste this address to your browser)
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11) Praying For Others
Only good things can come from praying for others and ministries that
serves Jesus Christ.
Bravo, Emmalee. May we each take a page from your book, no matter the
size or location of our churches.
Eva
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12) Lighthouse Activities
>Does anyone have any great decorating ideas for the lighthouse VBS
Go to cokesburyvbs.com and click on the link for the postings.
Eva
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13) Clicker Training
<< clicker training is for animals and not for children. I'm pretty stunned
Friends,
Let's not judge. If this program is working and the parents of the
children in this church don't disagree then we should not condemn it. No
one is saying that this is the only way to manage classroom behavior.
Eva
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14) Activities for 0-2 year olds
To Nancy:
Our nursery has babies to four year olds. We have books with childrens'
Bible stories, and we have Bible coloring books. We also have movies such
as Veggie Tales, and we usually play a childrens' tape of worship songs.
For craft ideas and lesson ideas, try Daniellesplace.com. To get lesson
ideas, you have to join, but it is well worth it. There is a specific
section for younger children. I got my mothers day and fathers day crafts
from this website. They were easy enough to do with the children with
help, and the both the children and the parents loved the projects. This
site also has great coloring sheets also. Hope this helped.
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15) Jesus Feeds 5000
To Vanessa:
I am preparing a lesson on the same subject. I have gotten good
ideas for the lesson, craft and snack from Daniellesplace.com. To get
this
lesson, you have to join, but it is well worth it. I use this site all
the
time for lesson and craft ideas. Once you are in the Resource Room, hit
search and type in "Jesus Makes a Big Picnic". Hope this helped.
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16) Street Talk
Reply to Jan Rowan:
Check out Jonathan's Resource E-zine at
www.TheSourceForYouthMinistry.com
There's a whole section on "Street Talk" (ie.
translating it into every-day English) and lots of
articles and ideas for activities etc. There is no
charge for using anything from this site.
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