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<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< Volume 1 - Number 34 <>< <>< <>< <>< <><
March 16, 2000
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IN THIS ISSUE OF THE SSTN e-NEWSLETTER:
* Disciplinary tips
* tight budget activity
* listen and follow directions
* VBS ideas
* age 3 to age 9 activities
* Easter puppet show idea

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> can help me with Disciplinary tips. How to get the classroom in order.

For my class ( I only had twelve kids, but I am sure these ideas would
work for large groups) I made a stoplight. On three black construction
papers I put a red circle, a yellow circle, and a green circle. I had
them laminated and put a ring to hold them together. When the children
were very quiet and listening very well I had the green sign up, when a
child or the whole class were getting too loud or a fight was happening I
put up the yellow. THEN, they must know that if they get a red, horrible
behavior, their parents are notified and until then they all have to put
their heads on their desks ( or just completely end the activity your
doing and have them sit down on the floor). If it is a particular child
they must know that their actions effect the entire class. Another thing
that worked for a while was having a reward pom pom jar. Bring a small jar
to class each week and a bag of pom poms (or other simialr object) and
when there is great obedience, put a pom pom in. If you see fighting or
disobedience take out a pom pom.... if the class does still not listen,
empty the whole jar (make sure they know this in the beginning). When the
jar is filled up, have a little party the next week, with popcorn and a
Bible video or special game. One other thing to teach kids are the three
kinds of "ears" There are the plugged ears (show them with your fingers
in your ears), there are the twidiling thumbs ears who are listening, but
don't care and don't remember what you said, then there are the Mrs. I
wanna hear ears, cuff your hands over your ears to look like your eager
to listen! Tell them how much Jesus likes obedience! Hope these ideas
help! OH, another thing that I did when my class was uncontrolable, I got
down on my knees and prayed so that the class could hear and asked God to
help this class be more pleasing to Him. The children need an example of
a godly teacher, I will pray for YOU!

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> My church is on a very tight budget, so we have to use things that we can
> find around our houses.) Any suggestions

THIS IS A GREAT ACTIVITY THAT IS CHEAP AND HAS A GREAT LESSON,
recommended for ages 5 and up. All you do is take a baby food jar and put
heavy cream in it (not all the way to the top but almost) and have the
kids shake their wiggles out for about ten minutes. Do this outside
incase of dropping the bottle. Soon you should see a ball of butter
forming. After you've shaken all you can open and drain liquid out and
then add some salt (a tiny bit) and shake a little more. THERE, you have
homemade butter and a GREAT lesson to share with the family!!!!
HERE IT IS:
“So we fix our eyes not on the things that are SEEN, but on what is
UNSEEN. For what is SEEN is temporary, but what is UNSEEN is eternal.”
11 Corinthians 4:18
(don’t look at the bitter beating of the cream, but on the better butter
to come!)

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Responding to: "Angie, San Diego, Ca"

> "Can anyone share how they get their classroom to listen and follow directions
> (Special techniques?)"

Pray about the following:
First, children need to know what is expected of them. At our Youth Church of approx. 75 to 125 we have the children read the rules out loud: (1) I will do my best to learn about God and worship Him! and (2) When the leader talks, I will really listen. We have a total of ten, but you get the idea.

Second, create an award system and offer "Good Behavior" Certificates. Show the children the beautiful certificate that can soon be theirs. Explain how they can receive this certificate.

Thirdly, if you do no prefer certificates, there is the "Treasurer Chest" method. After receiving five golden stars for good behavior, the children are allowed to open the treasurer chest and pick-out a gift.

Lastly, you can incorporate a "mini-lesson" with the Sunday School lesson. For example read a short book/story on "sharing." Ask the children to give you examples of sharing to make sure they have grasp the lesson. The next week, teach a mini-lesson on "manners, or respecting others."

I pray these suggestions will be a blessing to you.
Ahreita Griffin
Charlotte, North Carolina

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I have some VBS ideas for you. I have been the director of Bible School for 7 years,three of them at a little mission church, believe me we have to be creative,flexible and search for inexpensive ways to have even have VBS. A very inexpensive craft for preschoolers that they just love is taking a 2 liter bottle and putting a few beans in it. Then let them decorate the outside of it. We use scraps of fabric, bits of crepe paper, tempera paint anything that will stick to plastic put it out on the table and let them have at it. Instead of using bottles of glue, we put glue on small paper plates and use Q-tips to spread it with. When they are finished they have a wonderful shaker to make music with. They get to show their creativity and demonstrate their musical abilities on Commencement Night when their parents are there. We also have a King and Queen Contest. Every night in the closing all the kids that brought friends stand up and they receive a sack of candy(made by taking netting you get from the fabric department, cutting it into about 10 inch squares, putting a few pieces of candy into it and tying it together with a ribbon). Then the kids who brought the most friends are asked to come to the front of the church and they are crowned king or queen. The crown is made from gold pasteboard and large sequins are the jewels. You need to have lots of candy bags and crowns though because there might be 5 or 6 kings and queens a night. Once a friend has been counted they can't be counted again the rest of the week. This is a great way to get attendance to grow. We want as many children as possible to hear the gospel and this is a great way to get them there. I think that the most important thing for the kids is for the adults to interact and to play with them. Most of the children we see have never had an adult to take the time to do that. My husband does all of the recreation for VBS. He gets right out there and plays with them. They play lots of water balloon games and on the last night he sets up an obstacle course made from haybales. Each child gets to run it and the ones from each class with the best time get a big package of bubblegum. A lot of the teachers run it too. We have kids that show up early to practice.
Thank you so much for letting me share some ideas, I have always wanted a way to do this and I am afraid I could go on and on. May God bless the work you are doing.
Teresa
all ages
Colcord OK

--From ChristianCrafters.Com-Keep em' comin', Teresa! :o)

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> I have 5 kids for Sunday School. They range from age 3 to age 9.
> My problem is finding activities that will work for this age range.
> Any suggestions?

My name is Laura, I also teach a small Sunday School Class
Which averages 5-12 children of all ages.

To provide something for all ages to enjoy here is a typical class period.
1. I start with prayer requests and then we all hold hands and have a circle
prayer, I or another adult pray aloud.
2.To keep little ones busy I pass out coloring sheets while the older kids
read whatever particular chapter or relating verses we are studying.
3. Usually we do a craft or game related to the subject. Construction paper
is inexpensive (1.00) buys quite a few Sundays of activities. and some glue
or tape. You can easily make picture or memory verse frames that will hold
a 3/5 card with a verse. Just cut out 5\7 paper squares and some 4\6 paper
squares, on the 4\6 trace and cut out a 3\5 square, cut out some crosses,
or hearts to decorate frame, all ages enjoy this. Sometimes I just ask
questions and go around the room, asking questions pertaining to the age. I
do give inexpensive prizes for correct answers like stickers,ect.
4. We pick some songs to practice and sing to the church after the adult
class is over.

Perhaps you could see if your church could donate just 10.00 a month for
Sunday school supplies. I usually purchase flannel board bible stories

which cover almost the whole O.T. and N.T. Being able to see the story take
place is a real treat to the little ones. I usually let them put the
pictures on the board. I hope this has been of some help to you. In
Christ, Laura

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> Easter puppet show
Hi,
I'm responding to Andy from Columbia Baptist church in VA. I teach the 6-9 year
olds in our Sunday School and we thought we would put on a puppet show for the
younger kids for Easter. They really wanted to involve an Easter bunny, so what
we've done is have the Easter bunny meet 2 kids on the way to Sunday School on
Easter Sunday. Using a Sunday School time machine, the kids take the Easter bunny back in time to Maundy Thursday (to teach them about the last supper and
communion), Good Friday (to learn about Jesus dying on the cross) and Resurrection
Day (to teach them that Jesus rose from the dead). We will have a puppet that
represents Jesus and Jesus will say a quote that best represents the day. The
idea is to show the Easter bunny why we really have Easter and we're hoping the
young children will have an easier time understanding it in this context. I would
be pleased to send Andy the actual text. He can e-mail me at gkcat@sympatico.ca.

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