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


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Issue #66 - October 17, 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) Halloween Debate 2) Mustard Seed and All Saints' Sunday 3) Salvation at the Fall Festival 4) Know this song? 5) Fall of Jericho for 2-5 yr olds Kids Can @ Christmas Time 31 Crafts, Recipes & Scriptures for Advent 6) Steps of Faith Outline? 7) Fall of Jericho lessons 8) Fishers of Men 9) Summer Lessons 10) Parable of the Lost Coin?	Harvest Party Games Find it in the games section.
	This book recounts the history of King David's reign and tells how Israel became a great nation. (The answer is in this newsletter)
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1) Halloween Debate --from SSTN: I've heard from many of you that you are disturbed by this disagreement. So, rather than allow this debate to continue, I think it would be helpful if people realize that there are good reasons why people think Christians shouldn't observe it. And I do understand that it wasn't considered a terrible thing to do when "we were growing up". I too have fond memories of trick or treating. It was fun! And rather than debate why we should or shouldn't observe Halloween, lets move on to another more helpful topic. Again, I point out the following website which really gives helpful advice on the subject and how Christians should react to it when faced with those who oppose it: http://www.carm.net/questions/halloween.htm On the other hand, Fall Festivals have a Biblical basis and does provide an alternative to the holiday. Your webservant, Sarah Keith <><

2) Mustard Seed and All Saints' Sunday > I�m new to Sunday School Network and am looking for an idea for a children�s sermon based on Luke > 17:5-10. This is the Mustard Seed story. I�m also looking for ideas for an intergenerational event focusing > on All Saints� Sunday, Nov. 4 In response to this request. I just used a great sermon idea on the mustard seed from this site: www.sermons4kids.com They offer an email of a new sermon idea each week. You can also access the webpage and all of the archives available there. They also provide a lot of good supporting material for additional reinforcement, but I like it because you can pick and choose what it is that you like and what works for you. Also, regarding a celebration for All Saint's day, I can remember as a child the joy shared in this holiday. As a family we did not really participate in the traditional Halloween activities. We did however have the fun of dressing up as a biblical character and attending the All Saint's Party at church. We always had a chance to guess who each other were as well as share a fact about the person we dressed as. I also remember the traditional fun things like sharing in cider and donuts as well as bobbing for apples. I know that we also played other fun games. Now that I am a Sunday School Teacher and active in the children's ministry team at the same church, I encouraged the group to go back to this party tradition each year, we have for about the last 3 years with much success. I really think the children enjoy the chance to play the part of one of the bible stories they so dearly love. We have many adults and even teens who participate in the event (especially dressing up) as well. As a theme for our activities last year, we focused on the armor of God. We had a craft as well as games around the theme and each of the participants took home a Cardboard {paper} doll with the armor to dress them in. Each piece of Armor had the name from the Bible on it (ie - The breast plate of righteousness) The children enjoyed costuming the cut outs as much as anything and it became a memorable lesson for them. As part of this, we pre-hid the armor cutouts around in the church building and one of the games was for each of the children to find one of each type of armor. We had a small paper guide for each of them to assist them with getting the armor. I found this to be memorable for me as well as for them. Hope some of this is useful for you. Thanks, Amy

3) Salvation at the Fall Festival In issue 62, someone asked how we managed to help people find salvation at our fall festival. Two weeks before the festival, we mark several hundred new testaments in Spanish and English with the plan of salvation. We use Roman Road scriptures. Our ministers and several lay people spend the night asking people if they would like a new testament and then offer to share the scriptures. The conversions usually come form the one on one contact. We also have Christian magicians, at least two bands - one English and one Spanish, and some dramas and skits about salvation. This year we are adding a Hallelujah house which will show people the way to Christ through live dioramas. It will also show the consequences of not following Christ. Several people have come to church in the following weeks and some conversions are made then. We pass out tracts at almost every booth with the prizes. Everything, food, games, entertainment is all free and sponsored by the church in connection with local merchants. I recommend this to everyone. We are having our 25th one on this Halloween! --from SSTN: Amen!

4) Know this song? come fallow Jesus where ever he leads us,come listen to Jesus his words ever please us,for home or play there is no better way to be happy each day then to fallow him,,He is our dearest friend and we can depend on him everyday ,he died you and me and he came to be our savor today!!!! This is one of my favorite songs when I was A child.I would like my children to heir it. I don't know why this song means so much to me but it does.If you know this song and how to find it please let me know. THANK YOU SO MUCH PATTI

5) Fall of Jericho for 2-5 yr olds We used wood blocks to build the walls - taped a red pc of yarn to one for Rahab's cord. Then the children marched around the table holding the walls [use a wobbly table or TV tray] When they shouted [on command] the teacher bumped the table so that the wall fell down. We did this over and over for several weeks, adding a few more story details each week. You may also use 'little people' or Weeblos for the people. The kids loved it. Donna

6) Steps of Faith Outline? Hi This is for Cherie in regards to the Steps of Faith (issue #64). Do you have an outline or lesson plan to accompany what you wrote? I am a new Sunday night/Wed. night teacher for a group ages 5-9. and would appreciate any info you could give me. My email is brendasiv@yahoo.com Thanks. Brenda Cheri - I would also love to have the Steps of Faith. Please email the information to tmorrow@firstbanktn.com. Just last night (10-14), my husband was able to share a message about how we are missing the high calling of God. One of the points he used was that we miss the teachings of God. So many times, after we see someone get saved, there is not a lot of follow-up. I think that this might be something that I could use to start a "Thank God I'm Saved, But Not What" kind of class. Does anyone else in the network have any ideas for this kind of class? Does your church offer a class like this? Any ideas are welcome. thanks, theda
This issue's Bible Trivia answer is, "1 Chronicles ". Used by permission. From the game, Bible Stack-O!
7) Fall of Jericho lessons When I taught toddlers years ago, I made a wall of dominoes and attached a string to the bottom of one of them. At the right time in the story, when I pulled the string, all the dominoes fell. If you had small boxes or blocks, you could use them, too. If you had the same size cardboard boxes, you could make a big wqll and have the kids march around the wall, slowing their "trumpets" made of a cardboard cone. Helen Setser

8) Fishers of Men If you will type in "fishers of men" in Google search, you will get Danielle's Place (along with a lot of others) and look at her ideas. They are very good. Helen Setser

9) Summer Lessons This is for Wanda. During the summer, we play "catch-up" with our newest kids and go over key Bible stories. This summer, we used GIANT blocks (Toys R Us, Oriental trading) for 2 weeks. First, we did a reenactment of Rahab and the soldiers. The next week, we marched around the HUGE walls we had built and then "God" knocked them down. Just an idea, but my kids loved it. We'll be using it again in a few weeks, as we go chronologically and we start in September. Hope this helps. ~Kelly in MA

10) Parable of Lost Coin? I teach the 3 to 5 year olds and would like to have an idea as how I could illustrate this parable to them. A craft or even an activity would be lovely. Thank you, Sharnila --from SSTN: before beginning the story, hide a coin (or coins) in your room for the kids to find.

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