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SSTN # 37 - April 27, 2005


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IN THIS ISSUE OF THE SSTN e-NEWSLETTER:


--> Economical Lessons - Multi-Aged - Rotation

1) Discipling Children
2) Quizz ideas?
3) Rotation Sunday school
4) Rotation Sunday school
5) Son Harvest

--> Ascension Sunday Craft

6) Son Harvest County Fair
7) Daycamp
8) Teach Only About Jesus
9) Rotation Scope & Sequence
10) Son Harvest material

--> What can bugs teach us about Jesus?

11) Games & Crafts Using Rocks?
12) Song for medical VBS
13) Rotation SS
14) Rotation SS
15) Rotation


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--> Economical Lessons - Multi-Aged - Rotation

Hands-on lessons of the Bible may be used in traditional class environments or in
a rotation-type program. Each Bible lesson is accompanied with a craft, a
game, Scripture memorization and songtime suggestions. Many of the lessons
include enrichment ideas to further enhance your program. And to help your
budget, one book is all you need for an entire class! You may read more
about the Hands-On programs in the Curriculum Creatives section at:

http://www.christiancrafters.com/curriculum.html .


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1) Discipling Children
 
In our church a couple of years ago, before we had teachers to handle the
11 and  12 year olds, I taught from age 6 - 12. On Sunday a.m. and
Wednesday evening.  Our last name is Sharp.  What I did to keep the kids'
attention and reward them for hard work at the same time, is to make what
we called "Sharp Bucks".  These were dollar bills made on the computer
(they were the size of Monopoly money), and in the middle was a picture of
my husband's face.
 
We printed them up in denominations of 5, 10, 20, and 50.  The kids would
earn bucks by bringing themselves, friends, having a Bible when class
started,answering review questions, etc.  They would also lose bucks if
they did not behave properly.  On the first Sunday of each month, they
would be able to purchase small toys or items I had purchased at the
dollar store or people had brought in with the money they had earned the
previous month.
 
This ran its course, and we don't use that anymore because the classes are
split and discipline is not so much a problem.
 
Hope this helps.
 
Teri in Indiana


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2) Quizz ideas?

I'm looking for some quizzes for my teenage Sunday
School class. Any ideas or sites.

greetings

Alasteir Roberts

--from SSTN: check out some of the quiz ideas at:
http://christiancrafters.com/page10.html 


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3) Rotation Sunday school

> decided to try rotation plan SS.

Hi! I may be able to help you. Our church too was “floundering” about 7
years ago, we had the same problem you do, our church was literally dying.
We tried the rotation model Sunday school as a “last chance” 6 years ago
and it has totally transformed our church! We are now flourishing now and
have built a new church in 2000 to accommodate our growing congregation.
If I were you I would start with a “one room” Sunday school with one
rotation each week for the 1st – 6th grades or whatever age levels you
have since you have so few children. It doesn’t sound like it would work
but it does work really well. Team up younger non-readers with older
students. Then when that group grows divide the classes to two groups, 1st
– 3rd & 3rd – 6th. Then when that grows, split again until you have single
classes for 1st – 6th. I have been writing rotations for the past 5 years
and would like to help you. Please contact me at jlarcom@commumc.org     


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4) Rotation Sunday school

Try the rotation website.

http://www.rotation.org/

They have a lesson exchange board that has loads of ideas.

http://rotation.infopop.cc/6/ubb.x
Sharon


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5) Son Harvest

Sherri,
I may be able to help you out.  I was Director for VBS last year and we
used Son Harvest.  I wrote skits for the opening that worked with
Henrietta since I had limited help.  Please contact me and I'll see if I
can get you some pics of our props and copies of material you need. 

ysiC, Patty
mmcelfresh5@cs.com


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--> Ascension Sunday Craft

Check out the "Jesus Ascending Craft" in the Easy Make & Take section at:

Find it in the Curriculum section at: 
 http://www.christiancrafters.com/curriculum.html  


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6) Son Harvest County Fair

To Sherri in Indiana

For our Son Harvest County Fair VBS we had kids bring pennies in to vote
for which leader they wanted to "Kiss a Donkey" (donated the doney to
our children's home) and had a local farmer bring over a donkey on the
last night. The one with the most pennies in his jar had to kiss the
donkey. The kids loved it.

Outside the church by the main sign we placed a big round hay bale fitted
with a sign telling the VBS dates and times and had a scarecrow leaning
against it.

Please contact me regarding leftover materials for Son Harvest County
Fair. It was a great VBS for us.

Kellie in Arkansas
connorion@juno.com


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7) Daycamp

My pastor has come up with the idea of having a daycamp one Saturday this
summer.  As part of the daycamp, the kids will design a worship service,
which they will then lead on Sunday morning.  They'll also make ice cream
for our Ice Cream Social which will be held on Sunday.  Actually, there
will be activities pretty much all day Sunday to which the community will
be invited, including a hog roast and a concert.  The camp will probably
be an all day event.  We're a small rural church, so I'm talking around 20
children from ages 5 - 13.  I'd love to hear from anyone who has done
something similar or from anyone who has any ideas or suggestions for
activities, scheduling, etc. for the daycamp or for a youth-led worship
service in general. 
 
Thanks,
Kim from NE 


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8) Teach Only About Jesus

I feel the need to put in my 2 cents worth. We developed our own
curriculum a couple of years ago. We used several different scopes and
sequences as models. The one thing we did differently than most is that
all classes cover some part of the life of Jesus every year. And we cover
the reason for His coming every year. We have a lot of turnover here do to
the economy and a migrant Hispanic population. I felt it was important to
cover Jesus every year because it might be the only year we have them. It
is great that kids know about Moses and Noah and Jonah, and the lessons to
be learned from them. But if they don't know Jesus it doesn't really
matter. Our teachers have loved what we came up with and every year we
will tweak it a little and add some more things to help them. It was an
extremely hard undertaking but it has been worth every minute spent on it.
 
Eric
Wichita, KS

--from SSTN: It is very important to know that the ENTIRE Bible is about
Jesus. Here's what Jesus said to Cleopas and his friend on the Road to
Emmaus: "...He said to them, '... how slow of heart to believe all that
the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things
and then enter his glory?' And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets,
he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning
himself."  Luke 24:25-27.

No matter what passage you are teaching from the Bible, you can teach
children about Jesus. It is ALL about him. Isn't that awesome?!

Your webservant,
Sarah <><


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9) Rotation Scope & Sequence

I appreciate a posting regarding the necessity of a scope and sequence. 
We have used two different curriculum companies and augmented and
supplemented both of them with materials from Rotation.org.  Now we have a
loose framework for scope and sequence but I would be interested in how
others have chosen to put theirs together.  Input?

Pastor Andy 
 

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10) Son Harvest material

Dear Sherri in Indiana:
I have all the Son Harvest material plus added activities. 
E-mail me at pamg@covenant-fellowship.org.
 
In His Love,
Pam
 
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--> What can bugs teach us about Jesus?

More than you think! In "Buggie For Jesus - I'm a BEE-liever", children
will learn important Bible truths using hands-on buggie crafts, games,
lessons, and yummy devotions. Great for midweek or a refreshing change of
pace during the Sunday School hour! Learn more in the Curriculum Creatives
store at:
 
 http://www.christiancrafters.com/curriculum.html  


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11) Games & Crafts Using Rocks?

Our church writes our own curriculum that we use for our Day Camp (we
changed name from VBS to Day Camp four years ago)each year.  Our theme
this year is Camp Cornerstone - Living on the Rock (The Lord is My Rock.
Psalm 18:2.

Do any of you have any great ideas for crafts, games, decorating ideas
using rocks?

These are our daily themes:

Camp Cornerstone - Living on the Rock
Fellowship's 2005 Daycamp

Day 1 -  Jesus gives us Salvation...Jesus is the Cornerstone! 
  Scripture - Isaiah 28:16   (modern day drama about what a cornerstone
is and how Jesus fulfilled
God's plan in giving us salvation.   Story of people building a brick
building and putting in the cornerstone...) 

Day 2 -  Theme - Jesus is our foundation...Jesus is the Rock!
      Scripture/Story -  Matthew 7:24-27 (Drama of the parable
...the wise and foolish builders.  Jesus is
first in our lives...don't be foolish about what you put first in your
life.  Your life is built on the foundation)

Day 3 - Theme - Jesus is our strength...Jesus is our Rock! 
      Scripture - Psalm 18:1-2  (modern day drama about Jesus
protecting us and giving us strength. Jesus is
the Rock who becomes OUR rock.)


Day 4 -  Jesus has chosen us...we are living stones! 
      Scripture -  1 Peter 2:4-5, & 9-10  (modern day drama ...we
are the church, the chosen people of
God as living stones...we make up the body of Christ. We are each
unique...God loves us so much and has a plan for our lives...each life
is different just like stones are all different.)

Thanks for sharing any ideas you may have!
Connecting Children to Jesus,
Linda

--from SSTN: use the search tool at:
http://christiancrafters.com/archives.html 
keywords "rocks" and "rock".


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12) Song for medical VBS

I just bought a karaoke CD for my own kids. It has "The Band-aid Song".
The chorus goes; There'll be no band-aids in heaven. No emergency medical
care. There'll be no skinned knees, no stings from the bees. There'll be
no band aids up there.

The CD is "Kids Christian Hits Vol. 1   Karaoke Style"

Bobbi

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13) Rotation SS

My church is very small also, we only have 16 kids in SS ranging from ages
5 - 13.  We're in our 2nd year of doing rotation and the kids love it.  We
have them divided into four groups, K/1st, 2nd/3rd, 4th/5th & 6th/7th. 
We are doing a rotation on Paul and his travels right now.  The four
workshops we're doing are 1) video- showing "The Visual Bible for Kids: 
The Great Escape"; 2) art- having the kids create large maps of Paul's
journeys; 3) science- peforming several experiments that help to show the
ideas of unity in the church, using God as your compass to guide your
life, and how as we absorb God into our lives, we can share that joy with
others (these experiments can be found on the http://www.rotation.org/
website from the "Paul" lesson set from Augustana Lutheran Church); and
finally 4) music- the kids are learning and singing some "joyful-type"
songs and learning that how they handle difficult experiences is up to
them, they can moan, groan & complain or choose to be joyful and have hope
just as Paul and Silas did.  If you want a games workshop, we played "On
the Road to Damascus" with our "Saul's Conversion" rotation.  You could
change it to "Traveling with Paul."  All we did was make stepping stones
out of pieces of cardboard and lay them around the room in a winding
pattern, with the 1st stone labeled 'Jerusalem' and the last labeled
'Damasus'.  Some stones were labeled as 'scripture', some as '?', some as
'surprise' (with a picture of a firecracker) and some left plain.  Cards
were made to correspond to the stones.  For the 'scripture' cards, they
had one minute to find the passage that was written on the card; for the
'?' cards, they had to answer the question correctly and for the
'surprise' card they had to do whatever the card said.  The kids were
divided into teams of 2-3 players (or all played together if there were
less than four kids) and took turns rolling a large die and moving around
the "board".   If you're including the conversion part of the story in
your rotation, you could have the kids make ice cream in zip-lock bags for
a cooking workshop (as an example of transformation).  I get a lot of
my lesson materials from the rotation.org website.  Some people post just
ideas and others post whole lesson sets.  It's also very helpful when
starting up.  There's tons of ideas and helpful information.  One thing
I'm disappointed about is that I thought more people would volunteer to
teach since they only have to sign up to teach four Sundays at a time, but
pretty much the same people sign up every other month or so.  (I put a
sign-up sheet in the narthex listing the workshops and a brief description
of each.)  Good luck with your endeavor.  If you have any questions about
rotation in a small church or how we do things, you can email me at
adams_kim@yahoo.com
 

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14) Rotation SS

We have been doing Rotation SS for 3 years now and I love it. I would
check out the rotation.org site for many, many lesson plans which you can use as
is. Also articles on the principles of the method.

As our number are low right now I combine age groups - we have two
classes.
Age 4 - grade 2 and grade 3 - 7. We require fewer teachers that way too. I
think that the dynamics are better in a class that is full rather than one
or two children.

All the best to you and may God bless your ministry with an increase.
Maureen


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15) Rotation

To the reader interested in starting Rotation with the stories of Paul: be
sure to visit http://rotation.infopop.cc/eve/ubb.x
Scroll down and select ACTS, PAUL, EARLY CHURCH, Other LETTERS. Free
lesson plans are arranged by Bible story. We are in our fourth year of
Rotation and having great success. Blessings on your ministry. --Carol


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