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SSTN # 41 - May 6, 2005


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IN THIS ISSUE OF THE SSTN e-NEWSLETTER:


--> Super Heroes ... a super value for two semesters!

1) Two Year Old Grandson
2) Everyday Heroes Celebration?
3) Lessons For Women
4) Romanian children's project
5) Discipline In Children's Ministry

* Pentecost Sunday Activity

6) Discipline In Children's Ministry
7) Prayer Journal
8) Pastor IS Accountable
9) Puppet Cassette
10) Two Year Old Sent Out
11) Veggie Tales Question?
12) Prayer Journals
13) Repeating Rotation
14) Communion
15) Using Positive Discipline Only


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--> Super Heroes ... a super value!

"Super Heroes of the Bible" is a two-semester series
which seeks to develop FAITH, COURAGE, and OBEDIENCE
in the lives of children and to change our world for Jesus Christ.

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) Two Year Old Grandson

Hi Joni,

I work with the preschool kids at my church and I'm also in charge of
scheduling the nursery.  I think it's really ridiculous that these people
keep sending your grandson back to you.  Especially when you're teaching
another class.  I would definitely talk to your pastor about this-pray
about it first.  I can't imagine somebody saying that they don't allow
crying in the nursery.  I think the wrong people are working in the
nursery.  If nothing else, maybe you could find someone at church who
would be willing to let them bring him to them instead of you if they
decide to kick him out
again.

TP


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2) Everyday Heroes Celebration?

Our church is planning a county wide celebration to honor oureveryday
heroes (ploiceofficers, firemen, emts andso on. I am in charge of the
kiddy corner. I need ideas for games to play out doors. Inexpensive and
fairly easy. My youth group will be working the games. I would appreciate
any ideas or comments.
 Connie
Tenuhcmama@wmconnect.com

--from SSTN: if you respond directly, please copy to SSTN so all may
benefit.


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3) Lessons For Women

Our woman's Bible study had a great time studying in two different ways. 
First we studied two books by Patsy Clairmont, The Shoe Box and The Hat
Box.  This author has a lot to say to women about character and life
lessons, and each "lesson" or chapter in the book is followed by a
scripture and guiding prayer.  Second, we worked from a Bible study called
Women of the Bible.  It has 52 women of the Bible, one lesson per woman,
and it opens an asonishing vaiety of questions pertaining to our spiritual
and physical lives.  Both studies were beneficial, although very
different, and we had a lot of fun.  By the way, our woman's group ranged
in age from 30ish to 70+.
 
Anne

--from SSTN: type the titles into the search box to find them at:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/bookstore.html 


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4) Romanian children's project

http://www.christiancoloring.com/Crafts.htm


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5) Discipline In Children's Ministry

Something that has worked really well for us at summer camps, as well as
VBS and Sunday School, is the following:  When the noise level gets high,
and the kids aren't paying attention, say, "If you can hear me, clap one
time (then *CLAP*), If you can hear me, clap two times *CLAP CLAP*, etc.

It is important that you don't raise your voice.  In fact, keep your voice
somewhat quiet, as if you were the only person in the room.  Sometimes you
will have to clap up to four times before anyone hears you.  Once you get
just a couple of kids listening to you and clapping with you--the rest
wonder what's going on and listen too!  Even the rowdy kids are challenged
to start listening to you, before they are left out of "the game".  This
has been effective for us.  I hope it works for you, too.

~Trish in Nebraska


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* Pentecost Sunday Activity

Children will be reminded of the rushing wind and tongues of fire when the
Holy Spirit descended on believers at Pentecost! Your kids will have fun
making, playing and listening to the Pentecost Rusher. An Easy Make & Take
Project for Pentecost Sunday.

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


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6) Discipline In Children's Ministry

A Great rewards program.  I especially liked the coin system and the chest
of drawers.  I teach small children but I will taylor this idea to thier
needs.

The rubber stamp and washable ink is also GREAT idea.  I don't know why I
didn't think of that.  For those of you who want the full scoop on these
great ideas Refer to SSTN # 35 4/21/05).  
THANK YOU !!!!  Darinda Noah - Children's Coordinator - Celebration Church
 
A servant in the children's ministry,  Delfina Rangel


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7) Prayer Journal

> I'd like to do a 3-4 week continuing lesson on prayer with the children I
> teach in Children's Church, 4 yrs old through 6th grade and have them set
> up a prayer journal to write in. I was wondering if those who've done
> this before could share their ideas.
 
 
Dear Cathy,
    Our Kindergarten class at church recently had a quarter long program
on the Lord's Prayer. I have also been teaching the 4-5 year olds in my
weekly class about the Lord's Prayer. Here are some things that we have
done:
 
    *I made a CD-ROM for each child in the class with two musical versions
of the Lord's Prayer. (One version is put out by Carman and is on his
"Mission 3:16" CD) Putting the Lord's Prayer to music makes it catchy and
so much easier to remember.
 
    *The following website link
http://www.dltk-bible.com/guides/jesus_prays.htm has lots of information
and ideas for teaching about prayer.
 
    *This link also has an incredible amount of ideas:
http://www.mssscrafts.com/miscellaneous/prayer.htm
 
     *We made paper chains. Each piece of the chain had a piece of the
Lord's Prayer printed on it.The children had to put the links together in
the right order.
 
       *The children had folders which they kept their work in all
quarter. This way a nice packet of completed papers and activities came
home to me all at once for me to admire.They also kept prayer journals in
their folders.
 
I hope these ideas can help you! God bless you in your ministry.
 
Margaret Turpin
Marysville Seventh-Day Adventist Church
Marysville, WA

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8) Pastor IS Accountable

>
>After all when you stand before the throne of God, your pastor will stand
for himself >and you will stand for yourself. It's what you do for the
Lord that will count not what >the pastor wanted you to do for the Lord.
>
 
I totally disagree with the above. The scripture disagrees too.
Hebrews  13:17 says "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit
yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account,
that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable
for you." KJV
 
Your pastor will give an account for you. 
 
Teresa


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9) Puppet Cassette

>We have lost the Puppet and Drama cassette for the second quarter of the
>Power Tool Box series for Kids Church.  I believe it is no longer

Contact Charisma Life (the publishers). They can get you one.
 

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10) Two Year Old Sent Out

 For Joni:
 
Having a 2 year old in the nursery myself, I couldn't help but respond. 
First off, let me give kudos to you and your husband for ensuring that
your grandchildren are getting into church!
 
Now, you need to march yourself straight to your pastor and tell him about
the situation that has occurred.  I am quite sure that he would be
concerned/upset on discovering that a nursery worker would return a child
when there seemed to be no problem.  And even if there is, the point of
the nursery in church is to give the parents a chance to hear the word of
God and/or to serve.  That woman interrupted your entire class, and it was
unnecessary.  If this woman is not behaving towards your grandson in a
loving and Christian, it is possible that she's not being kind to any of
the children.  There are always kids who cry in the nursery; if not your
grandson, than it would be another one.  Perhaps this woman is burned out
and needs to take a break.
 
That being said, my daughter has been crying whenever I leave the nursery
for the past three months.  She was always fine being left in the nursery,
but several events changed things around for her - she became quite ill
for about a week, older kids in the nursery were moved up to another
class, and the main teacher stopped working in the nursery because she is
due to have a baby very soon and was having problems.  So the woman in the
nursery now, just has a good sense of humor when I drop my daughter off
and she starts crying.  She knows that she'll stop in a minute as soon as
I'm gone, and I'm not above bribing my daughter with a treat after church
if she doesn't cry when I leave.  And it works.  Your grandson may just be
reacting outwardly to things he can't deal with himself; such as the
divorce and his father working on weekends and leaving him with you.
 
But honestly, talk to your pastor.  I'm sure that he wouldn't want you to
step down from the Sunday school because of nursery issues.
 
God bless you for your faithfulness, Joni!
Elizabeth in Ohio


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11) Veggie Tales?

I would like to use Veggie Tales for our beginners youth group.  I have
looked at various websites which gives ideas and games.  How has Veggie
Tales worked for your church? Does anyone have the Veggie Tales V.B.S. or
any Veggie Tales material which they would like to sell or donate.  Please
feel free to email me sophiabryan@hotmail.com.


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12) Prayer Journals

Cathy,

Does your congregation participate in Leadership Training for Christ?  We
attend the one in Kansas City, and the one for your area is in Indiana.  I
know that if you go to our website, www.hoaltc.org, and click on the
"Manual" button on the left hand sidebar, you can then read about the
things an LTC prayer journal would be required to include.  There are good
ideas listed there that might be helpful.  I remember that the children
are
to keep a list of answered prayers, and are encouraged to journal at least
five of seven days per week.

I had my LTC girls (about 25 of them in grades 3-6) have a pajama party in
our fellowship hall.  We adapted the idea of painting a "prayer rock" by
having each girl fill a tulle bag with colored marbles, with each girl
putting one marble in every bag.  They then used scrapbooking supplies as
well as rubber stamps to cover and decorate composition notebooks.  One of
our elder's wives gave a devotional on prayer, and encouraged them to
place
their bag of marbles on their pillows when they made their beds in the
morning so that at night when they had to remove them, they would be
reminded to pray for each other and journal their prayers.  We gave them
fun pencils to take home, too.

Each month, they were to bring back their prayer journal to be checked by
our Prayer Journal coordinator for LTC, and she kept track of how many
weeks worth they had done.  I believe they had to have ten weeks to get a
gold medal, eight for a silver, and six for a bronze, done between August
and February.

Hope that helps somehow!
Brenda Sikes


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13) Repeating Rotation

>when DO you get to repeat a story in Rotation?  If we did Abraham
>and Sarah this year, will we EVER get to do it again? 

ANSWER: You repeat that story again in 5 or 6 years depending on your
scope and sequence. Some critical stories should be repeated twice within
that 5 or 6 years – so that students are exposed to them when young and
when older.

I suggest you take your rotation specific questions to the “Help Exchange”
at rotation.org (
http://rotation.infopop.cc/eve/ubb.x/a/cfrm/f/7406067121)
--Carol


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14) Communion
 
*Children Discover the Mass: Lessons, Crafts, Cutouts, and More by Mary
Doerfler Dall. A fantastic book to help you teach young ones all about
Mass! 28 full lessons broken into 5 categories explaining to the students
the parts of Mass and what happens. This book helps children understand
what we say and do during Mass and why. Each lesson is thoroughly thought
out with background, what to say to the students, craft with step by step
directions with illustration and patterns, and review questions. The
students will learn the roles of the priest, the other liturgical
ministers, and the community. The students will also learn the responses
as well as all of the other rituals and actions that take place during the
liturgy. The book also includes a 32 page missal, “My Mass Book” for the
students to color, fold, and take with them to Mass. Also in “My Mass
Book” are the written responses to help the children participate in Mass.
Children Discover the Mass is spiral bound to make copying easier.

--from SSTN: to locate this item, use the search tool in the bookstore at:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/bookstore.html 


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15) Using Positive Discipline Only

This is in response to the post from Ann who said that she has children
whose parents do not stay for Sunday School.  She mentioned discipline
problems and parents who only believe that any kind of correction must
only be positive.
 
I am a children's pastor in a church that has bus children that sounds
like a similar situation as yours.  When I first came, our workers did not
want to tell certain children and their parents that they could not come. 
After all,. who wants to ban someone from church?  However, we had to get
to the point where we enforced the rules or they would not be allowed to
come.  They would say things like "If I can't have candy (or whatever), I
won't come back."  They are used to this manipulation and control (some
have learned from the best--their own parents).  I can't control what
happens everywhere else, but when they step on the bus and in the church,
they are on MY turf.  Who is in charge-us or the kids?  When we call their
bluff before they call ours, we usually see more success.  We have
obviously have lost some although we still pray for them, but we have won
some back and have seen some growth in them.  If they can't handle being
there, then maybe Sunday School is not the best tool to reach some of
these kids right now.  Hope this helps.
 
Gary


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