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Last Login: 6/18/2007 4:22:54 AM
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| | Hi, I dont even know if this is in the right place. I've only just joined, and it's taking me awhile to figure everything out  I write my own syllabi for our "kids' church" (Sunday school for 5 - 10 year olds). Our programme runs in four parts:
BODY - music and a game relating to the message
HEAD - the Bible story/message
FEET - how we an apply the message to our lives
HEART - question and answer time in our groups (5 - 7 year olds and 8 - 10 year olds).
The syllabus fits into 3 or 4 week "sets" that have a very strong theme (for example, if the theme is "Superheroes," one week might be "Superheroes are changed by God's love" using Spiderman as a metaphor). I know it's June, but I've just sat down to write the Christmas set. And I've drawn a complete blank! The kids all have very short attention spans (which is why I write my own syllabus in the first place - the ones we've tried to use have all been too long-winded!), so it really needs to be a creative spin on the story they've all heard so often. I was thinking of doing one week on each person involved. So, the first week would be about Mary and how she trusted God, the second would be about the wise men and how they followed the star, etc. But I'm not sure yet. What does everyone else do? Does any one have any ideas they'd be happy to share? Thanks
...and God gives us the power to live, to move, and to be who we are.
Acts 17:28 |
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| | | Forum Guru
Group: Moderators
Last Login: 3/14/2008 3:59:12 PM
Posts: 57, Visits: 125 |
| | I just did a search for the word 'Christmas' in our back-issue archive for Children's Ministry Magazine. I got over 300 articles, which means there are probably at least double that for ideas you could use. Are you a subscriber to the magazine? If so, your mailing label has a code that gives you access to the back-issue archive to help you in your planning. You can go to group.com to subscribe. |
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| | | Forum Expert
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Last Login: 7/9/2008 12:34:35 PM
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| | There are so many good curricula out there, especially about Christmas. The teacher has to be able to take the material and tweak it to fit his or her class. You don't have to use it all if it is too long, just use what you need. Curricula is written to be age appropriate. Children have to pay attention in school, so don't let them fool you. A child's attention span should be one minute per year (5 years - 5 minutes). You don't have to change activities every 5 minutes, but add something new each time. |
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Last Login: 5/18/2008 1:36:50 AM
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| | For years I had wanted to write a Christmas program for my church. A few years ago I found myself out of work for a few months and took that opportunity to fullfill this dream of mine. As a mom with two children in a christian school, I was facing them memorizing their weekly memory verse, their day school program part, and their Sunday School program part. I also wanted to keep parts short to get away from the kids reading their part from a piece of paper which happens almost every year. I figured if they had a short one sentence part, they would not only memorize it, but say it with meaning. Of course, there are those kids who do love the stage enough to want larger parts. I gave them the opportunity to combine parts. The program that had been in my heart for years was "Chirstmas Cards". I took the bible word by word to assign speaking parts. The angel that appeared to Mary and the angel that appeared to the shepherds were the larger parts. My opening scene was three people trying to pick out a card to send and why they picked that card (so and so likes snowmen, I will send that. Picking out a tree reminds me of mom and dad, I will send a card with that on it. I want everyone to be happy, I will send that). The narrator interupts asking don't they know the real meaning of Christmas and invites them to listen to the story. The kid's opening song was Lord I Lift Your Name On High. The program explained each part of the Christmas event as a Christmas Card. The angel's greetings to the shepherds was like the first Christmas Greeting - from God to us. The Wisemen's gifts were our Christmas Greeting to God. Even the Drummer Boy had a Christmas Greeting to give. The program focused on why do you send Christmas cards? Shouldn't it be to remind people of God's Gift to us that first Christmas? This is the easiest time of year to spread God's Word to family and friends. It was very simple and the audience really enjoyed getting back to a more traditional program. Besides our opening song, I used very traditional songs (except one song from the hymnal that people did not know - I would change that one). It had a clear message that the audience caught on to giving them a new way to look at how they choose their Christmas cards. So, maybe looking at other things we do during this season and finding out how to give God the glory in these things. Then write your program with that in mind (how do we decide what gift to give? what importance do we give our tree?, ect.) I like your use of Body, Head, Feet, Heart. If you wanted to add one more, you could change to Hand for how to apply to our lives and use Feet to show how to share this message with others.
- Adrianne
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Last Login: Today @ 12:25:21 PM
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| | My favorite way to teach the Christmas story is to use the "Instant Christmas Pageant" from Children's Ministry Magazine about 10 years ago. Before reading the Christmas story from Luke, you assign everyone in the audience a character to play. Each time they hear their character's name, they have a special action to do. For example, when those who are playing Mary hear her name read aloud, the stand and pantomime rocking a baby and say "ah-h-h!". It is so much fun and everyone gets into the act! We will do the Instant Christmas Pageant at our Happy Birthday Jesus party 2nd Sat. in December. This a new church for me, so it will be totally new to them! I'd love it if Children's Ministry Magazine would issue the Instant Christmas pageant again. My copy is getting pretty dog-eared! Lisa B from NC
Lisa B from NC |
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