Connect


September 2007 Welcome to Connect, the monthly e-newsletter for those who minister to children in small Sunday schools, midweek programs, and new church plants. Invite your ministry staff members and volunteers to receive Connect! To send an invite, click here. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! OK, not really. But that’s a good thing—it means you still have plenty of time to plan for it. We’re here to help! Below you’ll find simple suggestions for low-fuss, high-impact Christmas programs, along with ideas for inserting Christmas lessons into your December curriculum. Quick & Easy Christmas Programs If four weeks of Saturday rehearsals, elaborate costumes, and vacuuming up broken bits of hay bales aren’t your thing, you’ll want to take a look at the Quick & Easy Christmas Program series written by Laura and Robert Keeley. Each play in this series requires only one rehearsal. Yes, I said ONE REHEARSAL. In fact, the Keeleys gather the kids for an hour to rehearse after the morning service and put on the play in the evening service. It’s that simple. Click here for more information. Here’s How It Works. Assign older kids who can read the acting roles, younger kids get singing and non-reading parts. Kids don’t have to memorize their lines because the scripts are placed on music stands in front of each reader. They and their parents also commit to reading the lines aloud at home at least once a day in the week leading up to the program. Costumes are optional. Here’s Why It Works. Kids get to lead the church in a worship service; parents and the church family get to enjoy a meaningful, theologically sound, and wonder-filled Christmas program; the teaching team gets to keep teaching instead of rehearsing; and the team leader doesn’t have a tension headache when the day is over! Christmas Curriculum Kid Connection was designed to walk kids chronologically through God’s redemptive plan so the sessions on Jesus’ birth don’t appear until the fall of years 2 and 4 when kids dive into the New Testament. However there’s an easy way for you to insert some Christmas teaching into your term. We’ve created a series of 2-week Holiday units (yup, they’re available for Easter too!) that can be used for kids from kindergarten through grade 6. The leader’s guide contains everything you need—song lyrics and music, reproducible pages, complete session plans, and more. Click here for more information. Here’s How It Works. Each session has a large group and a small group time. The large group time is like a bonus session—if you have enough people to do the large group dramas, that’s awesome; if not, use your large group time to welcome the kids and sing (maybe the songs your kids will be singing for their Quick and Easy Christmas Program!) then break off into small group for the bulk of the session. Here’s Why It Works. It’s easy to take a break from the regular KC lessons and insert one of these units during the two weeks in December that make the most sense in your setting. The sessions are filled with options for activities and projects so you can choose the ones that your kids will enjoy and that you can do! Songs Kids Love to Sing! Finally, looking for a way to inject some extra fa, la, la, la, la into your singing time? We’re thrilled to announce the birth of our new Sing With Me Leader’s Edition. Wrapped in blue, all 249 kid-friendly songs come with musical notes on Scripture sources and background info for words and music. This spiral-bound book is a great edition for musical members in any church family! Click here to view song lists and indexes.
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September 2007

Welcome to Connect, the monthly e-newsletter for those who minister to children in small Sunday schools, midweek programs, and new church plants.

Invite your ministry staff members and volunteers to receive Connect! To send an invite, click here.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

OK, not really. But that’s a good thing—it means you still have plenty of time to plan for it. We’re here to help! Below you’ll find simple suggestions for low-fuss, high-impact Christmas programs, along with ideas for inserting Christmas lessons into your December curriculum.

Quick & Easy Christmas Programs

If four weeks of Saturday rehearsals, elaborate costumes, and vacuuming up broken bits of hay bales aren’t your thing, you’ll want to take a look at the Quick & Easy Christmas Program series written by Laura and Robert Keeley. Each play in this series requires only one rehearsal. Yes, I said ONE REHEARSAL. In fact, the Keeleys gather the kids for an hour to rehearse after the morning service and put on the play in the evening service. It’s that simple. Click here for more information.

Here’s How It Works. Assign older kids who can read the acting roles, younger kids get singing and non-reading parts. Kids don’t have to memorize their lines because the scripts are placed on music stands in front of each reader. They and their parents also commit to reading the lines aloud at home at least once a day in the week leading up to the program. Costumes are optional.

Here’s Why It Works. Kids get to lead the church in a worship service; parents and the church family get to enjoy a meaningful, theologically sound, and wonder-filled Christmas program; the teaching team gets to keep teaching instead of rehearsing; and the team leader doesn’t have a tension headache when the day is over!

Christmas Curriculum

Kid Connection was designed to walk kids chronologically through God’s redemptive plan so the sessions on Jesus’ birth don’t appear until the fall of years 2 and 4 when kids dive into the New Testament. However there’s an easy way for you to insert some Christmas teaching into your term. We’ve created a series of 2-week Holiday units (yup, they’re available for Easter too!) that can be used for kids from kindergarten through grade 6. The leader’s guide contains everything you need—song lyrics and music, reproducible pages, complete session plans, and more. Click here for more information.

Here’s How It Works. Each session has a large group and a small group time. The large group time is like a bonus session—if you have enough people to do the large group dramas, that’s awesome; if not, use your large group time to welcome the kids and sing (maybe the songs your kids will be singing for their Quick and Easy Christmas Program!) then break off into small group for the bulk of the session.

Here’s Why It Works. It’s easy to take a break from the regular KC lessons and insert one of these units during the two weeks in December that make the most sense in your setting. The sessions are filled with options for activities and projects so you can choose the ones that your kids will enjoy and that you can do!

Songs Kids Love to Sing!

Finally, looking for a way to inject some extra fa, la, la, la, la into your singing time? We’re thrilled to announce the birth of our new Sing With Me Leader’s Edition. Wrapped in blue, all 249 kid-friendly songs come with musical notes on Scripture sources and background info for words and music. This spiral-bound book is a great edition for musical members in any church family! Click here to view song lists and indexes.

You are subscribed as %%emailaddr%%. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to %%email.unsub%% or click here to edit your member profile.

If you have questions or comments about this list, e-mail us or call 1-800-333-8300.