December Newsletter

In this issue:
Liturgy Writing
Attendance Information
Additional Resources
Advent Devotional Artwork
Sign up reminder
Schedule Reminders
December Schedule

Liturgy Writing
Were you in the second service on November 20? Did you by chance hear the liturgy done by the children? Wasn't it great? Vicky and Joe were responsible for leading the kids as they prepared a thanksgiving liturgy. I thought how it was done was really neat, so I thought I would share it with you. First, they stopped in the nursery, and traced the outline of Jackson's body on a large piece of paper. They took this up the Treasure Seekers' room. The kids then wrote what they were thankful for sticky notes. These were then stuck on the Jackson's outline -- for instance -- if someone were thankful for icecream, they stuck the sticky note near the mouth, because they could taste it. If they were thankful for their parents, then the note went on the heart, because they loved their parents. Isn't that cool? I'm not sure of the rest of the story, but I think Vicky and Joe took the many sticky notes, and assembled the liturgy for the kids to read in church. If you missed it, I've put a copy of the liturgy on the blog at this link, so that you can read it (http://tinyurl.com/ak9ff).

Attendance Information
I'm a counter. I like to count things. I like statistics. Since I like to count, I can tell you that the average attendance at Children's church in November was 7.5 children per week. Since we had our meeting at the end of August, the average attendance has been 8.6 children per week. What does that mean? Nothing. I just like to count. Here's another one for you. Since the last week of August, our Treasure Seekers' volunteer team has had the opportunity to touch a child's life 103 times. I like that one.

Additional Resources
I've added a copy of Pockets -- a children' s devotional -- to the yellow box in the library. I'm not sure if this will be of any help, but thought I would add it so that you could take a look. If you use it, let me know what you think.

I've also added a looseleaf notebook to the curriculum in the library. In this notebook are resources that I have found that might help prepare a lesson, come up with an activity, or provide general information on teaching children. To whet your appetite, some of the articles included right now include "Creative Ways to Teach the Liturgical Seasons," "Why (and how to) Use Maps with Children," and "Acting Out Familar Stories with Children." As always, if you use a particular activity with the kids, just date the resources so that we will know not to repeat it.

Advent Devotional Artwork
Take a look at the Advent Devotional. Once again, all of the artwork in the book is drawn by our children and youth -- most of them during Children's Church.

Sign Up Reminder
Remember, if you would like to sign up to lead Children's Church, then go to http://jmchildren.blogspot.com and leave me a comment. There are instructions on the web page as to how to do this. So far it has worked well for those who have volunteered to lead. If you would like a lower tech method to volunteer, then just email me or catch me in church to give me a date. So far, we almost have a complete schedule through March. Yahoo!!

Schedule Reminders
Remember the following for the month of December:
December 25 -- No Sunday school (continental breakfast instead) and no Children's Church.
January 1 -- No Sunday school (continental breakfast instead) and no Children's Church. This is UM Student day, and Betsy will be preaching. Let's be sure to come out and give her our full support.

Children's Church Schedule
December 4 -- Children's Program -- No Children's Church
December 11 -- Lee
December 18 -- Jeff and Mary (Christmas material to be written)
December 25 — Christmas — no Children’s Church