Ministry-To-Children.com » Vacation Bible School Tips

Bible School Games: Drip, Drip, Drop

Tony Kummer — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 03:51:43 +0000

This game is a fun variation of duck-duck-goose for Vacation Bible School. All you need a new cleaning sponge and a bucket of water. Watch the video below for instructions and an example of the game.

This Vacation Bible School game would also be popular at children’s birthday parties or school field days. In our example we played with as few as four children. The ideal number would be closer to ten.

Have the children sit in a close circle, knee to knee.
Onc child will take a turn with the wet sponge.
As they walk around the circle, they let the sponge drip on each of the other players and say “drip.”
When they are ready to tag another player, they let the sponge drop on that child’s head and say “drop.”
Once the sponge has been dropped, they must run around the outside of the circle and return to the tagged player’s former spot. The player who was tagged gives chase and then takes their turn saying drip, drip, drop.

For teaching impact, you could tie in themes of faith about things unseen. The water was something you couldn’t see. This would also be a fun addition to any lesson plan related to water or rain.

Please leave us a comment about this game idea and share any variation ideas you discover.

4 Ways to Promote Your Church’s VBS

Jenny Funderburke — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 13:15:18 +0000

Click above to preview our free VBS invitation cards.

I believe that VBS can still be a valuable tool for reaching new families. Vacation Bible School is still the largest kids ministry outreach in many churches. It all starts with getting the word out. Here are a few easy things we have tried to communicate with our community about VBS or other big events.

1. Postcard Invites – We mail very few mass mailings. Sometimes they can be effective, but what do you do with unsolicited mail? In our house we usually throw it away. What we do instead is print lots of postcard invitations and give them to our kids in stacks. We ask them to take the invites to their classmates, ball teams, and neighborhood friends. We also ask restaurants that are close to the church (and usually those that we have bought lots of food from) to place the cards near their registers for customers to pick up. You can print your own, or use a cheap online service such as Vistaprint or PrintPlace.

2. Yard Signs - This year we were able to get yard signs printed for about $8 each from a local printer. We then handed them out to church members who lived on high traffic streets. We printed our church name, the website address, and “VBS Next Week”. We didn’t put dates or more specific info so that we could reuse them next year as well!

3. Doorhangers -We print doorhangers with all of the details of our VBS. For several years we organized a huge Sunday morning event where we took all of the children who came to Sunday School and took a “field trip” to a neighborhood that was close to the church. The kids and leaders hung the doorhangers and had a blast. We have also organized neighborhood parties where church members in certain neighborhoods met together and distributed the doorhangers. This year we gave stacks to our families and asked them to arrange the distribution.

4. Word of Mouth – By far the most effective (and cheapest) form of advertising is word of mouth. Get your kids and families excited about the week and help them catch the vision of why their friends need to come to VBS. The more excitement you can build, the more friends they will invite. Challenge them. One word of warning, make sure your product matches your hype. Kids won’t bring friends next time if your event is not fun or meaningful. Equip and motivate your congregation, especially your kids, to be your living billboards.

We would love to hear your ideas about promoting Vacation Bible School, just leave us a comment to start the conversation. Here are a few links with more tips on advertising your VBS ~ here ~ here ~ here.

6 Practical Ways To Find Workers For Vacation Bible School

Church Sued Over VBS Game Injuries

Tony Kummer — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 19:09:53 +0000

I just heard about a West Virginia church is facing lawsuits over a poorly run VBS games. According to this report, a 9-year-old boy was seriously injured in their Vacation Bible School program. It sounds like individual church volunteers were named in the lawsuit too!

I’m not familiar with the situation, but it’s a good caution to everyone planning VBS to take safety as a major concern. Kids want to have fun, but we must accept the responsibility to keep them safe while at church.

The game idea was from the Studio Go theme from Standard Publishing. The particular game was called “Wrap It Up.” One reader of our blog commented about that same game saying:

I am the grandmother of a 6 year old who was wrapped in saran wrap (handi wrap) last evening per the direction of a game in the Studio Go program, called “Wrap It Up.” As I understand it, he was wrapped from his arms to his ankles. He then tried to hop to a location and lost his balance falling on his right temple. He suffered a mild concussion and appears to be o.k. at this time. This doesn’t sound like a safe game for children. Judy Suggs, Massillon, Ohio

What makes matters worse, in many churches less mature members are assigned to the game rotations. This makes sense for energy level, but I would make sure to have someone I trust.

The bottom line, as ministry leaders it’s up to us. The curriculum companies are not running your program. Be proactive and think about the risks that come with any VBS events you have planned this summer.

8 Simple VBS Games for Preschoolers

Wayne Stocks — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 14:32:58 +0000

Last summer, my wife ran the games portion of our Vacation Bible School for preschoolers. Now, I do Awana games every Wednesday nights for Kindergarten through Sixth grade with a couple of hundred kids each week, but those games do not translate well to preschoolers. So, here are some preschool VBS games we came up with that are great for your three and four-year olds:

1. Duck, Duck, Goose

This game is a classic. Kids love it, and there is no set up required. The children sit in a circle. One child is selected to be it and walk around the circle. As they walk around the outside of the circle, they tap each child’s head and say “Duck.” When they get to the child they select, they tap their head and say “Goose.” The Goose must get up and run around the circle chasing “it”.” The person who is it must try to get all the way around the circle and sit in the Goose’s spot without getting tagged. The Goose then becomes the next it. If the “it” doesn’t make it back without being tagged, they must sit in the middle of the circle until the next round.

2. Limbo

All you need for this is a rope (a jump rope works well) and some music. Two leaders hold the rope and, as the music plays, each child must try to walk under the rope without letting it touch any part of their body. The only catch is that hands, arm, feet and knees are not allowed to touch the ground (you can suspend some of these rules with really young kids). If the rope does touch the child, that child is out. After every child has had a turn, the leaders lower the rope and the process continues. Continue lowering the rope after each round until only one player is left.

3. Cut the Cake

Line the kids up in a circle. One child walks around the circle with their hands above their head touching their palms together (“Walk Like An Egyptian” style for all you fan’s of 80’s music). In this pose, the child looks like a knife. When that child is ready to “cut the cake” they bring their arms down between two of the sitting players. Those players must jump up and run around the circle in opposite directions. The first one back is the winner and gets to be the cake cutter for the next round.

4. Balloon Relays

Kids love balloons. For these relay races, you will need one balloon for each team. Have each team line up on one side of the room. Each player must bat the balloon (without letting it hit the ground) all the way to the other side of the room and back. When they get back to their team, the next player takes the balloon and does the same. The first team with all players back in line wins.

5. Freeze Tag

Freeze tag is a simple game of controlled chaos. One or two players are selected to be “It” (depending on the size of your group, you may need more). If It tags someone, they are frozen until someone else (non-It) tags them to unfreeze them. The goal is for the players to get back to a pre-defined home base without being frozen.

6. Red Light, Green Light

This is another classic. All kids line up on one side of the room against a wall. A leader stands facing away from the children and says either “red light, green light or yellow light.” On Green Light, children are allowed to walk quickly towards the leader. On Yellow Light, they must walk slowly. And, when the leader says Red Light, they must stop immediately. If a player continues to move after the leader says red light, they must go back to the beginning and start over. The first player to touch the leader wins.

7. Simon Says

In this game, the children are given a series of commands like run in place, do jumping jacks, scratch your head, pat your belly, etc. If the leader precedes the command with “Simon Says” the children must start to do the activity, or they are out. If the leader does not say “Simon Says” before the command, the children should ignore it and continue with what they were already doing. If a child does begin to do the activity which was not preceded by “Simon Says,” they are out. Last child standing wins.

8. Guess the Picture

A simple game to play with kids is similar to the old game show “Win, Lose or Draw.” In this game, the children are divided into two groups. Leaders take turns drawing pictures on a white board, and the first team to correctly guess what the leader is drawing gets a point. Play to a pre-determined number of points.

Vacation Bible School Invitation Flyers (Coloring Page)

Mandy Groce — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 17:51:15 +0000

Click above to print off this VBS invitation card

This free printable is perfect for children to invite other children to your Vacation Bible School. It is designed as a half page invitation flyer. Space is provided to include your specific VBS details. There are two different designs per full-page print. Simply decorate and then cut into two.

Directions: Click on the image to the right to download the printable PDF of this flyer. We’ve also uploaded a higher resolution jpeg if you’d like to include your details before you print.

Here are a few creative ideas to get the most form this free resource. Please click here to leave your own comments and ideas.

Use this as a outreach project on the week before VBS. In your normal children’s ministry, talk about specific children they could invite. If possible, mail the flyers in advance.
On the first day of Bible School have the children brainstorm names of friends they could include. Then decorate and address the card.
If your program is close to the end of school, the children could use this printable to ask their school peers to attend VBS.

How To Maximize the Long-Term Effect of VBS

Amy Brown — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 13:08:52 +0000

VBS requires months of preparation. During the week, it demands cups of coffee and perseverance. We love VBS and yet we feel relief when Friday comes because the week has been exhausting. Many people mistakenly believe VBS is finished when the last child is picked up on Friday. But, the work of VBS continues even after the children go home and the rooms have been cleaned up. VBS ministry continues in how we follow-up with the children and their families.

While attending Lifeway’s Big Apple Adventure VBS preview conference, I sat in on a breakout session titled “VBS and Beyond: Evangelistic Follow-Up” led by Mike Smith. In this session I learned about the importance of the work done when the doors on VBS have closed. How do we stay connected with the children who visited our church for the first time and those who made first time professions of faith in Christ?

Follow-Up begins at Registration:

In order to follow-up well with families, you must ensure there is complete and accurate information on each child included on their registration form. When VBS comes to a close you want to be sure to have the child’s phone number and address ready to go.

Plan in Advance:

Before VBS even begins form a team of people who will follow-up with families. Decide what method would work best for your church (phone calls, home visits, post cards, etc)

Family Night:

If your church is planning a closing event to VBS where parents are invited, then utilize this event as a way of connecting with those parents. Enlist a team of greeters at the doors, so the visiting parents feel welcome. Assemble a take-home packet with information about your church and future events being held for children and families. If families feel welcome at your VBS family night, then they will be more likely to visit again for another event or Sunday morning service.

Follow-up in Just One Hour:

Gather your follow-up team at your church campus for one hour during the week following VBS. Have all of the information organized and ready to go for the children who were first time visitors and/or made a profession of faith. Have supplies ready for writing post-cards or letters including pens, church letterhead, envelopes, and stamps. During this hour your team will make phone calls to the homes of these children and then write a post-card/letter when appropriate. This can also be a time to set up appointments for home visitations.

Celebration Worship Service:

Take a Sunday morning to celebrate with your congregation the great work God did through VBS. This is a way to share with your larger congregation and an opportunity to invite back the families whose children visited your church for the first time. The children can sing some of the songs they learned and share about the Bible stories which were taught. Your congregation will be blessed to hear about what went on during the week of VBS and encouraged to continue supporting your VBS ministry in future years.

Why is follow-up important?

The main purpose of VBS is evangelism. We want the un-churched families in our neighborhood to get connected with our church and their child attending VBS can be a first step to open the door. We also want to support any new professions of faith with ongoing discipleship. The parents in our church need to know if their child made a profession of faith and the un-churched children who professed Christ need us to continue reaching out to them. This all requires follow-up!

The week of VBS should not be viewed as the climax or final ending to all the months of preparation. Instead VBS is the starting point where ministry to these children begins. It is a spiritually intensive week where children will grow in their faith or be led to come to Christ for the first time. VBS is a way to jump-start spiritual growth in the children of your church. We don’t want that growth to stop on Friday, so we must continue to persevere and follow-up with our VBS kids.

Vacation Bible School: Getting Your Team Spiritually Ready

Amy Brown — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 13:39:28 +0000

I recently attended a preview conference for Lifeway’s Big Apple Adventure in Nashville, TN. While there I joined in the excitement of VBS anticipation and preparation. It can be the case for me and I’m sure for many of you that in the hustle and bustle of VBS we focus too much on the physical preparation and push aside the spiritual preparation.

In one of the breakout sessions led by Jerry Vogel, Director of Childhood Ministry Publishing at Lifeway, I learned of some great ideas for helping you and your team be spiritually prepared for VBS this summer no matter which curriculum you have chosen to use.

Prayer:

1. Create a 30 day prayer calendar with specific requests pertaining to your church and its needs for VBS.

2. Prayer Walk

Have a team of people prayer walk through your church’s neighborhood to pray for children from your community who might attend your VBS.
Walk through your church campus and pray over each room that will be utilized during VBS week. Pray for the specific activities which will occur in each room and the volunteers who will be serving in each room.
Pray over the room you will be using while you are setting up for the week.

3. Prayer Cards: Create a bookmark of prayer requests to be included in your church’s weekly bulletin. This will give the larger congregation guidance on specific ways they can be praying for VBS.

Bible Study:

1. Teacher Devotions: Create adult devotionals to be used by your VBS volunteers based upon the five stories they will be teaching the children during VBS. These devotionals can be used to prepare their hearts for teaching.

2. Study Bibles: Encourage your volunteers to dig in and study the Bible stories they will be teaching using a study Bible. When teaching children familiar stories it can be tempting to teach with little preparation because you have heard or taught the story many times. The greatest impact on the children will come from a teacher whose heart has been affected by God’s Word through personal study.

3. Adult Bible Study: On the five Sundays leading up to VBS hold a Bible Study for your adult volunteers. On each Sunday teach your volunteers about one of the five VBS Bible stories. The purpose is not to be a training session on how to teach the stories to children, but these meetings should be focused on teaching the adults, so their hearts will be impacted by God’s Word before they teach.

Music

If your VBS curriculum comes with a set of songs to be learned during the week, give a CD to your volunteers in advance. These songs are full of the Biblical truths they will be teaching the children during the week of VBS. It will be of spiritual benefit to your team if they can meditate on the words of the songs before they help teach them to the children.

Scripture Memorization and Meditation:

Inform your team of the theme verse for your VBS curriculum, so they can spend time memorizing it. As they memorize the verse they will be meditating on it and the truth of God’s Word will impact their hearts. You may also encourage your adult volunteers to memorize scripture which supports walking a child through how to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Policies & Training for Teenage VBS Helpers

Amy Fenton Lee — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 13:56:10 +0000

The success of a church’s VBS often hinges on the help of teens from the church’s student ministry. Middle-school and high-school-aged youth can bring enthusiasm and valued assistance to an over-packed class of energetic children. But without screening or training, teens can unintentionally add to the chaos.

Setting expectations and outlining seemingly common sense pointers for youth helpers may be the best investment a church makes for the experience of participating children at Vacation Bible School. This article will get you started.

Set up an application process

Consider asking students to complete a brief application. An ideal form would include the following:

Basic contact information.
Two questions asking the applicant: 1) why the student wants to serve in VBS and 2) how the teen envisions contributing to the experience of participating children.
The contact information for 2 or 3 adult references
One or two pages of service guidelines for the student to read and then sign that they agree to abide by the aforementioned guidelines. (This could be omitted from the application and done as a part of a teen training event.)

By completing the application, students are more likely to treat their service like a real job. Providing upfront rules may prevent painful and personal conversations during the course of the busy VBS week. And because most states prevent disclosing names of under-age sex offenders, checking references for teens may be a part of a church’s abuse prevention practices.

Create Teen Service Guidelines

Policies and practices for student helpers should be straight forward and designed with teens in mind. Hosting an equipping event while peppering in humor and comical role-plays is a great way to establish a serious yet fun VBS culture (yes, you can do both!).

Communicate a mission for teens’ service so that helpers can weigh their actions and decisions against the mission. For example, teens can ask themselves, “How does my choice (action/attitude) impact the participating children?”

Reasons to serve/Reasons not to serve may be offered to remove ambiguity and prevent ministry environments from becoming a venue for dating connections and girlfriend gossips.

Job descriptions are sometimes needed to give purpose to otherwise wandering bodies. Many student helpers will offer a more meaningful contribution after receiving concrete instruction such as:

Providing one-on-one help to kids during crafts
Helping the teacher by setting up for the next activity
Keeping the room clean
Stocking the children’s take-home bags
Giving extra attention to children with special needs

Cell phone use, texting, and picture taking are commonplace for this generation of camera using, social networking young people. Proactively create and communicate policies for use (or non-use) of cell phones while serving at VBS. Without such guidance you can expect to see pictures of participating children on Facebook. (Yikes!)

Physically handling children is rarely a good idea. Teen helpers need explicit guidance advising against horseplay and piggy back rides. In addition, teens (and adults!) may need a reminder to never grab or jerk a child in an effort to remove them from a situation.

Behavior management policies and pointers are always wise for teens. Arming student helpers with a step-by-step process for handling conduct challenges protects the teen as much as it benefits the children. (Remove an obstacle, Redirect a child, and thenRefer the challenge to an adult leader)

Privacy issues should be spelled out so that student-helpers understand that some information about participating children (e.g. medical or special needs diagnosis, family issues) are to be shared only on a need-to-know basis. Similarly, mention of mandatory reporting procedures may be needed in relation to the church’s sexual abuse policy.

Establishing the Adult leaders’ authority in ministry environments will relieve students of solving any peer conflict and remind teens that the lead teacher functions as the classroom “manager”.

Toileting and bathroom policies should be created with student helpers in mind and communicated to teens.

Safety procedures may not all fall under a teen worker’s responsibility, but informing and explaining the protocol for check-in, check-out, classroom visitors, and allergy issues provides an added layer of protection for the participating children.

Have fun! These guidelines were created to benefit both the children and the teens. Rules aren’t meant to take the fun out of working alongside friends and helping kids laugh. So be silly, love the children, and enjoy serving!

Amy Fenton Lee is a passionate kidmin volunteer and children’s ministry writer. Amy also writes to equip churches for special needs inclusion at www.theinclusivechurch.com.

Free VBS Material: The Fruit of the Spirit

Guest Writer — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 14:32:37 +0000

Last year we posted a free VBS curriculum written by Tara Tegard called “Bible Boot Camp VBS.” It is still available for download and hundreds of churches have used it in their ministry.

Tara has written a second Vacation Bible School curriculum and wants to share it with readers on our website. It is titled “BigHeart Farms” and covers Galatians 5:16-26, the Fruit of the Spirit.

Download Links

There are two files to download, for each you can choose a PDF or DOC format that can be edited with Microsoft Word.

BigHeart Farms Curriculum PDF (print friendly) or editable doc file
Activity Templates PDF (print friendly)

She writes, “I give it freely for anyone to use in any ministry setting, be it through a church, missions trip, or home use. However this can be used to share the Gospel, I give permission for it to be done.”

More Resources

Our website has many free resources to help you plan Vacation Bible School. Here are a few that would be most relevant to this free VBS.

We would love to hear how you use this material in your ministry. Please leave a comment to share your stories or make suggestions for further improvement.

Podcast #9: VBS Tips from Shannon at Group VBS

Tony Kummer — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 13:18:39 +0000

It’s only November, why are you talking about VBS?

The short answer is you can’t start planning too early. For the longer answer, you should listen to this podcast. In this episode I talk with Shannon Velasquez who plans VBS training all across the country. She was the one who invited me to attend their PandaMania field test last summer.

It’s always fun to meet the people behind kids ministry curriculum, especially when they approach their work as real ministry. Shannon has a contagious joy that comes through in this podcast.

Directions: To listen to this 22 minute audio recording, just press play below or download the MP3 file to your computer. You can also subscribe to our podcasts on iTunes.

Shannon having fun at "PandaMania" VBS

Among other topics, we talked about the challenges many churches are facing in their VBS ministry. She gave some helpful tips about planning and making the most of your decorating money. We also talked about what Group is trying to do differently with their Vacation Bible School curriculum. She had some great ideas on being intentional with your ministry and making sure kids get the message.

For more about Group VBS, you can visit their official website or facebook page. I’ve also posted my preview video from the PandaMania field test. For more from Shannon, check out her VBS decorating tips from YouTube.

Need More VBS Tips? Then browse all our articles about planning Vacation Bible School or read 10 reasons why VBS still matters.