Craft Ideas for Vacation Bible School

Vacation Bible school (VBS) is a great rostrum for reaching out to children and teaching them more about the Bible. It is the best time to bring the Word of God to children. Organizing fun, exciting, dynamic art and craft activities, which are combined with the gospel message, will help lead children to their Savior, Jesus Christ.

As a VBS teacher, one needs to keep a few points in mind before going ahead with the Bible school craft preparation. An important point to consider is the budget availability. One needs to have a fair idea about the amount of money available for the VBS craft sessions. Vacation Bible school materials are available at several stores. If the budget is small, then one could try asking members of the church for donations of egg cartons, toilet paper rolls, staples, cotton balls, crayons, etc.

The next point to be considered is the age of the children. This is very important, as this factor will determine the complexity of the craft ideas. If one is working with preschoolers, then the number of activities will be limited. The older children will be able to handle more complex crafts. Moreover, if it's a mixed group, then again the type of activities will vary.

The activities planned should be completed within the allotted time frame. Activities involving detailed painting should not be planned for a 30-minute slot. Moreover, the vacation Bible school crafts planned should be linked to various vacation Bible school lessons. One must remember that the idea of introducing crafts is to teach children about the Bible in a fun and interesting manner. There are various ideas for vacation Bible school that one can implement.

It's an activity that unites craft fun with a Bible quiz. Before heading into the activity part, one can narrate the story of Jonah and how he was swallowed by the fish.

Age Group: 6-14 
Requirements: Oak paper for fish cutouts (body, tail and fins), cardboard box, stick, magnet, paper clips, paints, paintbrushes, glitter, crayons, whiteboard and whiteboard markers.

Prior Preparation:
There are certain things one has to do before conducting this activity in class. For this activity, one needs a fishing rod, fish cutouts and lots of Bible quiz questions ready.

• For the fishing rod, a slender arm-length stick will do. To one end of the stick, tie a piece of string and attach a magnet to the end.

• Once the fishing rod is ready, one needs to prepare the fish cutouts. For the fish cutouts, one needs to draw fish of different sizes and shapes on a piece of cardboard. Draw funny cartoon fish which have cute, wavy tails and fins. Children love attractive shapes.

• Once the fish are done, use a cutter to cut off the fins and tails, thereby separating these parts from the body.
• The fins, tails and bodies will be placed on a tray, from which the children can choose the parts they like and assemble their very own unique fish. Children thoroughly enjoy this assembling activity.

• Next, prepare loads of Bible questions and write them on small pieces of paper.

Procedure:
Part 1:

• Place the fish cutouts (previously prepared) in a tray on the table. Have the children seated at their respective tables and provide glitter, paints, crayons, etc. to decorate their little fish.
• Ask the children to come up one by one to the tray and pick one body, tail and fin of their choice and go back to their seat.

• Give the children time to decorate their little fish parts. Once they are done with it, use tape to join the parts of the fish.

• Next, attach one Bible question chit to the rear end of the fish by means of a paper clip. These paper clips have a dual function: they hold the quiz chit in place and get attracted to the magnet on the fishing rod, thereby assisting in the fishing process.
• Place all the fish in the cardboard box, which serves as the fish pond.

Part 2:
Part two can be carried out in another session on the same day or on the next day. For the quiz, one will need a whiteboard and marker to keep score. If there are a large number of children, then one can sort them into teams, or else they can play individually.

The children are asked to walk up to the fish pond and pick up one fish using the fishing rod. He or she is to then answer the question on the chit, and will be awarded points for the right answer. Once the activity is done, the children can keep their fish with them.

My favorite craft activity is the collage. It involves use of simple materials to make something outstanding. Moreover, at the end of the day, the children have learned the creation story and have also unleashed their creativity to dole out something fantastic.

Age Group: 6-14
Requirements: Newspapers, magazines, large construction paper and glue for paper collage. It would be great if you could manage to get some National Geographic magazines.

Instructions:

• Divide the children into different teams depending on the number of children present. Don't keep more than 5-6 children in one team.

• Now give each team one large sheet of construction paper. Also give them stacks of newspapers, magazines, and glue.
• The use of scissors is forbidden. The idea is to tear the pictures from the magazines with your fingers. Explain to the children that the zigzag-lined pictures is what we want.

• The children are expected to recreate the whole creation story from the Bible on the collage. This is the only guideline they have.

The end results will simply leave you stupefied. Getting such a masterpiece from random newspapers is simply fabulous. Instead of paper, you can also opt for cloth collages.

For the cloth collage one will require lots of pieces of cloth (different colors and patterns). If you know somebody in the tailoring business, ask them to give you all the waste pieces of cloth. This activity is more for older kids, who can handle a pair of scissors carefully.

The story of the burning bush, Moses' encounter with God, and the ten commandments are popular vacation Bible school stories. What children would absolutely love after learning about Moses, would be to make their own tablets with the ten commandments on it. Let's find out how to make it.

Age Group: 10-14

Requirements: Large sheet of construction paper (tan-colored), pencils, a bucket of water, waterproof sketch pens, a matchbox and a candle.

Instructions:

• Give each child a piece of tan construction paper. Now, ask them to fold their papers into half (vertically).

• Then using the pencil draw an arch on the top end of the paper, such that the edges of the paper become the edges of the arch as well.
• Cut along the arch. Then open up the paper and you will get the two tablets of the ten commandments, joined together at the center.

• Ask the children to pen down the ten commandments neatly onto the freshly prepared tablets, using waterproof sketch pens.
• Once they have finished writing the ten commandments, ask each child to come up to you individually. Using the candle flame, burn the edges of the paper tablets. This is to give the ancient appeal.

• Once the tablet is burned, ask the child to dip the tablet into the bucket of water. Just one nice dip is enough.
• Place the wet tablets near the window to dry. Once dried, the ten commandment tablets will look like the old Moses' ten commandments!

Kids love taking crafts back home. They love to display their day's efforts to their families. The ten commandment tablets are sure to get the appreciation of all. Ask them to place these tablets in their bedrooms, where they can be constantly reminded of the ten commandments.

Besides the above craft activity, there are various other vacation Bible story crafts that one can implement. There's Joseph's story, wherein one can draw cutouts of a cloak for each child. Provide tiny pieces of cloth (of different colors and texture) for the children to decorate their own version of the colorful cloak. There are several different ideas for vacation Bible school, and one can be as creative as one wants.