Vacation Bible School Preperation Part 1,000

Greetings Friends!

Now that I am done with student teaching (I'm still really excited about this ordeal), I have been having my sights on the summer. 

This summer, I have successfully managed to implement myself into Old Saint Joe's VBS program.  I say it that way because from the sounds of what I was able to talk to with Kerry, nobody really knew what was going on with replacing Peg.  And since nobody was there yet to replace Peg, nobody knew if there was going to be a VBS this up coming summer.  Therefore, my mom and I figured that whoever was new would probably not want the two ladies responsible for having the church parlor repainted on the crew again.   We totally understood if that was the case.  I mean, we did manage to successfully destroy the parlor's paint with our awesome cafe awing.

Then one day, I was looking for Jennifer, and I met Eileen.  She is in charge of the VBS program.  We hit it off and I found myself telling my mom we were doing VBS again.  Mom's pretty excited.   We were even more excited about doing VBS when we discovered that we are doing the same layout again: I have preschoolers and get the parlor (which looks so much better with it's beautiful tan paint--no thanks to us!)

I created the program for the Preschoolers and mom did the decorations.  This is what we have so far:

Part of the program is telling the bible stories.  Since I don't have books about all of the bible stories they are looking for, I am making a felt board.   I bought the board, but I HAND MADE the rest of the little items.  I did this by drawing (or tracing) an object onto a piece of felt.  Then I cut it out extremely carefully.   This is only some of the things I have made thus far.  I have also made a cow, pig, dark clouds, lighting, land and a horse.  Can you tell what story I am going to tell by looking at this picture?

Since our adventure is underwater, mom and I bought 9 table cloths.  We are going to put them up around the room, so it looks like water.  We are going to die-cut fish and other underwater creatures with our Cricuts. (Those are die-cut machines, in case you were wondering!)

To make seaweed, we are going to cut these up!

This is our octopus.  Thanks to Resurrection for lending us the bean bag.  Mom's going to make eyes and legs with felt pieces.  She will then pin them to this awesome bean bag.  We also bought a 1.00 inflatable to put in the classroom as well!

Here are some more supplies.  The kids are going to make a dove, so that's what the feathers are going to be used for! 

My friend Kristina suggested for the kids to go fishing, just like James and John do in one of the Bible stories.  Therefore, we picked up a pool (that we are going to fill up with water!) 

Then we had to make fish.  We bought two types of balls: waffle and ping pong balls.  Mom spray painted them so they were colorful.  The kids will practice fishing them out of water for our drama time!

 My friend Leah came up with this idea: create Angel Fish Sand Art.   Sand is a great tool to use and I can't wait for the kids to use it! We bought salt and pepper shakers to limit how much sand comes out of the bottle and onto the paper too! This way, Facilities isn't down my back for having "too much fun" at VBS!

 To store some free choice activities, mom picked me up a treasure chest.  Originally, she wanted me to sit on this thing.  I said I was too fat to do such a task.  (It's pure plastic, a 3 year old would break it!) Therefore Resurrection is lending us a more suited treasure chest to do the job.  

Last, but not least, our greatest idea is the ark.  I dreamed it; mom built it.  We are going to put this in the corner of the classroom.  The kids can sit in the "ark area" to do their free choice activities once they are done with their projects.  We have currently finished the big ark.  Now we have to built a third wall and transport it!  It is hard to appreciate the fullness of how awesome this idea us, but believe me...it will look EPIC in the classroom!

VBS is in less than a month... it's going to be a very exciting and creative adventure for all of us!  During VBS week, I will be posting almost daily to show what the kids are doing each day! I can't wait to show you! I've worked very hard developing a creative program and want to share it with others! Be jealous you aren't 3 years old and signed up for Vacation Bible School! ....OSJ won't know what hit them:)

<3

Em