Jesus VBS

DISCLAIMER: This is an overview of a program we had thought of using but was never implemented. Some details must be "filled in" by whatever organization uses it. It is a 5 day VBS program for 3 hours in the morning (we usually went from 9am to noon.) You can take these ideas and customize them for your own church. Modify the linked Word Document as much as you need.

Each day is broken up into a few sections. The students are grouped by age into different classes and each class goes to a different station in rotation after all starting out in the Assembly at the beginning.

• Concepts to be taught - the topics for the day
• Assembly - all gather in the sanctuary for a group presentation
• Phrase of the Day - a short sentence to remember the concepts
• Story Time - Station #1: 1 or 2 people tell the story to each class
• Music - Station #2: 1 or 2 people perform music & teach it to each class
• Science/Discovery Time - Station #3: 1 or 2 people lead hands on demonstrations
• Craft - Station #4: 1 or 2 people help children design and build their own creations
• Games - Station #5: 3 or 4 people lead physical activities for each class
• Snack - Station #6: 2 or 3 people prepare themed food/beverages for each class
• Take Home - A small item for each child to remember the day

Mascot for the whole 5 day program: Baarbara the Sheep

Day 1

Concepts to be taught:

• Christmas is Jesus’ birthday.
• His birth was prophesied.
• Common shepherds were told by angels to come and worship Him.
• Magi followed the star to worship Him.

Assembly:

Starting at about 8:45, show either “The Toy That Saved Christmas” (Veggie Tale):

(Part 1, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5) or “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

Do a skit about Jesus’ birthday party with Baarbara the sheep.

Choose a few songs/videos from a previous packaged VBS and use them all week.

Phrase of the day: God loves us and sent His Son Jesus.

Response: Amen

Story time:

- Use a nativity set to tell the story in “Good Shepherd” style. Instead, let the oldest group act it out with scripts, since they probably all know the story.

- Hide pictures from the nativity story in the room, let kids find them, and then reconstruct the story as a review. (except for the oldest group)

- Using pictures of Christmas objects, sort them between secular and religious aspects of Christmas. Stick secular object pictures on a paper xmas tree and stick religious ones on a paper barn.

Music:

• Each day, learn/practice the VBS theme song(s).
• Listen to baby Jesus religious Christmas songs while unwrapping a gift-within-a-gift to reveal a bag of cross necklaces as a gift for all. (Each child removes 1 layer of wrapping paper from a box that has been wrapped repeatedly.)
• Leaders sing verses from “Amen, Amen” (FWS page 2072) or you can listen to Sydney Poitier sing it http://youtu.be/rn6w255CGkk while kids sing the Amen part.
• Play “Little Drummer Boy” and have kids use percussion instruments to play ONLY during al the rum-pa-pum-pum parts.
• If time permits, learn verses 1 & 2 of “Away in a Manger.”

Science/Discovery Time:

• Explain the prophecies of Jesus’ birth from Isaiah 7:14, then do experiments in which the kids predict the outcomes. Some experiments should behave predictably and some should have surprising outcomes.

Possible experiments include:

Diet Coke & Mentos (bubbles over) verses Pepsi & Necco’s (light hydrogen gas produced to have a flame) http://www.metacafe.com/watch/6813531/sdcc_matt_zaller_interviews_stan_lee/ It should be noted that Necco’s are hard to find, but can be purchased online at http://www.neccostore.com/assorted-wafers.pd but are not cheap. We should all be looking for them at stores!

What sinks and what floats? Demo with sodas http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/00000051

then have some other objects to predict what sinks and what floats. (for example, pumice will float but other rocks sink) Use aluminum foil to demonstrate that a ball of it sinks but a boat of it floats and explain why. Let them make objects that will float from aluminum foil.

Craft:

• anything made as a star or angel
• baby Jesus Christmas tree ornament, angel ornament, star ornament

Games:

• Tell story about Herod, then play “Run From Herod” (tag, but “It” is “Herod”).
• Magi deliver gifts in relay while trying to run past Herod (teen helpers, possibly with foam swords). If tagged, then have to take the gift back and try again.
• “Swaddling cloths” relay. Kids run down, swaddle baby Jesus in a towel and run back. Next kid unswaddles…

Snack:

• square cookies criss-crossed to look like gifts or Jesus’ birthday cupcakes
• Daily free play supplies of crayons & paper, Legos/Duplos
• Older kids could learn to fold and cut stars http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/flagstar.html
• Younger kids can color a nativity scene, or perhaps play with one

Take home:

The cross necklace obtained during music class

Day 2

Concepts to be taught:

- (Grown up) Jesus preached to everyone about God.

- Parable about leaving the 99 sheep to find the 1. (Matthew 18:10-14)

- Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37)

- Baptism

Assembly:

- Show a Good Samaritan video such as this cartoon http://youtu.be/cNxmihnSJuI

Or this wordless Lego movie http://youtu.be/JYV69rWkOfI which would require explanation. Let Mr. Dave narrate in a goofy way.

- Do a skit about leaving the 99 sheep where the leader has to look around for Baarbara while the rest of us sheep stay behind and wait.

Phrase of the day:

Jesus is the Good Shepherd.

Response: Amen

Story time:

• Leaders act out the Good Samaritan story then ask kids who their neighbors are and how they could help them.
• Retell story of 99 sheep, then hide some sheep and let the kids find them and bring them back.
• Explain how Jesus calls us to tell the good news. Then play the telephone game where each child whispers a sentence and it gets garbled.

Music:

- Watch video of “Leaving 99” by Audio Adrenaline http://youtu.be/hubJshUEXP0 then discuss.

- Older kids sing “Go Tell It on the Mountain” with video http://youtu.be/iEaQKuId9sQ, followed by an instrument parade with the same song.

- Younger kids sing “Jesus Loves Me” with motions. (Teach motions first.) http://youtu.be/LU3xatin1yY

- Younger kids have instrument parade with “Jesus Loves Me.”

Science/Discovery Time:

• Discuss how magnets attract and repel and relate this to how “magnetic” Jesus was. (Everyone wanted to be with Him.) Then older kids move steel washers through a cardboard maze using a magnet below the cardboard. Younger kids “fish” with a magnet on a string or stick, picking up fish with a steel paper clips on them.
• Discuss baptism and how it changes a person to start a new life, then drop into water one of those bathtub animals that expand in water and note the change.
• Could also look at a penny dry and through a glass of water and note the magnification.

Craft:

• Use a baby food jar to make a snowless snow globe. Glue a person onto the lid, then fill it half full of water. When you turn it upside down, the person is baptized!
• Make tee shirts which are stenciled with “Good Samaritan.” Let older kids do Sharpie tie dying on the shirt http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistryhowtoguide/a/sharpietiedye.htm.
• Use heavy paper to make a megaphone for sharing the news.

Games:

• “Tell the good news” game in which there are pairs of numbered papers randomly given to the kids. Kids must quickly find the person who has their mate, then the two must come to you and say “Jesus is the Good Shepherd.”
• Start with a 3-legged race, then 4, then whole team to simulate sheep who move in herds.
• “Gather the Herd” is dodgeball, but when a kid is hit, they must move to the team that hit them. Eventually the herd is all together.
• Younger kids could simply play “Follow the Leader,” who would be a teen dressed like a shepherd. The kids would be the sheep.

Snack:

• Oreos/vanilla cookies to be dunked in milk or juice like baptism
• Free play (coloring, Legos/Duplos)
• Leave a few plastic sheep in the room to hide and let the kids find
• Pictures of the parables to color

Take home:

Candy cane representing a shepherd’s staff

Day 3

Concepts to be taught:

• Jesus is going to heaven to prepare a place for us.
• Last supper and meaning of communion.
• Pharisees didn’t like Jesus saying He was God’s Son and King of the Jews, so they had Him arrested.

Assembly:

I can’t seem to find a good video for this day.

Baarbara skit about some sort of confusion about where/what heaven is, then straight man explains to Baarbara what it is and that Jesus went to heaven to prepare a place for us. He wanted us to have communion to remember Him after He left.

Phrase of the day:

Jesus said, “Remember me.”

Response: Amen

Story time:

- Older kids – watch interview with Colton (“the boy who went to heaven”) and discuss. http://youtu.be/F3xItrGOi6Q

- Younger kids - talk about heaven and let kids tell what they think it will be like. Maybe bring in some pillows and let them walk on them and tell them that people imagine that heaven is in the sky (above the clouds, represented by the pillows) but that’s not really true.

- Tell about communion then actually have (unblessed) communion with bread cubes and juice.

- Tell kids about Jesus being arrested, but leave them hanging on the outcome and tell them they’ll find out what happened tomorrow.

Music:

- Start with lively video from years past for Friday night program.

- Learn “Let Us Break Bread Together” (UMH 618) then let kids dance freestyle with ribbons to this song. Teachers demo some ribbon moves.

- Listen to “Remember Me” by downhere, then do floor stretches while listening and sing only the chorus. (not available on YouTube, but I have the CD.

- Sing and do motions with “Jesus in My Life” http://youtu.be/cn_yYmxnACc

Science/Discovery Time:

• Conduct memory experiments: Have kids try to remember a string of unrelated words. Then have them remember a sentence of the same length and they’ll see that it’s easier to remember when they make sense. Relate this to communion – how we repeat the act to remember Jesus.
• Play “concentration” which is having a bunch of pairs of cards with pictures on them, all face down. They take turns turning over 2 cards and get to keep them when they match. (Gayle does this in crafts as a time filler though.)
• Experiment with the memory of a rubber band and show how it changes with temperature. (It actually contracts when heated with a hair dryer, which is unexpected.)
• Pick out some of these kid-friendly memory experiments and teach kids techniques to help them remember better http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chmemory.html

Craft:

• angel to represent heaven
• Box to keep remembrances in
• Memory jogger of some sort?
• Photo frame to remember VBS

Games:

• Tell story about how disciples were arguing about who’d be greatest in heaven and sit by Jesus, then play musical chairs where one helper is Jesus and others try to sit by Him. Or we could do this in music class and play a thematic song.
• “Jail” where you sit out for 10 seconds when arrested (hit by a ball) while playing dodgeball to remind them that Jesus was arrested
• “Heavenly Stroll” – kids do a relay but can only step on widely spaced pillows

Snack:

Round crackers and red juice to resemble communion materials

Take home: religious themed silly bandz

Day 4

Concepts to be taught:

• Jesus was found guilty and crucified. He died for our sins.
• Jesus gave forgiveness on the cross.
• Jesus arose from the tomb.

Assembly:

- Show a cartoon Easter story (3 segments) part 1: http://youtu.be/xhGE5CPLFlo part 2: http://youtu.be/9GrHIjGtarI part 3: http://youtu.be/3r5kAJvH8Ds (each part is about 1 minute long)

- Skit where Baarbara reviews and tries to understand the Easter story? Maybe Baarbara is bummed that she can never go to heaven because she has sinned, then straight man explains the concept to her that Jesus died for her sins and she just has to ask for forgiveness.

- Do a “magic trick” with a homemade tomb with a drawer under it where we put Jesus into the tomb, slide him down into the drawer, then show that the tomb is empty.

Phrase of the day:

Jesus arose from the dead!

Response: Amen

Story time:

• People act out carrying the cross, Jesus dying on the cross, buried, and arisen. Alternatively read a picture book about the Easter story. Tell older kids how crucifixion was saved for the worst criminals and also tell them about Jewish burial customs then?
• Like Monday, sort out symbols of secular and religious Easter and explain them.
• Easter egg hunt, but each egg contains only a piece of paper that says “Jesus” because He is the meaning of the holiday. Then let the kids hide the eggs again for the next class.

Music:

- Older kids listen to and discuss “Forgiven” by Sanctus Real http://youtu.be/NZVjKrmvYYQ

- Younger kids watch puppet version of “Up From the Grave He Arose” http://youtu.be/NZVjKrmvYYQ

- Older kids sing “Up From the Grave He Arose” UMH 322 with motions. http://youtu.be/oN77HjfAc8k

- Review songs for Friday night program

Science/Discovery Time:

• Demonstrate a Cartesian diver and relate it to Jesus being pushed down but not kept down. http://fatlion.com/science/cartesian.html
• Using 3 differently sized balls and a flashlight, demonstrate a solar eclipse like the one that occurred on the day of the crucifixion.
• Teach older kids how to vanish a paper clip (relate to empty tomb) http://www.ehow.com/video_2378350_vanishing-paperclip-magic-trick.html but just do the magic trick for younger kids.
• Write with invisible ink, using either lemon juice http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howtos/ht/invisibleink3.htm or corn starch which requires an iodine solution to reveal it http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howtos/ht/invisibleink1.htm and relate this to how the women thought Jesus’ body had disappeared from the tomb, but in fact he had arisen.

Craft:

• Cross necklace if haven’t already made one
• Decorate an Easter egg with markers but also give out stickers/decals of religious symbols that they can use on the egg

Games:

• “Solar Eclipse” game (monkey in the middle) Kids in two lines throw balls back and forth to each other while adults/helpers stand in between to block and catch the balls. (One group of kids are the sun and one the earth. The adults in between are the moon.)
• Older kids play “Carry My Cross”. In groups of 3, 2 kids pull the third middle one down as a relay. The middle one has arms outstretched but is limp. Play "Carry My Cross" by ThirdDay while they play.

Snack:

Pretzel sticks tied into a cross with thin red licorice string

Take home:

Noisemaker (to celebrate that Jesus has risen)

And recipe for resurrection cookies http://www.iccreligiouseducation.com/easter.cfm?subpage=309406

Day 5

Concepts to be taught:

• Jesus told the disciples and us to spread the news to all.
• On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came like wind and fire which empowered the disciples to preach the gospel.
• Pentecost is considered the church’s birthday.

Here’s a nice short explanation of Pentecost for convenience: http://www.stpaulskingsville.org/pentecost.htm

Assembly:

• Pass out tissue paper streamers and show this 4-minute children’s sermon about Pentecost. http://youtu.be/lQfcp-3ZvZI Instead of following with a skit, Baarbara will lead the children’s participation in the sermon.

Phrase of the day:

Spread the Good News!

Response: Amen

Story time:

• Show this Pentecost shadow play to the older kids http://youtu.be/yoiXpNbgrbs but act out the story for the younger kids.
• Teach the kids “Jesus loves you” in several different languages. Then explain how they can share the good news in ways other than speaking (by helping someone, being nice, etc.) translator: http://translate.google.com/
• Play a game (relay) where each kid uses a drinking straw to blow a ping pong ball down an ell shaped corridor (made of cardboard). At the far end is someone who doesn’t know about Jesus. On the ping pong ball, write “good news.”

Music:

- Watch video of “Live Out Loud” by Steven Curtis Chapman. http://youtu.be/tVLHTqdkwZ0 Then watch again and freestyle dance, singing the chorus.

- Watch “Hands and Feet” by Audio Adrenaline, sing chorus, and do motions. http://youtu.be/l0UaDhHbU7w

- Review songs for Friday night program.

Science/Discovery Time:

• Write with invisible ink then reveal it. Relate this to the Holy Spirit. http://library.thinkquest.org/04oct/00451/invisibleink.htm
• Fire is a symbol of Pentecost and represents the beginning of something new. Do some kind of experiment with fire? I haven’t been able to find a good one that’s safe.
• Likewise, wind is a symbol of Pentecost. Do an experiment with wind such as wind in a bottle. http://www.unmuseum.org/exbottle.htm
• Make pinwheels with pencils & thumbtacks and then blow them with (invisible) wind. Relate to the invisible Holy Spirit.

Craft:

- Balloon animals (air represents the Holy Spirit whose presence is sensed but not seen)

- Repeat the craft from years ago: a water bottle filled with pea gravel (explain how they represent all of us, just like Peter was a “rock” for the church) and various beads which represent things from the week’s lessons such as stars, angels, cross, etc.

- Stained glass “window” with flame and cross on it http://www.dltk-bible.com/crafts/m-stainedglass.htm

Games:

• Build “churches” in teams using wooden blocks. Tallest, sturdiest, etc.
• “Tell the Good News” tag. Start with one person “it.” As they tag people, there are more people who are “it” until everyone is “it” but call “it” “Christian.”

Snack:

• Nerds mixed in with Chex mix (represents us as rocks)
• Pentecost worksheets (games) http://dltk-bible.com/jesus/pentecost-activities.htm

Take home:

• Gideon new testaments
• Nerd candy
• Pamphlet of children’s Bible stories? (could we print something up ourselves if we can’t find something cheap?)
• Personal printed invitation to church& Sunday school the following Sunday from their Sunday school teacher with their would-be teacher’s name and room number listed (also throw in a line about adult Sunday school options, teen classes for older siblings, and nursery for babies.)