How to plan a Noah's Ark VBS for 4s and 5s

For the past two years, I’ve taught the 4s and 5s class during our week-long Vacation Bible School. It is a lot of fun, and a lot of work! We don’t purchase curriculum for this event, it is up to me to provide the material for my class. The little kids do almost everything independently from the big kids, so that is roughly two hours of time I have to fill up.

Sound a little scary? It really isn’t bad...but like I said, it is a lot of work!

Today I am going to share how I put materials and resources together to make my “curriculum” for the week, as well as my online sources and how I plan the week out. {Warning, its a novel!} Hopefully this will be a help to someone else faced with this situation in the future!

This was our nursery-turned-classroom...excuse the lovely "ark"

This week our VBS theme was Noah’s ark...a pretty simple theme, great for the 4s and 5s! All of my kids this year were unchurched, so that made it challenging...I started to realize about the second night in that they pretty much had no concept of God, the Bible, etc. That made it a bit more interesting!

When planning for the week, I find the first thing to do is plan a rough schedule for each night. Mine looked like this:

Monday

--Washroom --
Take attendance - put stickers on chart

Sing theme song

Explain rules + prizes

Song  - deep & wide, fishers of men

Lesson

Snack

Song - the joy of the Lord

Extra info - dinos

Learn verse - Genesis 6:8

Song - theme song, fishers of men

How to draw a dino

Announcements - tomorrow is colour a rainbow night, say verse

Candy, quiet seat prize

It is a vague schedule that probably doesn’t make much sense to you, but it is a starting point! Then, I just have to prepare each aspect of the night. This includes planning the lessons, making song and verse posters, making an attendance chart, etc.

We started each night in a general assembly with the other kids for about 15 minutes. Once we were dismissed to our class, we always stopped by the washroom first thing! I don’t want any have-to-go moments in the middle of a lesson, and with this preventative step that doesn't usually happen.

Once down in our classroom, they got stickers on the attendance chart for attendance, bringing a Bible, bringing a visitor, and saying their verse.

This was the attendance chart.

Our theme song this year was “Wide, Wide as the Ocean.” We also sang, “Fishers of Men,” “Deep + Wide,” and “The Joy of the Lord.” Most of those are action songs, so I don’t make a poster for them. My hands need to be free to teach the motions, and besides, these kids can’t read anyway! I only had a poster for “The Joy of the Lord,” and that was actually left over from last year. This song is a hit with kids, one girl requested the “happy” song in the middle of the week. :)

My rules for any kids class of any age are always the following:

Sit up
Look up
Zip up

That pretty much covers everything and keeps it simple to remember!

A landing place for everything I might need throughout the week.

For the lesson time, I always open my Bible and read one or two verses straight from the text. Do they understand it? Not much. But I want them to know that I’m not making this stuff up, it comes straight from God’s word. Then with this age group, I proceed to tell the story in my own words.

My lessons each night were quite short - I just broke up the story of Noah into 5 parts - but they are little! I heard once that kids have an attention span about as long as their age. So my overall attention span was 4 minutes! My lessons weren’t that short….but I did try to keep things moving.

I typed out a general outline of what I wanted to say, and made sure I was very familiar with the text and story. I tried to give them specific things to remember, certain things I emphasized and asked them over and over throughout the week. With the Noah story I tried to emphasize that sin caused the flood, and sin has consequences in our lives, too. One girl told me she never did anything to make her parents sad. She’ll learn! =)

This year I tried something new and brought in some “extra info” each night. I figured the story of Noah was a good time to plant seeds in their minds that would contradict with the evolution they will be taught once they start school. I obviously kept it super simple - we didn’t actually talk about evolution or anything - but I gave them some info about different things from Noah’s day or the effects of the flood.

During the week we talked about Dinosaurs, Sharks and large fish, and fossils. I also was prepared to talk about the Grand Canyon, but we ran out of time. (plus I am not sure these Canadian kids would have even known what that was!) They especially loved the Dinos and Sharks. I gained most of my info from the Answers in Genesis website, including the How to Draw a Dino we did as an activity on Monday. I did the drawing with the narration first, and then let them try it. I printed off little veggies and leaves (from Microsoft Office Clip Art - what would we do without it?) and they glued those in the thought bubble to show what the dino’s ate. It was a fun activity that taught them a little bit of truth about Dinos!

I already talked about how I taught verses throughout the week, but here are all the specific verses we used:

Genesis 6:8 “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” (this was the theme verse, and all of my kids learned this one!)

Genesis 7:5 “And Noah did...all that the LORD commanded him.”

Hebrews 11:7 “By faith Noah...prepared an ark…”

Hebrews 11:6a “Without faith, it is impossible to please him…”

Nehemiah 8:10b “The joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Each night I gave out a coloring sheet with their verse printed on it so they could review it at home. I used coloring sheets from here and wrote the verses on myself.

I like to give out lots of candy during the week. When I ask review questions, I give a small piece of candy (tootsie rolls are perfect) for each attempted answer. Plus I sometimes just randomly reward good behavior throughout the night. This helps to keep them alert to what they should be doing! At the end of the night, each child gets a piece of candy for each sticker he has on his chart that night. And one gets picked each night for a quiet seat...that person gets to take a handful of candy from my bucket!

I have found the best way to handle all the rewards is to start the night by giving each child a paper bag with their name on it. Candy goes directly into the bag when it is received, they are not allowed to hold it, play with it, or eat it! If necessary, I don’t even give them the bag, but set it all aside until the end. I haven’t had any issues with this method!

I have also tried to do other small incentives each night. One night they could bring in a stuffed animal to show the class, one night they were supposed to wear clothing with an animal on it, etc. However, this age group rarely remembers to do any of that. So I’m thinking next year I’ll skip that...it might be perfect for older kids, however!

At the end of the week, I give out a larger prize for the child with the most stickers on the chart, the one who said the most verses, and the one who brought the most visitors. Again, these kids didn’t really seem to understand that they could be working towards those prizes; however they did enjoy getting them. That is why I think giving the small candy rewards is important for this age. It is an instant reward, they understand what they are being rewarded for. They don’t seem to understand that all those good things add up throughout the week. This too would depend on the age!

The prizes sat there tempting them all week! Whenever I allow them to go look at the prize table, I make them put their hands behind their back. No touching the prizes until Friday night!

Well, this has been an extremely long post...if you’re still reading, kudos to you! I think I’ve covered all the basics, but there are a lot more details to consider. If you have any questions or would like more explanations about anything, just leave a comment or shoot me an email, I’d love to help you out!

I’d also love for you to share tips or suggestions for working with the younger age groups. I’m sure some of you have been doing it longer than I have and have more wisdom to share! Please do, I’m looking forward to learning from you!

Scripture Memory for Little Ones

We are in the middle of an exciting week of VBS here at Calvary Baptist Church! I plan to share a detail post at some point with my game plan for the week, as well as some helpful links. But for now, I just had to let you in on one exciting and extremely necessary aspect of our class.

Helping these little ones hide God’s Word in their hearts.

My class so far this week has consisted of three 4-year-olds, and one that is age five. And yes, they are learning verses! You might ask, “Isn’t that a bit young?” but it isn’t! I have heard children younger than that recite memory verses in their own broken way. Fours and Fives are definitely capable of committing God’s words to memory!

I’m not talking lengthy passages, or even multiple verses per night. We’ve been focusing on one verse, or even just part of a verse, each night. Two of my kids came back Tuesday night and recited Monday’s verse. I can’t tell you how that thrilled me!

I know there are hard words in the King James English. I know that these kids don’t completely understand all I am teaching them. As far as I know, all four of these kids are unchurched, and sometimes when I speak about God they look at me like they don’t know Who I’m referring to.

But they are getting scripture, snippets of truth lodged in their little brains. God has promised that His Word will not return void!! 

Our theme for the week is Noah {did you see my “ark”??} so several of our verses directly mention his name. That has been easy for them to remember. We’ve used verses such as…

Genesis 7:5 “And Noah did...all that the LORD commanded him.”

Genesis 6:8 “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”

Hebrews 11:7 “By faith Noah...prepared an ark…”


I have found that the old wipe-a-word-off method is tried and true. I write the verse on a chalkboard, and we repeat it...and repeat, and repeat, and repeat. :) I make sure to point to each word as we say it. These kids can not read, but they can still associate words with their placement on the board, or even by the first letter. It is not hard now for them to recognize the name “Noah” or “Genesis.”

In the course of repetition I draw attention to other key words as well. I explained “commanded” and we repeated that long word by itself. I explained “grace.” And of course we talked about “Lord.”

And then I start erasing words. Just those main ones, mostly. Only 4 or 5 words, and each time we repeat the verse again. And before the night is over they know it!

Each night I send home a colouring sheet for them to finish at home with that night’s verse printed clearly on it. I reinforce that they need to have their parents help them memorize the verse at home, so they can say it to me the next night. They take it very, very seriously. And so far they’ve been doing it!

And yes, they also get rewarded! =)

It thrills me to no end that these precious little souls are grasping something...and that I have the privilege of giving them the gospel for the very first time. I pray that they will have many more opportunities to hear God’s Word in the future!

I’d love to know...what is your desire for your little ones in the area of memorization? How early would you start? Any other tips or tricks you can share?


Linked up with: Womanhood with Purpose, Classy Clutter

Gifts and Goals for the Week, December 17, 2012

Happy Monday!!

After a super, super busy week last week, I am seriously cracking down on a big long list of things that have to get done this week. Mostly for our church's Christmas program on Friday night, but I also need to finish up for Christmas as well. Anyone else feeling the crunch??

This last week was the week for Christmas parties. I was involved with 3!! That makes for a pretty busy week when you factor in the prep, baked goodies, and such. But they were all so much fun. I am so blessed to be part of the churches I am involved with!

I showed you what I took to these parties for gifts - wanna see what I came home with??

This metal candle stand was one gift...

I stole it from a lady in my dad's church during our gift exchange. {I mean stole in the nicest way, of course...it is part of the game (wink!)} I love the ORB type finish on the metal. It will be super fun to decorate with after the Christmas decor comes down!

I don't have a pillar candle for it yet, but here is another candle just to give you an idea of how it will look...

I see a white pillar candle and coffee beans in its future. {wink!}

The second gift I snagged was this cute snowman nightlight:

He'll make a nice "winter decoration" long after Christmas is over!

Here are the blessings I added to my 1,000 Gifts list this week:

500. Christmas party
501. Opportunities to serve
502. Smooth{er} program practice
503. More Christmas parties
504. Chinese food 2 days in a row {wink!}
505. Stephanie’s safe flights
506. My church family
507. Gifts I don’t deserve


Last week, I set these goals:

Finish one bag

Finish Ninja outfit - soooooo close to done!

Work on christmas presents

Write one letter to a friend

Get Christmas program costumes ready {and have a practice without total confusion and panic ensuing!}

Continue reading Sense and Sensibility  - finished it!

Help with a Christmas party at the nursing home - see it here!


This week, I'm setting these goals:

Finish christmas presents and wrap them

Pack for trip

Finish getting costumes ready for the program Friday

Set up for the program 

Go Christmas caroling

And probably some other things that I'm forgetting at the moment. :)


So, we're down to crunch time...anyone else have last minute things to do? Are you enjoying time spent with family and friends?

DIY Pendant Banner and Thanksgiving Decor

Besides the pumpkin and apples I showed you in yesterday's post, there was one more DIY project I wanted to complete for this Harvest Supper. This project ended up solving a big headache!

Our church fellowship hall is in our unfinished basement. That means the walls are just cold, hard cement. In previous years, we try to stick posters, banners, pictures, etc. on the large expanse of wall, only to have them fall off before the event ever happens. The walls are just too cold for anything to stick to it for very long!

This year, I had an idea to try a pendant banner that I could string from the ceiling. It worked so much better!

I just tied a long piece of string (like a twine-y type of string) across the back wall.

For sake of time, I printed off large letters on colored paper. I also printed off a light triangle shape, which you can see in the yellow page below:

That gave me nice, even triangles without much hassle. I just cut out the printed triangle, and boom. Done. The font I used is called Party LET, the same one I used for this project.

I had some fun fall fabric that I experimented with as well. I thought about putting a swatch of fabric behind each letter, like so...

Blech. That looked horrible. I ended up just putting a triangle-shaped piece on each end of the banner...

...and one in the middle between the words, just to break them up.

It looked great! The bad-lighting-in-the-basement pictures just don't do it justice!

It was such a quick, easy solution to our previous banner troubles! Now every event is going to have a pendant banner, haha! (I'm not even going to take the string down!)

Besides the banner, here are some of the other decor items we used for the supper.

A lady in our church brought in this display for the front door. Love.it.

Oooh, lookee, there is my pumpkin!

My apple tea lights turned out great too. I popped each on on a bamboo mat with a ring of leaves. The apples were a little small, because they were just wild ones from our yard, but they still had a great effect.

And once they were lit...ooh, the ambience!

I whipped up some of these candles as well...just a glass dish, a candle we had on hand, some faux leaves and chinese lanterns. Simple!

Here are some shots of the food...and this is before it was even all out!

All the meat...pork, turkey and ham.

The dessert table was full to overflowing!

I completely forgot to take any pictures once people came downstairs...my bad! Just picture empty plates and serving platters, full bellies, and lots of laughs! It was a great night with about 120 people present...probably our biggest yet!

It takes a ton of work to pull off a supper like this, and I am so thankful for all the ladies that pitched in and helped with the decorating and the food. Several ladies were scurrying around at the last minute, taking food out of the oven, setting out serving utensils, and making sure things were in order. We certainly could not have done it alone, it took the effort of several people working together. Thanks to everyone who had a part! We are so blessed to serve in a church where there is unity to work together!

 

Pumpkin and Apple Carving

I helped decorate for our Harvest Supper last Saturday, and knew that some fun seasonal stuff was in order. I decided to try my hand at carving pumpkins and apples. Yup, even apples.

I turned to Pinterest for most of my inspiration, so you could call this my Pinterest-inspired project for October as well. There are lots of different pins floating around that show pumpkins with the skin carved off into different things, so I decided to try my hand at it. I totally just did my own thing and made it up as I went along.

I started by writing the word "THANKS" on my pumpkin with a Sharpie.

Then I turned it into nice big block letters that I could carve.

Now, if you have really nice writing or are fancy-pants crafty, you could make nice calligraphic letters and make it all beautiful. But fancy-pants I am not, so block letters was the way to go.

I ever-so-carefully cut in to the skin with a razor blade, and then peeled the skin away in little chunks. It turned out to be very easy!

The skin was really soft and easy to work with. The hardest part was knowing how deep to cut into the flesh and making it all nice and even looking. So I enlisted the help of a cute baby.

Actually he kept asking to sit in my lap (curious as a cat!) and would beat his hands on the pumpkin. Then he would get down to play with toys. We repeated that process every few minutes until....

Ta-da! All finished!

A couple things I wasn't expecting. See how nice and orange the flesh is on this side of the pumkin...

The farther right I went, the more green it got.

I wished the whole thing was that nice orange color (guess I was digging the tone-on-tone look) but my mom thought the green made it stand out more, so whatever.

The other thing that surprised me was that the thing was juicy. As soon as I pierced the skin, it started...I don't know what to call it...bleeding? weeping? Anyway, the letters dripped for days. so now you know, carve pumpkin skin with a paper towel handy.

I only ended up doing the one pumpkin this way because I wasn't sure how it would hold up. I didn't want to carve half a dozen pumpkins and then have them all wilty by the supper. As it turned out, it still looked great a couple days later, so I'm filing that in my memory bank for next year!

My next project was the apples. Which my sister thought you needed a picture of.

I wanted to make apple tea lights. This was another easy-peasy project! I just traced a tea light on the top of an apple, and carefully cut the circle out with a regular paring knife.

I chipped away at it with the knife until all the large chunks were out, and then cleaned things up with a spoon.

Then I swirled some lemon juice and water in there, since that helps keep the apple from browning as soon.

Once the hole was smooth and deep enough, I just pushed a tea light in there.

I love how they turned out! We had great scents too, these candles were hazelnut, cherry, and mandarin melon. Yum!

Tomorrow I'll show you how I actually used these in decorating. I loved how they turned out! In the meantime, what crafty projects have you been doing for fall? Any Pinterest-inspired fall decor?

Want more Fall inspiration? Visit my Pinterest board, It's Fall, Y'all! (because I'm corny like that!)

Fall Bulletin Board Idea

I’m a little behind on the Fall decorating, but this is the week to get ‘er done! Really, it seems like fall is just beginning...and with our church’s Harvest Supper this Saturday, tracks had to be made in the decor department!

I started by decorating a bulletin board, and here is how it all went down...er, up:

This board is smallish, so I wasn’t worried about doing too much on it. I didn’t even cover the brown cork..probably breaking one of the Bulletin Board Decorating Commandments, I know. But hey, brown is a Fall color, right?

I printed off these free leave templates and traced them onto colored paper. I also ran the templates through the copier at 50% to reduce the size. I planned on using smaller leaves to make a sort of border around the perimeter of the board, and using the large ones in the center.

After tracing several leaves, I painstakingly cut out every.stinkin.leaf.

It took a super, super long time. And here I thought this was going to be a quick, throw-together project. Ah well. Some tips on cutting things with precise edges:

    - Don’t ever use the tip of your scissors. Open them up and use the inside of the blade.
    -When going around curves, move the paper, not the scissors. This makes for a smoother cut.
    -Don’t feel like you have to go all the way around in one big cut. That may work when you’re peeling apples, but sometimes taking smaller sections and cutting them away is better when it’s on paper. It is also helpful in places to come at it from different angles.
    -Be patient!

They did turn out nice!

I stapled the smaller ones around the perimeter of the board, and printed off the word “Thankfulness” as a sort of header. Then at our church Ladies meeting we each wrote something we are thankful for on the large leaves and stapled them to the center.

Not only is it festive and colorful, but it represents the thankfulness of the families and heart of our church. Love that.

The font for the header was called “Party LET” and is just a free font that came with my Mac.

So much to be thankful for!

So that was my simple bulletin board that ended up taking a really long time, lol. Who knew leaf cutting was so tedious?

What fall decor are you working on these days?


For more Fall ideas visit my Pinterest Board It's Fall Y'all! (because I'm corny like that!)