Vacation Bible School

So, somehow I’ve been roped into being a 5th grade teacher for Vacation Bible School. 

Now, don’t get me wrong… I don’t mind teaching at VBS… its the fact they are 5th graders.  I’ve taught 3rd graders, PreK, Kindergarten and 3&4 year olds.  But, 5th grade?  I can only imagine.

The theme this year is Awesome Adventures.  My mom and I are co-teaching, so we were trying to come up with interesting ideas for decorations and their end-of-week gifts, etc. 

Here’s what we come up with so far… if you have any suggestions, please feel free to post a comment.  We need creative ideas!

For the door, we are going to make a sign saying “First Class Fifth Graders” and then stamp or draw passport-like stamps on the background.  For their names on the door, we are going to use the Cricut to cut out little suitcases and have those hung around the door sign.

Each child will have a lanyard with a tag to wear each night.  The tag is going to look like a plane ticket, with each “place” listed that we “visit” each night.  I think the places are the Grand Canyon, the ocean, mountains, etc.  Every night as they walk in, mom and I will use a hole punch to “validate” their tickets.  On the back of the tickets, we will have their itinerary– basically the time table lineup for the week.  (i.e.  crafts at 6:00, snacks at 6:45). 

We found some really cool items at Oriental Trading.  One of them being a little passport that is for the Awesome Adventure VBS curriculum.  Each page of the Passport has a different scene depicting that night’s location.  I thought we could use those and on one page they could write their Bible verse for the evening and on the other side draw a picture or write something about the evening.  At the end of the week, these would be theirs to keep.  We also found some really cool wall decorations that look like postcards and travel posters depicting the various locations.

At the end of the week for “graduation”, each child is going to get an ink pen that has Awesome Adventures on it, their passport, a notebook, an Awesome Adventure key chain, and a certificate that I am going to make on the computer.

Snacks, playtime, and crafts are taken care of in breakout sessions… so, we are only responsible for the actual lesson and anything we want to do related to that.

Do you have any good ideas?  Leave me a comment!