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 Posted 7/6/2009 1:02:29 PM |
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Junior Member
 
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| Yup, we've got the usual VBS problem--lots of unanticipated walk-ins! (That's one great thing about the recession--people need free activities for their children and if one of those happens to be hearing the Gospel at our VBS, I'm not going to complain!) I'm running out to get some clay in case there aren't enough of the pre-ordered things. Anyone got other (cheap) ideas? We'll use the clay tomorrow (Day 2), but would like some other fillers for the remaining 3 days. BTW, we're not running all the shops every day. Our church is small, so our volunteers run a different shop each day. This means we will have 4 stalls open at a time (food is every day, but the others change).
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| Posted 7/6/2009 2:19:07 PM |
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Forum Guru
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| These forums are filled with lots of great ideas. If I were in your shoes, I'd be going for the bean mosaics I saw mentioned here. Some other thoughts... Perhaps you can buy a few oranges and have children stick whole cloves in them to make spice balls. Pieces of cloth, yarn, and potpourri can make scented pouches. Aluminum foil can be molded into shapes or wrapped around pieces of cardboard and drawn on with sticks for a metal working shop. Children can make woven paper mats from a piece of construction paper with slits cut and strips of other colored construction paper woven through the slits. Make cheap tamborines by hole-punching the perimeter of paper plates. Children can color two plates, put a few beans or large beads inside and then sew up the outsides with yarn. Add streamers of ribbon or yarn for more decoration. An easy shop is jewelry making. Buy a bunch of pony beads. Children can string them on yarn to make necklaces or metallic colored pipe cleaner for cool bracelets and anklets. The wire ichthys necklaces (check the forum) are also really awesome. The wire should be available at any craft store. Also, ask your fellow "Romans." They might come up with some great ideas. Two years ago, when a fisherman's net craft wasn't working for us and the children were starting to get agitated, our "fisherman" grabbed a stack of paper plates, scissors, crayons and glue. Cut a triangle out of one side of the plate, glue it to the back to make a tail, and color it all. Tada... a fish! The children enjoyed our spur of the moment craft.
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| Posted 7/6/2009 8:27:25 PM |
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Forum Newbie
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| We've added a Library for picture/coffee table books about Ancient Rome for an alternative as well as using the Toga shop as a simple "try on" station that we will be taking photo's of then going to Walmart to print these from the digital camera's SD card to have the participants take with them at weeks end.. Also got lots of leather-like material from local fabric stores that can be made into bracelets or anklets... Best of luck... our first night is Sunday 7/12... we can't wait!
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| Posted 7/6/2009 9:14:42 PM |
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Forum Expert
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| We did an herb/spice shop for JM...cheap herbs from the dollar store and squares of cloth...had them tie it up w/ raffia. Are you doing a bakery? Frozen bread dough is easy to tear off and mold into little loaves. Empty film cannisters or pill bottles (washed of course!) can have rice or bean put inside...cover w/ construction paper and decorate w/ stickers. OR cover w/ cloth and tie both ends...instant noise maker/musical instrument. Also fun....make a banner that shows them WALKING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF JESUS...tempera paint in a long pan...put each little foot into it and have them put their footprints on a large piece of poster board or paper...easy to put a star w/ "JESUS" at the top...have footsteps pointing to that. That is all I can think of at the moment....God bless you and your VBS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Kimberly
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| Posted 7/20/2009 3:28:29 PM |
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Forum Newbie
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I fyou still need ideas, see my post under ROME CRAFT, by pam burgess
Pamela G. Burgess  LOL Lots Of Love LOVE IS THE BEST!ROME my metal shop
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| Posted 7/20/2009 8:17:31 PM |
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Forum Member
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| Paper mosaics are always cheap and easy (and can fill a lot of time.) Consider drawing early Christian symbols (ichthus, chi ro, etc..) on construction paper and have the kids use small paper squares to decorate.
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| Posted 7/22/2009 4:32:38 PM |
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Junior Member
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We added a Roman Army Recruiting station to the marketplace. The soldiers tested recruits to see if they were fit to join the army. They did some agility tests (walk a balance beam), obstacle course, throwing accuracy (target on the gym wall at back of booth). They made some fake swords out of long doweling, and taught the kids some simple sword moves.
We did this because we took the food shop out of the marketplace. We have 120 kids coming and half would be in the marketplace at any given time. Having 60 kids trying to buy a snack at the same time seemed to be asking for chaos, so we made a separate "Olive Garden" station outside under a canopy/tent, and included that in the Paul/ Underground Church/ Olive Garden rotation (8 minutes each for ~ 25 minute block.) Games were a 25 minute block and the Marketplace was a 50 minute block.
We wanted to continue to have 10 shops, so dreamed up the Roman soldier station. That also was convenient to have Roman soldiers on hand for the dramas as they erupted.
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| Posted 7/22/2009 6:11:52 PM |
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Forum Member
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| The Roman Army recruiting center is a GREAT idea - I wish I'd thought of it! We have Roman guard costumes in the Toga shop for kids to try on, but this would have been more fun...
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| Posted 7/29/2009 5:52:36 PM |
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An addition to the architecture shop that our shopkeeper thought up is marshmallow structures. She got the brown/white marshmallows and is using the powdered sugar frosting that someone else posted about instead of glue. The kids loved it!
We are also doing a wall fresco in the scribes shop-- using watercolors.
It's been fun!
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| Posted 8/1/2009 2:10:22 PM |
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Forum Guru
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We did Rome on a shoestring budget. On day IV, our children started showing signs of needing a little something new, so we added a craft to each shop for the last day and converted our registration table into an extra shop. Here’s what we did. Wreath making shop The usual craft was a wreath for your head made of a headband and plastic greenery from the dollar store. Our wreath maker came up with the idea and they looked better than any other option I’ve seen. For our extra last day craft, my husband cut bunches of scuppernong (kind of grape that grows in our area) vines from our backyard. The children braided them together to make garlands. Metal workers shop We had multiple options in this shop from the beginning. The last day I restricted the shop to only older children, so we didn’t need an extra craft. We had 4 crafts in this shop. Tin can lanterns and fish wire necklaces were for older children. Fish necklaces made of metallic pipe cleaners and bookmarks of black construction paper with pieces of aluminum foil glued on to create a cross or fish image were for younger children. Toga shop Our usual crafts were muslin no-sew tunics and “magic” yarn belts. Our extra craft (since all the children were already clothed) were ribbon weaving squares leftover from last year’s VBS. Grammaticus School We combined the math and scribe parts so that our usual crafts were popsicle stick/pony bead abacuses, rewritable clay tablets, and ink on brown paper "parchment" with soda straw styluses. Our extra craft was black construction paper and paint pens to create constellations. Mosaic shop For our usual craft we used paper plates, construction paper cut into tiny squares, a hole punch, string, and 3 bells each to make “parent friendly” tamborines. On the last day, I got a large piece of felt (banner size) and the two bags of felt scraps left over from past years of projects. They made one large mosaic fish banner. Architect shop The aqueduct game and the paper bag bricks were so popular with the children and teenagers that we didn’t need anything new, but I had them build a coliseum on the last day to give them a calmer, more focused project. It looked really cool! Last minute shop After people had finished signing in at the registration table Friday morning, we cleared it off, covered it with a large roll of paper, and brought out the paint and brushes. A teen who had been helping in another shop was suddenly in charge of her own and did a marvelous job guiding the children in painting a “fresco” of a sea theme.
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