Monday, May 30, 2011

Jesus in Nazareth VBS Snack Ideas

We've created some snack suggestions for your Nazareth VBS. Feel free to modify them as you wish. Some of your creative volunteers may come up with additional snack ideas. Here are a few to get you started:

Day 1
Serve fruit such as apples, grapes, figs, berries, and dates. Give each child a paper bowl and spoon. Let the child choose which fruits to add to his bowl. The fruit can be accompanied by a dollop of whipped cream or yogurt (optional). Explain that these fruits are similar to those Jesus and his family may have eaten in Nazareth.

Day 2
Serve birthday cake and ice cream. Let the children sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus before you serve the cake. As the children eat, talk about what a special snack this is. Remind them that God planned for Jesus to be born and God gave Him the name "Jesus." Explain that each child was given a name when he was born, too. Talk about how special each person is in God's sight. Say the Bible verse (Isaiah 43:1) together.

Day 3
Prepare small pita pockets cut in half. Let each child fill the pocket with cheese, ham, or turkey (or have them already filled). You may want to provide olives, tomatoes, and lettuce for condiments. As the children eat, talk about how God gave Jesus a home. Explain that these foods are things Jesus may have eaten at his home. Let the children thank God for their homes before eating.

Day 4
Today’s story is about how Jesus went to the temple-church. Provide flatbread with tomato sauce and melted cheese on top (or serve flatbread cheese pizza cut into small pieces). As the children eat, talk about how they can go to church just as Jesus did. Include an invitation to your church services for each child to take home.

Day 5
Cut cheese slices into fun shapes. Serve with crackers and grapes. Talk about the memory verse (Galatians 5:13) as the children help put out napkins and cups. Let the children take turns serving others crackers, cheese, and grapes before they eat their own snacks. Compliment those children who serve cheerfully.

TIP: Use registration cards when children sign up for your VBS to record any allergies they may have. See the previous post for registration cards you can print out for your VBS program. Include any allergy information on the child's name tag so all VBS helpers are aware of the allergy. You can substitute items or omit dairy products from the snacks if you have children who are allergic to milk or dairy.

1 comment:

Gale said...

Hello! What a wonderful resource! I've linked this and some of your other VBS Nazareth posts on the Squidoo page I have related to that: http://www.squidoo.com/recreatingnazareth

I have a small suggestion: it would be really helpful if the posts were tagged with the VBS theme their related to (Nazareth VBS, SonSurf, PandaMania, etc.) That would make it easy for people to find the resources related to the VBS program they're working with.

Also, I was wondering if you could use any guest posts? We've finished our VBS and I could easily do a post on marketplace decorating (honestly, I could do a whole post just on tips and decorating for the Farmer's Field shop :-). You can e-mail me at ecarian at yahoo dot com if you're interested.