SonSurf VBS Decorating Ideas

Hang netting from the walls (soccer nets can be used as fishing nets) and place sea stars and shells in the netting and on the floor beneath it. Use parts from the Sea Life Bulletin Board Set to decorate the walls around the nets. Toy sea animals add a fun touch, too. If you have outdoor areas, bring in clean sand or sandboxes with shovels, pails, and more shells. Paint a large box with smaller boxes stacked on top to look like a large sand castle. Have plastic pails, shovels, sea stars, and sea shells around it. You can also place several foam subskates, boogie boards, plastic rafts, beach balls, inflatable dolphins, colorful flip-flops, and inner tubes  around your VBS area.

Mount a Beach Mural or Surf Mural on a wall in each of your VBS rooms. These large 90" x 54" beach scenes come with three panels. Use some of the patterns from the Beach Decor & More CD to create additional backgrounds. Hang some small surfboards or boogie boards (or the Big Question Surfboards), goggles, visors, snorkels, and swim fins on your other walls or around the murals.

Ask church members for old beach chairs, beach balls, blankets, and umbrellas you can use to decorate your rooms. Drape beach towels over some of the chairs or spread beach towels or blankets out on the floor for kids to sit on. Staple ocean wave borders, blue fabric, blue streamers, or waves of blue borders to your walls for an ocean effect. Let children who arrive early add wall clings to the murals and walls.

Fish squirts are fun decorations that can be placed in a tub of water for a wet play area. This also makes a great place for cooling off the children on a hot day. Give your student leaders and adult helpers spray bottles of water to squirt children who get warm during your game time and need a way to cool off.

If you have a sandbox, have buckets and shovels nearby. Place an old inner tube in it for the kids to sit on while they dig. Sand tables also make fun play areas. Shells, sea stars, and colorful stones can be buried in the sand for children to dig up and rebury for the next person to find.

Create a photo area with a surfboard or boogie board, seashells, beach balls, and anything else reminiscent of the beach you can find. Post a Beach Mural in the background. Take a picture of each child standing beside a boogie board or holding a bucket and shovel (and wearing goggles on top of his head) and send it to him the week after VBS. Include an invitation to your next children’s ministry event (Bible club, fall festival, or Sunday school kick-off) and a note reminding the children (and their parents) about the fun time they had at VBS.

Now you’re ready to catch a wave for an exciting SonSurf VBS beach adventure!