Standard's 2011 Main Street VBS

On Main Street, kids will be drawn into stories Jesus told about everyday people in everyday situations. But His stories were anything but ordinary! Jesus turned lives upside down and hearts inside out through parables that challenged people to look at themselves and others in new and unexpected ways.

So come join us on Main Street, for an inside-out, upside-down experience like no other...and let Jesus make a difference in YOU!

Main Street VBS Power Pack: $199.99

Here are the Bible points kids will learn each day on Main Street. Click on the image below for a larger view. Visit Shop VBS for previews of more 2011 VBS programs and special offers.

SonSurf Beach Bash VBS Coloring Pages

Here are some coloring pages we’ve created for the SonSurf Beach Bash VBS. There is a coloring page for each day—a total of five—plus a cover sheet. Each coloring page has the daily memory verse and the lesson focus as well as the day's Scripture. There is a set of coloring pages for the New International Version and a separate set for the King James Version. (The NIV verses are used on the Connection Cards and other SonSurf printed materials.) If you use a different Bible version than the ones given, feel free to cut off or white out the verse and replace it with the version you prefer. Each coloring page shows a picture of the Bible story being taught that day.

You may want to make a coloring booklet for each child with the coloring pages for each day stapled together and the cover page on top. At the end of your VBS week, your students will have a booklet with the entire VBS points and memory verses—a fun keepsake reminder of their week at SonSurf Vacation Bible School.

Check back each week for additional coloring pages—we’re working on a set for the other 2011 VBS programs. (Hometown Nazareth coloring pages were posted October 12.) If you have another VBS program for which you’d like coloring pages, just leave a comment.

If you’d like to take a look at any of these VBS Starter Kits, visit Shop VBS for more information and to order your Starter Kits.

You can make as many copies of these coloring pages as you need for your VBS program. May God bless you as you prepare to teach children (and their families) how to get to know Jesus!

(Click on the images above to download the pages—

KJV is on the left and NIV is on the right)

Nazareth VBS Coloring Pages

Here are some coloring pages we’ve created for the Hometown Nazareth VBS. There is a coloring page for each day—a total of five — plus the cover sheet. Each coloring page has the daily memory verse and the lesson focus. There is a set of coloring pages for the New International Version and a separate set for the New Living Translation and the King James Version. (The New Living Translation is used on the memory makers and other Hometown Nazareth printed materials.) If you use a different Bible version than the ones given, feel free to cut off or white out the verse and replace it with the version you prefer. Each coloring page shows a picture of the Bible story or children learning about God's Word.

You may want to make a coloring booklet for each child with the cover on top, followed by the coloring pages for each day. At the end of your VBS week, your students will have a booklet with the entire VBS points and memory verses—a fun keepsake reminder of their week at Hometown Nazareth Vacation Bible School.

Check back each week for additional coloring pages—we’re working on a set for the other 2011 VBS programs. If you have another VBS program for which you’d like coloring pages, just leave a comment.

If you’d like to take a look at any of these VBS Starter Kits, visit Shop VBS for more information and to order your Starter Kits.

You can make as many copies of these coloring pages as you need for your VBS program. May God bless you as you prepare to teach children (and their families) about how much God loves them!

(Click on the images above to download the pages—
KJV is on the top left, NIV is on the right, and NLT is on the bottom)

Make Your Own Play Clay

Play clay can provide children with hours of entertainment, but the fun doubles when the play clay is homemade. Children love working with something they've made themselves or have watched being made by an adult. There are other added benefits to making your own play clay—you get to choose what color to make it, and you have the option of making it scented! Adding a teaspoon of peppermint or cinnamon flavoring to the play clay mixture gives it added pizzazz.

Before your VBS, combine 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup salt, and 2 teaspoons cream of tartar. Add 1 cup water, 1 tablespoon cooking oil, a few drops of food coloring, and a fragrant flavoring such as wintergreen, cloves, vanilla, cinnamon, orange, lemon, or peppermint extract. Cook three minutes over medium heat or until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pad. Remove from the pan and knead slightly almost immediately. Do not let the children help with cooking or kneading since the dough may be hot. After it cools, the children will enjoy having a chance to mold and knead it.

This play clay will keep for several weeks, if stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. A small can with a plastic lid (especially a colored plastic lid) makes an ideal storage container.

This clay has a soft, almost velvety feeling, making it very pleasing to the children. Keep some on hand during your VBS week, Sunday school, or Bible club for students who arrive early or need to stay late. Let them sculpt a reminder of the day's lesson.

Decorating for Harvest

Use harvest season decorations to give your church a new, inviting look for fall. Choose creative church members to select ideas from the following suggestions. They also may have some creative ideas of their own, using items available in your community. The helpers can do the decorations themselves or form a decorating committee. Have your Sunday school classes, Bible clubs, mom's groups and others meeting at your church make harvest decorations to spruce up your church.

Cut leaf shapes in various colors and sizes to use as wall decorations and name tags for your harvest events. Make pumpkin garlands from orange construction paper. Use the garlands along with orange, green, and brown crepe paper around doorways, windows, hung from the ceiling, and as runners across table tops.

Ask families to bring in harvest items from home to decorate hallways, windowsills, shelves, and table tops: pumpkins, gourds, miniature bales of hay, colorful leaves, nuts, apples, squash, dried corn husks, scarecrows, baskets, bushel barrels, cornucopias, colorful rocks, pussy willows, fall flowers, etc. Make a large banner for one or more walls that reads, "The Harvest Is the Lord's." Post a similar banner at the children's eye level for your young students to decorate with crayons or markers.

Have children draw pictures of people for whom they are thankful. Hang the pictures on the walls after they are signed by their artists.

Draw harvest fruits and vegetables onto construction paper. Cut them out and hang them from drinking straws or dowel rods to make mobiles. Hang extra shapes from ceilings, windows, and in doorways.

Collect canned food to give to a local homeless shelter or food pantry. Let your students decorate large collection boxes to place around your church campus. Have bundles of dried corn stalks standing nearby. Arrange pumpkins, squash, and dried gourds around the base. Use these as collection spots for your food drive.

For more harvest decorating and outreach ideas, take a look at A Church Family Harvest Celebration program book with CD-ROM from Christian Ed Warehouse.

If your church holds a harvest festival or other fall event, invite your community to join your congregation. Then invite the visitors to return for worship, Sunday school, and Bible clubs!