This was the first year the hubby and I were able to plan ahead for VBS so this is what I learned about Vacation Bible School as a Teacher. However since we were not just given the material the day ahead we still found things that would make the future years run more smoothly.
What I learned:
– Have a paper handle bag with Kids names written on them for each day. This will help to keep their crafts, daily missions and any extra items they take home each day like parent notes and so forth. Easily identify the bags and transport them from one room to the next during rotations. If you get the going home parents ahead of time get each set of bags ready each day as soon as possible.
– Have a designated person to take pictures of all the classes each day and be responsible to make a VBS slide show for the closing program. You can also give Assistant Teachers or Youth helping in each class a disposable camera or even a digital camera (they are so much cheaper now) or you can assign someone with a camera phone to take pictures of their class.
– Have a VBS Closing program. I have been to churches that do this and others that don’t either way, I think its a good practice to have one so parents and teachers and kids are aware of what goes next in a program. This will help everything to keep moving on time.
– Be flexible. Most importantly be flexible. We had to rearrange our room a couple of times because our growing numbers. The highest we got was 19 and our room seemed so cramped, so we moved our tables around and made it more accessible to hold our class better. Always be flexible because you don’t know what you will have to change.
– Cut out all your material. If you saw our room you would have thought I spent hours on our room but actually I only spent 4 hrs on actual decorating our room and about 10 hrs reading the material and cutting out everything and putting all the projects together. We spent each night going over the next days lesson and even though we had gone through it the week before it was still time consuming each night. With work and VBS and cleaning our room each night it was a bit of a hassle.
– Plan for 10 more than you expect. We planned on having around 10 in our group but we were in for a surprise when we had 17 our first day. I had planned on more than 10 and had 12-14 of everything I made for our class including items for the lesson so we were scrambling to make additional copies and kits for our lessons. So next year I have no idea what age group the hubby and I will be doing but I will for now on plan on 10 more than I need.
– Hand out Flyers and post in stores. My Sunday School Class with our families went door to door the Monday before the VBS week and handed bags with flyers and candy and hanged them on the doors. I thought this was great but I felt like we could door more like putting it on both sides of our Church sign as well as asking some businesses if we can put them in the windows.
– Really get into the part. Make your VBS different than others so you will be remembered. Our class this year we played the part of secret agents and we were training cadets. It helped. We had a secret agent who was part of teaching the music for opening and closing and he would come around the rooms and give us secret missions. Anytime he came to our class we had the kids stand to attention and this really helped with the excitement.
–Pre-registration. I would recommend that any church that has pre-registration whether online or on paper before VBS to have a separate table for registration to have parents go to and have their paper check off. Give them an incentive to register early.
–Have your VBS Store Ticket/Bucks bags ready. Label them with the your class participants names as early as you can and designate an area of your room marked clearly, Kids love to see their tickets/bucks they have earned.
–Create your Daily Donation Reminders early. Whatever your theme might be create a shape that goes with the theme and write out each day what participants are to bring the following day. I unfortunately what to the day of to do this and time can be better spent if I had just prepared ahead of time.
This will be an ever growing list as I add more in the coming days as I mule over the week of VBS and what I learned and what will help me in the future.
Thanks for reading.
Topic: What I learned about Vacation Bible School as a Teacher
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