At my church, there is not a mission, snack and craft rotation that most of the churches are accustomed to do. After the awesome kids are in our room for 1 hour, they go to something our children's ministry calls "Track Time". When the child has registered for VBS he/she chooses a "Track" that he/she will attend all week for 1 hour. The choices are: missions, music, art, volleyball, basketball, soccer, outdoor games. They go to the same track all week. While they are there, they all receive a packaged snack and a bottle of water. They come back to us after that hour for about 30 minutes before we go back to our Mission Rally to be dismissed.
Here is a pic of some of my VBS kiddos waiting to go to a track:
Well, now because all the kids don't go to a craft rotation, I really enjoy having them participate in a craft time twice during the week. Now......have you ever heard of Guildcraft arts and crafts? Ok for a Christian based crafts company, I feel that they are the BEST!! If you get on their email list, they will send a Friday Freebie printable that you can use. Whenever I have ordered from Guildcraft, I receive my package very quickly!! Click the pic below and you can see all the awesome things this company has to offer.
So here are the 2 crafts I chose to do with my group:
We did these bracelets the 3rd day of VBS. These bracelets are very high quality and the kids loved putting them together! Click the pic above and it will take you to the ordering section for these bracelets.
These desk pencil holders were so easy and everything except the inkpads were included. Wait....I did need to include markers to color the magnifying lens, and glue sticks. Did you know that if you take a marker and draw it on your finger pad (I don't know a better word for that. Yikes!!) then you can make a colorful fingerprint on your paper?! I've been teaching for years and never even thought about that. However, I did have to make a rule that they could only color on 1 finger and they were also limited to how many colors they could choose. You also need some baby wipes handy to clean off fingers. Ok....more about the holder.... The focus verse of scripture was on the pattern. I loved it. The day we did these happened to be Wear Your Favorite Shades Day, so some of the kids used the holder as a sunglasses holder. Then, we started brainstorming other ways to use it. I love it when kids come up with great ideas on their own!!
Now for the Food!!
Everyday about 15 minutes before we would go back to Worship Rally to dismiss, we had an Agency D3 snack. I LOVE buying the snack rotation cards from Lifeway. They are only $4.99 and there are always some cute themed snacks to make. I do one of the really simple ones on the 1st day. If any kiddo has an allergy to anything, I contact the parents and ask them what the child can eat and I make sure there is something that child can eat. Most of the time, the parent will bring something to me that his/her child can eat.
Here is what we had for snacktime this week:
"Hot on the Trail" mix:
"I Spy" Cupcakes:
I made Betty Crocker cupcakes and bought Funfetti frosting. My leaders bought topping items, like gummy bears, animal crackers, smarties and sour gummy worms. The kiddos frosted their own cupcake and then put their own toppings on them. Then, before they ate them, they had to play "I Spy" using the toppings on each other's cupcake. Then, they got to eat them. I know this was a major sugar fest, but it was FUN!!
Secret Message Gelatin Cups:
Let me just be truthful here....this took more preparation time, but I was surprised at the number of kids who loved it and enjoyed the secret message underneath the cup.
Here's what you do: You prepare the Jello just like the package directions. I used strawberry and blue raspberry. You pour the Jello into a clear plastic punch cup and allow it to gel overnight. Then, you create some type of secret message on paper. Cut the message to fit underneath the cup where you can see it looking through the Jello. Right before serving and you don't want the nosy curious kiddos to see you do this, cover the top of each gelatin cup with whipped cream and sprinkles. Looking at the cup above, you can tell we prepared the topping a little too soon and it started to melt. To make 33 cups of this snack, it only took 1 can of whipped cream.
Then, you tell the secret agents that they have a mission and if they choose to complete it, they will discover a secret message at the bottom of their cup. These 2nd graders loved it!!
Here is a pic of an almost eaten cup of Jello snack with the message being revealed. You can click the pic and it will take you to the secret messages I typed. They are on a label template but I just printed on regular paper. Then I cut to fite and taped them underneath the cup using transparent tape.
Drumroll please!! For the last day, we celebrated for completing a week with Agency D3 by having: Undercover Tacos
Laser Beam Kabobs
Ultra Violet Fizzies
Like I have said on an earlier post, I would not be able to do all of this without the help of my fabulous helpers.
Now, if you have never had tacos like these, you are missing out. You take a bag of Doritos, crush them in the bag with your hands. Open the bag and place 2-3 tspns. of taco filling (any way you like to prepare it) and any type of taco topping you enjoy. We used lettuce, cheese, sour cream, and taco sauce. Then you just eat all of this from the bag. I'm telling you, kids LOVE this. Some may turn up their noses be reluctant to try them at first, but when they see other children eating and enjoying it, then they want to try it, too.
Now for the Ultra Violet Fizzies. You locate ice cube trays and mix up blue and red drink mix (make sure you add the sugar). Pour enough into the ice cube trays, so that when it is frozen each child will get 1 blue and 1 red ice cube. Once the cubes are frozen and you are ready to serve, give each child 1 red and 1 blue ice cube in a clear plastic cup. Then, pour lemon lime (aka Sprite) soda in the cup. Voila!! The drink turns a light color of purple!!
This is the best pic I had to show the Fizzies before the drink was added.
On the last day of VBS, my leaders and I came up with 5 rotations that the kids would complete in 30 minutes. Yes, the rotations were very quick, but after I teach the Bible story lesson for the last day, there isn't a lot of time left.
Speaking of the Bible stories, the start up activities and the Live It activities for each story with Agency D3 were wonderful!! Since I teach 2nd graders, we use the 1st-2nd grade leader guide. Each day the kiddos were so excited about the games, and they loved the evidence we revealed about Jesus being more than just a man and all the other truths about Him. These lessons were also a great way to remind the children that the Bible is not a story book but that it is the truth!! (ok----enough preaching on my part!)
I put the special agents in 5 groups and each group would have 5-6 minutes to complete a mission before going to the next rotation.
To finish up this post, I want to let you know about the rotations we did for that day:
Click this first pic and you can get a PDF of all of the signs for these Agency D3 Missions:
For Mission 1: We just set up yarn to look like laser beams, and a cover over chairs for a tunnel. BTW: they each had a baggy with their name and if they completed the mission, they got to choose a little favor of candy, sticker, etc.
Here's a pic of mission 1:
Mission 2: D3 Decoding
I made QR Codes that revealed questions about the things we learned throughout the week. My helpers and I put out our devices such as our Iphones, and Ipads on the table. The kids used our QR code apps....the ones that can scan QR codes.....and it would reveal the question. I had the kids answer at least 2 of the questions before their mission was completed to get the prize.
Click the first pic below and you can get the QR Code Posters to use:
Mission 2: Face Off Frenzy
We took pics of the kiddos. I had them developed. Then, using the frames from Lifeway, the kids founds their own pic, put it in the frame. Then, a teacher helped them make 3 fingerprints around the frame. Next, they took a label I had made of the focus verse (1 Peter 3:15) and placed it on the back.
Click the pic below and you can get a copy of the labels I used. The type of labels and template I used were Avery 18663 2 x 4 inch shipping labels. I didn't type the reference because the reference was on the logo on the front of the frame.
Mission 4: Foot Print Frenzy
My helpers came up with this game. They took footprints and wrote numbers on the footprints that were significant to our lessons for this week. Example: 5,000 (people Jesus fed) 3 (how many loaves of bread, how many days Jesus was in the tomb), 2 (fish), 3,000 (how many people were saved the day Peter preached), etc. They would write the same number on 2 -3 footprints, so we wouldn't have so many kids trying to get on 1 foot. BTW- the footprints were taped to the floor.
Here is how the whole Footprint Frenzy floor looked.
Ok now for Mission 5.........Spy and Seek. I think this was the kid's favorite of all of the rotations!!
I don't have a good pic for this because it was dark, so I'll try to explain as best as I can.
My adult teacher and her sons set up about 5 hiding places in a room where a child could run from 1 hiding place to another. Like behind a bookshelf, or a mobile dry erase board, about 3 chairs that are covered with cloth to look like a big rock that they could hide behind. Then, she had a light that would rotate on the floor with the light on spinning around. She placed a part of the Bible verse in a bowl at each hiding place, and as a child made it from one hiding place to another, he/she would grab a part of the verse from the bowl. The object of the game was to try to get from 1 hiding place to another without the light shining on him/her as it would rotate. Then, once he/she got all of the parts of the verse, the kiddo would sit outside the room and put the verse together.
Click the pic below to get a copy of the verse to cut apart and use for the Spy and Seek game.
Well my mission is accomplished!! I wanted to get this post out as quickly as I could so I could help as many field agents as possible. Please let me know if any of this post helped you. I would love to hear from you! If you have any questions about any of it, I am here to serve YOU!!
Hope your little special agent kiddos have a great time as they discover, decide and defend about Jesus!! God bless you!!
Linda G.
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