Journey to the Outback with Products Perfect for Enhancing Summer's Epic Australian Adventure VBS!

Click on the pictures above for a PDF you can download to keep our Australian Outback or Adventure Ideas in one place for easy reference. And check out our full collection of Australian Outback items here!

Create Announcements and Flyers

As we enter the Summer season, kids are either out of school or finishing their last days and VBS directors are looking for ways to announce and advertise the year’s Vacation Bible School program. Some creative things you could do would be to make a large poster or sign to put around the inside or outside of the church, you could make a fun announcement video to play before or after services, a facebook post or even a cute skit. There’s most likely even an offical video you can play for the congretation to show off the upcoming theme. However, sometimes it can be nice to have that personal touch when it comes to announcing VBS. In this case, a simple and effective method would be to create a announcement flyer to hand out to the church members and post around the church or even the community. For 2025’s Epic Australian Adventure VBS, you can take inspiration from one Epic aspect of the land down under, which would be Australia’s Coral Reef. A well known feature of Australia, the coral reef is known for it’s unique underwater wildlife and landscapes. With our Tropical Fish Designer Paper and the colorful sea life surrounding its border, this design would be a perfect tool to help you create an engaging announcement to get kids excited to travel to Australia for VBS. These announcement flyers can then be hung on bulletin boards, given out at the beginning or end of services, Sunday School or Religious Education classes, posted around the church and more. There are so many possibilities!

Our designer paper is high quality with colorful borders, they are laser and inkjet compatible and come with 50 sheets to a pack – a group friendly quantity!

Create Unique Bulletin Boards For Engaging Decorations

A great way to add to the VBS experience and immerse the kids in the theme would be to decorate throughout the church so that everywhere they go there is a reminder of Australia. An easy way to do this would be to add decorations to bulletin boards or you could even decorate the church walls. There are so many possibilities of things that you could do. For example, create a fun welcome sign to welcome everyone into the santuary, your home base for the week, by arranging some Koala notepads into a banner and writing the letters to “Welcome” with one letter on each Koala. You could also take our train cut-outs or notepads and create a bulletin board design that welcomes everyone aboard the Outback Express and invite them to take a train ride through the outback to discover Jesus’s guidance. Something like this would even be a fun tie in for a theme announcement! Create a Outback Express bulletin board and include your announcement flyers underneath the sign on a table.

One of the unique things about the VBS program is also the daily bible points that kids learn. These daily lessons are usually accompanied by a bible verse and a story that corresponds to the day’s activities and also emphasizes the main overarching theme for the week-long VBS. These bible points are the core of VBS, so besides going over them each day what’s a fun way that you could display them for kids to remember?

A great way to present these bible points, or even review them with kids throughout the week, would be to create a fun bulletin board showcasing the points for the week. You could do this is a number of ways. One way that you could do this is that you could create an interactive bulletin board. To begin, you could create a base bulletin board design that reflects the decorations of the theme, such as an underwater scene with fish and turtles. Once you create your bulletin board it can be displayed in the main part of your church or in the area where you hold the opening and closing celebrations. As part of the closing celebrations each day, as a large group you can go over the bible point for the day and add it to the bulletin board. Add a new bible point and by the end of the VBS week you will have all five main bible points on the board.

Use Notepads to create Nametags for the Groups

Another unique element of the VBS program is the overall format for each day in the program. At the beginning and end of the day all the VBS participants get together at one time for the opening and closing celebrations. This is where worship happens, songs are sung, experiences are shared and any announcements for the day or following day are given. Then after these celebrations, that is where the magic of VBS occurs. All of the kids break up into small groups and travel to all of the fun stations that make up the experience and further reflect on the lessons for the day. For this VBS experience, the groups travel between storytelling, bible exploration, crafts, snacks and games. With so many kids traveling between activities it would be a good idea to have a way for the VBS leaders to keep track of everyone in the groups. That is where our fun notepads could help. With a variety of notepads that come with 50 Sheets (a VBS friendly quantity) and have the design on each sheet, you could easily assign a notepad shape for each group. Have more groups than designs you would like to use, or only want to use a certain design such as our Camper Boy and Girl notepads? You can still set the groups apart by gluing the design to a colorful construction paper or cardstock backing. You can then cut around the shape, creating a shaped nametag with a colorful border to help set the families apart. It also makes a great souvenir for kids to take home at the end of the week and keep as a part of their VBS memories.

Create a Travel Log to Keep Their VBS Memories for Years to Come

One of the best parts of Summer for a child can be their vacation bible school experience. From the fun of going to your church and hanging out with friends to immersing yourself in the daily stories and lessons about God’s love, these are fond memories that kids will remember even as an adult. From the crafting projects and sports activities, to the songs and even the daily themed snacks, these can all be important memories for a child. So a fun way to tie everything together and let kids remember their time at VBS would be to create a VBS memory book. A fun way to tie this in with the theme and incorporate their trip to Australia with VBS would be to create a Travel Log. An easy way to do this would be to make a book with folded paper and then taking a heavier paper, such as construction paper or cardstock, to create a cover. You can then use notepads, cut-outs, etc and glue them to the cover to create a fun design for your unique travel log. For example, you could take one of our world maps, as well as a Kangaroo and Koala notepad and arrange them on the front to create your “Travel Log to the Land Down Under.” Within this travel log the kids can write down where their travels took them, any fun Australia facts they might have learned, the daily bible points, their favorite memories and much more! A reminder of their time at VBS that they can take with them at the end of the week!

Lead the Way Throughout Their Adventure

Program leaders and directors can be as creative as they want when it comes to adding finishing touches and enhancing the VBS experience for kids. Looking to add vibrant colors and unique shapes to backdrops or other decorations, simply add some cut-outs or notepads. For example, our Fish cut-outs could be an excellent addition to your decorations and a great way for directing families on where to go for the individual activities. You could have a path of blue fish that leads to bible exploration, yellow fish that lead to the crafts area, etc. Or you could switch up the notepads or shapes and have a different design lead to each activity. Such as follow the turtles to snacks or the koalas to games. This way everyone can stay organized and know where to go for each activity. It is also a great way to spread the theme throughout the church space.

These are just some ideas for how our Australian Outback items can be used. There are so many ways that program directors can bring some creativity to their ideas and enhance the VBS experience for the kids that go beyond the basic experience. With quality products, some imagination and a creative shape, there are so many things that you can create for your Summer VBS.