Get ready for a Summer Camp Adventure with the VBS theme Camp Firelight. A vacation bible school program that combines the excitement of summer camp with the fun of Vacation Bible School as kids learn about facing fears and trusting God. With a variety of cut-outs, notepads, paper and other products, our Outdoor and Camping collection is ideal for helping directors enhance the Camp Firelight experience with items for decorating, crafting and so much more. From camper boy and girl notepads, to tree and leaf shaped cut-outs, our items are perfect for embellishing bulletin boards and backdrops, crafting announcement flyers, enhancing biblical learning, nametags to keep groups organized and so much more. So grab your backpacks, settle around the camp fire and check out all the great ways you can make the Camp Firelight experience the best it can be for your campers.
Click on the picture above for a PDF you can download to keep our Wilderness ideas in one place for easy reference. And check out our full collection of Outdoor/Camping items here!
Announce Your VBS Theme With Style
There are many ways that you can create excitement within the congregation for your upcoming Summer VBS program. Each year there are many fun and unique themes available for VBS, that kids and adults alike are waiting with anticipation to see which theme the church will choose. Capitalize on that excitement with a fun VBS theme announcement. This can take many forms, from a fun video to play before or after services, a facebook post, or a creative skit. It could also be as simple as a flyer to hand out to members and post around the church or community. Our different designer papers would be perfect for creating something to hand out to church members letting them know that your congregation is going to summer camp this year. Our spring designer paper with different nature elements around the border, such as butterflies and flowers, would be a great way to tie in the camping and great outdoors theme. Or even our Camo designer paper would be a great option to refect the wilderness in which kids will learn about trusting God. Being laser and inkjet printer compatible, it is easy to type up your flyer with all the VBS details and print multiple copies to hand out to members, put up on bulletin boards, give to kids at religious education or Sunday School classes, or even place around the community. Our paper can also be used in copiers as well, making reproducing your wonderful design a breeze! Let everyone know that they’re welcome to join you on this fun and unique adventure to celebrate God’s love.
Another great way to get kids excited about something is to involve them in the process. So why not make creating these VBS flyers a fun activity for the Sunday school or religious education class students.Once the theme is announced to the congregation, have the kids design their own flyers for around the church. They could use notepads or art supplies like markers, pencils and pens to make their own creations. There are so many possibilities for involving the kids creatively and getting them excited about this year’s VBS theme!
Create Unique Nametags to Keep Groups Organized
Vacation Bible School has a unique format in that the day begins and ends with everyone coming together, generally in the sanctuary, for announcements, worship and songs. Camp Firelight also does the bible story and reflection time as a group. Then the rest of the time everyone is broken up into groups, in this case groups of campers, to rotate through the rest of the activities that tie into the days bible story, verse and theme. For Camp Firelight, campers go to activites such as Recreation, Missions, Music, Crafts and Science. With so many kids moving from one place to the other it can be hard to keep track of who belongs in what group. Even though the groups are small with maybe a dozen kids and a few leaders, that is still a lot of people to keep track of. That is where our notepads would be beneficial for creating unique nametags to differentiate the different campers from one another. Not only would it help the crew leaders keep track of their campers, but it can also be a great souvenir for the kids to keep as part of their VBS memories. With a variety of notepads that reflect nature and the great outdoors you can easily assign a notepad to each group and create name badges for them to wear. With a collection of notepads that contain a bear, moose, eagle, cabin, campers and other themed shapes there’s something for every crew! And with 50 sheets per notepad that have the design on all of the sheets it’s definitely a VBS friendly quantity.
Have a really small or large group, or only want to use a few notepad designs? You could still easily differentiate between campers by placing the notepad on a colorful construction paper or cardstock background. Then simply cut around the notepad shape leaving the colorful border. That was you can still tell who is a part of each camp by what color their nametag is.
Emphasize the Daily Points with Fun Bulletin Boards
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 in 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 creating a camp scene by using tents and other nature themed notepads such as our bear or raccoon. 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.
Another option would be to create multiple bulletin boards around the church that show all five bible points as a daily reminder of all the lessons kids will be learning this week. With multiple bulletin boards you could keep the design simple. Bring in some elements of the theme and then use our assorted cross cut-outs to represent the lessons. You could have one color of cross correspond to a single bible point. That way when the kids walk around to each of their stations they have a constant reminder of all of the ways we can trust God.
Make Memories and Create a Keepsake to Cherish for Years to Come with a Memory Book
One of the best parts of Summer for a child can be their vacation bible school experience. The fun of going to your church, hanging out with friends, and immersing yourself in the daily stories and lessons about trusting God. 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. This can be done in many different ways.
One example of how you could do this would be to create a shaped memory book that kids can decorate and add all of their fond VBS memories to. First, craft a book using paper, string and a thicker paper for the front and back cover, such as construction paper or cardstock. Then glue a notepad shape to the front. A fun design for this would be our Camper Girl or Camper Boy notepad. Then just cut around the front cover shape after assembling the book and voila you have a shaped book that is perfect for jotting down the daily themes, activities, songs sang, memorable moments and more. You could even have all of your crew members sign a page in each other’s books so they have a record of who was part of their crew for the week. Kids can also personalize their book further by adding their own flair through color and embellishments. A keepsake that they can treasure for years to come!
Other Creative Ways to Enhance the VBS Experience
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. Add vibrant green paper or foam evergreen trees around the halls of the church to make it seem like the kids are really traveling through the wilderness. Pick an indvidual notepad, such as a Squirrel, and create a pathway down the hall for kids to follow to each activity. Every station could be a different animal, for example follow the bears to recreation or follow the Eagle to the crafts station. You could also string a bunch of different notepads together to create a wilderness themed garland to hang from the ceiling to add to your themed decoratons.
These are just some ways that our Outdoor and Camping items can be incorporated into your Camping VBS program. However, the sky really is the limit; all it takes is some imagination and a creative shape! With our proudly Made in the USA products, we are committed to creating high quality items that can be used and enjoyed by all ages for crafting, decorating and creative play. So bookmark these ideas, explore our website and outdoor collection and see how our items can be a positive addition to your VBS toolkit.
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