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Create Announcements and Flyers

As Summer draws closer, kids look forward to getting out of school and VBS directors are looking for a way to announce and advertise this 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. However, you might not always have the knowledge or resources for a technological or large scale theme announcement. In that case, a simple and effective thing that you could do 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 Egypt VBS, our Egyptian Designer Paper (which is high quality, laser and inkjet printer compatible and comes with 50 sheets to a pack) would be a great tool to help you create an announcement like this. With a fun Egyptian themed border, take your audience to Ancient Egypt and immerse kids in the theme right from the very beginning. Immediately get them excited to be traveling to Egypt and learning about Joseph’s journey. These spectacular flyers that you create can then be hung on bulletin boards, given out after services, Sunday School or religious education classes, posted around the church and more. The possibilities are endless!

Create Bulletin Boards Reflecting On the Daily Lessons

With Vacation Bible School, one of the unique things about the program is 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. In the case of Holy Land’s Egypt VBS, the overall theme is learning about how faithful God is and how He is always in control. Within that theme are the daily bible points: God gives us hope, God gives us special abilities, God gives us wisdom, God gives us forgiveness, and finally God gives us a family. 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. For example, use Mummy notepads to keep the Egyptian feel or use our HolyLand Boy, Girl and Marketplace notepads to reflect the Marketplace Shops, a central activity to this VBS program. 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 things that God gives us.

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, called families in this case, 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, families meet for family time before and after the celebrations and then rotate between Marketplace Shops, Joseph’s Journey and Pyramid Playground. 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 family. Have more groups than designs you would like to use, or only want to use a certain design such as our HolyLand Boy and Girl? 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. 

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. 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. One way that you can do this is by creating a book by folding paper to create the inside of the book and taking construction paper to make a cover. You can then glue notepads or cut-outs on the front and even decorate with art supplies to create a fun and unique book for kids to write down their memories, daily bible points, favorite songs and more. For example, you could decorate the front with a Marketplace notepad and then embellish the cover with plastic jewels creating your “Marketplace Memories” Book. This project could even be taken a step further by creating a “shaped book”. All one would need to do is once the front cover is decorated with a notepad and other embellishments, just simply cut around the notepad or other shape on the front for a unique design. 

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. For example, our Faith 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 faith fish that leads to Joseph’s journey, yellow fish that lead to Marketplace shops, etc. They could act like hieroglyphics leading the way through your Egyptian adventure. In the Sanctuary, you could use cross cut-outs to mark the areas where each family will sit at the beginning and end of the day. There are so many things you can do to add to your VBS program. 

These are just some ideas for how our Religious and Egyptian items can be used, but there are many ways that directors can bring some creativity to their programs and enhance the VBS experience for kids that go beyond the basics. With some quality products, a little imagination and a creative shape, the sky is the limit for your creating. So take a look at our collection and see how these items can fit into your Summer VBS.