Prepare to get up close to nature this Summer with 2025's Magnified VBS. This vacation bible school program brings the natural world to a larger than life scale so kids can take a closer look at God's creations to discover how great and powerful he really is. With a variety of cut-outs, notepads, designer paper and other nature and insect inspired products, our collection has the items program and youth directors need to enhance their VBS decorating, crafting and creating. With colorful butterfly and leaf super cut-outs to flower, ladybug and bee notepads, easily create engaging bulletin board displays, themed backdrop decorations, create flyers, uniquely shaped nametags, and so much more! So get ready to experience the wonder of God’s creations and keep reading for fun ideas for using our items in your Magnified VBS programs.
Check out the collection here for our full line of insect and nature themed products.
Unique Flyers For Fostering VBS Excitement
When is your ideal time to announce next years VBS theme? Is it something that you announce early in the year to try and build as much excitement as possible for the summer? Is it something that you announce as summer quickly approaches, like in May or June? Or do you announce next year’s theme as soon as that year’s program ends? Whenever you decide to reveal your next VBS theme, there are many things that you can do to get kids interested in the program ahead.
This is the time to let your creativity soar. For example, you could create a video to play before or after services, put together a fun skit for church leaders to perform, or if your church has a large social media presence you could even do something like a facebook post or social media campaign. However, if some of these ideas aren’t possible, or maybe you feel you’re just not that creative, don’t worry because things don’t always have to be complicated or flashy to be effective. Many times the simple approach is the best one and creating excitement can start with a great announcement and consistent themeing. For Magnified VBS, you’re bringing the kids up close and personal with nature and some of God’s smallest creations. So why not develop an announcement flyer on fun, bright nature themed paper?
Our Spring designer paper would be perfect for creating something like this to hand out at church, to the community, or even post on bulletin boards. Our spring paper immerses you in a vibrant green border filled with flowers and butterflies. 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! You could even take the design a step further and add another element by including a notepad design. Have a butterfly in the corner or a flower to add another dimension to the flyer. Easily let everyone know that they’re welcome to join you on this fun and unique adventure to celebrate God’s greatness.
Create Immersive Experiences with Unique Backdrops
As we said, themeing can be important when it comes to building excitement for an upcoming event, especially when it comes to Vacation Bible School. From the moment you announce the theme to the time the kids come into the sanctuary during VBS week, you want to create an immersive experience that fully brings them into the lessons about greatness. A great way to create an immersive experience is through unique decorations and backdrops. For Magnified VBS, you want kids to feel like they’re one with nature, so why not bring the outdoors inside with hallways filled with trees, flowers and nature. With some craft supplies and some creative shapes, you can easily make it seem like the kids are traveling through nature at a larger than life scale. For example, you could get some craft or construction paper and line the hallways with trees, giant flowers, butterflies, bees and more. Creating a fun backdrop like this would be a great way to also build excitement about the program. Craft an nature nook at the entrance to the church or santuary to remind everone that Magnified VBS is approaching.
Again, creating an immersive experience doesn’t have to be complicated. You can keep your decorations simple and string some butterfly and other insect notepads together to create fun garlands you can hang from the ceiling. It still ties in the nature theme without all the effort of creating a full backdrop experience. Do what works for you and your congregation. The possibilities are endless when it comes to your nature themed decorating.
Lead the Way and Keep Organized with a Creative Shape
Part of what makes the VBS experience work is the organized way in which the activities are broken out throughout the day. To start off the day, everyone usually meets in the sanctuary for the VBS opening activity, in this case it’s the opening Worship Rally. Then the different crews will split up with one or two groups going to each activity at a time. The different activities in Magnified are Wildflower crafts, Monarch Missions, Songbird Music, Raindrop Rec, and Honeycomb Snacks before they come back together at the end of the day for the closing Worship Rally.
With so many groups moving about the church and going to so many activities, it can be easy to get lost or confused about where you’re supposed to be. So why not get organized and lead the way with a creative shape! With a variety of cut-out and notepad designs, you could take a certain design and create a pathway for the groups to follow to get to that particular activity. For example, our super Assorted Leaf Cut-Outs could be taped down to the floor and then kids could follow these floor prints to the activity they are supposed to be at. At approximately 8x10 inches in size, these super cut-outs are large enough to be seen and add a creative element to your travels throughout the day. With a variety of notepads as well, you could even make a path along the walls that corresponds to each station’s theme. For example, our monarch butterfly notepad would be great for leading kids to Monarch Missions, a Robin notepad could lead them toward Songbird Music, a Sunflower or Daisy to wildflower crafts, etc.
Another great use for some themed notepads would be for keeping groups together and identifiable from one another by making creative name tags for the kids to wear. 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. Well, easily differentiate between crews by having different nametags for each group. Not only would it help the crew leaders keep track of the kids in their group, but it can also be a great souvenir for the kids to keep as part of their VBS memories. For example, one group could wear Bee nametags while another wears ladybugs, etc. And with 50 sheets per notepad where the design is on all of the sheets our notepads are definitely a VBS friendly quantity. Or you could even use the same design and set each group apart by placing the notepad on a colorful construction paper or cardstock background.Then simply cut around the notepad shape leaving the colorful border. That way you can still tell who is a part of each crew by what color their nametag is, not necessarily the notepad shape or design.
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 field of flowers, or a forest scene. 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 finale 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.
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.These are just some ways that our nature and bug themed items can be incorportated into your Magnified VBS décor and craft activities. However, there are so many other ways that our products can be used to complete all of the effort that already goes into putting on a summer VBS program for your congregation. 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 feel free to take some of these ideas and come up with your own creations, while also seeing how our items can be a vital addition to your creative VBS toolkit.
