Six Ways to Make Vacation Bible School More Fun for Everyone
Vacation Bible School should be a highlight of the summer for all who attend. That includes the children, of course, but also the adults who serve as counselors to make it happen. When done right, VBS is a memorable, uplifting experience for everyone involved.
To make sure that is the case, it’s helpful to plan ahead and utilize various strategies to keep it fun from the first morning to the final day. We’ve collected six ideas in the article below to get your planning process started on the right foot.
The VBS Experience
What is Vacation Bible School, anyway? Before we dive into our six ideas for making Vacation Bible School as much fun as possible for everyone involved, we need to back up and make sure we are on the same page. Held throughout the summer at countless churches across the country, Vacation Bible School is typically a week-long (five days) event where grade-school-aged children gather to learn about the Bible, play games, sing Sunday school songs, and have a great time with their friends. Whether your church has been running a VBS program for years or you are just getting started, Go Fish would love to be a part of the process!
Six Ways to Make Vacation Bible School Fun
#1 – Introduce Games and Activities for Varied Learning Styles
VBS is typically a week packed with as many games and activities as the counselors can manage to fit into the schedule. This is what makes it such a fun experience for the kids, but it’s important to remember that not every child is going to connect with every activity in the same way.
The variation of learning styles from one child to the next means it’s important to diversify your lineup of activities. For example, a visual learner would benefit from playing games with flashcards so they can see information and interact with it in some way. Alternatively, an auditory learner will need to hear the material, so something like Vacation Bible School songs will be better in terms of engagement and retention.
As you build your curriculum or put together your plan for the week with the help of a curriculum like those available at Go Fish Resources, think about how you can serve the needs of as many different children as possible. In addition to visual and auditory learners, there are also young people in the kinesthetic and reading/writing categories. The more of these bases you can cover across your activity list, the more you’ll connect with the audience as a whole.
#2 – Incorporate Music and Art Projects Into the Curriculum
The power of music and art is in the engagement and creativity that they bring to Vacation Bible School. There is certainly room for more passive periods in the schedule where children pay attention to important Biblical teachings, but incorporating music and art helps to keep the kids active and engage a part of their brain that might not be pressed into action otherwise.
You won’t be surprised to find that the VBS curriculum options offered by Go Fish include plenty of great music experiences. Engaging songs and videos performed by Go Fish are included in our kits, along with ways to get the kids directly involved in the action. Our karaoke videos and sheet music are particularly popular and a great way to bring the whole group together.
We are also passionate about bringing art into the VBS experience. A variety of artwork files are included with our VBS downloads, such as daily theme posters, t-shirt art, cartoon characters, and more. You’ll be able to bring the whole week to life through fun artwork that the kids are sure to love.
#3 – Utilize Creative Technologies to Create an Interactive Experience
Trying to figure out how to make Vacation Bible School fun? Bringing modern technologies into the picture can do just that. While the valuable concepts being taught during VBS might remain the same as they’ve been for generations, there is no reason the experience has to be stuck in the past. Incredible technologies are more affordable and approachable than they’ve ever been, so the time is right to bring tech into the VBS experience.
If you have access to a virtual reality headset, for example, that tool could be used for a fun and educational experience for the kids. There are sources of Biblical content available for VR equipment, such as what is produced by Immersive History. The younger generation is highly interested in tech, and incorporating this type of unexpected content into your curriculum would change their expectations of what VBS can be.
#4 – Take a Field Trip or Organize an Outdoor Activity
It would be a shame to miss out on a week of beautiful weather by staying inside for the entire week of Vacation Bible School. Sure, some of your activities are going to work better indoors, but make sure to schedule at least some of your time out in nature.
While a field trip would be fun and is worth considering if the logistics are manageable, staying on-site will be the most practical option for many Vacation Bible Schools. If you are going to be staying at the church property each day, use some classic outdoor activities to let the kids have some fun and get the wiggles out. Duck, duck, goose is a classic option for running around in a relatively small space, but there are plenty of other fun schoolyard games that are easy enough to give a Biblical twist.
#5 – Give Kids Leadership Opportunities
Kids will only develop into leaders if given the opportunity to do so. Often, when young people are assigned a leadership role of some kind, they grow into it and take ownership of the process. It might feel like a leap of faith at first, but don’t be surprised if asking the kids to lead some of the games and activities turns out to be one of the most successful parts of the week.
A great example of making kids leaders during Vacation Bible School is having some of the older kids read Bible verses or other materials to the younger children. Strong readers will enjoy showing off their skills, and the little ones might actually engage with the reading more when it is coming from their peers. This same concept can be applied to art projects and songs, with the older kids leading the way for the younger ones.
#6 – Make Lessons Engaging
Kids are great at lots of things—but sitting still is usually not high on that list. If your VBS lessons feel more like a college lecture than an exciting, interactive session, you can expect a lot of wiggly hands and feet as the kids try to stay focused.
One of our primary goals when developing a curriculum for VBS is to make sure the lessons are as fun and engaging as possible. For example, we provide skit scripts for each day of the week, allowing you to play out some of the messages and make them far more than just a standard reading. The content remains focused on an important Biblical message each day, of course, and the message builds throughout the week, but you’ll have more success connecting with your students thanks to skits, games, videos, and more that our kits feature.
How Can We Serve You?
Go Fish Resources would love to be a part of your next Vacation Bible School. If the music you have been using for years could use an upgrade, take a moment to listen to some of our songs to see what we have available. Adults and kids alike love our music, and the wide variety in our catalog means you can easily find the right choices for your needs.
We are also proud to offer a selection of three VBS curriculums that have been used by thousands of churches across the country. Finding a balance between engaging content and traditional Christian teaching can be tricky, but we’ve worked hard to find the sweet spot with these curriculum options. Download the right one for your church today!
Looking for Bible-centric songs to make your VBS experience a rockin’ good time? Stream all of our music on Spotify, Apple Music, and all other music platforms. And watch our videos over on our YouTube channel! Don’t forget to subscribe!