Our church is having VBS next week. I am in charge of preschool recreation. I have been waiting for the director to give me the materials and found out today that the VBS committee decided against buying the packet for preschool rotations (music, missions, rec, crafts) which means those directors are on their own. The theme is Game Day Central (sports). Anybody know any games that go with that theme? The website suggests decorating the rec area like a field house. I've never actually been in a field house, so I'm not sure what's in there. I LOVE to decorate for VBS, but am feeling kind of strapped here! The church will provide transparancies, but anything else will be out of my pocket (and that's pretty slim right now). Any ideas for decorations?
I don't know what a field house looks like but I would think any sports equipment and maybe some benches and towels. How about balloons that look like different kinds of balls? Is this a room you are decorating or an outside area? Sports posters or cheerleader stuff for the girls.
I just went to Lifeway's site for Game Day Central and there are some clip art things you might want to look at and some picture that might give you ideas about decorating. It looks cute. Our theme is 3D Heroes. We are studing Daniel, Deborah and David. I am doing a craft room where the kids get to make the armor of God. I love VBS.
Beth, those were wonderful ideas. Yea do a bench with towels, is there a locker in the hallway you can use, go to the goodwill and get some old gym shorts and shirts if you can. I liked the balloon idea for balls or if you have any around the house use them. Plastic basketball hoop would work too.
I checked out Lifeway's site and plan to use some of the clip art. The benches and towels are a great idea. I plan to take some sports trophies to decorate, with and I have some large die-cuts of trophies I can write some things on. Right now I am mainly concerned about the games. The church has a couple of parachutes we can use. The website does not allow you to see any of the games or resources that are in the books.
well games have a basketball throw contest or something like it. a game where you throw a soft ball or something smaller for the younger ones in a hole from a line.
Have all the kids get into two teams. Then have them hold hands and each team face each other. Give the person on one end of each team a hula hoop and let them hold it in their free hand. Now when you say go they have to work as a team to get the hula hoop from one end of their team to the other end with out letting go of any hands. It is a cute game but hard for some kids to do. If you have little bitty kids it might be too hard. The main problem we have is getting the boys and girls to hold hands. Once again make a circle. The kids hold hands and one person gets in the middle. The one in the middle has a soccer ball. The middle person tried to roll the ball out of the human circle while the kids try to keep it in with their feet. If it goes out between someones feet they trade places with the middle person. If it goes between two people the middle person chooses whose place he will take. You can play this without holding hands if they will stay in a circle.
Thanks. I think I'll use this one. I will have 2's -5's (young), so I think the other would be too hard. I teach the 2's a lot during Extended Session on Sundays, and they are really hard to get to work together. No one ever wants to work with them or the 4's (who are also a very rambuncious group). I have 3 big coffee cans that I'm going to use as some type of toss game. I'm going to the church in a little while to see what's there. We don't have a small basketball goal, but that would be great. I'll ask around and see if anyone has one we can borrow.
Off the top of my head I was thinking things like hula-hoop practice, ring toss, and bowling (use 2 liter bottles for pins, they can also be used for the ring toss). I made a bunch of little square bean bags one year- the kids practiced juggling, we played tic-tac-toe by tossing the bean bags onto a grid taped on the floor, and played a game with a chalk circle like a bulls-eye. Musical chairs. Can you make a small obstacle course somewhere? Two x four balance "beam", crawling under a rope grid, climbing over a small wall, hopping through the hula hoops (lying flat), etc. Let me think and try to find my preschool PE book- MT3
At our church we sometimes use a clean trash can or laundry basket for the little ones to play basketball. It works great with 2's and 3's. We use a beach ball too. One game we do that probably would only work with older kids is to make a circle. I know, again with the circle! Then everyone takes off their shoes and tosses them into the middle of the circle. With older kids we have them turn their backs to toss the shoes. Then when someone says go, everyone tries to be the first to get their shoes on and run back to their place in the circle. Balloon tennis is fun and a craft too. You need paint stirrers and paper plates. You make your racket out of those by gluing or stapling them together. You can even punch holes and run yarn through the holes to tie them on if you like that better. It actually holds them on tighter. They can decorate the plates but that is up to you. Then you blow up balloons for each child and they can bat them around. See how long they can keep them up. Hit them back and forth or into a basket. We have done this many times. Save two liter bottles and use a beach ball or other ball and make a bowling set. My girls do this at home with the smaller plastic bottles.
