Amazing Adventure - VBS 2014 (Expedition Theme)

As soon as I knew our VBS was going to have an expedition theme, and knew the lessons were going to be about Jesus' Resurrection, The Valley of the Dry Bones, and the Lost Coin, I knew I was going to "dig" for a rock, a bone, and a coin.  But it wasn't until the weekend before VBS began that I really knew what I was going to do in my room. It's always that way! I can never think about it enough in advance to come up with what I want to do, but it always works out anyway.  Thank you, God!

The resurrection wall came together pretty good. I liked the crosses that my husband cut out for me. It gave a 3D effect, plus the death of Jesus was the beginning part of the resurrection story.  It made it visibily clear for the children.

 These scrolls were from a VBS theme at Mardel.  I really liked how authentic they looked!  Each wall had the title of the story for that day....

 ...and a scripture from the story.

 The Valley of Dry Bones had to be the oddest thing for me to have to decorate, because the bones gave me the chills! I didn't know if I would be able to touch them at first!

 But by the time I had to get them out of the bag, I was fine.  I'll share more about each lesson in the next few posts.

 I used this story in the ladies class I teach for a few weeks. It has great spiritual application for our lives today.

 Even this scripture is profound because it shows that Elijah knew that only God knows what can be done!  His power is awesome and mighty!

 Each  day, the children would write on these scrolls. They made them like a map...telling the story, where it was found in the Bible, then they glued what they searched for that day: the rock, coin, or bone.  They thought these were pretty neat!

 I found this GREAT mural (actually it's two put together) on Cokesbury.com.  It is beautiful, and I can use it for many years.   It gave the feeling that we had traveled to somewhere - a REAL EXPEDITION!

For the lost coin, I just used a small part of the room.

I built a house out of styrofoam painted "bricks" found at Hobby Lobby. I made a dirt floor and hid coins in the dirt.

Each day we reviewed our "expedition".  I came up with these blanks to fill that were answered by listening well to the story.

I love having a "hanging" element in my room each year.  This year, because it was a little different type of decorating, I used bones, coins, paper rocks, skeletons, X-rays, and magnifying glasses.

I also used strips of muslin to make it seem like we were inside a tent or market.  It was a neat feeling.

The X-rays came from Mardel.  They were a fun element to help teach the dry bones story.

I like to cover the tables in my classroom, too. This years' theme was cute on the tables because I drew dotted lines to make it look like we were traveling a map's directions.

VBS is such a special time for children to learn about God, Jesus, the Bible, and the church.  What a blessing it is to touch the life of a child - and share Jesus with them in this way.  I had a great group this year!