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VBS SCHEDULE - PSALM 23
Use of Psalm 23 Church pack for summer VBS week: (by Mary, Camas, WA)
Here is our VBS schedule
We had the children divided into three age groups (small church) and as they arrived to register, we sent them to their group leader where all worked on decorating a sheep template with materials that represented our "breed" such as the Barbados Blackbellies (black cotton balls), the Leister Longwools (long curly yarn strands) and the Wiltshire Horns (beautiful, glittery horn). These became our banners for the rest of the three days. Whenever we changed locations, one of the kids would carry the sign representing our flock to the next activity. This gave us something to do while we waited for everyone to register the first day.

10-10:10 was welcome time when we listened to memory verses (Psalm 23)...shorter the second and third day.

We divided the Psalm as follows: Day 1 verses 1-3: the Lord as my Shepherd; Day 2 verse 4 - The Valley of the Shadow; Day 3 verses 5-6 - practicing the presence

10:15-10:45 groups met in the sanctuary for singing, a skit about a hiking journey that our high school kids wrote, and to play sheep jeopardy (first day just sheep facts, following days, sheep facts related to our lesson).

10:50-11:15 Bible study groups (the youngest group used the picture book and simple games from the activity to book to make the point of the lesson, the middle group used the "Comfort for a Child's Heart" - selections, and the 5th/6th grade group did an actual study based on Philip Keller's book.

We used the large flash cards to decorate the church walls so we could draw attention to different ones as we were traveling around the building.

(BTW: we named different areas after places in the Pslams like "Still Waters Crafts", "Tableland Snacks", "Green Meadows Games, etc. Also, we used blue painters tape to make a "path of righteousness" from one area to the other and the kids really liked following all the curvy lines. This gave us a way to review talking about the different parts of the Psalm. We also put up little artificial Christmas trees, potted trees, etc. along the way to make it like traveling through a wilderness)

11:15-11:30 half the kids did games the other crafts
(games like blindfold a child and set him on an obstacle course with another child directing him with his voice while the others were shouting confusing directions; the first day we had a 4H person bring a real sheep and tell us about it, etc)
(for crafts we made walking sticks, "string style" backpacks" and water bottle holders. the children could earn "charms" for their walking sticks based on memory work, homework, and helpful behavior)

11:30-11:40 all did snacks together
11:45-12:15 switch crafts and games

12:15-12:30 more music and each day one older person from our congregation came and told a story about a time the Lord was their Good Shepherd. This was wonderful as we have some retired missionaries in our body who have great stories. We also used your DVD to flash through the Psalm with pictures each day while practicing it together. We used the clip of the little girl reciting it on the first day (and the Sunday before VBS to encourage kids to memorize ahead of time).

On the last day, the parents picked up their kids and we traveled to a nearby park that has hiking trails where we shared a b.y.o. lunch (dessert provided and pbj also provided for those who forgot their lunch) and took a short hike with our hiking sticks, backpacks, and water bottle holders. Everyone loved it.

The amazing thing is that we put this together with just a few meetings, dividing up the different areas (group leaders, craft person, snack person, music person, skit group, games) and all worked on the theme from May-July. We arrived ready to work on Monday, decorated the church, set up the areas, and were ready to roll in one day. We left the decorations up for our worship time on the weekend, then all the church helped us clean up after our service.

Finally, for a service project, we collected supplies for Shepherd's Door Children Center based on a list they provided and delivered them to the center. This was one of many ways we included our "too old for VBS" kids. They were also a great help with all the learning centers and supporting the group leaders.
Hope this is helpful to whomever does this in the future. We had a blast.

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