July Vacation Bible School Part 1

Vacation Bible School was only one day, in July, this year. It worked out very well. I was given "the older kids" for instruction and crafts — the first through third grades! I haven't taught children that young for so long that it was a wonderful treat. The theme this year was Jonah and the Whale. It was a perfect theme for a hot day. We spent half of the day at Crystal Lake State Park in the water. In the photograph above the children are learning a song about Jonah. You can see the whale and Jonah's ship that M. made for us. D. is teaching them the song.

And here is Jonah, above! He told the children his story and they were enthralled with his ordeal. You can see how much fun the children had as they acted out Jonah's story — it was one of the highlights of the day! Everyone wanted to be Jonah so they could be spit out by the whale.

We had arts and crafts after that. We made beach bags, sea shell picture frames, octopus mobiles and lots of other fun things. We also had puzzles, word searches and readings of Jonah's story from the Bible. You can see Catgirl above as she designed her beach bag before we went to the beach. Below you can see her creation:

Meanwhile, in the preschool room, the littler kids were doing their crafts. Ironman is wearing the orange shirt:

Another mother, R., took the kids outside for some running around games, giving us older moms a break!

We closed the morning with more singing that we acted out. Below, D is teaching them a new song and it required feet stomping and clapping!

We were starving by lunch time, but we had to go to the park for our picnic at the lake. It was a wonderful morning and I hope to help out next year, too. I just hope it is cooler out!

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