Friday, June 15, 2012

For the Children


When I arrived 
 to help set up for VBS
this morning,
I was amazed at how much progress was made yesterday,
while I was playing with Charlie.
Above is the 'stage'.  
The back wall was constructed out of segments 
of old cardboard boxes. 
I had spent two days painting the 'bricks'.
The large lions are on loan from an antique shop in Atlanta.
All of the greenery at the base was made by my friends.
The greenery around the top was donated by parishioners.
The lovely urns were drawn and painted on cardboard
 by my friend Becky.
In the center is a video screen
which will help the children learn the songs and dances.
I'm really impressed!

A LOT of 'work' had also been done on 'my tent',
the 'Astronomy School':


Some of the 'girls' hung muslin for the walls
and two of the men strung all of the lights.
You can see a basket full of balloons on the left,
and on the table to the right are baskets with cut up paper
for paper mache.
I spent hours blowing up balloons and cutting paper strips.
There are storage shelves where the paper mache globes will dry overnight.

Since this is the 'Astronomy School', 
I added a bunch of stars to the already twinkle-lit 'ceiling'.
I think kids will be mesmerized by this spot,
don't you?


This is the food court:


here's another view:


The children receive gold coins every morning
and they get to spend them doing various crafts 
and purchasing food.
Of course, there's really no cost for anything,
but it gives them the feel of budgeting their money.

Several of you asked what the craft is that I will be teaching.
Here are a few photos:


It is a round paper macho globe,
which has constellations 'punched' into it
using a bamboo skewer.
I hope your monitor will allow you to see these two pictures 
that I took in the dark:



The globe sits on a battery operated tea light,
and it becomes a little night light for each child.
The constellation above is the Scorpion,
and I believe the top one is the Big Dipper,
at a tough angle.

I am excited about VBS starting on Monday.
It really is all for the children,
but I've already received so much
back for the little I've invested.
I love the people I'm working with,
and I've learned an incredible amount.
It's a wonderful journey!

peace

2 comments:

Jeannie said...

What an impressive scene for the kids to see. You all should be applauded for the time, effort, and imagination. Your star globe is fun!

Gale said...

How cool! We did Galilee last year, and are doing Rome this year, but may do Babylon some time in the future. I was wondering if you would mind if I pinned some of your pictures on my "future VBS" Pinterest board.

Also, I am putting together a page for different marketplace tent ideas on Squidoo (it a site kinda like About.com). I was wondering if I could use pictures of your food tent. I've never seen one done like that--very creative! Do you happen to know how they attached it to the ceiling? It looks sort of like it's just tucked in there. And are those carpet tubes in the front holding up the entryway? Anyways, it's very cool. I would love to share it on the tent page and would be happy to link back to your page and also credit your church if you would like. Please let me know. Thanks.

'Gale
ecarian@yahoo.com

PS: Some other VBS related pages I've done...just to give you an example of how I would use the pics:

http://www.squidoo.com/recreatingnazareth
http://www.squidoo.com/fakerockwalls

:-)