Easy & Engaging VBS Station with No Cost & No Waste

Vacation Bible School, or “VBS.” One week each summer that Directors of Children’s Ministries stress over (I mean, anticipate) from the moment the manager scene costumes are shoved back into a church closet each winter.

I know this because for a few years it was more like Vacation Bible SEASON in our home! During this time I served as the Director of Children’s Ministry at one church, my husband held the same position at a different church, and our son wanted to attend VBS at all of his friend’s churches as well.

I was all for our son attending as many weeks of VBS as he wanted, but those summers our cars and our home were littered with memory verse plastic bracelets that broke, construction paper crafts that ripped, and take home trinkets that he never looked at again.

One summer CJ and I said “enough” and wrote a VBS program called “The Service Connection.” The kids didn’t take home anything that would end up in the garbage and they engaged in a lot of really cool and worthwhile service projects for the community.

In an effort to continue encouraging and creating VBS opportunities that are fun and meaningful for kids, simple to plan and lead for adults, and environmentally responsible for the Earth and all its creatures (i.e. activities that don’t require you to purchase junk, only to have it lost or broken before the week is through) in this post I outline how you can incorporate Story and Stretch into one of your VBS stations, no matter the theme.

Before VBS

1st - Read the assigned Bible stories for each day of your VBS.

2nd - Assign a yoga pose/body movement to each of the main characters, settings, and events in the story. You should be able to connect eight to twelve poses to a story.

3rd - Prepare a question for each yoga pose/body movement you came up with in order to create a retelling of the story.

During VBS

1st - Read the story (or better yet, TELL the story) to the children.

2nd - Lead the children through recreating the story using the yoga poses. Do this by asking the children the questions (in order of the events in the story) that you previously prepared. As each question is answered demonstrate the corresponding yoga pose and have the kids hold the pose with you for three to five breaths.

Example

Jesus Feeds 5,000

John 6:1-14

Question: Who is the main character is this story?

Answer: Jesus

Yoga Pose: Warrior I Pose

Question: What body of water did Jesus and His disciples cross?

Answer: The Sea of Galilee

Yoga Pose: Cat/Cow Pose

Question: How did Jesus and His disciples cross the Sea of Galilee?

Answer: In a boat

Yoga Pose: Boat Pose

Question: Where did Jesus and His disciples gather together after getting out of the boat?

Answer: On a mountain

Yoga Pose: Triangle Pose

Question: Who did Andrew notice had food?

Answer: A boy

Yoga Pose: Warrior II Pose

Question: What is one kind of food the boy had?

Answer: Bread

Yoga Pose: Crocodile Pose

Question: What is the other kind of food the boy had?

Answer: Fish

Yoga Pose: Fish Pose

Question: Where on the mountain did the crowd of people sit and share a meal together?

Answer: In a meadow of grass

Yoga Pose: Side Angle Pose (shifting right side to left side)

Question: What did Jesus do after giving thanks to God for the bread and fish?

Answer: He passed out bread and fish to the crowd

Yoga Pose: Lord of the Dance Pose

Question: What did the Disciples collect the leftover food in?

Answer: Baskets

Yoga Pose: Bound Angle Pose

Please do not hesitate to connect with me if you have a question about the above outline.

Also, I would love to hear about your experience recreating Biblical stories using yoga. So after the decorations are all put away and thank you cards sent out leave a comment below!

And if you are interested in learning how to implement Story and Stretch: Narrative Yoga for Kids into your Sunday School or Wednesday night programming let me know. I would love to help you use the combination of Biblical stories and yoga to help children explore God’s Word in new ways, laying the foundation for a deep and lasting relationship with God.