Vacation Bible School -- Japan Theme

Not sure how many of you are involved here with your church's Vacation Bible School... but this year our church's VBS theme is the Runaway Rickshaw (sp?) meaning we're in Japan... so if anyone has great ideas for decorating and crafts and stuff I'd really appreciate it!

I'm even thinking of trying to get some pictures of different famous Japanese athletes... including figure skaters for my "room" (ie the sound booth) I don't know if the people in charge would go for it but hey! LOL

Toni, I don't do VBS but I do a lot of internationally themed events for Girl Scouts. My summer day camp theme this year is Girl Scouts Go Greek to get them psyched about the Olympics in Athens.

here are some Japanese themed ideas.

For a start origami is great and can be as simple or elaborate as needed to be age appropriate. IIRC on one of the episodes of "Northern Exposure" there was an Alaskan folk tale and they had cranes or some other origami birds as part of the story.

A really fun Japanese inspired snack is candy "sushi". Roll green fruit rollups vey thin as the base. Spread coconut moistened with a little sweetened condensed milk as the "rice" over the fruit roll up. Finally place some chopped dried mango or apricots as the "salmon or tuna"over the coconut. Roll up and slice. The kids can even make this themselves.

Another one that is really more Americanized Chinese is to take chow mein noodles and pour on melted milk chocolate, peanutbutter, or butterscotch chips. Stir gently untill all of the noodles are coated and drop by tablespoons onto parchment or waxed paper. It makes a cookie/candy treat.

Green kool aid can be used in place of green tea to have a tea ceremony.

Fans, origami pinwheels, and watercolor painting.

For crafts and decorating check out Oriental Trading Company on line they have loads of stuff with all different kinds of themes and a very nice section geared toward religious activities. Their prices can't be beat.

The little paper umbrellas that are used in drinks, my girls love to place a couple of them at angles in their hair as a cutel little hair accesory. that has an Asian look to it.

http://www.orientaltrading.com/otcw...age.jsp&namespace=main&event=link.home&BP=597

http://www.ssww.com/product/?sku=GP1108&v=temari+balls&i=1

http://www.ssww.com/product/?sku=GP121&v=japanese+kites&i=1

http://www.csupomona.edu/~tassi/children.htm

http://web-jpn.org/kidsweb/index.html

http://japanese.about.com/?once=true&

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e639.html

Most of the time I have found that you can save a lot of money by buying the materials and putting them together to make your own craft kits

Patti

Unfortunately our church doesn't have VBS, but some yrs back one of my old SS teachers did a Japanese theme. She had some kimonos for us to try on & have pictures w/, as well as the decorative umbrellas & fans. She had us sit on mats instead of chairs & we had a little portion of stir fry for a snack. We also did simple origomi, as Piel mentioned. I don't know how much you can afford to spend on props & snack, but I know that's one of my SS classes that I really remember! I hope your VBS goes well

Piel, Becca! Thank you so much!

I LOVE ORIENTAL TRADING... I just can't afford squat right now... so I don't know how much I can do I'll probably print out a bunch of cute little Japanese Symbols to decorate the sound booth(which is where I'm working) and then work my butt of to decorate mom's room!

Toni,

How many children and of what ages do you expect at VBS?

we do 3 year olds to 6th grade... though this year we didn't have enough people so we're only doing 4 year olds on up... 3 and under go to nursery if their parents are involved with the VBS...

we had about 250 kids last summer... mostly in the older groups... though two years ago I was in charge of the 4 year olds after my mom's sister's husband died and I was promised that no more than 4 kids ever show up for that age... and they liked how I did it so much that they brought all their little friends and I had 14!!!! It was crazy! I had to bring help from other churches in just to help me! LOL

after last year I decided that I needed a break from teaching kids(we did four year olds again but between mom and I not agreeing on what to do, and the kids really not ready to be in a class setting[they fought constantly and one whacked me with a chair!] it just was getting too much) besides they need someone to run the sound booth and I'm the only one who's "qualified" LOL though if I get the job I applied for, I will have problems with that too... but we'll work it all out... I guess LOL

OMG thar's a large group! Are they all from your church, if so what is the congregation of your church? How far are you from another church and how big is your town? Are you isolated from other towns? Don't mean to sound nosy just curious.

Tonichelle said:

we had about 250 kids last summer... mostly in the older groups... though two years ago I was in charge of the 4 year olds after my mom's sister's husband died and I was promised that no more than 4 kids ever show up for that age... and they liked how I did it so much that they brought all their little friends and I had 14!!!! It was crazy! I had to bring help from other churches in just to help me! LOL

after last year I decided that I needed a break from teaching kids(we did four year olds again but between mom and I not agreeing on what to do, and the kids really not ready to be in a class setting[they fought constantly and one whacked me with a chair!] it just was getting too much) besides they need someone to run the sound booth and I'm the only one who's "qualified" LOL though if I get the job I applied for, I will have problems with that too... but we'll work it all out... I guess LOL

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I know how you feel I used to teach the 4 & 5 yr old class in SS, where for a short period I had from 13 to 15 kids on my own (& this at the tender age of 12), because no one else wanted to do it! After being in that class for 5 yrs, I finally had to take a break. But now I'm back in SS (after a yr & a half off), only I'm in w/ the 2 & 3 yr olds

Since you don't have much money to work w/, you can look up origami or Japanese symbols online to help w/ decorations. & there are VBS message boards where you might find helpful ideas (in case you don't get the job you applied for, lol). I hope all goes well & everyone involved has fun!

Origami is kind of hard to teach to little kids. After each step you do, even if it's something like "fold your sheet in half", they go, "huuh? whhaatt?" and for some the folds have to be really nice and even and the kids can't always do that. I just got done doing it for World Friendship Day at Girl Scouts and it was disastrous. (It's not like the model we were teaching them was hard or anything. I think it's kind of difficult for them to understand.)

Rixis,

What age level were you working with? I have had third graders successfully do origami. I would love to know more about your World Friendship Day Event. Is this World Thinking Day.... February 22? I am always looking for new ideas for our celebration. What do youusually do for yours?

Piel

Piel said:

Rixis,

What age level were you working with? I have had third graders successfully do origami. I would love to know more about your World Friendship Day Event. Is this World Thinking Day.... February 22? I am always looking for new ideas for our celebration. What do youusually do for yours?

Piel

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Duane is about as creative as a rock and he can do it... and he's 9... yes 4-5 year olds may be a little young... but older kids could do it....

OMG thar's a large group! Are they all from your church, if so what is the congregation of your church? How far are you from another church and how big is your town? Are you isolated from other towns? Don't mean to sound nosy just curious.

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Our town has a butt load of churches that do VBS LOL so we all pick different weeks... during summer there is AT LEAST one VBS every week! that being said kids come from all over to go to VBS

I had from kindergarten to fifth grade, I believe. The kindergarteners needed help and all the fifth graders wanted to do was make those little fortune tellers. It was in February, but I don't know if it is the same thing as World Thinking Day because I have never heard of that. What happens is, each grade chooses a country, and they dress up in that way, do a little skit having to do with that country, makes some food, make a game that has to do with that country, etc., and then they move in groups from booth to booth until they have "been to" each country. This year there was Greece, Egypt, Mexico, China and Japan (us.) This was my first year helping out so I don't really know very much about it. I think it would be better if we had more kids though.

You could teach them some very basic Japanese phrases:

Konichiwa (Kohneecheewa) - hello
Arigato (Aahrreegahto) - thanks
Ja, Matta (Jah, Mattah) - see you later

You could have them write their names (or a bible phrase, whatever) using Japanese paintbrushes and black watercolors on scrolls, like some traditional Japanese caligraphy is done. Or you could have someone with a good hand write these, and the kids could decorate them with paints and bring them home or hang them at the church.

You could have them take Japanese names and call each other by those names as part of a game, or for a day.

Japanese food is fun, and you don't even have to Americanize it for the kids to like it. There are lots of Japanese candies, sweets and salty snacks that American kids like. Do you have an Asian market nearby? If not, then even American supermarkets offer specific Japanese food if they have an Asian aisle. If money is tight, instead, you could talk about Japanese food, because kids LOVE gross stuff, and to us, some Japanese food is gross, which makes it fun. Have you ever seen the tv show, The Iron Chef? Check it out and you'll see what I mean. Maybe the older kids would even like to see part of an episode.

Japanese culture is not unfamiliar to kids here. You can talk about Pokemon, Yu Gi Oh, and several other Japanese tv shows/games that are really popular here. If it's appropriate, you could have one of the kids bring in one of the card games and teach people how to play it. Also, Hello Kitty and Godzilla both originate in Japan.

For older kids, you could talk about the religions that are practiced in Japan and how they differ from yours.

Great ideas, RM!
Maybe some of the high school or college kids or adults could even do their own Iron Chef competition and let the younger ones cheer them on. Iron Chef Alaskan Salmon Battle maybe? The kids could make chef hats from brown paper bags (also a recycling project).

Considering its VBS, those key chain looking things that are pets are Japanese, and there are points to be made about caring and responsibility with them. It is apparently hard to keep a pet in the city, and the Japanese came up with these virtual pets.
You know the ones that go off day and night like an alarm and you have to "feed" them or whatever?

Also, it's common to string I think is 1000 little origami cranes for luck. (Some Japanese friends of my husband's gave him these in purple and orange papers. ) They look very pretty strung up. So even if the kids don't want to do them, you can use them for reasonably priced decoration.

There are also the Ninja turtles and ninjas in general, but considering the Bible I would skip them! But it would keep the little boys' interest, often a problem, if decided to go there.

You could feed them Ramen noodles too.

LOL considering last year Jesus was dressed as Spiderman in one kid's drawing... I don't doubt Ninja Turtles will make it into at least one bible story in the little kids classes

RoaringMice said:

Japanese food is fun, and you don't even have to Americanize it for the kids to like it. There are lots of Japanese candies, sweets and salty snacks that American kids like. Do you have an Asian market nearby? If not, then even American supermarkets offer specific Japanese food if they have an Asian aisle. If money is tight, instead, you could talk about Japanese food, because kids LOVE gross stuff, and to us, some Japanese food is gross, which makes it fun. Have you ever seen the tv show, The Iron Chef? Check it out and you'll see what I mean. Maybe the older kids would even like to see part of an episode.

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That's a GREAT idea. Tonichelle, get the kids some Pocky! We love that stuff!