Crafts Ideas for the Boomerang Express VBS
Encourage the use of Australian animals, Aboriginal art and color schemes from "Down Under" into your Boomerang Express VBS crafts. The Outback, the Sydney Opera House and Harbor, rock art and the familiar "G'Day" expression could dominate your Boomerang Express VBS experience, so incorporate something about each into craft ideas for the youth you supervise.
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Rock Painting
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Put a tangible reminder of VBS in the hands of your Boomerang Express craft class kids when you have them decorate a rock like "Down Under." Rock art engravings in South Australia are believed to be up to 40,000 years old. Provide your VBS craft class with earth-colored paints and ask them to cover the top and sides of their rock, leaving the bottom alone. After the rock dries, have them draw a crocodile head or other Australian animal or a saying like "G'Day" on their rock.
Down Under Cards
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According to Lifeway, the Boomerang Express VBS scripture verse talks of God's love and the sending of His son to share it with others. Provide your craft class with materials to make their own "Down Under-looking" cards and have them add messages of love and encouragement, such as "When you're feeling 'Down Under,' God and I care."
In keeping with the colors, terrain and animal life in Australia, supply red, orange, brown and black markers as well as the same construction paper color options but replacing the black paper choice with white, instead. Have your students place a Bible verse they have learned at VBS onto one side of the card, too.
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Aboriginal Bead Necklace
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Collect pictures of Aboriginal jewelry to pass out in craft class. Cut pieces of thin leather strips to fit each child and supply colored beads in all colors but tell them that Aboriginal necklace beads include nut shells and seeds, like the Gum Nut shell and the Ininti seed, instead of beads, and they can be made with elastic too. Provide shorter pieces of thin leather strips for youth wanting a bracelet instead. Make acrylic bead paint available for those desiring to put dots or lines on their bead jewelry, like the Aboriginal people do, or Bible verse shorthand, like John 3:16.
Outback Pack
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Bring a brown paper bag for each Boomerang Express VBS craft student. Help younger students fold the top part of the bag down into the lower portion. Provide scissors and sturdy poster board. Instruct youth to follow the pattern you give them (the bottom dimensions of the bag) and to cut out the board and insert it in the bottom of the bag, strengthening it for items placed in later. Attaching wide brown or black elastic to the sides of the bag will help lifting the bag at the end of VBS, when the children fill it with with memorabilia they made and collected during the event.
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References
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