Vacation Bible school is a time that many children look forward to every summer. Many churches offer VBS classes for school-aged children, and some are brave enough to invite even the youngest toddlers to join the fun. If you have been given the responsibility of teaching a class of 1-year-olds at VBS, you may be concerned about finding age-appropriate crafts. Keep it simple--remember, at this age they have extremely short attention spans. Do all of the prep work at home beforehand to keep things running smoothly in class and everything will be just fine.
Littlest Helpers
One-year-old toddlers love to help mommy and daddy, so try out a craft that will encourage them to do just that. Before class, take plain white wash cloths and with a fabric marker write "Little Helper" on each one at the top and "Colossians 3:23" at the bottom. In class, allow each child to dip his hands into acrylic paint. Help each one make handprints on the washcloth. Spend the rest of class playing with feather dusters and toy-cleaning products (this age group loves toy vacuum cleaners and small brooms). Allow the washcloths to dry. They may need to dry overnight and be sent home at the next night of VBS. Send them home with a note explaining to parents that little hands love to help, and this washcloth can be used to help with dusting and other household chores.
Noah's Boat Can Float
For this project, you will need a bar of Ivory soap for each child. You will also need wooden dowels and vellum paper. Before class, create sails for the boats. Cut the dowels to 4-inch pieces and the velum paper into triangles. Use glue, tape or staples to attach the sails to the wooden dowels. In class, unwrap the bars of soap and allow each child to push the dowel into the soap to create a boat. Take the children outside and fill up buckets or small plastic tubs with water. Allow the toddlers to float their boats in the water and splash around. Sing the Noah's Ark song and enjoy some animal crackers for a snack to round out the lesson.
Bubble Poppers
Allow the children to color with crayons and markers on plain white paper plates. The thicker brands work better, but you can use any plates as long as they are paper. Use black permanent marker to write on each plate, "Jesus Makes Me Smile" or some other saying about happiness. Use a hot glue gun to attach popsicle sticks to the back of each paper plate---tape isn't strong enough and regular glue will not dry fast enough. Play cheerful music and blow bubbles and allow the toddlers to use their bubble poppers to catch and swat at bubbles. Use a small fan to blow the bubbles for you so that the children can play longer.
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