Place pineapples on your VBS welcome table.
Choose LifeWay's Outrigger Island vacation bible school unit because of the scripture-based message--then thank heaven for the bounty of decorating possibilities that come with its island theme. Finding island-inspired decorations is a snap, due to the increasing popularity of tropical-themed home and school parties. Economy-minded children's ministers and helpers can choose from a variety of decor to fit the Outrigger Island theme.
Table Decorations
Cover your welcome tables with green plastic tablecloths, then staple dollar-store grass skirts all the way around the edges. Buy pineapples, coconuts and other tropical fruits to set on top of the tables. Make cardboard signs to guide your participants through registration. Cut the cardboard to resemble pieces of driftwood and paint information on them with black craft paint. Use a glue-gun to attach a long loop of twine to the top corners of the signs and hang them on your tables.
Use a different tropical-colored plastic tablecloth on the snack tables each day: yellow, hot pink, lime green, turquoise and orange. Buy table-topper size foil palm trees and set them one foot apart along the length of every snack table. Place different items under the foil trees each day to symbolize and enrich the daily Bible verse. Scatter smiley-face stickers there if the verse emphasizes praise. Lay small wooden cross keepsakes beneath the trees if the verse deals with the resurrection of Christ.
Wall Decorations
Hang tropical themed banners, plastic wall murals and strings of silk flower garland on walls. Find these, along with rolls of crepe paper in island-bright hues of magenta and blue, at dollar and party-supply stores.
Enlist volunteers to cut surfboard shapes from poster-size sheets of card stock and decorate them, surfer style, with markers--adding racing stripes or drawings of flowers. Take a picture of each child, crouching a bit, with his arms slightly out and one foot in front of the other, as if he were surfing. Enlarge these pictures and print them. Cut them out, then place the children's photos on the card stock surf boards and hang them all together on a wall.
Cut out letters to spell the daily Bible verses and hang these on another wall. Surround the verses with silk hibiscus blossoms from the hobby shop. Attach the flowers to the walls with tape, or stick removable wall-hooks to the walls and tie the flowers to the hooks.
Floor Decorations
Place unfilled tiki-torches in sand-filled buckets around your main gathering space or snack area. Wind tropical-patterned fabric around the bottom of each torch, then wrap the fabric around the bucket, covering it completely. Tuck the fabric under the bucket.
Buy a giant inflatable palm tree, or opt for the cheaper--but still spectacular--giant foil palm tree that looks like it is sitting on the floor, but is actually suspended from the ceiling with a small hook. Find both trees at the party supply store.
Set up beach chairs and umbrellas. Fill a plastic kiddie wading pool with beach balls and place it on the floor near the beach chairs.
Tags: Outrigger Island, beach chairs, card stock, daily Bible, fabric around, foil palm