Just finished our busy week of VBS -- and I thought I'd share what was a "hit" with the older Pre-K kids, and some things that just flopped...
THEY LOVED the "Teach Me" song (actually, all the songs were great!)!
Wave 1: the paper fishing early arrival game was fun (The Dollar Tree has magnet fishing rods -- worth your time to spend a couple bucks!), and they LOVED the "musical hula hoop" game; however, the fresh/saltwater experiment didn't go so well (my aide couldn't get it to work). Not to worry, as water is always a hit and the kids had fun sinking and floating items in the buckets.
Wave 2: beach instrument idea was cool and fun, seashell sorting went well (if you have an adult at the center to keep their attention and talk about shells).
Wave 3: It was fun working one-on-one with the kids during the arrival "self-stick collage" activity (although I used posterboard and glue sticks) -- I got to talk to each about the Jesus picture they chose (in other words, very good use of teacher time); they enjoyed playing "eye doctor." Idea: play "What's Missing" with beach items during closing time -- it was really fun.
Wave 4: the post office center was so popular we kept it for Friday!
Wave 5: the girls enjoyed the starfish bookmarks, and some of the kids had fun with the absorb/repel experiment, although it didn't turn out to be very educational for my group (another play with water, of course!).

Other ideas: IKEA has fishy finger puppets (10 for $5.99) that the kids enjoyed; Playdoh beach buckets are available at WalMart that have beachy cutters -- kids loved loved loved them; we made "I Spy" bottles (filling bottle w/blue-colored rice and misc. beach items like small erasers from Dollar Store, JESUS letter beads, small cross, etc.) on Wednesday with eye and J-E-S-U-S tie-ins.


Hope your week goes well, too!

thanks so much for your imput, I'll try to pass on some of it to my preschool Island Guide! I'm glad to know your week went well, I hope your follow up goes well too!