Antarctica is made from a plastic coated paper and actually covers up things that are normally in that room so that is why it poofs out. A stapler and spray glue are essentials. We made a transparencies from a penguin book and then enlarged and changed them slightly and colored them with chalk, mounted them on poster board and spray glued them in place. The edge is ripped batting and fake snow. The picture was taken when the room was not complete so you cannot see the metal rim representing the shelter around the mural that teens did. The ice ponds are blue plastic table cloth with iridescent cellophane over them. The walls are plastic table cloth rolls.
Egypt also has floor mats made by rolling Elmer's glue and sprinkling with sand. Palms are made from carpet tubes and cut up paper grocery bags hot glued in place. Some palms have fresh palm fronds that can be donated from a florist and some have palms that have been used for years and have been dried and spray painted green.
Under the Pacific (we used ideas from Cook Publishing's VBS curriculum done our way), was created with balloons blown up with a compressor and tied onto strings that were then mounted to the ceiling. Everything is hung with fish line and all schools of fish were created by the kids in advance of VBS to get them excited about coming and to give them ownership of a room. Walls here are again draped in dark plastic. The coral reefs in the room are made from Styrofoam insulation, chunked, spray glued together, and spray painted. We also used wooden meat skewers to position them. We bought the backdrop from Anderson's prom catalogue as a splurge.
The jungle is made from green bulletin paper cut in pieces and roughly made to mimic the canopy of a jungle. They are then attached to the ceiling with binder clips. The walls are paper although I have done plastic walls previously. The tree trunks are made from brown butcher paper, home depot has something that works also, that has been crunched and spray glued. Critters are everywhere in nooks and crevices. The backdrop here was purchased previously and relocated.
Mt. Everest is made by covering existing rolling cabinets with layers of scrunched brown paper, spray painted blue in the distant and white peaked in the foreground. Goats were copied from a book in black and white and lightly chalked. Walls are covered in light blue plastic. Clouds are made from chunks of Styrofoam covered with batting.
Our art activities are equally interesting. We made felt, carved drywall, created chia heads, wove a mountain bag, and created sculpey fish for an undersea game that they decorated as well. Processes rather than craft.
More Photos from another year at Jean's Church