Bible Bowling (using bottles)

Supplies:

• Bottle Pins: choices 1-litre round pop or soda water bottles (220ml), clear plastic (not coloured) with lids.
• Number of bottles - we've used 6 bottles per team for VBS and later for Sunday School I created a Bowling Pin Mat that required 10 bottle pins (see bottom photo).
• Bowling Ball - Large or Medium Size ball with some weight to it.  We used Dog Toys (see bottom photo).
• Fill bottles with water - test out how different levels of water in bottle to see what works best with the bowling balls you are using. Screw on lids tight, you may choose to glue on, we didn't and have never had a leak problem yet. The water gives them weight.
• After use:
  Storing - You may choose to empty water to store.

Game Play:
Search this site using the word "bowling" to find games that incorporate bowling into their lesson and also see above post bowling idea by Rachel Haugland.

Decorating Bottle (Pins) for a specific Story

• Joseph's Dream
  I used the 1-litre pop bottles and painted them with irregular shaped black spots using black acrylic paint leftover from painting our wall murals and then attached a cow head.  Cow Head - search for a free cow head cartoon graphic on-line. Size it to around - 4 3/4" tip of nose to top of horn, 4 1/2" tip of ear to tip of ear. Print or draw (using black marker) onto 20 lb. white cardstock, then cutout, we laminated ours so they would hold up as we were using them outside for VBS. Using a single hole punch, punch out two small holes 1" apart just above nose (where you place the holes will depend on your graphic). Thread a white garbage tie through the two holes and wrap around neck of bottle and twist firmly folding back around so no sharp points for when resetting the pins. In the photo the cow heads are facing forward, so you can see how they are attached.
• Ideas for other stories:
  • Prodigal Son - Pigs
  • Plagues - Frogs / Cows / etc.
  • Fall of Jericho - Walls (could paint bottles in a wall brick effect)
  • Daniel - Lions
  • Parable Lost Sheep or Good Shepherd - Sheep
  • Tower of Babel - Tower of Idol Heads
  • David's Anointing
    Bowling Pins - found these cool inexpensive oven mitts at the Dollar Store (Dollarama). I pushed the thumb part into the oven mitt and slide the mitt over MC Fruit Fizz (220 ml) bottles filled with water.  These oven mitts are no longer available, but you could take a plain oven mitt and add arms and heads using stuffed nylons to the shape you need and for clothes use pieces of fabric or felt, and add  button eyes. They also would make good puppets!
    
    Bowling balls - are large dog toys (find at Feed Store, Pet Food Supplies, Dollar Store).
    
    Bowling Mat - I created the bowling mat so it was easy for the kids to reset the pins. I just took a large sheet of paper laid out my pins in an even order and then drew circles around them in pencil. Then I took a black marker and made the circles stand out.  It's laminated for durability, I just took it to an educational store that had a laminating machine. They were the least expensive way to go and did it on the spot.
    
    It consists of David, David's 7 brothers, and his two sisters - 10 pins.
    
    David is in the back row, right side.  He has his name on his chest, just written on a piece of beige painter's tape.  I also made him a sling shot out of a piece of brown felt, piece of a shoe lace, and two white pom-poms balls for stones (see bottom photo for his close-up).

For an example of a lesson that uses Rachel's Bowling instructions, noted in the first post above ...see The Parable of the Prodigal Son or Daniel and the Lion's Den. And here are lessons she wrote using her Basketball instructions Life of David and Esther.
--Carol