Decorate the classroom, outdoor kindergarten area or tent to look like the scene from a ranch. If possible, bring in hay bales, pieces of wooden fences, and visuals of horses or cows. Post signs with arrows around the room indicating where certain things are located, such as "outhouse" for where to find the bathroom, and "chuck wagon" for where kids will eat their snacks. Pass out printable coloring pages for your kindergarteners to decorate, and then post the pictures around the area.
No VBS is complete without yummy snacks for the kids. Instead of serving regular cookies, bring the ranch theme into the snacks as well. For example, pass out cookies in shapes of cowboy boots, sheriff badges or cactus. Rename common foods with a silly ranch name, such as renaming punch "cowboy juice." Don't forget to provide healthy snacks, such as carrot sticks and ranch dip.
VBS is often an outreach tool for churches to bring in new families and kids. Encourage your kindergartners to invite friends to VBS by keeping track of how many friends each kindergartner has rounded up. Record the number of friends each student has invited to class on a chart or bulletin board decorated with cowboys, ropes and a corral. Hold a contest to see which kindergartner gets the most number of friends to attend VBS with him.
Ranch-themed VBS weeks often feature stories about cowboys and ranch hands. Let kids dress as if they work on a ranch. Pass out inexpensive straw cowboy hats or bandanas, and ask kids to wear other cowboy-themed costumes. For example, a kid might come to VBS in jeans, chaps and cowboy hats. Give an award to the best-dressed child each day, or set a specific day that you'll pass out an award. Pin a large gold sheriff badge on the kid who wins the best-dressed award. Take pictures of the kid and send them home as a memento of the week.