Day One Day Two Day Three Day Four Day Five

Daily Theme

God Adopts us into his

Family

God Rescues us from Death

God Provides us what we

Need

God Strengthens

us for Service

God Prepares us a Home

Bible Story

Ruth’s Redeemer

Ruth 4

Daniel in the Lion’s Den

Daniel 6

Elijah’s Survival

1 Kings 17

Esther’s Courage

Esther 3-5

Jesus Prepares a Place

John 14

Theme Verse

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!”

-1 John 3:1

“He rescued me from my powerful

enemy, from my foes,

who were too strong for me.”

-Psalm 18:17

“From the fullness of his grace we

have all received one blessing after

another.” -John 1:16

“But the Lord is faithful, and he will

strengthen and protect you from

the evil one.” -2 Thessalonians

3:3

“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a

Savior from there.” -Philippians 3:20

Fairy Tales: Day One

Overview: The Fairy Tale leader will share a picture book with the campers.

Supplies:

A copy of: Sydney and Norman, a Tale of Two Pigs. by Phil Vischer

This book is a bit more common, but still fits with the theme of being a part of God’s

family: You Are Special. by Max Lucado

You could also choose another favorite picture book. Good examples include:

The Giving Tree. by Shel Silverstien

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. by Judith Viorst

Harold and the Purple Crayon. by Crockett Johnson

Harold's Fairy Tale. by Crockett Johnson

The Tale of Three Trees. by Angela Elwell Hunt

Five Chinese Brothers. by Claire Huchet Bishop

Preparation: The best thing you can do to prepare is read through a few different stories until you have

found one that you love and that you think the children will love.

Look through this lesson and think about which of the questions fit your book. Perhaps

consider making a bookmark with the questions that you want to focus on during your

reading.

Lesson before the Fairy Tale: This week we are talking a lot about stories. How many of you enjoy going to the library?

What do you do when you are there?

How many of you like to look at the picture books?

Do you think there is anyone in the world who has read all of the books in the library?

There are so many books that come out each year that you couldn’t even read all the titles.

If there are so many books in the world, why do you think that we keep writing more?

When you are picking out a book, what things are you looking for?

Fairy Tale: Now we are going to read a great story.

Take time to let the kids enjoy the story. If you

want you can ask questions as the story

progresses. You could ask them to predict

what might happen, or to consider what the

characters might be feeling at different points.

But you don’t have to. You’ll have questions

for them to look at after.

Lesson after the Fairy Tale: This story fits with our theme for the day. It

gives us a picture of what it means to be in

God’s family.

Did God surprise you at all in this story?

What did Sidney need to learn about being a

part of God’s family?

He needed to learn that he didn’t need to do

anything to earn God’s love.

What did Norman need to learn about being

in God’s family?

He needed to learn that none of his accomplishments made him better than anyone else.

What did you learn?

Okay campers. Have a great day. Happy storytelling!

Snack: Day Two

Overview: Campers will arrange their snack on their plate to make a lion face.

Supplies needed for 10 campers:

10 paper plates

2 ½ “ round cookie cutter

Sharp knife

Spoon

Ingredients needed for 10 campers:

1 cantaloupe

10 oranges or clementines

Raisins

Chow Mein Noodles

Preparation: Peel the cantaloupe with the sharp knife.

Slice thinly down the sides to make discs of

cantaloupe. Use round cookie cutters to

make enough cantaloupe circles for each

child to have one. I was able to get 15

circles out of one cantaloupe, with plenty of leftover scraps.

Peel the oranges and divide them into segments. If you give each child an entire naval

orange, it will be a very big snack. Consider having them share the orange pieces or using

clementine tangerines.

Lesson before the snack: Can you think of a fairy tale where you really thought the good guy was going to die? Raise

your hand to share some ideas with the rest of us.

Our theme today is that God rescues us from death. In fairy tales, the good guys often

almost die, but then they end up defeating the bad guys and living happily ever after. In our

true Bible story for today the same thing happened to Daniel. The bad guys thought for sure

they had won and Daniel would die, but God was on Daniel’s team. Even when Daniel was

thrown into a pit of hungry lions, God closed their mouths and kept Daniel safe.

Today we are going to make some not-too-scary lions to remind us that God can rescue us

from any kind of danger, even hungry lions with sharp teeth.

Directions: 1. Give each child a paper plate.

2. Give them each a cantaloupe circle.

3. Let them use raisins to make eyes and a nose.

4. Have them use the orange segments to create a mane around the cantaloupe.

5. Use the chow mien noodles to add any other details the children want to add, like a

mouth or more fur on their manes.

Lesson after the snack: Please take a chow mien noodle and break it in half. Use those noodles to give your lion

angry and hungry eyes. Now change your lion’s eyebrows to happy eyes after God closed

their mouths and rescued Daniel.

As you eat your snack, thank God for rescuing you from the devil, who prowls around like a

roaring lion.

Crafts: Day Three

Overview: The campers will make a blessing tree, using sticks and paper leaves.

Supplies needed for ten campers:

20 ft of string, yarn or embroidery floss

30 ft of twine

30 dry branches trimmed.

10 rocks, each with a 2 inch diameter

Scissors

Pruning shears

Hole punch

Multicolored paper

Markers

Scissors

Preparation:

Collect branches that have a thickness of

between ¼ inch and ½ inch. Then trim the

branches down to a more manageable size

with a pruning shears.

Trim each branch until it is about 18

inches tall. Trim the twigs that fork out

from the main branch so that they

are 8 to 12 inches long.

The goal is that each branch will end

up able to hold at least three leaves.

Cut the twine into 3 foot long

sections for each camper.

Collect rocks of the appropriate size

and weight. Each camper will need

one to anchor their tree so that it will

not be too top-heavy.

All but the youngest campers should

be capable of cutting them out

themselves. The leaves that were

used to make the sample were 4

inches long and just less than 2

inches wide at their widest point.

For the younger campers, it might be

more important to organize and tie

the tree branches for them ahead of

time rather than do the work of

cutting and punching the leaves or

tying the strings. They might be able

to wrap it if you start it for them.

Otherwise, if you wrap it all the way

for them, they still have leaves to cut

out, write on, punch and string.

Lesson before the craft:

The lesson that we are thinking about today is one where God reminds some people, and us

that he is really the one who provides the blessings that we have in this life. We do not always

remember to thank God for every loaf of bread or frozen pizza that he blesses us with.

The Israelites lived a life where they could see the way that weather affected their lives more

directly. If there is not a lot of rain, then the crops can’t grow, and there isn’t enough food for

everyone. That still happens sometimes now. The prices in the stores are affected by how

much of the food grows, or by how healthy the animals are that we get our food from.

Today our craft is a thankfulness tree. We can use the trees to remember to thank God for all

the blessings we have. He made trees to bear fruit and provide for our needs.

Craft:

When putting the branches together, first hold the bottoms together so that they are even.

Wrap twine around the base of the branches about six inches up from the bottom, and tie

them together. Begin wrapping the twine around the branches toward the bottom. Make

sure to position the branches on the bottom, so that the rock you have chosen will fit in

between them. Make sure to position the branches at the top so that they spread in a

variety of directions.

Place the rock in and hold the twine tight to see if it will stand. Then keep wrapping, weaving

in and out of the bottom of the branches, until they are tightly pulled together, and the

whole thing will stand up on its own without tipping over.

At the bottom, tie the end of the twine

into a knot with itself, or weave it back

up until it gets to the strand that you

started with, and tie it off there.

(Optional: glue the twine in place)

Then the campers will cut out leaf

shapes from many different colors of

paper.

After cutting them out, they should

write on the leaves things that they are

thankful to God for. Ask them to think of

all the different ways that God cares for

them and provides them with the things

that they need.

The campers should use a hole punch to put a hole in each leaf, and then tie a short section

of yarn or string to the leaf to hang the leaf on the tree like a Christmas ornament.

Lesson after the craft:

Campers, please raise your hand and share one of the things that you wrote on the leaves

of your tree.

Let’s close with a prayer. “Dear God, thank you for providing for all our needs. Each of us has

things that we need each day. You have taken care of us, and you have promised to be

with us until we are in heaven with you. Help us to be thankful each day for the blessings that

you have offered us.”

Story: Day Four

Overview: Campers will hear how God used Queen Esther to save his people.

Supplies Needed: None.

Preparation: Read through the lesson ahead of time.

Lesson before the story: Have you ever met a queen before? I never have. We don’t have queens in our country

but some other countries have queens that help lead their people. What type of person do

you think would make a good queen?

Today we will hear about Queen Esther and a very courageous thing that she did. Listen to

hear what that was.

Story: Many years ago Esther was chosen to be the new queen in the land of King Xerxes, who was

a very powerful and rich king. Queen Esther left her home and moved to the palace with

many servants and beautiful clothes.

After a while, a man named Haman got angry and decided to kill all of Esther’s people. He

tricked King Xerxes into making a law that would kill all of the Jews. Esther was alerted of the

danger by her cousin Mordecai and had to decide if she would help her people. With

God’s help, she did.

Normally a person could only visit King Xerxes if he asked them to come. If anyone went to

his throne room without being asked they would be killed, unless the king held out his royal

scepter to them.

Esther hadn’t been asked to go to the king for 30 days, but she decided to go anyways. She

prayed that God would keep her safe and she had other Jews praying for her as well.

She put on all of her beautiful gowns and robes and walked right into the throne room where

the king was sitting on his throne. She held her breath, hoping to see the king’s scepter

pointed her way.

And it was! The king was happy to see her and said he would give her up to half of his entire

kingdom! She asked only that he and Haman would come to a banquet she prepared.

So the king and Haman had a wonderful meal with Esther and then she invited them back

the next day for another banquet. At the second banquet she told King Xerxes that Haman

was trying to kill her and all of her people. The king was so angry at Haman that he had him

hanged and changed the law so the Jews wouldn’t die.

God made Esther brave enough to risk her life to save the lives of all of His people. He

protected them all from danger!

Now listen again as I retell the story. This time, there will be some mistakes. If you hear me

say something that is different from the first time I told the story, stand up and we will try to fix

it.

(Usually after one child stands up, the rest will follow. This gives them a little activity during

story time and usually brings about some giggling when you say something absurd. It is a

good idea to slow down when you get to a part that is incorrect or pause a little to make

sure the children catch the mistake. Then call on one of them to tell you how the story

should actually be told. I have put the incorrect words in bold. You may refer to the above,

true story for the correct answers.)

Many years ago Ruth was chosen to be the new queen in the land of King Xerxes, who was

a very powerful and rich king. Queen Esther left her home and moved to the desert with

many servants and beautiful clothes.

After a while, a man named Haman got angry and decided to play kickball with all of

Esther’s people. He tricked King Xerxes into making a law that would kill all of the Jews.

Esther was alerted of the danger by her brother Mordecai and had to decide if she would

help her people. With God’s help, she did.

Normally a person could only visit King Xerxes if he asked them to come. If anyone went to

his throne room without being asked they would have tomatoes thrown at them, unless the

king held out his royal scepter to them.

Esther hadn’t been asked to go to the king for 1,000 days, but she decided to go anyways.

She prayed that God would keep her safe and she had other Jews jumping rope for her as

well.

She put on her swimming suit and walked right into the throne room where the king was

sitting on his throne. She held her breath, hoping to see the king’s pizza pointed her way.

And it was! The king was happy to see her and said he would give her up to $3.00! She

asked only that he and Haman would come to a pajama party she prepared.

So the king and Haman had a wonderful meal with Esther and then she invited them back

the next day for another banquet. At the second banquet she told King Xerxes that an

elephant was trying to kill her and all of her people. The king was so angry at Haman that he

had him hanged and changed the law so the Jews wouldn’t die.

God made Esther brave enough to risk her life to save the lives of all of His people. He

protected them all from danger!

Adventure: Day Five

Overview: Campers will work together to figure out the correct path through a maze.

Supplies Needed:

Squares or spots to mark the

floor

Preparation: 32 spots numbered, spots could be

rubber circles, carpet squares, or

foam squares.

You might want to mark them with

numbers to make the path easier to

remember. Lay them down on the

ground in a 6 x 8 grid. Choose a

specific path for the campers to get

from the start of the maze to the

end.

Also, it might help to write down the numbers of the correct pathway, so it is easy to facilitate

during the challenge.

Lesson before the adventure: In today’s lesson, we learned about how Jesus is

preparing a place in heaven for us who have faith in Him.

God tells us that there is only one path to heaven, which is believing that Jesus was perfect

for us because we couldn’t be. In our challenge today there will be only one path through

the maze.

Adventure directions:

Have the campers stand by the start of the maze.

This will be your last team challenge. Your team will need unlock the secret

pathway through this maze in order to get your team to the other side. You will

all need to get in a single-file line and each person will individually enter the

maze. To enter the maze, you must stand on a spot. Each spot has a number

on it and some are safe, while some are made of hot lava! If the spot is

incorrect and not part of the secret code, you will melt and have to go back to

the end of the line of campers and give the next person in line a turn.”

Have the campers work through the maze until a camper follows the correct

path through the entire maze.

Tips: Let the campers speak to each other throughout the maze. If the talk

becomes negative, give a warning that you will take their ability to speak

away. If it continues, take it away, but don’t forget to discuss it at the end of

the session. Usually, this maze is more easily completed without being able to

speak.

Reflections after the adventure:

Can you remember the numbers in order to make it safely through the maze?

How did it help to have other people working together with you?

Could you have figured out this maze by yourself?

On Wednesday we talked about the blessing God gives us in Christian friends.

You have been surrounded by people who love Jesus here at Day Camp all

week long. We are all walking the only path to heaven together. We can

encourage each other and help each other remember about Jesus’

forgiveness. As you leave today, don’t forget about your friends who will be in

heaven with you. Tell your family and neighbors about the path to heaven.

God wants everyone to join in his heavenly home!