Sunday School Games: David Vs. Goliath

For our Sunday school lesson, I needed a craft that suited the story of David versus Goliath. While researching the theme online, I found a number of ideas but nothing that really grabbed my attention. I created the following craft which results in a two-player game that the children can take home with them. This was created for a preschool grade group.

Reference Bible verse: I Samuel 17

Suggested materials:
Three colors of stones, I used a mixed bag of floral arranging glass stones. You could also create them out of air-dry clay or paint found stones.
A fabric drawstring bag, I bought remnant fabric and sewed a small drawstring bag for each child. However a paper bag or Chinese food container could work as well.
Two large popsicle sticks, or cardstock
Permanent marker or alphabet stamps for the word DAVID

We set the craft up in stages since we were constructing about twelve games. The first station was to get the bag. At the next station, the children counted out the stones they would need; five each of two colors and one additional stone of a different color, these all go into the bag. This odd colored stone we refer to as Goliath. The third station was to create the game boards out of the popsicle sticks. You will need two sticks, or cardstock, on which you spell out the word DAVID. Once completed, these too go into the bag.

The results are a rather compact game that is fun to play and well suited for the preschool age group. However, older siblings were interested too. The idea could easily be adapted to other themes. The game could be played with one player.

Here is the instruction sheet to include in the game bag (we rolled ours up like a scroll):

Who Fell Goliath?

Two player game

There are 11 stones in the bag. Five that are light, five that are dark and one separate stone. The separate stone will be called Goliath.

Set a David board in front of each player.

Player one takes a turn. Choose a stone from the bag without looking. The color of the stone chosen determines the color you will play for. Place this stone on the letter D on the board in front of you.

Now player two takes a turn. If the stone is the color of player one, put it back. If the stone is a different color, place it on your board.

If the Goliath stone is chosen, it is placed back in the bag along with one of the stones from your board. If you have no stones on the board, just put the Goliath stone back and it is your opponents turn.

The first one to fill in the DAVID board wins.