Celebrate the Season of Creation with Compassion Camp

September marks the beginning of the Season of Creation, also called Creationtide. It’s a time in the church calendar to pause, remember, and reconnect with the more-than-human world. Leading up to the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi on October 4, this season invites communities to celebrate the beauty, wonder, and interdependence of creation.

If you’re looking for meaningful, low-prep activities to celebrate Creationtide with your children, youth, or entire congregation, you don’t need to start from scratch. Compassion Camp: What Every Living Thing Needs is a ready-to-use curriculum exploring what all living things need to thrive: shelter, food, water, air, and community.

Using Compassion Camp Beyond VBS

Compassion Camp has everything you need for VBS, but why stop there? With its mix of poetic storytelling, creative expression, scientific exploration, and practical compassion, this adaptable curriculum makes it easy to build meaningful, all-ages experiences in any setting.

Curious to see how? Here’s one way you could shape a five-week lesson plan for the Season of Creation only using Compassion Camp: What Every Living Thing Needs.

A 5-Week Lesson Plan for Creationtide

Week One	Shelter	Bible Story	Create & Play	Compassion in Action
Week Two	Food	Bible Story	Recreation	Create & Play
Week Three	Water	Bible Story	Create & Play	Movement
Week Four	Air	Bible Story	Recreation	Create & Play
Week Five	Community	Bible Story	Create & Play	Compassion in Action

• Bible Story: Psalm 104 + scriptures about shelter
• Create & Play: Build animal nests using natural or recycled materials
• Compassion in Action: Go on a nature walk using “observation binoculars” to notice where creatures find shelter

• Bible Story: Psalm 104 + scriptures about food and provision
• Recreation: Play Food Chain Chase to explore how energy moves through ecosystems 
• Create & Play: Make a paper food chain to take home

• Bible Story: Psalm 104 + scriptures about water.
• Create & Play: Build a mini aquifer and observe how water moves through the Earth
• Movement: Practice breath-focused yoga poses that mirror the flow of water

• Bible Story: Psalm 104 + scriptures about wind and Spirit
• Recreation: How long can you keep your balloon in the air? Only it gets progressively harder.
• Create & Play: Make pinwheels to explore wind and movement.

• Bible Story: Psalm 104 + scriptures about community
• Create & Play: Craft a “Wood Wide Web” using yarn to symbolize how living things support each other
• Compassion in Action: Write and deliver appreciation notes to neighbors or community helpers

So Many Ways to Make It Your Own

Each session in Compassion Camp comes with more than you need for a single Sunday. You can pick and choose what works for your setting:

• Pair a Bible story with one activity and one prayer.
• Set up stations for multi-age classrooms.
• Extend the theme into worship, family ministry, or a weekday gathering.

Already Have Compassion Camp? Use It Again!

If you’ve already led Compassion Camp: What Every Living Thing Needs, great! There’s more than enough goodness here to return to again and again. Revisit the Bible stories, reuse the music, or build a new worship series with the liturgies.

And don’t forget to join our Compassion Camp Facebook Group to share ideas, see how others are adapting the materials, and find encouragement along the way.

Explore More Creationtide Resources

Are you curious to learn more about Compassion Camp: What Every Living Thing Needs?

We’d Love to Hear from You!

Have you used Compassion Camp in your church or home? How did it go? We’d love to hear your stories: what surprised you, what your community loved, and how it supported your ministry.

Drop us a comment, send us a message, or tag us on social media @illustratedmin.

We hope these resources help you experience this Season of Creation with wonder, connection, and compassion for all living things.