• A chair for each participant

• Identify a space large enough for the children to form a circle of chairs.

Children build community as they learn more about one another while having fun and being active. If your session has time, play this game immediately after the Opening as a warm-up for learning a song in Activity 2.

Invite the children to bring chairs into a circle. Have an adult leader stand in the center. Make sure there are no empty chairs. Say:

I am going to look for some friends and neighbors. I will say what friends and neighbors I am looking for. For example, I might look for people who love pizza, who are eight years old, who love to read, who have a pet, or who are wearing the color red. If what I say includes you, stand up and change to a different seat.

Meanwhile, I am going to look for a seat that becomes free. That will leave a new person in the middle to look for friends and neighbors.

Before you begin, offer these rules:

• If you are one of the friends and neighbors, you must come into the middle (or touch the leader) before finding a new seat. You may not sit down in the same seat you left.
• Optional (depending upon the size of the group): You may not sit back down in a chair right next to the one where you were just sitting.

Begin the game by saying, "I am looking for all my friends and neighbors who ... enjoy making pictures." If needed, help the person who is left in the middle to think of a phrase to add to "I am looking for all my friends and neighbors who ... "