Tapestry of Faith: Exploring Our Values Through Poetry: A Program for High School Youth

Activity 1: Apple Acting

Activity time: 15 minutes

Materials for Activity

  • Newsprint or a dry erase board and markers

Preparation for Activity

  • Be prepared with several apple allusions in case participants need help. See Find Out More or Handout 1 for examples.

Description of Activity

In this activity, participants play a game with apple allusions.

Invite the group to play a pantomime game. Explain that pantomime is what mimes do: it is acting something out without sound, like charades. Form teams of no more than four participants each. Instruct the groups to come up with several cultural allusions to apples. These can be sayings or proverbs about apples, famous stories we all know about apples, or other common apple words. Offer newsprint and markers to groups for listing their ideas. Give groups several minutes to brainstorm, and then gather everyone together.

Explain that the groups will take turns pantomiming their apple allusions for the other groups. The audience will guess the allusions that the groups perform. The goal of the performing group is not to stump the audience, but to pantomime the allusion so well that the audience can instantly guess what the allusion is. Make sure everyone understands the instructions. If the groups need an example, pantomime someone working on a computer (for Apple Mac).

Choose which group will go first. As the audience correctly guesses the apple allusions, note the allusions on newsprint. Have the participants continue performing, alternating groups, until you run out of time or allusions.

Including All Participants

If there are youth in the group who are differently abled, make sure they are actively involved in the pantomime.