• Small notebooks for all participants
• Pencils/pens
• Masking tape
• A large bag or box to store notebooks

• Obtain inexpensive notebooks (or, folders and loose paper) and a bag or box to hold them between sessions.
• Determine a safe place to keep the notebooks between sessions.

Notable Thoughts is the first Alternate Activity offered in each session of Riddle and Mystery. Participants record their thoughts about today's Big Question in notebooks you provide and keep in your meeting space. In most sessions, five minutes will be enough time. This session suggests more so you can distribute notebooks and have youth write their names on them.

Distribute notebooks and pens or pencils. Invite participants to write their names on the notebook covers. Tell them the notebooks are a place to record their own thoughts, in words or drawings, about each session's Big Question. Say the notebooks will be private. You will keep them between sessions but not look at them. Youth can take them home at the end of Riddle and Mystery. They may wish to use them in an activity suggested for the final session.

Remind them of today's Big Question: "Where do we come from?" Say that if they have nothing to record, they should feel free to doodle or relax.

Give them about five minutes to work quietly in their notebooks. When time is up, offer that they may seal their notebooks with masking tape before handing them in. Collect the notebooks.