Themes: Expressing creativity and coordinating as a group.

Participants: 4+, in person or online.

Materials: Pillowcases, interesting items (ex: scarf, can opener, banana, guitar pick). If online, have each person grab something interesting from where they are.

Put 3-5 unique and random items in each pillowcase (ex: scarf, can opener, banana, guitar pick). Break the group into teams of two to five people and distribute the pillowcases among them. Give teams instructions to create a skit using all of the items. Establish guidelines for the group process — ex. everyone can have a role that they’re comfortable with even if they don’t want a speaking part, skits can be funny but can’t poke fun —but don’t give them too much time to prepare. Bring everyone back together to preform their skits.

Variation: Include a children’s book or the title of a well-known fairy tale to act out in each bag.

Variation: Have each member of each team find and bring back one unusual item (toothbrush, can opener, banana, guitar pick) to put it in the bag. Redistribute the bags among the teams.

Liturgical Variation: use worshipful elements (a song, a reading, a theme, an item that could be used in an activity, etc.) and have each group craft a worship using the contents of the bag.