Faith Curriculum Library: Tapestry of Faith: Riddle and Mystery: A Program on the Big Questions for Grade 6

Activity 1: Questions and Responses

Activity time: 10 minutes

Materials for Activity

Preparation for Activity

  • Adapt Leader Resource 1 to include only the Big Questions (and short answers) that the group has covered in previous sessions.
  • Decide whether you want each youth to (1) hold a slip of paper with a question or an answer (print Leader Resource 1 and cut as shown) or (2) wear one question or answer as a name card on their back, without reading it first (enlarge the text and print Leader Resource 1 on multiple pages, so you can make a name card for each youth). Note: Matching the unseen name cards will take longer. Make these slips of paper or name cards.
  • Copy Leader Resource 2.

Description of Activity

This activity reviews Big Questions posed in previous sessions and gives youth a context for considering today's Big Question: "Can we ever solve life's mystery?"

Say, in your own words:

Today's Big Question asks if we can ever solve life's mystery. Doing that would mean having pretty clear answers to all the Big Questions. So let's review those we have done so far and see how we are doing.

Hand each participant either a question or an answer from Leader Resource 1. Make sure you distribute both the question and its answer. If you have a large group, provide some questions or some answers to a pair of youth. If the group is small, play the game in two rounds.

Ask participants to find the person who has their match and stand quietly together. When all youth have a match, let each pair read its question and answer. Ask the group whether the answer fits and whether it is complete. Does it really answer the question, or is it just a partial answer? (In every case, the answer is partial.)

As time allows, ask youth if they recall a Unitarian Universalist response to each question. Use the information from Leader Resource 2 as you wish to help the youth develop answers that are more encompassing. Point out that Unitarian Universalist responses to Big Questions are very helpful, but incomplete or still open.

Including All Participants

Adapt the activity to involve the full group, being mindful of participants with limited mobility. You might have the youth with questions remain seated, and the youth with answers walk around to look for their matching question.