• Writing paper and instruments
• Optional: Clipboards, to provide a good writing surface

Children play a game that demonstrates how much we have in common. The game is adapted with permission from a game copyrighted by Business Trainings Work, Inc.

Tell the group you want to play a game about the connections we share. Form pairs, or ask the children to find a partner.

Give each pair a sheet of writing paper and a pencil or pen.

Ask each pair to write a list of six things they have in common-for example, the school they go to, the year they were born, pets, favorite books, food likes, sports likes. One word for each thing is enough.

Ask the children to tell you when they have listed six things. As pairs finish, bring them a new sheet of writing paper and invite them to find someone else in the room who has one of their six things in common with them, too. Tell them that when they find that person, they can use the new sheet of paper to make a new list. The new list should have also have six things, but they must be things all three people have in common, without repeating any of the things on the first list.

Depending on the size of the group and the time you have allotted, you might challenge the children to continue until everyone is included in six different lists, or call "time."

Talk about the process. Was it easy or hard? Did participants discover similarities they did not know existed? Point out that they found connections with others in the group. Do they think they could find some connection to everyone in the room? Do they think they could find some connection to everyone on the planet? What does it mean to you to realize that we are all connected?

Set up the room and plan the activity so all participants will be able to become part of new groups. If any participants have mobility limitations, you can adapt the game so one partner brings their first list to a new partner and adds six different commonalities with the new partner to the list, then moves to a third partner, and so on.