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Volunteering at Scouts is changing to help us reach more young people

Volunteering is changing to help us reach more young people

Volunteering is changing at Scouts. Read more

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Throwing festivals

Throw and catch the question ball to share some facts about your favourite festival and learn about everyone else’s.
Plan a session with this activity

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You’ll need

  • Pens or pencils
  • Scrap paper
  • Sticky tape
  • Soft balls (one for each group)

Before you begin

It’s probably a good idea to let everyone know you’ll be playing this game in advance, so they have some time to choose their favourite festival and think about it. You could let people know in your meeting, or contact their parents or carers. Everyone can then arrive ready to talk about what their festival celebrates or means, and the food, clothes, and customs involved.

Play the game

  1. Split into small groups, and give each group a soft ball, pens, scraps of paper, and tape.
  2. Each group should think of some questions about festivals, and write them on the scraps of paper. The questions should be ones that everyone can answer.
  1. Each group should use the sticky tape to stick their questions all over their ball.
  2. Everyone should pause for a moment, and remember the festival they’ve chosen as their favourite.
  3. Each group should stand in a circle. The first person should throw the ball to someone else in their group.
  4. When someone catches the ball, they should look at the question their right thumb is touching and answer it for their festival. They may need to remind their group what their favourite festival is before they answer.
  1. Once someone has answered the question, they should throw the ball to someone else.
  2. Repeat steps five to seven until everyone’s shared things about their favourite festival.

Reflection

This activity helped you to develop your beliefs. Why did you choose your festival? What does it mean to you – does it link to things you believe, or a faith? How does the festival change your attitude to things (for example, does it make you thankful for something)? How does your festival make you feel? What do you think is the most important bit of your festival – is it spending time with family, remembering a story or historical event, saying sorry, saying thank you, or something else?

This activity also helped you to respect others. How did you show others respect when they were talking about their festivals? Were there any similarities between the different festivals? Would you like to join in with or experience any other festival? What can we do to show people celebrating other festivals that we value them (could you learn a greeting for everyone’s festival, or adapt your activities, for example, making sure you don’t do something food based if someone is fasting)?  

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Use a soft ball (for example, one made from foam) to avoid injuries.

It’s up to you whether people can answer the same question more than once, or whether they should choose the nearest question they haven’t answered.

Once everyone in the circle has answered one question, pause. The team should now try to throw the ball back in reverse order – each person should throw the ball to the person who threw it to them the first time. They should try to remember (and say) the festival that person has chosen, and what they said about it.  

If anyone doesn’t identify with a faith, they can choose another festival that’s important in their culture or community – including those with no religious link. For example, someone could choose Christmas as a secular festival, or celebrations such as new year.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Cubs My Faith Activity Badge

Everyone could bring in some food, clothing, or music that’s part of their chosen festival – put them all together to have a big party celebrating everyone’s festivals. Everyone should talk about why and when their festivals take place, and share their experiences. If you include some celebrations or festivals that usually take place in another country, this would meet requirement four of the Cub International Activity Badge.