Net-Working

Have the group stand in a circle, shoulder to shoulder then take 2 giant steps backward. Give one person a ball of yarn. Have them unwind a portion that they think will reach across the circle, hold the end then toss the ball of yarn across the circle to someone else. Upon catching the yarn ball, the next person unwinds a portion and holds onto the yarn then tosses the yarn ball to someone else. At this point, there are now 3 people connected by the yarn. Continue in this way until all are holding onto the yarn net. As each person tosses the yarn ball you can have them share something about themselves such as a favorite book, sport, movie, food, etc.

To process the activity, ask these or similar questions:

• Was it fun to create a network or spider web?
• What would happen to the group when somebody pulls back on the yarn?
• What would happen to the group when somebody drops their string?
• If someone drops the string, who is responsible for picking it up? Can others help?
• Who is in your community network? Family, friends, co-workers/classmates? What about service workers such as garbage men or electric lineman? Did you include first responders? Store clerks? Who else supports your network that you may not know?

Final thought: In a community, we all depend on one another, even those we can’t name. When one of us fails, we all feel it, so it is important to help build everyone up to make the community stronger.