Community Map

Group Size: Resources:
  • Any size!
    • Ideally 4 or more
  • Some sort of medium you can draw/ construct a picture on.
  • Easiest with sheets of paper and writing utensils.

Game Play

Objective: Create a map from everyone’s pictures.

  • Give a rough estimate for the length and width of the picture.
  • Have everyone mark a road in the middle of each side of the picture.
  • Assign general elements for the picture.
    • Ex: include your goals, things that remind you of home, favorite activities, etc.
  • Give time and space for participants to create their picture.
  • Once everyone is finished, bring all the pictures together to form the map.
    • Use the road on each side to align with the picture beside it. Participants can choose what happens to the road (dead-end, bridge, 4-way junction, 90 degree curve to another side, etc.)
Additions & Alternatives:
– This can be done with sticks, leaves, and dirt but the picture needs to be constructed on something transportable in order to combine all the pictures. Creating it on a pad or jacket that could slide to the map would potentially work.

– If there are common themes in different pictures, try rearranging the map to connect the similar themes.

– Maybe participants can choose if it is a river or a roadway that connects to the next picture, then try to assemble the map so all the pictures fit together and rivers match up with rivers, and roads with roads.

– If using paper, you can pre-label each sheet to correspond with a specific spot in the map. Then, let participants randomly choose their piece of paper. Afterwards, rebuild the map according to the labels and see what it has become.

– Make it a living map that gets updated throughout the program.

Transfer of Learning

I think this activity holds a lot of promise because it is so variable. The general concept can be applied to so many different topics. This could be a great icebreaker with each picture showing parts of the participants’ lives. It could also be used to create the set of community guidelines/ norms. Or it can be a web of individual and group goals. There is a lot of freedom in how to frame the activity and I encourage you to think beyond my ideas and tailor it to your group!

License

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Sticks and Stones: Construction for Group Development by Henry Huang is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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