i was trying to think of a creative way to get my 8th grade guys talking about their hopes and fears for the summer, their freshman years and beyond. this week is our final regular small group meeting (we have a small group party next week); and, as i’ve posted before, this group has been particularly tough to engage in meaningful conversation about…well…anything.

since we’ve been re-orienting these last few weeks (me and my co-leader), and attempting to both finish well and meet the guys at their level of interest and desire, rather than ours, i knew whatever we did needed to be fun. so i came up with an idea that i’m hoping will fit the bill.

i’ve seen ‘discussion dice’ before from other publishers. so i cut up a discarded amazon shipment box and taped together some very low-tech dice. i created 6 sharing prompts for one of the dice:

• What are you excited about for this summer?
• What are you anxious about for this summer?
• What hopes do you have for your freshman year?
• What makes you nervous about your freshman year?
• What changes do you want to make in how you live your faith in high school?
• What changes do you want to make in yourself for high school?

and i created 6 ‘reward’ items for the second dice (yes, i know the singular of dice is die — deal with it; and, no, not all of the 6 options are truly ‘rewards’ — gotta make it fun!). if they answer the prompt on the first dice honestly (as judged by me and my co-leader), then they get to roll the second dice:

• Choose 1 Snack
• Choose 2 Snacks
• Choose 1 Drink
• Choose 1 Drink
• Admit an awkward truth about yourself
• Crossfit Workout! (Spin around for 30 seconds, run in place for 1 minute, do 3 push-ups, do 5 jumping jacks)

i’ll pick up some drinks and small candy/snacky items, and we should be good to go! but, uh, who knows? could be awesome; could crash and burn when the 2nd guy crushes one of the dice.