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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

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Use your fingers to share your reflections, then join them together to make a paper chain.
Plan a session with this activity

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You’ll need

  • A4 paper
  • Coloured pens or pencils
  • Scissors
  • Glue sticks

Faiths and belief in Scouts

Scouts is open to everyone; we don’t identify exclusively with one faith. Scouts is open to people of all faiths and of none.

As an inclusive and values based movement, we support our members to engage with spirituality in an exciting and meaningful way.

Celebrating and understanding differences, including differences in faiths and beliefs, is an important part of the educational and developmental side of Scouts.

Belief and its exploration helps Scouts to learn from other faiths and develop their personal beliefs and values. Scouts are open and willing to explore faiths, whether established or defined or not. 

In our diverse society, people can feel cautious broaching this sensitive subject. It's important that Scouts offers young people safe, exciting and open spaces to explore faiths and beliefs and engage in personal reflection, as they question and develop their opinions and understanding of the world around them.

Discover more about faiths and beliefs

Before you begin

  • Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here. Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
  • Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers

Setting up this activity

  • Create paper strips by folding sheets of A4 paper lengthways twice and cutting along the folds. You should end up with strips about 7cm wide and almost 30cm long. You’ll need one or two strips for each person.
  • Set out the paper strips and pens on the table, so everyone can get started as soon as they’ve finished talking.

Talk about reflection

  1. Everyone should sit in a circle.
  2. Ask everyone to start thinking about reflecting or praying. You may want to talk about what it is, why people reflect and pray, or who they reflect and pray to (if anyone). We’ve included some ideas in case you get stuck.
  3. Anyone who prays or reflects could tell everyone else about, but only if they want to and are happy and comfortable to.
  4. Everyone could also chat about how their Scouts values are their shared beliefs and people may choose to reflect on them at important times, such as when they make their Promise. People may also choose to reflect at certain times of the year, such as Remembrance or New Year.
  5. Explain that that different people with different backgrounds may pray and reflect. We’ve included some 'Reflection and prayer' ideas below to help you explain.

Use your digits

  1. Everyone should hold up their hand like they’re about to wave to someone. They should look at their thumb, which is nearest the heart. Everyone should think about people who are important to them, and who are close to their heart, such as their friends and people in their family.
  2. Everyone should wiggle their index finger. This finger is the leader. Everyone should think about the people who lead them every day, for example, their teachers or parents or carers.
  3. Everyone should look the finger in the middle of their hand. This finger stands tall, like the people in the world who make big decisions (for example, the leaders of countries). Everyone should think about the decisions big leaders make, and how their choices affect other people.
  4. Everyone should close their fingers into their palm and try to lift their ring finger. They’ll probably find it tricky, as the ring finger is the weakest finger. Everyone should think about people who are struggling—they might be unwell or facing other problems. It could be someone they know, someone they heard about on the news or at school, or a character from a book or film. It can be easy to get side-tracked with trying to lift your finger, so keep an eye out and help bring people’s focus back to the reflection.
  5. Everyone should hold up their little finger—this is for them! They should think about what makes them happy, and how they can do their best in any situation.

Link it all up

  1. Everyone should go to the table with the paper and pens.
  2. Everyone should take a strip and, remembering what they thought about with their fingers, they should write or draw a reflection or prayer.
  3. Some people may want to write or draw some of the people they thought about, doodle things they’re hoping for (for example, happiness, health), or a statement about themselves (for example, ‘I’m creative’ or ‘I’m a good friend).
  4. Everyone should decorate their strip to make it extra special.
  5. Everyone should get back into a circle with their strips.
  6. Someone should volunteer to start the paper chain making. If they want to, they can share some of their reflection or prayer with everyone else. They should put some glue on one end of their strip, and stick the ends together to make a loop.
  7. The next person can share some of their reflection or prayer if they want to. They should thread their paper strip through the first person’s loop, and glue it to make a loop of their own.
  8. Everyone should take it in turns to share if they want to, then add their paper strip as a loop, until all of the strips are linked together in a long paper chain.
  9. Everyone should decide what they’ll do with their paper chain.
  10. Will you display it, use it for the start and end of your time together, or save it for special occasions like group reflections?

Why do people pray and reflect?

  • Some people pray and reflect to say thank you, ask for support, or promise to try and do better.
  • Reflecting and praying can help us think about our lives and our place in the world.

Who do people pray and reflect to?

  • If you have a faith or belief, you may pray to a god or religious figure. Reflection doesn’t have to be rooted in specific beliefs.
  • There are lots of ways to reflect and pray. You could write, read, speak, draw, listen to music, or perform music.

How do people pray and reflect?

  • People who don’t follow a specific faith or belief may choose meditate or sit quietly to reflect. It can be good to be still and quiet and think.
  • People who follow a Buddhist faith may spin prayer wheels to help them choose a mantra (a statement, word, or sound) to focus on.
  • People who follow an Islamic faith may pray several times a day, using a prayer mat and facing towards the holy city of Mecca. They wash their hands, feet, and head, and say special prayers in the Arabic language. They may also say prayers called duas at any time of the day.
  • People who follow a Jewish faith may pray three times a day. They may say a quiet prayer before eating, or if they see something beautiful (such as a tree in blossom).
  • People who follow a Hindu faith may use yoga or chanting to reflect and show their devotion towards God.
  • People who follow a Christian faith may close their eyes, put their hands together, or kneel to pray. They may make up a prayer or say a prayer like the Lord’s Prayer.

Reflection

This activity was a chance to develop your beliefs. You don’t have to follow a religion to pray or reflect—it’s also a chance to think about the good things in our lives and what we want to improve or change. Take a moment to think quietly about what you put on your slip of paper. Why did you choose those things? It can be tricky to think about big things like beliefs, so well done!

For this activity to work, you also needed to respect others (including people with different backgrounds to yours). How did you show you respected others? You talked about different ways people might pray and reflect, but everyone did the same activities together. Have a look at your long chain of reflections and prayers. They all link together, even though they’re different. Do you think people share some of the same reasons for praying and reflecting?

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.

Scissors

Supervise young people appropriately when they’re using scissors. Store all sharp objects securely, out of the reach of young people.

Glue and solvents

Always supervise young people appropriately when they’re using glue and solvent products. Make sure there’s plenty of ventilation. Be aware of any medical conditions that could be affected by glue or solvent use and make adjustments as needed.

People could talk and share in smaller groups.

  • No one has to share anything if they don’t want to. Help everyone remember that beliefs are personal, and that they should be gentle and think about other people’s feelings.
  • You don’t need to have a particular faith to join in with this activity. There are lots of examples of pieces of non-religious reflective writing, such as stories, poems, and songs. It may help to share some examples of these.
  • Think about sensitive situations before you begin. For example, you may want to avoid using the example of illness if someone has an ill family member.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Beavers Faith Activity Badge
Cubs My Faith Activity Badge

‘Use your digits’ is just a suggestion—no one has to follow the guidance, and everyone can write or draw about whatever or whoever they like.