The Original Facebook

This activity can be used as an afternoon event, a game, or even a lesson of sorts, if you choose. Regardless, at the end of the project, you will have a really cool memento of your group. HereÕs what you do.

Tell the kids in your youth ministry that they are going to do an Old school project today. Explain that before MySpace and Facebook hit the web, people shared their pictures and personal info in scrapbooks, journals, and/or photo albums. Over the course of the next half hour, students get a chance to make an old school Facebook real paper a real book.

What You’ll Need

Make a two-page information sheet for each student to fill out. Include their basic contact information (cell #, home #, and address, name they prefer, etc.), parentsÕ names, and school info (school, grade, etc). Also include a just-for-fun section that includes favorite pizza toppings, books, movies, music, subjects at school, color, TV show, etc. (Make sure you give a blank set of sheets to every new kid who shows up, and make sure they fill it out completely before they leave.)

Have each kid bring a school picture or snapshot of themselves that they like. Paste it onto an area of the front page reserved for a picture, with rubber cement or glue. Then print out silly pictures from your group as you take them, and include them in the book in whatever fashion you desire. DonÕt forget to let some of the more artistically talented students decorate the random pages of the book with their personal artwork. Also, toss in some group photos to round out the book.

Assemble all of the finished pages in plastic page protectors and put them in a decorated 3-ring binder. Make sure to date the info for later use.

This will not only come in handy for you when you need to call somebody, but it will also help everybody to get to know each other better as they flip through it.

Enjoy.

Idea by Tonya B.