What is my Onaijin Object?

This is the third grade version. It is relatively simple to do a version of this game for all grades and topics.

Grade Level: 3,  4, 5, 6, 7, 8, High School, Adult

Objective

After this lesson, the student will know one object in the Onaijin?

Materials

• Object Cards (attached) 

Preparation

Make sufficient copies of the Object Cards and cut them out. Keep them face down.

Method

1. Opening Gassho

2. Discuss all the various objects in the Onaijin. If that class has already done so, then this step might be skipped.

3. Pass out the Object Cards. Students are to keep them face down.

4. They partmer with another student.

5. They exchange the Object Cards while face down. (Left hand gives, right hand takes) 

6. Without looking at the Object Card, the student puts the Card onto the forehead so the face looks outward.

7. Students walk around asking other students "Yes/No" questions. After one question, the student must go to another student.

8. When time expires, the teacher asks each student to guess

9. Students then sees their card.

7. Review students experience, esp. the question that helped solve or the most memorable question

8. Closing Gassho

Evaluation

During the Review first ask each student what their object was and the memorable question.

Note

This lesson was prepared for presentation at the 2024 FDSTL Conference in Mountain View, CA. When it was done at the Conference, it was so popular that it took several minutes to start the workshop again.

As noted above, there are many possible variations including:

• Buddhist Holidays

• Different Buddhist Sects

• Buddhist Leaders/Famous Buddhists

   In addition, it is possible to make this work for younger grades by using pictures instead of words.

Author

Patti Kaneda, San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin, 2024

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