The Witness Game

This is hotter / colder with a twist for older children.

The basic game for young ones:

One person is designated as the finder. She leaves the room while someone else hides an object. For little children the hiding place shouldn't be too difficult. After the object is hidden, the finder comes back in and begins to look for the hidden object. Everyone else is a 'witness'. They saw the object hidden, so  they know it's location. They are to share their witness with the finder without directly telling the finder exactly where the object is hidden (where's the fun in that?). They do this by saying, 'you're getting hotter' as the finder approaches the hidden object, or 'you're getting colder' as the finder moves away from the object until the object is found. 

The advanced game for older children:
Make the game a little more challenging for older children by allowing some of the witnesses to be 'false witnesses' who try to lead the finder away from the hidden object. The finder must learn to discern the true witnesses from the false witnesses. This can be very challenging!

Discussion
Discuss the importance of having witnesses to testify of truth. Here are some questions to help you get going:

• Did the witnesses make it easier to find the object? Why? 
• How hard would it be to find the object without having a witness?
• Were you able to discern the true witnesses from the false witnesses? How? 
• What witnesses do we have that tell us the direction we need to go and testify of truth?
• What is the most important witness? (HINT: It's not the 3 witnesses or the 8 witnesses or the scriptures or your parents.) (ANSWER: The Holy Ghost. You can have him as a constant companion if you have the gift of the holy ghost, but he can still be a witness and you can feel his influence even without the gift).