Let It Shine: A Free Photo-Answer Game for Seminary and Youth Classes

Let It Shine is a free class game from Weak Things for seminary, Sunday School and youth classes. You put a prompt on the screen, students scan a code and answer with a photo from their phones, and you approve every photo before it shows up on the board. Start a board at weakthings.com/pages/let-it-shine.

The name comes from the Sermon on the Mount: “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:14–16).

In most classes the same three students answer every question. Let It Shine gives everyone a way to answer at once, including the quiet ones in the back row, and then puts all of those answers on the candlestick where the whole room can see them.

How a round works

1. Write a prompt. Type anything you want the class to answer, or tap one of the ready prompts for this week's Come, Follow Me reading. It shows in big letters on the projector.
2. Students answer with a photo. They scan the QR code once, type a first name or team name, and take a photo. No app, no account and no sign-in.
3. You approve each photo. Every photo goes to a private queue on your phone. Nothing reaches the screen until you tap approve.
4. Let it shine. Tap the button and every approved answer fills the board at once. Tap any photo to spotlight it and ask that student to explain.

Four kinds of prompts

Because the answer is a photo, a single prompt can be almost anything. The ready prompts use four kinds:

• Show your face. “Show the disciples' faces in the storm, right before Jesus says, ‘Peace, be still’” (Mark 4:37–41).
• Act it out. “Freeze at the moment Peter starts to sink and reaches for Jesus” (Matthew 14:28–31). Pairs and rows can pose together.
• Draw or write it. “Draw one Beatitude as a picture, no words” (Matthew 5:3–12). Students hold up paper and use the back camera.
• Find it. “Let your light shine. Find something that gives off light and snap it” (Matthew 5:14–16).

There are three ready prompts for every week of the 2027 New Testament course, 156 in all, and each one lists the verses it comes from. You can edit any of them or ignore them and write your own on the spot.

Built for a room full of teenagers

A photo game with youth needs guardrails, so they're built in rather than left as settings:

• The teacher approves everything. Photos wait in a private queue, and you can hide any photo, even after it's on the board.
• Photos are deleted when class ends. Ending the session deletes every photo right away. If a teacher forgets, photos are deleted automatically 3 hours after the last activity.
• No accounts and no last names. Students type a first name or team name. Their phones never see anyone else's photos. Only the classroom screen does.
• Your phone is the remote. If your laptop is on the projector, scan the private teacher code with your own phone and approve photos there, so the class never sees the queue.

If you want to keep the moment, you can download a collage of a prompt's approved photos before you end class.

Ideas for using it in class

• Open the lesson. One reaction or pose prompt from the week's story gets everyone looking at the scriptures in the first five minutes.
• Check for understanding. “Write one word that describes the Savior in today's reading” shows you what the whole class took away, not just the students who raise their hands.
• Discuss one answer. Spotlight a photo and invite that student to explain what they drew or why they chose it.
• Close with an invitation. “Hold up one thing you will try this week” ends class with every student making a small commitment.

Let It Shine pairs well with New Testament Fan Feud and Seminary Showdown, and you'll find it with the rest of the free class games on the Seminary page and each week's Come, Follow Me 2027 lesson.

Start a Let It Shine board →

Let It Shine is an independent class tool from Weak Things. It is not an official product of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Scripture quotations are from the King James Version at ChurchofJesusChrist.org.