Author: British Council | Published 1 December 2022
Read what a teacher says about this activity:
Draw my picture is a fun activity for all learners. It’s a good activity for creativity and for getting learners to listen carefully to each other. It also helps them practise prepositions of place – next to, in front of, between, on the right …
Stage 1:
Say: ‘I want you to draw a picture.’ The picture can be of something related to the lesson, or something you are going to learn about soon.
Stage 2:
Put learners into pairs. Make sure that each learner has their original drawing and another piece of paper or card to draw on.
Demonstrate that the learners will take it in turns to describe their own picture to their partner. The partner must then try to draw that picture from the description.
Stage 3:
Say: ‘Stand or sit back-to-back with your friend. Keep your picture secret.’ It may be useful to model this with one pair at the front of the class. Or learners might be able to face each other and hide their pictures behind a book.
Stage 4:
Say: ‘Take turns, describe the picture to your friend. They must draw it. Remember, don’t show them the picture.’ Encourage the learners to ask questions to find out more about the picture.
When they have finished describing and drawing one picture, the learners reverse roles, with the other person describing and their partner drawing.
Stage 5:
When both learners have finished, say: ‘Now compare your pictures with the originals.’ You could then ask some learners to share these pictures with the whole class, or to put them up in a class gallery.
This is a type of information-gap activity, where learners share information to complete a task. It is both communicative and creative.