Materials for the class

Phase 2. Pen and Paper for each student. Blue tack or tape for hanging the drawings.

Phase 3. The teacher can have a costume help play the role.

Layout of the classroom

Phase 1 and 3. The classroom setting is empty to move freely.

Phase 2. Bringing the desks together to make one big table.

Phase 4. Visiting a museum

Phase 1

The teacher puts the students into pairs. One member of each pair is ‘A’ and the other one is ‘B’. Each member of the pair stand face to face. They look at each other carefully and focus on each other’s details. The teacher says every ‘A’ member should close their eyes and ‘B’ should change three things about their clothes or body parts. The teacher announces all ‘As’ can open their eyes they try to discover these three changes.  After that, the roles change and same process are repeated.

Phase 2
On a big table (it can be also played while sitting on the floor) students sit in two parallel lines with a person in front of them. It can be the same pairs they had been in the previous activity. Everybody must have a sheet of paper and a pen. Then, the teacher gives the instructions one by one.

a. The students write their name in the upper part of the sheet and draw the shape of the face of the person that’s in front of them.

b. When they finish, they have to pass the paper to the person who is on their right side (All must pass the paper at the same time). With the new paper in their hands, the teacher gives a new instruction, for example:

“draw the eyes, draw the nose, draw the eyebrows etc…”

The teacher takes care that students always draw about the person who is in front and pass the paper in the same way (to the right).

c. The previous process must be repeated as many times as needed till each student receives the first paper with his/her name on the top.

The result will be a portrait of them but built with pieces and parts of the body of the whole group. Once this is done, each student hangs the portrait on the wall.

Tips to the teacher: Different parts of the body can be asked to draw depending on the number of participants that the class has (Eg: eyes (left and right), ears (left and right), mouth, teeth, tongue, hair, beards, nose, eyebrows (left and right), eyelashes (left and right), lips, glasses, scars, earrings, piercing, birth marks, etc).

Phase 3

All students walk in the classroom and the teacher says that ‘Welcome to Our Museum. Today we are presenting the Portrait of Artist from whole world.’ The teacher is in the role as a Guide. The teacher asks the students to look at the drawings on the wall carefully. Which part of the drawings is symmetrical? The students walk through the classroom and look at the portrait to discover symmetrical parts and asymmetrical parts. The teacher brings the whole group together and discusses the symmetry on the paintings and body parts.

Phase 4

Optional: The teacher arranges a visit to a real museum with realistic sculptures and status or paintings. The discussion about symmetry continues in the visit of the museum.