Start your school year by encouraging your students to get to know each other and share compliments with this paired drawing activity.

In this task, students will work in pairs and draw portraits of each other. You might like to pair students up with the person sitting at the desk next to them on their first day of school as a way to foster new friendships. Students are encouraged to use colour, line and shape to visually represent the positive aspects of their partner’s personality. At the end, pairs can compare their portraits, discuss why they made the choices they made and decide whether or not they agree with their partner’s assessment.

Three differentiated task options are provided. The extension version of the task (p.3-4) asks students to interview their partner with thought-provoking questions to help them develop an understanding of who they are – perfect if you have lots of new students in your class!

Worksheets can be enlarged to A3 size if you need more space to draw.