ESL/ELL goal: Draw a picture that you can’t see based on a description by your partner. Then switch roles. Choose simple illustrations of real objects (a still-life painting, for example). Avoid portraits (close-ups of people).
Teachers/tutors: This game helps students match visuals with words directly, without translation or definition, and to build on basic words they know by learning more detailed words. It’s okay for students to act out or sound out words when describing a painting. It’s okay for drawers to ask questions. It’s okay if the drawing isn’t perfect; the goal is to get the basic elements in the right place, the right size, and the right general shape.
The vocabulary on this page is useful but not essential. To make the game easier, show all students a collection of pictures first and ask them to practice describing a few. Then allow the describers to choose one (without showing their partner). Use pencil and paper or a dry-erase board to avoid dealing with colors and to focus on shapes and patterns.
Landscape: A painting of nature such as mountains, trees, an ocean, and other wide views.
Still-life: objects arranged and fixed in place, such as fruit in a bowl, a glass, a vase of flowers, and so on. They are usually realistic (like a photo).
Horizon: The line where sky meets land (or water). The sun rises and sets on the horizon. Every landscape painting has a horizon, so this is a good place to start your description. The horizon is a horizontal line.
Foreground: The part of the painting closest to the viewer.
Background: The part farthest from the viewer.
Perspective: The point of view of the observer. Landscapes have a wide perspective. An overhead perspective is from the air. A close-up perspective shows an object in detail. Perspective also means depth and angle: some objects look farther away than others. Objects can have a front, back, side, or three-quarter view, for example.
Textures (how it feels to the touch)
smooth (glass)
slippery (ice)
rough (sandpaper, unpolished rocks)
feathery (hair, bird feathers)
puffy (cloud, pillow)
prickly (cactus, rose stem)
solid (wood, stone)
cloudy, foggy, or misty (not solid)
velvety or soft (flower petals)
silky (silk, hair)
Prepositions: above or below, on top of, underneath, behind or in front of, next to or beside, to the right or left, at the top or at the bottom, and others.
The Art Talk Game: Shapes and Patterns
Work with your partner to draw as many of these shapes as you know.
round (circle) curly spiral crescent
curved straight wavy rippled
square rectangle triangle star
cylinder cone arch dome
rays spots polka dots fringes
striped checkered vertical line horizontal line
branched lobed pointy jagged
from www.hoppingfun.com
