D/D Describe and Draw

Nataliya Maslova from Turkey is the leader of this project. She is an ESL teacher and Certified National Geographic Educator. Send any questions to her at nataliyateacher21@gmail.com. 

Description Objectives     Phases / timeline Resources

Are you looking for a wonderful way for your students to explore their creativity, improve their descriptive language skills, and connect with peers? Our Describe and Draw project is designed to do just that! Student teams will be paired with another classroom. Then Students will write a description of themselves and share with their partner. The partner will make a drawing based on the description they receive. It’s a fantastic exercise in communication, interpretation, and artistic expression.

Example Description
Below is an example of how a student used a description to draw her partner’s face.
 “My hair is brown and long and wavy. I have no fringe at all I comb my hair backward and I wear a broad red ribbon, my eyelashes are long and dark brown. The eyebrows are brown. My eyes big and brown. The shape of my face is long and my cheeks are a little round. My mouth is red with rather thick lips. I am pale and I like to wear a blue t-shirt.”

Portrait drawn by Arianna (Italy). They have been both very skilled in describing and in drawing.

  

Age group and Objectives
This project is for any age group. And it’s also suitable for EFL students at the basic level. 

Phases

Apply to Join the project in January 1-31, 2026.
Project Begins in February 2026.
Send Your Class name list to the project Leader — February 1- February 7
Post Your intro to Facebook — February 8 – February 15
After Project leader pairs the teams, contact your partner teacher – Immediately!
Teacher posts all finished drawings in a Google Doc — March 15, 2026

 

Phase 1
*January 1- January 31
Email nataliyateacher21@gmail.com to JOIN THE PROJECT. The project leader will reply to confirm you want to be in the project. 

       *February 1 – February 7

  1. Teachers to participate, please Request to join the D/D Facebook group.
  2. Email the project manager a list (or a Google doc link) of your students’ names (with name, age and gender of them).

    *February 8 – February 15

  3. Write a presentation of your school and group and share by posting it with a photo to the private Facebook Group. This could also be published for all participants to see in a Google Doc if the project manager chooses. 
  4. The project manager pairs the groups in a Google Doc list and sends the link to all participants.  Nataliya’s Google doc will be called Describe and Draw Team Schools.
  5. Teachers will contact each other in email as soon as the pairs have been made.

Phase 2 – Share Descriptions
Teachers instruct their students to write their self descriptions. The individual teachers will send their students descriptions to their partner teacher. The teachers will distribute the descriptions to their students.  Collaborating teachers agree how they would like to do it. We suggest these 2 ways to share descriptions:

      *March 15, 2026

Phase 3  SHARE and PUBLISH PORTRAITS
We recognizes that students will al have different drawing abilities and that’s great! But they should commit to follow the directions in the description as much as possible.

Completed drawings can he captured with a photo or scanned. Format must be jpg or gif.

The teacher will collect all of the photos/scans drawn by his or her students in a Google doc such as this example: CLASSROOM Example.

The project manager keeps a log to see that all have got a drawing.

Phase 4: Optional
Students can get in touch with the other students if they want via their teacher’s email.

Information channels
We will share project information in our private D/D Project FB Group .