🤲 Draw on My Back!
🎯 Goal: One child traces on a classmate’s back a previously chosen shape, which the other must then guess. This game develops tactile perception, mental imagery, as well as vocabulary and drawing skills.
👦🏻 Target age: 5–8 years.
⏰ Duration: 10 minutes.
Materials: felt-tip pens and paper for drawing.
🎯 Learning objectives:
👉 Learning is not just about intellectualizing: it is also about concretely experiencing what is taught. The more a concept is lived through multiple senses, the more deeply it is understood and memorized. In this respect, touching and handling support the construction of abstract notions (numbers, letters, geometric concepts).
👉 The game “Draw on My Back!” uses rules children already know: one student draws a shape, letter, or symbol on a classmate’s back, who must then guess what it is. The child lending their back may or may not be blindfolded. They will give their answer by:
- naming the shape
- or by drawing the shape they guessed
👉 Transforming a tactile sensation (a sliding pressure, a curve, a straight line) into a mental image requires an effort of inner visualization. It is training in mental representation.
🟢 Possible symbols and instructions:
The diversity of shapes to draw depends on the current curriculum. It ranges from alphabet letters to polygons and typographic symbols.
🗣️ Example: Draw me
- a triangle ▲
- a diamond ◆
- a heart ❤
- a sun ☀, a moon ☾ or a star ★
- an arrow (↑ ↓ → ←)
- a spiral 🌀
- the Venus symbol (♀) or the Mars symbol (♂)
- an arc ∩
- a mathematical symbol (+, −, ×, ÷, =)
- a question mark (?) or an exclamation mark (!)
- @, #, &, %
- the infinity symbol ∞
- a small stylized drawing (a house, a tree, a fish, a flower…)
etc.
🌟 Conclusion
A simple tool, this game effectively fosters collaboration and mutual attention, while making learning motivating. Integrated into teaching, it helps strengthen the sensory and cognitive skills essential for reading, writing, mathematics, and graphic expression.