Open House "Mini-Me" Project

Open House is always one of my favorite nights of the year.  During my first two years of teaching, Open House was only for parents and guardians due to the pandemic.  It was so nice this past September to go back to a more traditional format where students come with their family members and have the opportunity to show their classroom to their families.  For Open House this year, I had each of my students design a “mini-me.”  This was such a fun activity that I look forward to using again next year.  I discovered this activity on “The Teacher’s Brain” website.  This website has a ton of different resources to make learning exciting and fun for students of all ages.

Materials

• Templates for the head, shirts, pants, skirts, shoes, arms, legs, and accessories

• Scissors

• Glue or glue sticks

• Craft glue

• Tape

• Coloring supplies

• Variety of colored yarns for hair colors

The Activity

Explain to students that they are going to be using a variety of templates to design a “mini-me” of themselves to display at their desks for Open House.  Show students the different templates that they can choose from and let them know that they can also design their own clothing or accessories if none of the templates have what they need.  

After all of the materials are set up on a table, students can come up and gather the materials that they will need.  Students will color and design all of the pieces for their “mini-mes” first and then, they will cut and glue them together.  Lastly, students will use yarn to add hair to their “mini-mes.”  I like to use craft glue which is a little bit stronger to hold the hair in place.

Open House

Before students leave on the day of Open House, they cover their name tags with paper and set up their “mini-mes” so they are sitting in their chairs.  Students can use tape to make them sit up.

When students and their families arrive, they complete a scavenger hunt to give their family members a tour of the classroom. One of the activities on the scavenger hunt is "Mini-Me Guess Who." They walk around the classroom with their families and their family members have to guess which “mini-me” is them.  It is like a giant game of “Guess Who” and the students and families really enjoy it.  It is also such a nice way to create a welcoming, inviting classroom atmosphere when meeting families for the first time.

I really enjoyed this project as a way to build classroom community this year and I am looking forward to doing it again in the Fall.