Imagine the Difference: displaying difference

Here are a range of ideas for displaying difference through art:

Using photos

Ask the children and other teachers in your school to bring in some photos of themselves taken at different times of their lives. They can arrange the photos on a large piece of paper and write about the differences they can see. Each difference can be written in a separate colour.
Scan the pictures into the computer and make a presentation using different fonts and colours.
Ask the children to bring in, or draw, a picture of themselves with another person. Ask them to write a caption that explains why they like their chosen person, why that person is special and how the two of them are different.

To illustrate the idea that we're different on the inside too, ask the children to fold a piece of paper in half and to draw a large picture of themselves on the front. You open the folded paper to reveal words describing the child's skills, likes and dislikes.
Make silhouettes of each child's profile by projecting a strong beam of light onto black paper. Carefully draw around the shadow and then cut out. Is it possible to identify everyone? How are our profiles different?
Invite the children to look in the mirror and draw their own faces. Display the pictures as a collage and write thought-provoking captions. For example, 'Do we all look the same?' or 'Was everyone in the same mood?'

Challenge the children to make a 'spot the difference' picture. Can they draw two similar pictures with five small differences?
Make a group collage with as many different materials as possible, such as shells, string, material, sand, torn paper and so on. The subject could be everyone in the class or a group playing a team game.
Ask the children to try drawing using a different part of their bodies. If they are right-handed, ask them to experiment with their left hand, or use their toes or mouths to draw with a felt tip pen.
Younger children will enjoy making prints of their hands and feet. Display with the caption 'Can you see how our hands and feet are different?'
Challenge older children to draw a picture of themselves several times over. Put out a range of felt tips, charcoal, chalks, coloured pencils and brushes so that each new drawing is created with a different medium.
Divide a sheet of A4 paper into 16 rectangles. Ask each child to choose just one implement, such as a pencil or a crayon, to draw with. Can they make different marks in each rectangle and fill the paper? Start them off by suggesting dots, dashes, firm pressure/light pressure and by holding the pencil in different grips.

Fold a sheet of A4 in half. Invite the children to draw a careful picture of their free hand on one half of the paper. Then ask them to draw their hand again, but this time they must only look at their free hand whilst they are drawing and never look at their picture. Compare the two pictures and notice the differences. Which picture do they prefer?
Ask the children to draw an everyday object, but the difference is that they will look through something which distorts the vision. Glass bricks are excellent for this exercise, convex or concave lenses also work well. Remind the children that they must only draw what they can see, and not what they think ought to be there. Is it possible to identify the original object?