Give each student a piece of paper.
Tell the students that each one is to draw a house on his or her paper. They are to work alone. When the houses are drawn, they are to fold the papers in two so that the houses cannot be seen. The papers are collected, placed in the center of the table, and shuffled. Each student then picks one and unfolds it. Now ask the students, one at a time, to describe in detail the house on the paper each has chosen. Ask them to describe the occupants of the house, the furniture in the"house, the colors used in the different rooms, the location of the house, and any other details they can think of. Next, arrange all the drawings face up on the table. Ask each student to choose one that he or she likes and write his or her name on the back of it. There should be only one name on each drawing.
Then have the class, working together, arrange the houses in groups of three. (If the number of drawings is not divisible by three, one or two groups may have four houses.) Let the students develop their own criteria for grouping the houses. Provide no more guidance than "houses that you think go together well." When the sets of houses are formed, ask those whose names appear on the drawings to sit together and create a three-minute skit that illustrates or depicts the relationships among the "neighbors" who live in the three (or four) houses. Have each group present its skit to the group.