Unroll the sheet of brown paper or butcher paper. Use masking tape to stick the corners of the paper to the floor. Ask each student to lie down on top of the paper and to be in a relaxed position with their arms and legs spread wide enough to leave a gap between the trunk and the arms and between the legs. Ask each grown-up to draw an outline of their child with a marker. Allow the child to get up.
Untape the paper from the floor. Engage the students in an activity that will give the adults time to cut out the life-sized paper dolls. Tape the cut-out paper dolls to the floor again.
Provide crayons, construction paper, yarn, fabric scraps and buttons for each collaborative partnership between the students and their guests. Tell the participants to dress the life-sized paper doll so that it is ready for school. They can color or cut and paste clothes. Remind them to give their paper dolls hair, eyes, ears and a mouth. They can add earrings or other special touches if they want to.
Suggest to the adults that they allow the students to make decisions about how to dress the paper dolls. Ask them to name the paper dolls.
Hang the finished paper dolls on the wall in the classroom or in the hallway. Ask each student artist to tell about her paper doll. Document the project as the students and adults are working. Then take a picture of each student standing in front of his own life-sized paper doll. Print out or email one copy of each student's project to her parents with a thank you note for their participation.