Digital Photo Lesson Ideas

Ÿ As an alternative to showing students' faces on the internet, let them draw caricatures of themselves and paste these over their faces in photos. - Kenton Letkeman, Tisdale School Division, Tisdale, SK, CA

Ÿ Give students a portion of a digital picture and have them guess what the picture is of. - Paula Fleischer, Peachland Elementary

Ÿ Give students a list of items to look for in the classroom or in the school. They must take pictures and compile a presentation (slide show, web page, etc.) of the things they found during their scavenger hunt to prove they found them all.

Ÿ Take pictures during plays, sporting events, or other special events. Make a slide show of these activities.

Ÿ Take pictures of various staff members and teachers. Create a slide show or digital handbook to give new students.

Ÿ Take pictures during the day to give a photographic record of classroom procedures. Print the pictures out and post them so students can review the procedures as needed.

Ÿ Photograph places in the community (parks, libraries, etc.). Have students compile reports to go with the photographs and print a brochure about their community.

Ÿ Load a variety of bitmaps to your My Documents folder from various 'famous' sites around the world: Eiffel Tower, Wall of China, Buckingham Palace, Castle at Disney World, etc. Take a photo of the children, one at a time and then have them import them to the site. Depending on how well they cut around themselves, it looks like they are actually there. - Earlene Saulnier, Immaculate Heart of Mary School

Ÿ Have each kindergartner choose a letter. Then, go on a walk around the school or in the neighborhood. When the child finds something that begins with that letter, take a picture of the child with that object. Use the pictures to create a class alphabet chart.

Ÿ After a field trip on which you have taken at least one picture for each child or pair of children, download the pictures and have the children write a summary or memories or something else related to that picture. Make a class book.

Ÿ After a field trip, immediately download and slide show or use the feature some cameras have for plugging into a VCR. Use the photos to help you debrief the field trip.

Ÿ Use the cameras for a phrenology project. We had a prairie at my last school and I always wanted the kids to create a field guide for the prairie by photographing the same plant every month. They'd combine the pictures from one year onto a single page and include information about the plant.

Ÿ Use still photos to create educational iMovies. My current school has a turtle week to raise funds and raise awareness about the plight of sea turtles. A fifth grade teacher worked with the high school art teacher to create a great educational video that was shown to the entire elementary. Being written by kids, it ended up at the correct level.

Ÿ For years my colleague has taken lots of pictures throughout the year. At the December and June portfolio nights he would run a slide show of the pictures so families could see their child learning. He duplicated and sold them at cost. Kids would come back many years later and tell him they still watched their video. - Susan Sedro, Mont'Kiara International School

Ÿ Take pictures during students' science experiments. If participating in a science fair, use the pictures as part of the display boards. You can also use pictures to give a visual representation of each part of the scientific process.

Ÿ I use my Sony Mavica in school. I have a disk wallet with 24 disks and a stack of sticky notes. The disks are numbered. When we use a disk a brief note about the pictures is written on the sticky note and that is put on the disk before it is put back into the wallet. That way when we get back to the classroom we know who needs which disk to complete their work. For my own pictures I use the same system sometimes adding a notebook for more detailed notes. For example on a recent trip I took pictures of different flowers, fossils, minerals, and historic exhibits (I checked with museum personnel before taking any photographs.) My notebook has notes about each picture that I can use to make posters or add to handouts. I'm burning the pictures to CD for the kids to use in their reports when they can not get a photograph themselves. - Kimberly Herbert

Ÿ Take pictures of your classroom to make a virtual tour. Compile these into a brochure or slide show or web page.

Ÿ Take pictures to document other growth, such as plants, butterflies, frogs, etc. Use these pictures to illustrate life cycles or stages of growth.

Ÿ Take pictures of objects in the school or familiar places in your community. Let the kids use the pictures to learn the names for them (i.e. book, pencil, library). The students can compile these into a book which they can read.

Ÿ Let students take pictures of themselves and make trading cards. They love exchanging these cards with each other. A trading card can easily be made in Word or other word processing program by making a table with 2 columns. Students should include information about themselves (name, birthday, favorite class, favorite cartoon, etc.)

Ÿ Take pictures of students throughout the year to illustrate how they grow. This is best done outside in full light, with students lined up against a wall and with another object in the photo or a mark made on the wall so that difference in sizes through the year can be easily seen.

Ÿ Use the camera to take pictures of the Students of the Week. Print them out to display on their certificates.

Ÿ Take lots of pictures on field trips. Then display the pictures by either printing them or displaying them on a computer screen or television. Have students write about these experiences.

Ÿ Take pictures during open house. Display the pictures in the classroom. Good way to remember what each students' parents look like until you become more familiar with them.

Ÿ We take pictures of school events, classroom projects, art projects, music programs, and just every day pictures. We have a local cable station that creates a Power Point type program with captions. The station show the presentation several times a week. it is great. You might want to check with your local cable station and see if they will do it. Also, this coming school year we (which means me) are going to create a Power Point program ... of different events, classroom projects, etc. When we have parent teacher conferences we will have TVs set up showing the presentation of what has been happening in our school. - Sheryl

Ÿ I use the digital camera during the first week of school to take student pictures. Students then design posters and glue their pictures on the posters. Students must discuss what is on their posters and we display them for the month of September. I use it to take pictures of students completing activities, such as readers theater, cooperative group activities, etc. Its instant feedback and students love it. I also take pictures the last week of school and students complete Venn diagrams on themselves and share how they are still the same and how they have changed over the year. Our tech coordinator takes tons of school activities with the camera and posts the pictures on a bulletin board in the main lobby. A final thing she did this year was with these pictures make an 8th grade power point presentation for graduation. What a great summation of a challenging year! Kids loved this! Just some ways we use cameras at our school! - Jamie

Ÿ I use my digital camera to take pictures of my students all year long doing normal things like working and also on field trips and doing any special activities. Then at the end of the year I make a power point slide show of the pictures I took set to music. I hook my computer up to my tv/vcr and I record the slide show onto a vcr tape then make copies. On the last day of school I surprise the kids by showing them our class slide show then when it is over and they are all saying how neat that was I hand them each their own personal copy as a parting gift to remember their last year (they leave me and go to middle school) they love this, and parents love it too. - Maureen

Ÿ I use digital pictures to:

- -make locker magnets

- -make thank you notes

- -use with pen pal letters

- -make stickers with student name and picture

- -make a monthly bulletin board highlighting special activities

- -make a memory book for the students for the year

- -publish student books, they draw pictures and I take pictures of their illustrations with the digital camera and print them on the same page as the text.

- -have students interview each other, take pictures of each other, and print off the interview and pictures -make a weekly newsletter

- -white out the background of the student and have them draw a picture around a photo of themselves -make bookmarks with their picture on it

- -students make junk sculptures, then write about it and put the picture and writing together for a class book

- -take pictures of projects or events to put on the web site

- -take pictures of the various life stages of butterflies grown in the classroom

-take pictures of different stages of a science experiment

Ÿ I use digital cameras in my classroom all year long. These are some of the things I did this year: 1) bought seasonal packs with holes in the center & they took their picture and placed in it in the cut out space for cute bulletin boards, name tags, etc. 2) used their picture on large manila envelopes and laminated for take home things, 3) used pictures all year long and made a Christmas photo album for mom and dad (It was titled "A Day at School" and I took pictures of them in all their different classes and they had to write the name of the subject and then on the next page was them working at a task in that subject. The parents loved it!). 4) at parties and special things going on, their pictures would be displayed in the hallway. Some I printed in color and some in black and white. 5) also used my camera at workshops, etc. to take pictures of things I wanted to use in my classroom. I have iMacs at school and took the pictures from the disk to Appleworks and sized them. I hope this sparks some ideas for you to try. - Joanne

Ÿ In my Middle School Math Classes I have taken black and white headshots of each student (with our Sony Mavica), sized it to a quarter page with a box frame around it ... then added a blank box beside it (the same size as the framed picture). This would take up the top half of the page. I would repeat the process with another student's headshot and empty box below that first one. Then I'd cut the page in half giving each student their own headshot and blank box on the half-sheet. The students then draw 1/2 - 1 in. gridlines in pencil on both the headshot and the empty box next to the headshot. They label the gridlines as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc., going each direction. They try to duplicate their pictures by drawing only what they see in each box. They make amazingly accurate drawings of themselves! - John Schwartz

Ÿ -Take a walk around the school taking pictures of important areas. Have students draw a map of the

school, importing the pictures to show there locations.

Ÿ -For young students, take a picture of each student. Write the students name below the picture and use this

on bulletin boards instead of the name alone or use it to label the students seat, locker, coat hook, etc.

Ÿ -Take pictures of everyone in your class. Use the photos in a seating chart.

Ÿ -Have each student take a picture. Students then trade pictures. Students then need to write a story to explain what is happening in their picture.

Adapted from http://www.wacona.com/digicam/digicam.html

Originally created by Lori Miller, Technology Instructor at Wacona Elementary School



		Digital Photo Lesson Ideas Ÿ As an alternative to showing students' faces on the internet, let them draw caricatures of themselves and paste these over their faces in photos. - Kenton Letkeman, Tisdale School Division, Tisdale, SK, CA Ÿ Give students a portion of a digital picture and have them guess what the picture is of. - Paula Fleischer, Peachland Elementary Ÿ Give students a list of items to look for in the classroom or in the school. They must take pictures and compile a presentation (slide show, web page, etc.) of the things they found during their scavenger hunt to prove they found them all. Ÿ Take pictures during plays, sporting events, or other special events. Make a slide show of these activities. Ÿ Take pictures of various staff members and teachers. Create a slide show or digital handbook to give new students. Ÿ Take pictures during the day to give a photographic record of classroom procedures. Print the pictures out and post them so students can review the procedures as needed. Ÿ Photograph places in the community (parks, libraries, etc.). Have students compile reports to go with the photographs and print a brochure about their community. Ÿ Load a variety of bitmaps to your My Documents folder from various 'famous' sites around the world: Eiffel Tower, Wall of China, Buckingham Palace, Castle at Disney World, etc. Take a photo of the children, one at a time and then have them import them to the site. Depending on how well they cut around themselves, it looks like they are actually there. - Earlene Saulnier, Immaculate Heart of Mary School Ÿ Have each kindergartner choose a letter. Then, go on a walk around the school or in the neighborhood. When the child finds something that begins with that letter, take a picture of the child with that object. Use the pictures to create a class alphabet chart. Ÿ After a field trip on which you have taken at least one picture for each child or pair of children, download the pictures and have the children write a summary or memories or something else related to that picture. Make a class book. Ÿ After a field trip, immediately download and slide show or use the feature some cameras have for plugging into a VCR. Use the photos to help you debrief the field trip. Ÿ Use the cameras for a phrenology project. We had a prairie at my last school and I always wanted the kids to create a field guide for the prairie by photographing the same plant every month. They'd combine the pictures from one year onto a single page and include information about the plant. Ÿ Use still photos to create educational iMovies. My current school has a turtle week to raise funds and raise awareness about the plight of sea turtles. A fifth grade teacher worked with the high school art teacher to create a great educational video that was shown to the entire elementary. Being written by kids, it ended up at the correct level. Ÿ For years my colleague has taken lots of pictures throughout the year. At the December and June portfolio nights he would run a slide show of the pictures so families could see their child learning. He duplicated and sold them at cost. Kids would come back many years later and tell him they still watched their video. - Susan Sedro, Mont'Kiara International School Ÿ Take pictures during students' science experiments. If participating in a science fair, use the pictures as part of the display boards. You can also use pictures to give a visual representation of each part of the scientific process. Ÿ I use my Sony Mavica in school. I have a disk wallet with 24 disks and a stack of sticky notes. The disks are numbered. When we use a disk a brief note about the pictures is written on the sticky note and that is put on the disk before it is put back into the wallet. That way when we get back to the classroom we know who needs which disk to complete their work. For my own pictures I use the same system sometimes adding a notebook for more detailed notes. For example on a recent trip I took pictures of different flowers, fossils, minerals, and historic exhibits (I checked with museum personnel before taking any photographs.) My notebook has notes about each picture that I can use to make posters or add to handouts. I'm burning the pictures to CD for the kids to use in their reports when they can not get a photograph themselves. - Kimberly Herbert Ÿ Take pictures of your classroom to make a virtual tour. Compile these into a brochure or slide show or web page. Ÿ Take pictures to document other growth, such as plants, butterflies, frogs, etc. Use these pictures to illustrate life cycles or stages of growth. Ÿ Take pictures of objects in the school or familiar places in your community. Let the kids use the pictures to learn the names for them (i.e. book, pencil, library). The students can compile these into a book which they can read. Ÿ Let students take pictures of themselves and make trading cards. They love exchanging these cards with each other. A trading card can easily be made in Word or other word processing program by making a table with 2 columns. Students should include information about themselves (name, birthday, favorite class, favorite cartoon, etc.) Ÿ Take pictures of students throughout the year to illustrate how they grow. This is best done outside in full light, with students lined up against a wall and with another object in the photo or a mark made on the wall so that difference in sizes through the year can be easily seen. Ÿ Use the camera to take pictures of the Students of the Week. Print them out to display on their certificates. Ÿ Take lots of pictures on field trips. Then display the pictures by either printing them or displaying them on a computer screen or television. Have students write about these experiences. Ÿ Take pictures during open house. Display the pictures in the classroom. Good way to remember what each students' parents look like until you become more familiar with them. Ÿ We take pictures of school events, classroom projects, art projects, music programs, and just every day pictures. We have a local cable station that creates a Power Point type program with captions. The station show the presentation several times a week. it is great. You might want to check with your local cable station and see if they will do it. Also, this coming school year we (which means me) are going to create a Power Point program ... of different events, classroom projects, etc. When we have parent teacher conferences we will have TVs set up showing the presentation of what has been happening in our school. - Sheryl Ÿ I use the digital camera during the first week of school to take student pictures. Students then design posters and glue their pictures on the posters. Students must discuss what is on their posters and we display them for the month of September. I use it to take pictures of students completing activities, such as readers theater, cooperative group activities, etc. Its instant feedback and students love it. I also take pictures the last week of school and students complete Venn diagrams on themselves and share how they are still the same and how they have changed over the year. Our tech coordinator takes tons of school activities with the camera and posts the pictures on a bulletin board in the main lobby. A final thing she did this year was with these pictures make an 8th grade power point presentation for graduation. What a great summation of a challenging year! Kids loved this! Just some ways we use cameras at our school! - Jamie Ÿ I use my digital camera to take pictures of my students all year long doing normal things like working and also on field trips and doing any special activities. Then at the end of the year I make a power point slide show of the pictures I took set to music. I hook my computer up to my tv/vcr and I record the slide show onto a vcr tape then make copies. On the last day of school I surprise the kids by showing them our class slide show then when it is over and they are all saying how neat that was I hand them each their own personal copy as a parting gift to remember their last year (they leave me and go to middle school) they love this, and parents love it too. - Maureen Ÿ I use digital pictures to: - -make locker magnets - -make thank you notes - -use with pen pal letters - -make stickers with student name and picture - -make a monthly bulletin board highlighting special activities - -make a memory book for the students for the year - -publish student books, they draw pictures and I take pictures of their illustrations with the digital camera and print them on the same page as the text. - -have students interview each other, take pictures of each other, and print off the interview and pictures -make a weekly newsletter - -white out the background of the student and have them draw a picture around a photo of themselves -make bookmarks with their picture on it - -students make junk sculptures, then write about it and put the picture and writing together for a class book - -take pictures of projects or events to put on the web site - -take pictures of the various life stages of butterflies grown in the classroom -take pictures of different stages of a science experiment Ÿ I use digital cameras in my classroom all year long. These are some of the things I did this year: 1) bought seasonal packs with holes in the center & they took their picture and placed in it in the cut out space for cute bulletin boards, name tags, etc. 2) used their picture on large manila envelopes and laminated for take home things, 3) used pictures all year long and made a Christmas photo album for mom and dad (It was titled "A Day at School" and I took pictures of them in all their different classes and they had to write the name of the subject and then on the next page was them working at a task in that subject. The parents loved it!). 4) at parties and special things going on, their pictures would be displayed in the hallway. Some I printed in color and some in black and white. 5) also used my camera at workshops, etc. to take pictures of things I wanted to use in my classroom. I have iMacs at school and took the pictures from the disk to Appleworks and sized them. I hope this sparks some ideas for you to try. - Joanne Ÿ In my Middle School Math Classes I have taken black and white headshots of each student (with our Sony Mavica), sized it to a quarter page with a box frame around it ... then added a blank box beside it (the same size as the framed picture). This would take up the top half of the page. I would repeat the process with another student's headshot and empty box below that first one. Then I'd cut the page in half giving each student their own headshot and blank box on the half-sheet. The students then draw 1/2 - 1 in. gridlines in pencil on both the headshot and the empty box next to the headshot. They label the gridlines as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc., going each direction. They try to duplicate their pictures by drawing only what they see in each box. They make amazingly accurate drawings of themselves! - John Schwartz Ÿ -Take a walk around the school taking pictures of important areas. Have students draw a map of the school, importing the pictures to show there locations. Ÿ -For young students, take a picture of each student. Write the students name below the picture and use this on bulletin boards instead of the name alone or use it to label the students seat, locker, coat hook, etc. Ÿ -Take pictures of everyone in your class. Use the photos in a seating chart. Ÿ -Have each student take a picture. Students then trade pictures. Students then need to write a story to explain what is happening in their picture. Adapted from http://www.wacona.com/digicam/digicam.html Originally created by Lori Miller, Technology Instructor at Wacona Elementary School
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