Digital Cameras in the Classroom
Posted by Debra Liverman on 06 Jan 2009 | Posted in: Classroom Management, Preschool, The Mailbox
I’m sure there were plenty of new digital cameras given as presents this holiday season! Maybe you were the lucky recipient of one. I love my digital camera. It is so easy to use and offers that immediate gratification of knowing how my photo turned out. When I was growing up, my mom was an amateur photographer and used to develop her own black-and-white film. She had a darkroom in the basement with all the necessary equipment. I remember watching her through the entire lengthy process. Of course, the most exciting part was agitating the paper in the chemicals, waiting for the image to magically appear. And to think that now I can see the image in seconds!
I bet I could find digital cameras being used in classrooms all over the country. Kim Murphy, the managing editor of The Mailbox Preschool, featured a unit on using digital cameras in the classroom in the December/January issue. Here are a few of the ideas that she selected to feature from her subscribers.
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Greeting Card Fun Print classroom photographs onto plain paper as shown. Then fold the papers to create cards and place them at your writing center. Invite students to go to the center and add writing and decorations to one or two of the cards to take home to family members. No doubt family members will enjoy seeing current photos of classroom activities. –Mary, Keokuk, IA |
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Photo Die Cover a cube-shaped box with decorative Con-Tact paper. Then attach the hook side of a Velcro fastener to each side of the box. Cut out and laminate a head-shot photograph of each child. Attach the loop side of a Velcro fastener to each photo. Then attach a photo to each side of the cube to make a die. Roll the die to choose a child for a specific activity. Then replace the chosen child’s photo with a different photo. –Diane, Hayes, VA |
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28 Responses to “Digital Cameras in the Classroom”
More Comments Pages: [1] 2 3 » Show All Comments
More Comments Pages: [1] 2 3 » Show All Comments
Being a home child care provider I usually care for children for a few years before they head to school. I use my digital camera for many things but the biggest would be to make a scrapbook for each child for the time they have been in my care. For most children they come to me at 3 months old and leave when they start kindergarten. So you can imagine the joy I have of putting books together of our time together.
I agree with the lady that said “a picture is worth 1,000 words”. I use my digital camera to take the childrens picture to document information for my annecdotals, which I use for my DRDP-R’s (developmental record). One picture can give me at least 4 different areas of developmental progress. And thanks to Cindy, I will use your idea on the large photo cutouts of faces.
I also use my digital camara for all of our activities,Craft projects throughout the year. Last year the kids saved a few projects each month and made a pocket memory book at the end of the year to take home. I also made scrapbook pages with the photos and saved them as a pdf file and burned them to cd for the parents to print out to keep at home.
This was a big hit! a couple of years ago I made a musical slide show for a christmas gift . the kids drew their friends in pencil and I outlined them in sharpie and scanned them in to personalize the cover of their DVD. You can also take pics of their artwork to print out for gifts. this year we are making a calendar each month. It will have pics of daily activities and seasonal artwork! the ideas are ENDLESS!!!
I use digital cameras to videotape certain kids during the day. At conferences, I show the parents videos of each child.
I use my digital camera for taking pictures throughout the whole year. Guests speakers, center activities, lost teeth, star work, celebrations, you name it, I snap it! I make a slideshow presentation at the end of the year and copy it onto DVD’s for the parents to keep. I also add the pics to my slideshow sceensaver on our class computers. The kids love seeing new pics every couple of weeks!
I have been using digital cameras with students as writing activities. What better way to develop sentences by writing about pictures taken of them during the course of the school day. At end of month, I give pictures to the students. Sometimes I even scrapbook one or two of them.
I use my digital camera all the time and my new digital video camera.
I teach middle school so, I have 96 kids throughout the day. If we do anything special outside of the classroom, field trips, guest speakers, etc…I always take pictures and then post them on the bulletin board. As track coach, I assign someone to take pictures and meets and then post these outside the office - I always have a slew of kids who want to be on the track team!
My digital camera, I use when we do skits in class. Then, I put the videos on cd and share the work with the whole team. That way, each kids not only gets to see their own class videos, but those of the other students as well. They always love this. It also gives the kids an authentic audience because they know their performance isn’t only for their own class.
I use a digital camera all the time in my classroom for years. My kids love the photographs. Seeing themselves is very great. I take the one photo and put on the frame, then put on the home center. Every two weeks I change the photo. When finally the year is over I take the photos and present photo montage in a slide show in the final activity. The parents like when they see her/his son’s in different activities during all year.
I use digital photos all year long. At the end of the year, I set them to music and present the slide show to students as a year end gift so that they can remember all the things we did in preschool. Parents and children love seeing them and what they do!
My students love the digital camera. We use the program “Photo Story” to make a story out of our projects. The children have gotten handy at adding captions and making their projects look professional. It also works wonders for lessons like how our community has changed over time. I went around town taking old and new business pictures and the children had to compare how things had changed in the last few years.
Hi,
I want to share with you what I have been doing for my parents and students.
I have a blog that gives invitations to only my parents to view.
I weekly add to my blog with pictures, videos, scrapbooks and details of what we did during the week. I also add music in the background to various slideshows.
This has been a HIT! My parents and students look forward to the up-dates.
Parents appreciate it because they are able to see first hand what their children are doing in the classroom.
I also have childrens songs on my blog.
The newsletter is put on the blog as well as important information.
There is so much you can do with the digital camera and the computer now a days that can bless the lives of many.
It is sooo FUN!
Oops! I also use the movie function of the camera to get the news telling and other activities for my records.