Lesson Plans For The Digital Camera

A number of lesson plans for different subjects and grades.

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/digital/edu/lessonPlans/

Analyzing Movement Performance With a Digital camera

A lesson plan to analyze movement with a digital camera.

www.sover.net/~fcsu/gceit/50.doc 

100 Ways To Use Digital Cameras

1. Take photos or videos of field trips.
2. Take photos or videos illustrating vocabulary words.
3. Take photos or videos of plant growth
4. Take photos or videos of community
5. Use photos for seating charts.
6. Take photos to illustrate stories or poems
7. Take photos or videos for illustrating emotions
8. Take photos or videos of classroom pet
9. Take photos to prompt creative writing
10. Take photos of learning centers for a choice chart
11. Take photos or videos of bulletin boards or classroom ideas from other teachers
12. Tape a student's photo on their desk nametag so that other students and substitutes learn names.
13. Use photos for attendance chart
14. Use photos for graphing
15. Use photos for story about the child
16. Use photos of family to create a family book
17. Use photos or videos for step by step directions.
18. Use photos for sequencing
19. Use photos or videos for an ABC book
20. Use photos to create a book about the school and workers
21. Create a staff directory
22. Use photos or videos for a school or classroom handbook
23. Use photos for passports during a travel unit
24. Take photos or videos in Physical Education to record events and skills
25. Take photos or videos for assessment
26. Take photos for a book about colors
27. Take photos for a book or chart about numbers
28. Take photos for a book about shapes
29. Take photos or videos of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs
30. Take photos for a rhyming book
31. Use photos in thank you cards or invitations
32. Take photos of events and make a calendar of memories
33. Using photos create a body part book
34. Use photos to create a community workers or school workers book
35. Use photos or videos for concept illustration for curriculum areas
36. Display student work on your website by taking a digital photo of it
37. Send a camera home with a student to take photos of family traditions or scan photos that students bring for a Traditions Book
38. Use photos or videos to create an Open House slide show or display.
39. Use photos in letters to e-Pals
40. Create a digital yearbook or memory book
41. Use photos or videos as a reminder to a teacher or substitute of how to plug in cables to the TV, VCR or computer.
42. Take photos or videos to explain a hobby or collection
43. Use photos as graphics in student work
44. Take photos or videos of art concepts - line, shape, texture, form and color
45. Take a photos or videos of something in the classroom that is a problem area. Have the students brainstorm how to change the area.
46. Take photos or videos of the weather and seasons
47. Use photos for the classroom helper chart
48. Laminate photos of students for voting, selecting partners, choosing centers, graphing
49. Take photos of classroom events for student journaling. Write about the photo of costume day, hat day, book character day, etc.
50. Create a Birthday Book. Add a photo to a page that the child has written about birthday plans. Print one for the book and one to send home.
51. Take a photos or videos of the students on their birthday
52. Use photos to create classroom awards. Act of Kindness, Caught being good, Great reader
53. Send an email with a photo attachment of the student caught being good
54. Use photos to create postcards
55. Use photos to create faces for puppets
56. Scan photos that students bring of their pets for creating a book aboutcaring for pets
57. Take photos or videos for a classroom inventory
58. Document vandalism with photos or videos
59. Email classroom events to the local newspaper or school board
60. Use classroom photos as computer screensavers
61. Create a Welcome to Our Classroom book
62. Take photos of the various school lunches for a "What's for Lunch?" chart
63. Scan photos students bring of extended family members to create a family tree.
64. Take photos or videos for animal reports
65. Take photos or videos of parts of a plant
66. Take photos or videos of types of clouds
67. Make a Five Senses book. Students take photos illustrating each sense
68. Take photos of environmental print for an emergent readers' book - stop sign, Target sign, exit sign
69. Take a photo of an object zoomed in. Have students guess what it is.
70. Take photos or videos of assignments and post them to your website for parent communication
71. Create photo vocabulary cards for ESL students
72. Photograph books that you read to add to a list or chart
73. Photograph class schedule for special needs students or substitute
74. Photograph or videotape procedures for parent volunteer training
75. Print two copies of photos to make a matching or concentration game.
76. Show safety rules through photos or videos
77. Create photograph bookmarks
78. Create"It's My Turn" name cards with student pictures for choosing who gets the next turn.
79. Post the Character Education Word of the Week with photos of students who fit that description. For example: Punctual, Responsible, etc.
80. Create videos of students acting our Character Education concepts.
81. Create a video of directions for a project
82. Create brochures using photos
83. Use photos or videos to "argue a point"
84. Video a student as an assessment tool
85. Take photos of rhyming words
86. Create a chart of words that begin with the same sound using photos
87. Create videos of poetry, tongue twisters or other phonemic awareness activities to send home with children for extra practice.
88. Create a video book report complete with costumes and action
89. Use video to record student's demonstrations for assessment
90. Create video thank you messages
91. Capture interviews with video
92. Have students record their "sales pitch" for advertising on video
93. Photograph unit resources and place in thematic unit folder
94. Create a game for matching student photos and student names
95. Photograph samples for graduation standards. What is a "4"? What is a "3"?
96. Create a photo memory book for a student who is moving away.
97. Use photographs or video for conflict resolution role playing.
98. Create a postcard with the teacher's picture to send to students in the summer.
99. Use photographs for a visual schedule.
100. Use digital photographs for a student teacher bulletin board.

Activities With A Digital Camera

LEARNING ACTIVITIES 

As a curriculum tool, digital cameras add a multimedia 

dimension to learning. Placing a digital camera in the 

hands of a K-12 student or teacher unleashes creativity 

and opens up new possibilities for all areas of the education 

spectrum. Beyond simply recording events, digital images

transform documents, presentations, and communications 

into personalized, custom productions. Using software such as 

PowerPoint or HyperStudio, projects come alive with digital 

photos that showcase school activities. Students quickly master 

the art of shooting photos and recording them on a video 

cassette recorder to share their learning in class, at home, or far 

beyond through network technologies. 

Documents created on a computer can include digital 

photos for making activity sheets illustrating maps or 

science equipment, posters of sports positions or 

choreography, iron- on transfers of national flags, 

creative crests with faces, and photos of community 

events. Students can write stories accompanied by 

photos they shoot. Video productions incorporating

 digital images directly from the camera can be produced 

instantly and dubbed with a student speech or music 

track from the school band. These products can be 

shared in class or with broader audiences via e-mail or the 

Web. Presentations can be used at the annual "Open House" 

to show parents what their children are learning at school. 

Sample Applications: 

During a class field trip to the zoo, elementary 

school students can take turns photographing animals 

with the digital camera. Back in the classroom, the 

images from the digital camera can be imported into 

something like HyperStudio. The students can then 

create a booklet in the form of an animal alphabet. In 

this activity, students might illustrate each letter of the 

alphabet with a different animal and description. 

Poster-size pages from the animal alphabet could be 

hung in the room, and a copy of the booklet might be 

sent to the zoo with the thank you letter from the 

class. 

During the study of geometry, middle school students 

photograph objects in nature illustrating geometric shapes

and properties.  They build PowerPoint or HyperStudio

presentations of their interpretations of the objects, and 

share their findings with the class. Next, they crop portions

of their photos to create a tessellation or a three- 

dimensional animation of a shape. Such sophisticated 

manipulations are possible for students who have access to 

software like Adobe Photo Shop. 

A high school Earth Science class in the mid- 

west can take an electronic field trip to the beach or the 

mountains by accessing the Intranet or Internet web site 

created with images taken by a class keypal. The 

photographs e-mailed from the remote site can be 

instantly added to an HTML document that describes 

the sights, links to a glossary of scientific terms, and 

asks follow-up questions about the geologic features 

seen in the pictures. Each student can choose an image 

and use a program like Photo Shop to produce a 360 

degree panorama of an area. 

The elementary social studies students use their 

digital camera while studying local history. To show their 

understanding of the past of their area, the students take 

pictures of local historical sites, important people in the 

community, and portrayals of past events. The photos are 

assembled into a large mural for display in the school and 

local community site such as public library, city hall or 

post office. The mural could even become the featured 

illustration for a local publication, publicity campaign, or 

banner. 

At the completion of food and nutrition unit, 

the Health/Consumer Sciences class in the middle school 

uses digital images to demonstrate knowledge of food 

groups and a healthy diet. Students photograph a variety 

of foods and packages to make a game in which the object 

is to arrange the food pictures into healthy meals. The class 

uses the game to teach the neighborhood preschool children 

about proper eating habits. The unit culminates with a health 

party where the older student prepare snacks for the younger 

children, and take pictures of them eating healthy food. 

Over the course of the marking period, as each art project is 

completed, high school students use a digital camera to 

photograph their work. As the grading period draws to a close, 

each student evaluates the pieces he or she has created and 

assembles the best into an individual electronic portfolio or 

gallery for assessment. The teacher or the class might select 

images of outstanding class projects to be viewed as a digital art 

gallery on the school's Intranet. 

Using Digital Cameras In the Classroom

Digital cameras are becoming more and more popular, especially for classroom use.  They have many advantages:  pictures are immediately available, pictures are saved in graphic format, and they are easily transferred from the camera to the computer.

The purpose of this web page is to provide some ideas on how to use the digital camera in the classroom.  The ideas have been collected from various educators.  If we have used your idea and not given you credit, please let us know.  Thanks to all who have contributed!

Remember, it's not really about taking pictures, but using the camera as a tool to help you explore and understand other subjects!

A reference site with numerous lesson ideas.

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

My Bio-Poem-A Lesson of Self-Discovery and Peer Introduction

Subject Area: Language Arts

Grade Level(s): 5-8

Duration of Activity:

3-5 days (depending on the number of computers available for student use)

Description of Activity:

Students will create a bio-poem. This creative writing activity is designed to be an extension activity to the unit "A Lesson of Self-Discovery and Peer Introduction." The lesson may also be used in isolation as an activity to build community in the classroom. The lesson is a wonderful way for students to introduce themselves to each other. The lesson involves the use of a digital camera, scanner, and Microsoft Publisher.

Objectives:

• Use a digital camera to take pictures of other students.
• Download and name pictures to a file on the computer.
• Use a scanner to import pictures if a digital camera is not available.
• Write a bio-poem that describes important aspects of the student's character.
• Use Microsoft Publisher or other word-processing program such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or HyperStudio to create final product, a bio-poem with student's picture.

  Note: This lesson was piloted using Microsoft Publisher. The program is very easy for students and teachers to use. It requires no previous training on the student's part in order for him/her to use it successfully in creating this project.

Materials/Equipment:

• Digital camera
• Digital camera software such as Kodak Picture Easy
• Kodak Twain/Acquire software—allows user to open pictures from the camera or scanner directly into Twain-compliant software such as Adobe PhotoShop
• Adobe Photoshop software or PhotoDeluxe software. This lesson was piloted using Adobe Photoshop, but either one of the photo software programs will work for this lesson.
• Flatbed scanner
• Three types of formula poems
• Computer(s)
• Microsoft Publisher or other word-processing programs such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or HyperStudio that allow pictures to be imported into a document
• Handout 1: Instructions for the Digital Camera

• Handout 2: Guide for Scanning Photos Using Flatbed Scanner

• Handout 3: Steps for Creating Project Using Publisher

• Handout 4: My Name Poem

• Handout 5: A Poem about You

• Handout 6: I Am

Prerequisites (skills or background needed):

• It is helpful for students to have some keyboarding skill, but it is not necessary. The activity will take longer for those students who lack keyboarding skills, but they can be as successful in producing the required product as those who can type well.

Procedure

Teacher Component:

1. The teacher needs to be familiar with the digital camera. He/She will need to model the use of the camera before the students use it. Also, the teacher needs to write out a step-by-step procedure list that instructs students how to download pictures to the computer, name the picture, and save the picture to a file. Handout 1: Instructions for the Digital Camera.
2. The teacher needs to be familiar with using the scanner to create image files. The teacher will also need to create a procedure sheet that takes students step-by-step through the process of using the scanner, naming the picture, and saving it to a file. Handout 2: Guide for Scanning Photos Using Flatbed Scanner is a suggested procedure sheet.
3. The teacher needs to be familiar with using Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or HyperStudio to create a product. It helps for the teacher to create the product first so that he/she can better instruct the students in the process. See Handout 3: Steps for Creating Project Using Publisher for the steps in this process.
4. The teacher needs to have copies of the three formula poems for each child. These formula poems include:

   Handout 4: My Name Poem

   Handout 5: A Poem about You

   Handout 6: I Am

   Stress that students need to use the format that will enable them to describe themselves successfully to other class members. (Many students choose the acrostic poem simply because they think it requires the least amount of work. The teacher may want to set guidelines that would require not only single words but also phrases.)

5. The teacher needs to have access to a printer in order to print out final product. Color is optional, but it really enhances the student's work.
6. The teacher will display the final product for all students to see. Mount poems on colorful construction paper and create a display in the hallway. Bio-poems may also be laminated and framed. They make great gifts to parents.

Student Activities:

1. Students will use a digital camera to take pictures of other classmates. Students will push the POWER button to begin operating the camera. Once the camera is on, students need to be sure the setting is on CAPTURE. Students need to get good, close-up face shots of other students.
2. Students will connect the digital camera to the computer to download pictures following the teacher's Handout 1: Instructions for the Digital Camera
3. Students will name picture and save picture as JPEG file to a diskette, CD, Zip disk, or hard drive.
4. Students and teacher will discuss the definition of a bio-poem, a poem written about self. The poem emphasizes personal character traits, feelings, goals, etc. The poem will be the means by which the student will introduce himself/herself to the class.
5. Students will follow one of the three formula poems in creating their own personal bio-poem.
6. Students will write a rough draft of poem.
7. Students will conference briefly with the teacher concerning poem and will edit work.
8. Students will create the final product on the computer by using Handout 3: Steps for Creating Project Using Publisher.
9. Students will save the final product to the file designated by the teacher.
10. Students will print their poems.

Accommodations:

• The lesson activities may easily be modified to accommodate special needs students. Students help each other use the digital camera. Students who are proficient in downloading and naming pictures can easily guide those students who need one-on-one help with the process. Peers can also help guide special needs students in the use of the computer.
• In some cases, special needs students may need to dictate poem ideas to another student who acts as a recorder, or they may dictate the poem using a tape recorder. The student recorder may then help the special needs child type the poem. The classroom teacher will decide on the final product expectations based on the specific needs of the individual student.

Extension Activities:

• Students will create a bio-collage. Using the bio-poem as the focus of the collage, students will collect pictures that represent their likes, dislikes, family, hobbies, goals, achievements, etc. These pictures may be gathered from personal home pictures, magazines, and the Internet. Students will mount the bio-poem on a large piece of poster board and will surround it with their collection of pictures. Students will present projects to the class.

Integration:

• In social studies, students may choose a particular country to research. Students will write a short report or create a poem based on what they learned through researching their topic. Students may collect pictures of the country from several sources: the Internet, travel brochures, postcards. Students may scan or download these pictures into a picture file. Using a word processing program such as Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or HyperStudio that allows students to import and manipulate pictures and text, students will create a travel brochure about their country.
• For science, the student will create a brochure about local wildflowers. The student will take pictures of the flowers using a digital camera and will research the specific flower. The student will then create an informative brochure using Publisher or another word processing program that will include text and pictures concerning topic.

Assessments:

1. Teacher observation and questioning techniques will be used throughout the project to assess the student's understanding of the lesson objectives and progress. The formal assessment of the project may be a rubric designed to assess the use of technology and creative writing. The following sites offer information about creating rubrics.

• TeAch-nology.com
  http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/rubrics

• DiscoverySchool.com
  http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/assess.html

• Rubric Construction Set
  http://landmark-project.com/classweb/rubrics/rubric3_build.php3

• Rubrics
  http://www.techtrekers.com/rubrics.html

  The following site discusses how students can take part in developing rubrics for projects.

• Creating Rubrics Through Negotiable Contracting and Assessment 
  http://www.interactiveclassroom.com/neg-cont.html

I Love Seplling!

This comment on and spelling of spelling – seplling – is derived directly from a childhood writing assignment. Currently, as a special educator, my partner teacher and I find this old declaration to be of major interest to us today. This interest manifests itself in two ways – grave difficulty with spelling and the lack of love for writing, to which struggling with encoding is a great contributor.

We are making a concerted effort to make our resource room be more than “that room where some kids go”. We want it to be the place to be where learning is fun all the time. While we service students who have an IEP, we are fortunate to be in a place where we include any child who could benefit from additional, focused VAKT instruction.

Our room is set up like a community with a construction zone, writing café, park, health clinic, outlaw word jail, basketball court, math zone, etc. In these neighborhood areas, instruction is interwoven through games, activities, brainstorming, etc. Now that we have been introduced to the Spelling Bundle our minds are stimulated as we envision our community growing with opportunities - opportunities to slip in much needed focused and engaging spelling instruction with our other activities.

One of the products included in the Spelling Bundle, Two Wise Owls, seemed to particularly compliment a technique we currently use, Visualizing and Verbalizing. This is a strategy we use in order to teach reading comprehension. This strategy incorporates a series of “structure words” that help students attend to details and create vivid visualizations with their minds eye while reading text.

In the early stages of this strategy students utilize pictures to gain an understanding of the structure words. Currently, the pictures are provided by us from magazines, calendars, etc. We feel that if the students could use the camera to take photographs themselves they will feel a sense of ownership, thus furthering the impact of this strategy. For example, one of the more challenging structure words is perspective. Students can better understand the concept of this structure word if they had the opportunity to take several photographs of a single item each from a different perspective.

To our delight, Visualizing and Verbalizing skills quickly carried over to the students’ writing. Their written responses became more detailed. When additional details were needed to enhance meaning, students referenced a structure word list to consider size, shape, perspective, etc. Once the student considered them, they could quickly add any overlooked details thus improving their response. Our incorporation of the activities (for example, SuperSpell, Spell Track, etc.) in the Spelling Bundle into our learning environment will further improve our students’ ability to clearly communicate their detailed ideas through correct writing.

In addition to our efforts during the school day we offer writing tutoring before school. In an attempt to make this less stigmatizing our tutoring is not referred to as tutoring. In fact we are a club, the Communication Club. This club participates in authentic writing experiences that not only benefit students’ writing ability but also benefit self-esteem. Currently, our club is sponsoring a school wide bowl-a-thon in order to raise money to help children with cancer. This undertaking provided a variety of opportunities for writing (writing business letters, making promotional posters, writing scripts for morning announcements, etc.) and we feel that the offerings of this grant could help us to enhance this experience as well as the students’ learning. We are always on the lookout for ways to "teach" skills in a way that fits our philosophy of meaningful learning. A camera would have enabled them to incorporate photographs on to their posters and into their Power Point presentations. Practice with spelling strategies would serve to enhance the writing practice, resulting in successful writing pieces.

As a follow up activity our students are creating craft bags for patients with cancer. When children are admitted to the hospital they will be presented with a brown bag with materials and directions for making a craft - all prepared and supplied by our students. The patient will follow the written directions made by our students in order to complete the craft. Our students can utilize the camera to add pictures to their written directions as they carefully plan and follow through with accurate steps to perform the task.

Our idea produces two products: one tangible -the craft bags - and one intangible - the process of developing the steps to achieve a successful community service activity. The idea of extending and enhancing our students’ growth through engaging, meaningful activities is extremely exciting to us. Our minds went into overdrive as we learned about this grant and the products offered by Tool Factory