First Project: Portrait Relay

Line up and take turns taking "head and shoulder" portraits of one another, until the last person in line takes the first person's photo. Choose a nice background and be sure to get in close. Use your portraits to make Trading Cards in Comic Life or Pages! Or, make a seating chart for your class, About the Author plates or labels with photos, etc.

A hand-painted background adds visual appeal.

ABC Book

Photograph the letters of the alphabet as you find them on signs, packages, or in natural shapes. Or, make a human alphabet by having 1-3 partners make the shape of each letter with their bodies. Use the "macro" setting on your camera for close-up shots. Come up with an inventive approach or text for the book. (This idea is adapted from the Apple Learning Interchange.)

Number Book

Take photographs of groups of coins or other small objects to illustrate the numbers one to ten. Use the photos to make a counting book. Choose an "angle" -- think up a rhyme for the counting book, show one number in 10 different ways (e.g. 8 pennies, an octagon, a nickel and 3 pennies, etc.)

Pattern Book

Photograph patterns you find – or create – around you, and label them -- e.g. ABAB or AABAAB, etc. See our kindergarten pattern book as an example.

Shapes Book

Use our shapes photos (taken by kids) or your own to make a book about shapes.
Alternative: Compare 2D and 3D shapes by photographing examples of each.

Feelings Book or Cards

Photograph one another making various expressions - excitment, fear, anger, saddness, etc. Write captions such as "When I ___, I feel ___." Or, combine photographs of scenes (e.g. someone falling) with photographs of feelings (e.g. a close up of someone crying). Make flash cards and use as a matching game. (See also "Feelings from A to Z" at the Apple Learning Interchange.)

Act it out...

Make a story by photographing your partners acting out the scenes of a familiar fairy tale or original story. Use iPhoto or Comic Life to make a book &/or slide show, and add the text or audio.

Historical Story – Act out and retell an historic event using digital photos and ComicLife, with costumes and props.

Social Stories

Stage and photograph scenes common to your students' ages. Describe the problem and solicit solutions from your students. See Carol Gray's web site for more on social stories.

How-To Book

Show how to do a favorite activity in photographs by taking photos in sequence.
Examples: Recipes, science experiments, craft projects, chores, technical instructions, etc.
How to tie your shoe, how to buy something, how to use a phone, camera, iPod or other piece of technology. How about a book comparing good and bad photos?

Step-by-Step Report

Photograph each step of a project, job or science experiment, and add text to describe what happened.

Trading Cards

Use our templates and your photos to make trading cards on any topic. Then play a variety of games with the cards. This works well as a whole-class activity because each child or group can be responsible for a different card or set of cards.

Take One, Take Two

Take two or more shots of the same subject (or use our sample photos) to demonstrate good and bad shots - is the person's head cut off? Is it shaky? What's in the frame and what isn't? Did you use a flash? Any weird, distracting stuff in the background? Where is the focal point? Too close? Too far? What makes one photo better than another? Why?

Seasonal Changes

Photograph the same tree every Monday for the full year. Notice how it changes and write about it. Create a slideshow, iPhoto Book or Comic Life Book, or use the photos on a calendar.

TransportationBook

Near and Far

Take close-up "macro" shots of an object (or person, with their permission) and then take a distant shot of the same subject. Or take multiple photos of the same object from different, interesting angles. Place the photos together on the same page. Alternative: Take a photo that's so close, it's hard to tell what the object is. Write a clue to go with the close-up, and then photograph the entire object for your answer key. This activity gets even better if you have access to a USB microscope!

Invitations, Notecards & Announcements

Photos can really liven up an announcement, invitation, notecard or newsletter. Browse your iPhoto Library from within iWork Pages, Comic Life, Skitch and other software.

Illustrated Music & Poetry

Choose a favorite song or poem and take creative photos to illustrate it. Assemble as a slide show or podcast in iPhoto or GarageBand.

VoiceThread

Use your photos to stimulate an online discussion about just about any topic you can imagine. Explore the VoiceThreads already submitted, including this student's report about a trip to Washington, DC:

Animations

My students really love creating digital animations. We have started to share our ideas and work at EdisonAnimators.wikispaces.com. Our most recent movies were created during our Edison Summer Extravaganza, a week-long day camp for students entering grades 3-6.
Animated movies could be just for fun, or they could be used to illustrate concepts, events and more. Students put a tremendous amount of time, thought and energy into creating their animations, and it helps them learn the material!

Ideas with Skitch

Use Skitch to quickly create fun projects and helpful visual learning materials. For ideas and examples, check out my Skitch collection on Flickr.

Examples to Download

Visit our downloads page to download photos, templates and/or projects

Add Your Ideas

If you have activity ideas to add to this list, please visit our Digital Photo Wiki.

More Ideas on the Web

My son's travel journal

My 7 year old son made a travel journal during our trip to Argentina.