USING A DIGITAL CAMERA
IN THE CLASSROOM

Have students take pictures of field trips they go on and then come back and illustrate and narrate their field trips by incorporating these images (both camera and their own art work) into slide shows.

Take pictures of the kid's eyes only. Have children try to match up their classmates by only their eyes. It demonstrates how distinctive and unique we really are. Oral discussion can then follow.

Use a photo as a prompt for narrative or descriptive writing.

Have students write positive comments about classmates, attach these comments to the digital photo and post around the room, or give back to the students.

Create flashcards of vocabulary words for ESOL or hearing impaired students or for foreign language study.

Illustrate perspectives in art.

Document growth of classroom plant or pet.

Use photos to make a map of your community.

Use photos in research reports, newsletters, memos, assignments, certificates, calendars.

Use photos to create step-by-step instructions

**Substitutes love those last two ideas!

Use photos in brochures--health/disease brochures, travel brochures, holidays around the world, information researched.

Use photos for business cards or brochures for career day presentations.

Use photos for an "All About Me" multimedia presentation or to make a mini poster.

Use photos for posters or flyers for activities like Student Council, field trips, or sporting events.

Use digital cameras with kids to do autobiographies as an introductory desktop publishing project.

Booklets can be written by students with pictures they take.

Use the digital camera for step by step pictures of projects for competition.

Students can use digital pictures for front cover designs to their reports.

Students who study the ecosystems can use it as it relates to nature. For example, in the fall, students take pictures to reflect different themes (color in nature, changing seasons, etc), then create an electronic photo album to keep them. Print out four favorite pictures and do a writing assignment in the classroom for the teacher. In December have students return to the sites of their season pictures and add to the album and then have them write about the differences and similarities between them. At the end of the year, create a multi-media project PowerPoint highlighting favorite entries.

Primary teachers (K-2) can use a digital camera to create an ABC book. Working in groups, students are assigned a letter of the alphabet. They complete the phrase "__ is for ____." You can then bind the book for the class.

Kids can create a book of their school including pictures of all the classes, teachers, and important people.

Prepare a "Meet the Teachers" handbook with pictures of all the teachers in the building and what they teach to give to new students.

Science teachers can use them to take pictures of themselves and students performing certain procedures (i.e. preparing a slide) and then include the picture on the direction sheets.

Use digital cameras to record a sequence of events in a science experiment or procedure.

Create passports during a travel/culture unit in foreign language.

Use the digital camera to photograph pictures in the school or community and then outline the geometric configurations found in them.

In gym class, use the digital camera to record events in physical education activities.

Take pictures of all your students and then print them out in black and white. These then can be used for students to model several art projects - one of which could be to draw a mirror image of themselves based on that picture by folding printout in half and trying to draw the other half. Another project could be to use various art mediums and techniques to draw their self portraits using the printout as a model.