In B-Roll, Photo Collages, and Writing and Math Prompts from Free Technology for Teachers, Richard Byrne shares about his Math Photo a Day project. He says,
“The project asks students to take photographs of things representing various topics and concepts in elementary school level mathematics.”
I thought this was such a great idea and can be used for any grade level and any subject. With the abundance of digital cameras and smart phones out there, most students would be able to do this as a homework assignment. If doing this daily is too hard, you can make it a weekly topic. If you don’t want to come up with the topics, have your students submit suggestions for topics. They say more heads are better than one and I bet that they would come up with suggestions that you never thought of.
I think this would also be great to reinforce social skills to those students who have trouble with this. It would make them more aware of their surroundings as well as looking for examples of the skill they learned. Finding their own examples would be more reinforcing then just showing them pictures that they don’t have any connections to. By focusing on others demonstrating a certain social skill, they have an example for a model.
For younger children, this would be a great way to work on vocabulary lessons, word sounds, syllables, and other decoding skills. They could also be the start of writing prompts. It is much easier to write about something you are interested in than a picture that the teacher plops in front of you.
For social studies, this would be a great way to look for comparisons in history. What things in today’s world would you not find in the 1950s? What things are still being used from the past? What things have the same concept as the past but have been modernized?
For science, look for examples of certain concepts. Have students take photos of levers and pullies. Take pictures of certain chemical elements or reactions. Pictures of different types of weather would also be fun.
As Richard Byrne said, this would be a great activity to involve parents in also. It would be such a fun activity that could be adapted to any level of student and I think they really would enjoy it.
What other suggestions would you have for a Photo A Day activity? Please share.
Image: 'Photomic (Help! I'm stuck in the 60s)'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40510080@N04/11324553916
Found on flickrcc.net
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