Digital Picture ideas: Grade 1

A first grade teacher took digital pictures of familiar objects around the school and classroom.  She then pulled them into Kid Pix and had the students draw (using the pencil tool) the shapes that they saw in the picture.  She did it using very specific objects (the clock on the wall, the fire alarm box, an easel) and it was amazing to see the number of different shapes the childrensaw.  She  did this in her classroom using one computer and an LCD projector .  The kids loved it!.  She reported that she gathered the pictures and pulled them together during a recess break.  She plans on doing this again and will try it with pictures taken out of doors focusing on "shapes in nature" or "shapes all around us"

For our latest book, my first grade students decided to make a book about things they could do at school.  The text was very simple and repetitive.  We wrote the text on chart paper with a box to indicate where each child's picture would go, and they all made the same book, with their own pictures.  The text was as follows:  Look at me!  I am reading.  Look at me!  I am writing.  Look at me!  I am coloring.  etc.

We take pictures of all the students and they save them to individual files.  After typing a document, they add their picture along with clipart for decorations.  You would be surprised at how a simple self portrait can motivate students to write their best compositions!  We get permission at the start of every school year.  Pictures are found everywhere in our classroom!