All About SLE: Using Digital Photographs to Give a Virtual Field Trip of our School

Materials Needed:
Digital Camera
Computer with MS Power Point and Laser Projector
How to Use the Camera Sheet (included)
All About SLE Power Point (Set 6 of Digital Photos)
18 index cards with one “important person or place” written on each
Consent of “important people” and a time window when they are available
Parent Volunteer

Procedures:
Day One
• Discuss Parent Night with the class. Tell the students that one of the important things we do at Parent Night is to help the parents learn about SLE. I thought a fun thing for them to do would be to take a field trip around the school to see all the important people and places here. The problem is that it will be dark when the parents are at school and not all the important people will be working…so we’re going to take them on a virtual field trip using some special tools.
• Tell the students that the first special tools we’re going to use are the computer, laser projector, and a program called MS Power Point.
• Show the students the All About SLE Power Point using the computer and laser projector. Discuss some of the people and places shown on the power point. Ask students to identify some important people and places that were not shown on the power point.
• Tell the students that you have a special card that has either an important person OR place here at SLE. They will each get to choose a card (at random). Then they will need to take a photo of that person/place and write a sentence describing why that person/place is important.
• Ask students to tell me how we get photographs (answer: from a camera). Tell the students that the next special tool is a digital camera. Show students my camera and tell them that today they are all going to get the chance to be real photographers – they’re going to be the ones taking photographs of the “important people and places” of SLE!!
• Model how to take a photograph using the camera: Show and discuss the functions of the viewing screen (make sure they can see the subject), shutter button (push it halfway until they see the green box and then finish pushing it down to take the picture), using the zoom lever (making the subject bigger or smaller), checking the picture, and turning the camera on/off.
• Give each child the How to Use the Camera sheet. Discuss. Have the students tell me the steps to take a photo of the classroom library. Tell the students that they will get to go in pairs to take their photos throughout the day.
• Allow each student to choose a card and discuss why that is an important person/place. Put the students into pairs (ex. The child who chose the library card would be paired with the child who chose the Mr. Paine, our librarian, card because they are going to the same place). Remind them that when they are out on campus they need to be on their best behavior and be “professional photographers.”
• Send students at the pre-arranged times throughout the day. If you have a parent volunteer it would be good for them to go with the pairs of students. By the end of the day, each pair should have taken their photos. Save the photos to the computer and print out each child’s photo to give back to him/her during tomorrow’s lesson.
• Day Two
• Ask students if they enjoyed being photographers yesterday. Give each child the printed photo he/she took yesterday. Ask students to remind me what they need to do next (write a sentence describing the photo).
• Use the photo taken of the classroom library yesterday to model how to glue the photo to the paper and write a sentence. Discuss the parts of a good sentence.
• Tell the students that after they are finished gluing and writing, they will get to come to the computer to make their slide in MS Power Point to be a part of the virtual field trip.
• Use the laser projector to do a sample writing as a class in MS Power Point.
1. Model how to open MS Power Point by double clicking on the icon.
2. Model how to type the sentence. Discuss using Caps Lock to make capital letters and using the Backspace to erase any mistakes. The model sentence should include all parts required by the students, for example: The classroom library is where we go to find books to read.
3. Model how to select and add the picture to the story by clicking Insert, then Picture, then From File, then double click on the photo they took yesterday. Remind students that there will be a parent volunteer to help them if they have any questions, but that I want them to try to do it on their own first!
• Allow students time to write their sentences.
• As each student finishes, have them bring their paper to a parent volunteer at a computer. The volunteer will help them type their story into MS Power Point and guide them on how to put the picture with it.
• Keep the handwritten pages to grade. You may want laminate them and make them into a book to keep in the classroom library.
• Show students the finished Power Point. Discuss. Use the Power Point at Parent Night.
• *You could slightly modify this assignment and do it at the end of the year for the upcoming kindergartners to see what first grade is like.*

Evaluation:
Students will be evaluated on their handwritten sentences based on the following rubric:
Correct use of camera: 1 point
Sentence matches the photograph: 1 point
Correct use of grammar: 1 point
Correct use of punctuation: 1 point
Correct formation of letters: 1 point
Correct use of capital letters: 1 point
Correct use of spacing: 1 point
Total Points Possible: 7
*I am not grading the MS Power Point version, because I would like the parent volunteer to help the students edit and “publish” their very best work. I want the experience of making this classroom book to be fun, not stressful!*