Perspectives: Cameras

Photographing Shadows

November 20, 2013

 

A few weeks ago, the children were very interested in their shadows when we went outside on a nature walk.  When we did the Look Up, Look Down activity, they were fascinated that they could photograph their shadows.  I would like to do an activity where they are photographing their shadows on the shadow screen.  This will connect more with the light and dark group who have been exploring their shadow movements.  Can we take pictures of our shadows? Can we photograph movement? If our shadows are dancing will our pictures show them dancing? How can we “freeze” movement?

 
 

The children loved taking pictures with the shadows.  When I first started encouraging them to take pictures of the shadows, they would just take pictures of the actual person.  After they realized where the shadows were, they started taking pictures of the shadows on the screen.  I encouraged them to take challenging pictures - for example...their foot’s shadow.  They struggled with this because their feet did not show up in the shadows.  They would lift their feet or jump to try to capture a picture  of the shadow of their feet.

Perspectives: Cameras

Creating a Classroom Scavenger Hunt

November 13, 2013

 

This week we wanted to use our expertise of photography to create a scavenger hunt for our animals hiding group.  We walked around the room and photographed objects that we thought were important to include in our scavenger hunt.  I was very interesting to see what they photographed…often it would be their favorite toy or activity.  Sometimes, they were very particular about the picture they took…sometimes they just wanted to take as many pictures as possible!

 

Next week we would like to revisit the idea of photographing shadows.  They were so interested in shadows the week we explored “Look Up, Look Down.” I would like to explore this concept more deeply.  I will combine the ideas of our shadows/light and dark group.  We will use the projector and the shadow screen. I want to see if they can understand the concept of freezing motion...by photographing shadows that are dancing on the screen.  Will we be able to use our photographs later to find out who the shadows belong to?

Perspectives: Mirrors

Perspectives: Mirrors Learning Group

Week of November 18, 2013

The children were very amused at the new kinds of reflections they saw in the mirror paper today. They laughed and said their reflections were silly. A few children also tried to make their faces look like what they saw in the reflections. Many of the children also were interested to see if something was behind the felt board, maybe they thought something was causing their reflections to look different? The children also felt the mirror paper and noticed it moved and changed their reflections. Oscar made some similar comments to when we explored with mirrors in the water table.

 

It was interesting to see how the children related their experiences with mirrors so far this semester to what we did this week. The children have been bringing objects to the mirrors with them as well. Next week, I’d like to focus on reflections up close and far away.

Perspectives: Mirrors

Perspectives: Mirrors Learning Group

Week of November 11, 2013

Last week, I introduced the children to a new way to think about our reflections: a view of them from above. The children were very interested in this new perspective of the mirror and investigated not only their own reflections but also the reflections of other objects, too. After observing the children last week, I wanted to continue to explore the hanging mirror with them.

            This week, I provided the children with the larger wooden blocks and encouraged them to build on the carpet under the mirror. I was curious as to how they would observe the reflections of their buildings and structures. How would the reflection of the blocks from above be different from how they saw the blocks as they built with them?

            Some of the children weren’t aware of the reflection of the blocks at first. Others, though, quickly noticed the blocks in the mirror. The children seemed to be focused on ‘building up’ with these blocks; building the tallest towers they could. It was almost as if they wanted their towers to reach the reflections they were seeing above them. A few of the children noticed they could only see parts of their tower in the mirror, mostly just the block which was on top closest to the mirror. The children frequently looked into the mirror as they added blocks to their structures.