Short description of the topic
The purpose of the activity is to redesign a dedicated space in the playroom and to create a new center for children's photography activities. Children come up with ideas, suggestions on where they could store items and photos from home, as well as photos that they took in the kindergarten. Based on these ideas, children co-create a space in the playroom designed to store and exhibit photographs. The activity is planned for a longer period of time.
Learning outcomes
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Competencies
- Linguistic competences: practicing narrative skills
- Critical thinking: effective reasoning
- Social competences: cooperation, agreeing on a problem
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Target group
5 years and up- Individual work
In groups
- Individual work
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Required materials
- Markers
- Cardboard (cardboard paper, cardboard boxes)
- Photographs (from home, from the Kindergarten, and various books or magazines)
- Individual folders for storing photographs
- DIY frame for portrait photography
- DIY frame for portrait photography
Download
(.pdf 540.42 KB)
Description of the activity (step by step)
Preparation:
Talk to children about creating a space where they can store the camera, their photos from home, cut-outs from magazines, books, and photos they took in the kindergarten. You can look together at different examples of exhibition spaces. You can find some under materials or you can search for them online. Tell them that they will help to shape space in the kindergarten dedicated to photo-activities. Here, they will store the camera, their work, and exhibit new photos. Write down their ideas and suggestions.
Implementation:
Then examine together these ideas to determine whether they are viable and how to implement them. Children can try out different possible solutions and contribute to the implementation and realization of the ideas. In the playroom, they choose a space where the “photography center” will be – there, they will store and exhibit photographs. Determine the maximum number of children in the center. Invite the children to decorate the center (draw a camera and its parts, determine and label a place to store the camera, write down the name of the center, make frames for photographs, etc.).
Reflection:
Talk about your space. Are the children satisfied with their work? Did they get any new ideas while preparing the space? Can you make them come true in the future? Encourage the children to organize exhibitions and help them glue new photos in the frames. Encourage them to be creative – they can use photos they make in the kindergarten or pictures from magazines, bring photos from home, make photo-collages, etc. You can invite them to think about themes they are interested in and organize exhibitions for example about animals, super-heroes, fire-fighters, everything blue, their favorite tree, etc. You can find plenty of ideas on this portal. Keep the space interesting for the children: add new photo books, photographs, albums, or other inspirational material. Save already exhibited photographs into children’s individual folders/albums.
Variations and additional ideas
Instead of drawing the camera and painting it, they can take a photo of the camera and the teacher can print it out. The exhibition-space can be in a completely separate space and not necessarily in the playroom. (It can be a corridor, an entrance hall, a common room, an art room, etc.)
Background information and didactical perspective
It is important to include children in the decoration of the kindergarten spaces because they spend a lot of time in the playroom. When they are included in co-creating their spaces, children learn to cooperate and develop an appropriate attitude to the things in their environment.
Experience from kindergartens:
Children reached for the materials in the center on a daily bases. They always had the opportunity to photograph independently. They loved to look at the albums/folders, talked about the photographs, and relived the events depicted.
Materials
Individual folders for storing photographs
Photos of the activity
