Last modified: 05/23/2009
Introduction
Project
Students will take a digital photo, retrive it from a file and use text or an oral description to demonstrate their understanding of the seasonal change depicted. Students may also find pictures in the Notebook Gallery.Time Management Tips
Planning this project for the early spring so that students can observe and capture the season changes first hand is best. Having access to a natural area allows for experiential learning. Preteach the operation of a simple digital camera and how to find images and capture them using the screen capture tool prior to the project. Have students work in pairs or small groups of 4 or fewer.Lesson Plan Details
Engage
Select a variety of images from the internet or from personal photo file. Import them into a Notebook file. In small groups at the SMART Board, students sort the images by season and explain their thinking as they go.* For larger groups, this could be a center. Other tasks might include sorting actual photos, drawing a picture of each season, etc.
* Create a table using the Notebook table tool and have the students identify their favorite season by dragging an image beside their name. Discuss with group or as a whole class.
To differentiate this lesson, the engagement task could be simplified by using only 2 seasons rather than 4 (winter/spring).
Explore
Arrange to have one digital camera for every group of 3-4 students.* Take students on a walk through a natural area
* Encourage them to look on the ground, in the trees and shrubs, in the air, etc. to find and capture some changes that are occurring.
* Ensure that each child has the opportunity to capture one image and that the group works cooperatively to find the images to capture.
Explain
Students select a photo from the group that they took to describe either orally or in print form indicating why they took the photo and how it depicts a seasonal change.Elaborate
Students work together with their group and import their pictures from the Notebook Gallery.* They can present each seasonal change depicted on each page with text or orally describe to their classmates
Extend
Students could find images in the Notebook Gallery that relate Spring to add to their pages* Write a story from the perspective of an animal or tree who is experiencing the change in season
o Students could find images in the Notebook Gallery that relate Spring to add to their pages
o Write a story from the perspective of an animal or tree who is experiencing the change in season