OA #9 Digital Photography/Drawing Lesson For Children

Children nowadays tend to be very familiar with digital photography, via mobile phones. There is much taking photos of children by parents with mobile phones, and also quite a bit of parents allowing their young children to take photos with their mobile phones. This is an early exercise for young children into composition,  I think that photography can be an incredible way for children to practice looking closely, and play with ideas of composition. Photography can be an introduction to a drawing practice, and a way to deepen that practice also. This is a way to integrate digital media and physical media seamlessly into one lesson sequence.

I propose a two-lesson arc: 

The first lesson is spent looking through different photographic equipment - cardboard viewfinders for grades k-2, and different types of cameras (mobile phones of different eras, slr, polaroid, disposable film) for grades 3-5. Students will share their views with one another and discuss their decision making.  (Students will learn that what they can see is altered by where they are standing and that views can be cropped and edited.)

The second lesson would be to make a drawing based on observation of a scene in the classroom as seen through the cardboard viewfinder, or the viewfinder of the camera. Depending on the grade, the drawing might focus on shapes, respond to the principles of design, tell a story, or describe a relationship. (Students will learn that they can recognize, recreate, and arrange the shapes found in their everyday surroundings, and use them to tell a story.)