Today I had the opportunity to teach photography to a group of Pre-K and Kindergartens at my kiddos pre-school summer camp.
I’ve known for months but of course waited until the last moment to prepare my lesson and activity for the kids. I kept thinking… what do you teach a group of little kids about photography? I can thank this Clickin’ Mom’s breakout training, Teach Your Kids Photography, with some of the basic ideas and themes I ended up using in the near 40 slides the kids and I walked through this morning. However, once I got started thinking and teaching my own kids a few things, hands-on in preparation for today, the lesson and activity to follow started to come together.
The 31 four to six year-olds couldn’t have been more well-behaved and their enthusiasm, questions and desire to learn and play hands-on still has me smiling ear to ear.
The kiddos learned about camera safety, the parts of a camera, and lots of big photo words like exposure, viewpoint, and focus. They learned a few composition techniques including “filling the frame”, “rule of thirds”, finding leading lines, and using negative space. We talked a little bit about shadows and color (the basics of white balance).
Finally they learned how to hold a camera and take a picture that we glued into a “frame” they decorated.
One of the favorite things I learned from the kids today (because you can always learn something from the little ones!) is that a handful of them shared that they love holding actual printed pictures in their hands. They thought it was fun to see themselves reflected back in the image. It reminded me, yet again, how important it is to PRINT your photos. My friends, family and clients all know how strongly I feel about this. It was great to take the opportunity to tell the kids the encourage their Moms and Dads to pick some favorite photos together from their camera or smartphone and print them together to put in a shoebox or album.
I wrote the parents of campers a letter after teaching today. In the letter I shared with the parents that the early years that their kids are in now are exciting and full of wonder. I reminded them that their child is in a stage where they love to learn and activities like photography that they can do together with their parents are perfect. Hands-on activities are going to help kids find enjoyment and fun in photography. Something else I shared with parents in the letter was my answer to a question I am often asked, “What camera should I buy for my child?”. My thoughts are this… as technology advances, photography becomes more and more affordable. Purchase a small, simple, indestructible, reasonably priced kid-friendly point-and shoot. I personally rank the following three things as a top priority: (1) durability, (2) the ability to have external memory with an SD card slot to make it easy to get pictures off the camera, and (3) a higher number of megapixels so the prints you make from them are a bit higher quality. Take a peek at Amazon.com. There are lots of highly rated kiddo cameras by VTech, Fisher Price, LEGO, Crayola, Discovery Kidz, etc. to select from with lots of reviews from Moms and Dads who have used them with their kiddos.
How cute are these cute outtake pictures that the kids took of me?
Over the next few months I’m going to try to blog and share some ideas on how to enjoy photography with your kids, at this age and older ages. My 8 and 11 year old are in the middle of summer photography camp with Mom. Maybe one of them will want to do a guest blog-post by the end of the summer. 😉 A big thanks to my hubby, business partner and second shooter for his behind the scenes footage today!
Enjoy a slideshow telling the story of Sarah E’s photography camp for pre-school and kindergarten aged kiddos!