1st grade art
Photography nature study
Want an easy way to teach photography to students without a camera? Try sun-sensitive sheets. I tried it with my 1st graders and they loved the results. It just takes a little organizing (well a lot of organizing).
Each student will need a piece of cardboard, one sun-sensitive paper, a leaf or other flat nature object and a piece of transparency (or other clear plastic film covering).
I had picked leaves and weeds in the morning before school started and put them on trays for the children to chose from. You could do a nature walk and allow students to pick their own leaves, but I was afraid it would take to much time. The children didn't seem to mind picking from my pile.
I also had tubs of water on the tables before they arrived.
I started off the lesson with showing students black and white nature photos. Of course I showed them lots of Ansel Adam photos along with other photos of natural objects.
Students then picked out a leaf or other natural object from my pile.
I quickly passed the papers out to each student where they were instructed to write their name on the white side, turn it over to the blue side, place their leaf on it and lastly put the clear transparency on top. I made sure the cardboard rectangles were bigger than the sun sensitive paper so students could hold the plastic without touching their papers.
When the class had them assembled we went outside and exposed them in the sunlight for two minutes. If you tell the students to hold the plastic down onto the cardboard and not touch the blue paper it shouldn't move as much. Students should not move their leaves while in the sun. Once it is in sunlight the paper starts working. Students were so excited to see the blue disappear.
After two minutes we came back to the class and put them in the water on the tables for one minute.
As they dry they will become darker. This lesson can be tricky if the children do not follow all the directions and move their leaves while in the sun. You can see from the above picture that a couple students' didn't come out because they moved their leaf while in the sun.
My first graders loved this lesson!
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