Cameras from the humble disposable to the high-resolution digital provide enormous potential for early years settings. Photographic images can foster learning across the early years curriculum, developing children's understanding of themselves, others and the world around them.
Photographs and photography can stimulate children to express their thoughts, experiences and feelings thereby enriching their vocabulary and discussion skills.
Visual portrayal of patterns in the natural and man-made world provide opportunities for the development of mathematical language and understanding.
Photographic images can stimulate children to develop their own perspectives on design, to ask questions and to develop problem-solving skills.
Visual images provide adults with opportunities for asking sensitive and probing questions that will extend the children's perspectives on the past and the present and enable them to widen their knowledge of places.
Skilful questioning and the use of appropriate images can promote cultural diversity and religious tolerance and understanding. Photographs can provide chances to demonstrate how people of every class, colour and capability contributed past and present to human progress and the development of society.
The advent of the digital camera has enabled greater use of images created by children themselves. Encouraging children to record images that are important to them should lead to a greater understanding of their own circumstances and a recognition of the characteristics and individuality of others.
Recording their own experiences will enable children to take pride in their own culture, environment and lifestyle and to share their world outside the early years setting with others. Sensitive use of photographs taken by children themselves can bridge the gap between home and the early years setting and can be useful during the settling-in period.
Children can be given the opportunity to take instant photographs of what they like and what they would like to change in the early years setting. Listening to what they have to say about the images gives us an idea of how they view the world and their place within it.
Try incorporating some of the following ideas into your project work, routines or displays. Some require, or will work better, with a digital camera.
PERSONAL, SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
* Take photographs of the children on home visits before they start the nursery. Refer to them once the children are at nursery to help them feel part of a group and initiate conversation about their home experiences.
* Make the most of the immediacy of digital photography by having photographs of special events ready to take home the same day. Record children's first day at nursery, their birthday, sports and family days, etc.
* Laminate photographs of the children and attach with Velcro to a board to show who is present.
* Help the children compile a photograph album about themselves, their families and where they live to develop awareness of their own identity. Caption the pictures and record children's thoughts about them.
* Take photographs of local people and supplement them, where necessary, with pictures of people from other cultures to develop children's awareness of the local and wider community.
* Use the nursery toilet walls to display photographs of children washing their hands, cleaning their teeth, etc to remind them of routine hygiene.
* Display a photograph above a child's coat peg, and on their locker.
* Make laminated placemats with the child's photograph in the centre, their names underneath and outlines of cutlery to guide the children when they set the table.
* Use photographs of the children showing different emotions and expressions to develop their sensitivity to others' needs.
* Take and caption photographs of the children taking turns, giving, helping, sharing and co-operating to develop their respect for each other and their understanding of agreed codes of behaviour. This approach can be particularly effective when working with children with behavioural problems.
* Record some of the children's work for them to share with their parents and carers at the end of the day.
* Create a record of the child's time at the nursery for them to take with them when they leave.
COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGE AND LITERACY
* Take simple sequences of photographs and use them to make 'storybooks', such as 'A day in the life of Teddy'.
* Take photographs of familiar objects and ask the children to find them to develop their vocabulary.
* Create sets of three or four photographs that follow a sequence of events. Encourage children to place them in a logical order and tell the 'story'.
* Cut out photographs of the children and incorporate them as characters in storyboards.
* Use laminated photographs of each of the children to help them describe what they are wearing and reinforce clothes vocabulary.
* Let the children take photographs, make them into postcards and send them to their family and friends to develop early literacy skills and awareness of their home address. Do the same for cards for birthdays or other special occasions or festivals.
* Take photographs of the day's activities to help the children recall and talk about events before they go home.
* Collect photographic records of nursery projects and outings. Store them in individual books or photograph albums and place them in the book corner for the children to browse through as they wish and so provide the opportunity to revisit and develop a deeper understanding of their earlier work and experiences.
* Display local examples of environmental print such as traffic, street and shop signs.
* Take sets of photographs of the children, toys in the nursery, flowers in the garden and so on to use in guessing games to develop vocabulary. Let one child choose a picture and invite the others to ask questions to find out which picture they have in mind.
MATHEMATICAL DEVELOPMENT
* Make the most of objects that are familiar to the children to make simple matching games. For example, try playing snap with a set of cards that have photographs of the children's favourite toys on them.
* Make two copies of a set of photographs - for example animals seen at the zoo -cut the second set in half and mix the halves together. Ask the children to match the correct halves to the complete pictures.
* Take photographs of the children and staff to compare height.
* Take photographs outdoors to explore shape in the environment.
* Incorporate the children's photographs into a birthday chart.
* Make a nursery address book including photographs of the children and their houses to reinforce knowledge of phone numbers and addresses.
* Take a series of photographs recording a simple event, such as opening presents or running a race, and ask the children to sequence and number the pictures.
Further information
For more ideas on using photography within your early years setting, see Picture This - Digital and Instant Photography Activities for Early Childhood Learning by Susan Entz and Sheri Lynn Galarza (Sage Publications, Pounds 18.99).
